K-Curve Case Study: Aaron Crowley on Navigating the Pandemic
Like many businesses early in the pandemic, Aaron Crowley's Granite and Quartz business was hammered. But they navigated it and came out on top by adapting and changing with the market landscape.
Don't miss this incredible K-curve case study with Aaron Crowley.
Episode Highlights:
02:37 - Background of Crowley’s
03:06 - Where the business was in March 2020
04:29 - What happened to the business when the pandemic hit
08:06 - Comparisons to the recession of 2008
12:19 - PPP Loan and whether it was too good to be true
18:31 - A shift in the way they sold granite countertops during the pandemic
22:39 - Using technology to grow through the pandemic
30:45 - Aaron’s other businesses and the growth during the pandemic
36:25 - Innovation while problem-solving
Resources/Links Mentioned in this episode:
About the Guest Aaron Crowley
Aaron is the co-founder of No Lift Install System. As the owner of a stone fabrication shop and a former installer, he knows how challenging and dangerous the job can be! He also knows how frustrating it can be to have your best guys injured and having to send your shop guys into the field to help. Do you know the average stone shop spends $1,000/month sending shop guys to the field to help their installers?
Heavy, awkward, difficult-to-install counters aren’t just hurting your installers’ backs — they’re also hurting your business's bottom line. That’s why Aaron developed the No Lift Install System. The No Lift Install System is a mechanical cart that lowers unnecessary labor costs while improving quality and reducing install injuries, so you can increase your business's profits and retain your highly skilled installers.
Aaron is also the owner of Crowley’s, a granite and quartz stone fabrication company in Portland, Oregon. Crowley’s has received Angie’s List Super Service Award for 11 straight years.
In addition to the No Lift Install System, Aaron has also developed other solutions to problems independent stone shop owners face, including the Edge Right (patented 2004), and the Fabricators Friend line of custom stoneworking gear.
Aaron is also the author of Less Chaos More Cash, which describes the management technique he has used to run two successful businesses. It shares the simple three-step process for effectively documenting and delegating critical work within a business so that employees know what to do and when so that the company can profitably keep its promises to the customer.
Contact Aaron Crowley: aaron@aaroncrowley.com
Transcript
DISCLAIMER: This transcript is automatically generated by Descript. Please excuse any errors.
[00:00:00] Rick Thomas: [00:00:00] Greetings everyone. I am pleased to introduce my guest for today's podcast. As this discussion is the first of many K curve case studies we'll be profiling over the next year. But first, our guest today. Aaron Crowley is founder and CEO of Crowley's Granite & Quartz. A granite and quartz surface manufacturer in Tualatin, Oregon.
[00:00:22] Not to be satisfied with just one business, however, Aaron is also a partner in No Lift Install System, an installation system designed for residential and commercial installers of stone products, as well as Fabricators Friend, a service line of garments and tools for the hard service manufacturing shop floor. Aaron is a fascinating individual, having navigated through two [00:00:45] recessions and now a pandemic, and is living to tell the tale. We'll talk about the K curve and how his businesses have navigated 2020 and have come out stronger for it. For reference on the K curve see the link below to my earlier blog post on the K curve and how it illustrates the wide and divergent paths businesses have taken in this pandemic.
[00:01:08] I really enjoyed this discussion and I'm sure you'll find it interesting as well. So on with the show.
[00:01:14] Great to have you here, Aaron. Thank you for being a guest on the Family Money Podcast. And this is, as I explained earlier, this is the first of a series that I want to do around K curve case studies. And again, as I shared with you before the K curve describes the [00:01:30] different paths that businesses have taken.
[00:01:32] In kind of the era of dealing with the pandemic. to that point let's go back to early March. And for crawlies, granite and courts.
[00:01:42] And again, for the purposes of the audience your business does what
[00:01:48] Aaron Crowley: [00:01:48] so we're a residential, granite and quartz countertop fabricator slash installer. We serve in, you know, a lot of people want granite quartz countertops, but we very specifically serve what we call the the countertop replacement segment. So it's direct to consumer majority of our business. We're contracting with the homeowner, walking him through the entire process.
[00:02:08] We've got a very turnkey approach to everything related to the countertop replacement. And that's a, so that's our bread and [00:02:15] butter that the consumer is who we serve,
[00:02:17]Rick Thomas: [00:02:17] And for a sense of scale, tell me how many employees at Crowell is granite.
[00:02:20]Aaron Crowley: [00:02:20] I think right about 20 right now, we're probably at about 15, oddly enough in March, as we are heading into this
[00:02:28]Rick Thomas: [00:02:28] Yeah. Can't wait to unpack that. Yeah. You bet ya. And also, how long have you been at Crawley's? How long have you had the business up and running?
[00:02:37]Aaron Crowley: [00:02:37] I started the company in October of 1998. So we just had our 22nd anniversary.
[00:02:42] Rick Thomas: [00:02:42] Yeah. Wow. Congratulations. That's that's quite a bit quite a run and hopefully many years to come. And also for context, you and I met back in 2007 and it's just been a lot of fun and not only being in a place to call you a friend, but [00:03:00] to see you and Heather kind of. Grow, this thing has been really cool, but let's get back to March.
[00:03:06] Okay. So tell me about where were things at, in March for you? When in the business and when it looks like, okay, we got to shut down coming. Tell me what you were experiencing in the day.
[00:03:17]Aaron Crowley: [00:03:17] Yeah. Well, in terms of the business itself, we were ahead of the previous year in terms of what we measure, quote, volume, close sales, and what we had on the schedule. and that can ebb and flow from year to year, that what we call the spring surge, which is sort of a seasonal uptick that we always see, and what most people would call spring.
[00:03:36] It can start in February. It can start in the end of March. It's just, you never really know, but at least where we were, I'd say the middle of March last year, we were ahead of the [00:03:45] previous year on not hugely, but I mean, we were at, we were feeling very good about the year, despite, you know, there had been that Russian, I dunno if it was.
[00:03:55] Russia and Iran, but the oil, you know, the stock market had taken a hit. There was all this talk about the oil markets and whatnot and oil prices. And it was like, okay, that's a little odd it's w oil. And then there was the, you know, they were beginning to talk about the pandemic or this Corona virus, which at the middle of March, I was not taking seriously.
[00:04:14]The evidence that I at least had. showed no reason for concern. It was like, okay. My, my numbers are showing the exact opposite of what everybody else seems to be talking about. And so, I would say right up until about March 15th I just thought it was gonna be great year.
[00:04:29]Rick Thomas: [00:04:29] And then what [00:04:30] happened?
[00:04:30]Aaron Crowley: [00:04:30] Like a light switch. And I don't remember if it was a national or nationwide shut down, or if it was just Oregon in particular, but that sort of became this clear like point in time where masks and they were shutting restaurants down, we were debating what's essential and trying to unravel the state's rules for what businesses could stay open, what businesses were considered essential. And if you weren't listed, does that mean we're there? So we were, that was right in that. I think it was right in the middle of March. We were beginning to have that conversation because all of a sudden it was real and some companies, some businesses were having to close down and so we like a light switch.
[00:05:13] First two weeks of March. [00:05:15] And we track our sales, our quote volume on a daily basis. Up until the end of the second week of March, we were ahead of budget and immediately it was we were affected by it. I mean, it was like, Oh, okay. This is affecting people. There's so much uncertainty. can your showroom be open?
[00:05:33] Are you allowed to have customers in the showroom? And are we allowed to schedule appointments to go into other people's homes? You know, to do presentations, there was just so much. That we hadn't really clarified yet in terms of what we were permitted to do, or if we were even permitted to keep working.
[00:05:46] And that was a debate that we had internally, or if we should keep working, considering how grave this, you know, thing seemed at the time. Not that it's not now, but I think we know a little bit more now. So, but by the end of, if you took the month and [00:06:00] averaged it, we were on budget the first half of the month, the first two weeks by the time.
[00:06:04] We ended the month are we were down by a third in terms of what we would want to close the sales. We wanted to close in the calendar month of March on budget. At the halfway point, we were down by a third by the end of the month, which means they had dropped off significantly in the latter half of the month. And so it was like, Oh, Great though. We had such a huge backlog. We couldn't have, I mean, if they'd have really shut us down, we would have just had to delay a bunch of work, but that drop in sales did not affect our actual production schedule and installation schedule. Cause we were booked. Clear into may, like probably a halfway through two thirds of the way through may was already [00:06:45] completely booked out.
[00:06:45] And so a nice cushion there that supported us into may, even at that point, we were about two months out and April then hit and it was probably a conflicting I experience there where on one hand, we've got this huge backlog. So we're feeling very, at least to a certain degree, very confident.
[00:07:04] Okay. This is going to blow over. This is going to be a short-term thing, our backlogs long enough to get us through this. But at the same time, our sales are just cratering and it's like, so. The backlog is only going to last for so long. We at this rate, and then once we got into April, it became much more acute in terms of our awareness.
[00:07:23] Now we've got to start making plans. Oh gosh. Now we're halfway through the month of April. And as when we [00:07:30] finished the month of April, our sales were down by two thirds, a third and March down two thirds where we needed to be by the end of April. And it's like, w. Okay, this you're not replacing the work on the schedule as fast as we are installing it.
[00:07:43] And there's going to be this point probably sometime the second or third week of may, where we are going to literally be out of work if this doesn't turn around. And so that was, I would say the first kind of the first phase of our K curve, if you will, where sales were dropping dramatically. And. we're at the mercy of those events, there was so
[00:08:05] Rick Thomas: [00:08:05] right.
[00:08:05] Aaron Crowley: [00:08:05] in uncertain.
[00:08:06] Rick Thomas: [00:08:06] so take me back. Cause at some point I remember having the conversation with you and you rhetorically asked the question, is this going to be [00:08:15] 2008 all over again? And take us back to give us a, you know, 20 seconds synopsis of Oh eight for you and the rest of the building industry.
[00:08:23] Aaron Crowley: [00:08:23] Yeah. Well, it's, you know, you mentioned, we've been talking about this podcast for two years and you've been, we met in 2007. So what, 13 years ago and how fast that and go by. But at the same time, you know, that was what, 12, 13 years ago. And so. Interesting to me is how vivid those experiences still are and how just below the surface, those reactions and responses are because I mean that was 2008, 2009, 2000.
[00:08:55] I would for us pretty much November of Oh seven through about the end of [00:09:00] 2012, where were five of the most difficult years I've ever had by far. The most difficult, the most strenuous. And although it happened over a longer period of time, it wasn't this dramatic like drop. It was about year, 18 months of just ongoing declines.
[00:09:18] Just this just. Downhill slope towards where we kind of bottomed out probably towards the end of 2009. And then we just, we couldn't, we just sort of hovered there for two or three years, just barely hanging on just on the edge. And it was just a grind. And so. And I it's like, wow. You'd think after, you know, 2013 things really for us, for our business.
[00:09:39] And I don't know if it was just unique to how I it took us that long because of all the mistakes that I made [00:09:45] in Oh eight, nine and 10 and 11 and 12 to finally sort of recover from them. But from 2013 to 2020 by and large was stable and, modest growth. but still. Is this Oh eight all over again.
[00:09:58]It does not take anything to trigger that all the layoffs and, the massive losses, that we were experiencing in the building industry where, I mean, they called it a great recession on the economy. I think the construction industry, I mean, it was a depression. That's probably being generous.
[00:10:16]It shut down so thoroughly. That. I mean, it just, it crushed the industry. I heard it from a supplier that 50% of the companies in Portland went out of business. Fabricators went out of business during that time. And so, and those that [00:10:30] survived had an extremely unpleasant experienced, you know, trying to get through it.
[00:10:33] And so, yeah, I was definitely going on, man. Not again, you know, really, it hasn't been long enough yet that again And I radically, I think it's been now that you asked me that question in that way. I think it's been very different. This actually has been, there are very few similarities actually. And the 2020 compared to the great recession.
[00:10:58] Rick Thomas: [00:10:58] Yeah. Although it'd be interesting. I would imagine many people in the restaurant industry would probably say, you know what that sounds a lot like what we're experiencing now.
[00:11:07]Aaron Crowley: [00:11:07] And that's exactly where we were. We, I had an in Oh six, things were just, you couldn't get labor. [00:11:15] So we'd invested in Oh five and Oh six and some pretty major equipment, you know, logical advances. So I had multiple trucks. I was making payments on probably three, four, five pieces of equipment.
[00:11:25] I was making payments on. I think. When that happened in the end of Oh seven Oh eight, my principal and interest payments just on equipment and vehicles was over $12,000 a month. And so when things turned, I mean, it was trying to generate the dollars just to cover those payments. And because it was such a dramatic and just consistent decline.
[00:11:46] I would imagine it's probably not that dissimilar from what restaurants are experiencing today. I just with leases and what they have to do to build out a space and all the equipment that they have to cook and serve and whatnot. Extremely [00:12:00] difficult.
[00:12:00] Rick Thomas: [00:12:00] Yeah, without a doubt. So th this is what you're experiencing in like mid, late April. Is that right? It's like, is this going to be 2008 all over again, then walk us forward. What began to happen going into, in, into may and in, into June and up until where we're at today.
[00:12:19]Aaron Crowley: [00:12:19] during that April, there's all this talk about the PPP, which I thought was like, there's no way this is just fantasy. I mean, it sounds good. And is this even right? And so, and you and I had the conversation and I was wrestling with that. And so we had went ahead and attempted to apply in the first round.
[00:12:35] We didn't make the cut or whatever. And I was just like, see, I told you, so, you know, that was a. So one of the things that we learned in the downturn [00:12:45] that was just extremely painful and very difficult, and you almost have to be through it to have learned this lesson, but most of the cost reduction decisions I made in Oh eight and Oh nine were way too late. And after the fact, and we just, we consumed so much of our resources, trying to extend, hoping things are going to turn around next month, hoping things are going to turn around. And I was trying to retain my crew and my team. And so we just burned through all of our reserves hoping to retain our staff.
[00:13:14] And so this time in April, I was like, well, there's this. Like 1% chance that this PPP thing comes into play, but we've got to start planning because on one hand, I've got this work that I've committed to. I mean, I've taken deposits, I've got contracts. People are expecting us to deliver.
[00:13:29] And so I [00:13:30] can't not do it. I we got to work until this is backlog chewed up, but if we don't have the sales to replace it it's very clear on the calendar. The date at which our cost to revenue is going to be upside down. And so I was planning based on the sales that we'd seen in March. You know, we are down by a third and then being down by two thirds in April.
[00:13:50] I'm sorry. I'm beginning to imagine. Okay. I've got to adjust the business to somehow assuming it doesn't get any worse. How do I get my costs in line to operate on a third of the business we were operating on, you know, month and a half ago. And so that was the thought processes and looking at our staff and going, we've got to cut massively.
[00:14:07] We've got to cut beyond what we think is possible or likely. We literally, and this was like the literal in Oh eight. [00:14:15] I we'd had such boom years. We had a whole, we had a ton of reserves. That, that we just sat on in a big line of credit that we'd never tapped into. So there was the sense of, we had a much bigger cushion I've said ever since I will never ever do that again, if I find myself in that position.
[00:14:32] And so my planning was, we're going to reach a point sometime in mid may, maybe the, towards the end of may, where we're going to have to cut. I'm going to err, on the side of even cutting deeper than I think I need to cut because. Previous experience. It was always too little too late. And in the end we had to cut the staff.
[00:14:52] Anyway, only after I had chewed up all of our reserves and borrowed a bunch of money from a bank on a line of credit, which consequently [00:15:00] was called is another story I don't ever want to repeat. So that was what I was looking at. As we came to the tail end of April or beginning, the month of may, I was already reorganizing the org chart.
[00:15:14] With my labor costs that would, we would have. And is that gonna, can we physically generate the dollars with that head count
[00:15:22] Rick Thomas: [00:15:22] Right.
[00:15:22] Aaron Crowley: [00:15:22] make that equation work was like, this is going to be a very small needle to thread even if it doesn't get any worse, if it's just that we're down by two thirds, this is gonna probably be But I was prepared.
[00:15:35] That was the mental aspect of this, of not having to wrestle through the humanity. I mean, and that's not to say that I didn't still wrestle [00:15:45] with it, but to be able to be objective, to detach myself from that very unpleasant gut-wrenching side of the business. And think extremely objectively about survival and we have to retain resources and it does us no good to burn up resources, to retain people that we're going to end up having to lay off anyway in three months.
[00:16:05] So this is brutal. This is brutal, but this, these are the kinds of decisions where we have to prepare ourselves to make and still that's where the huge advantage of having been through the great recession Thankfully. And I don't know if maybe this is the next question, but as it turns out, we didn't have to,
[00:16:20] Rick Thomas: [00:16:20] Yeah. So, so tell us, and then what happened?
[00:16:23] Aaron Crowley: [00:16:23] well, two things happen simultaneously. I think it was about the second week of may. And you know, [00:16:30] my politics, I've always been sort of, you know, businesses ought to stand on their own. You know, you shouldn't depend, subsidies are bad. I mean, I've railed against that kind of stuff that I've seen other people benefit from.
[00:16:42]In my defense, my argument was that I can either lay these people off and they go on unemployment or I can keep them employed on unemployment. That was my interpretation of the PPP rationalized the decision. And so two things happened probably within the first week and a half of may.
[00:17:00]We did get the PPP, which I was still just like no way. I literally cannot believe that money's in our account. And let me just say this really quick. I would have had to have made those decisions at Reese told my crew that these [00:17:15] decisions are coming by that point so it was, I mean, it was coming down to the day where my, my, my office manager and I were literally talking every day.
[00:17:22] Okay. The PPP didn't come through. Okay. Do we wait another day to tell the crew look, it looks like we're lay in three quarters of our staff off. No, let's just wait one more day. Let's just, I'd hate to tell everybody and then have the PPP come in. Cause then that would just be more chaos. So the other thing that happens simultaneously is I'm still in disbelief, but our sales took off around that first part of may and it just it.
[00:17:52] Shocking to me, even, you know, eight months later or seven months later, it just is like, this does not, I mean, it does make sense now looking back, [00:18:00] but at the time it made no sense and it was like it, the demand for it. And here's what you said when we were, I think it was, it had to have been right about the time.
[00:18:13] This thing was about to. And I remember, cause I had talked to you on my way into the office and I was sitting out in the parking lot, wrapping up our conversation. And you said, you told me three things that you thought were possible as a result of this coming downturn. Number one, education was never going to be the same and I, okay.
[00:18:31] Okay. You said it's possible that people being stuck at home are going to realize, and that seemed ridiculous to me. I really thought in another Oh eight scenario, [00:18:45] you think people are going to spend money on this frivolous non-essential, you know, product called granite course countertops. That seemed absurd to me.
[00:18:54]You told me three things. And those two, I remember very vividly. And I think you're exactly right. This has been proven out since then. So many of our clients. Actually I think I do remember the other third thing. It was somewhat of a general sense about how business is going to be conducted will maybe never be the same.
[00:19:11]And you might've had more insight into the zoom culture or the zoom technology, you know, than boast or than I did. And all three of those things I think have been born out. Obviously the school thing is still not resolved. And we saw the exact opposite of what I expected. We saw a surge in direct to consumer retail, [00:19:30] countertop installations.
[00:19:31]It's grown our business. So we were approximately 15, you know, 15 employees at the beginning of the year. We're at least 20 now. And so the K I mean, we were going down and then it corrected or it turned dramatically and went the other direction and It's just, I'm very grateful. I'm very thankful.
[00:19:47]We got, and it's out for a control. I got, I take very little credit for those dynamics. Those aren't things that be created.
[00:19:54] Rick Thomas: [00:19:54] Aye. You're a very humble guy, Aaron, but many of your peers, business owners would offer that you don't often get the opportunity to be in a position to receive and tell you paid your dues and you have paid your dues. My friend in, in the last 22 years getting to this point, but let's [00:20:15] add some context to just how substantial this bounce back up.
[00:20:20] And the K has been for Crowley's Granite & Quartz. So you're up 25% staffing and you've also added some capital equipment.
[00:20:28] Aaron Crowley: [00:20:28] Yeah, we've pulled the trigger on a piece of equipment. There was a particular process in our shop where we're using some older technology and demands of the market and the landscape and the technology has advanced to the point at this, I don't know how deep you want me to get into the weeds, you know? Stone cutting equipment, but we were, you know, there's when you run costs, benefit analysis on any decision, you know, sometimes the evidence is so overwhelming. You have to put your head in the sand.
[00:20:59]To [00:21:00] ignore it. And I had been ignoring this because I didn't want to borrow the money. I just I've been down that road.
[00:21:05] I've been in a great recession where I was way over leveraged and the strain of that. I still carry reflexive. I don't want, I just, I want to reduce that. Not increase it please. But this particular piece of equipment was productivity. advancement is so great. It's like we, we have to consciously put our head in the sand to ignore the benefit of this machine.
[00:21:29] And we got a anyways, we pulled the trigger on that back. I don't know, September probably middle of September. And it's supposed to be installed here in the next few weeks.
[00:21:36] Rick Thomas: [00:21:36] phenomenal story, Aaron, I smile and laugh every time I think about what Curly's grant in your courts has experienced this [00:21:45] year and the trajectory that it's on going into 21 is it's. It's outstanding.
[00:21:51] Aaron Crowley: [00:21:51] Well, at times it felt like 2005 and 2006, where you kind of sensed. It was like, I can't explain because I've never done anything. You know, first time that boom in the construction industry was so unprecedented. Now I thought it was normal, cause I hadn't been in business long enough to know any different than that sales just go up dramatically every year without doing anything.
[00:22:14] Rick Thomas: [00:22:14] Right.
[00:22:15] Aaron Crowley: [00:22:15] And that's how it began to feel. There's a certain point. It's like, this is starting to, it doesn't make sense why the demand is, but I want to mention this as it relates to our sales growth, because I credit needs to be. Given where credit is due. [00:22:30] So we had, so we've got to retail sales staff, traditionally, they always worked out of the showroom and we would operate on this, or this dynamic client potential client wants a quote.
[00:22:39] We would try and schedule an in-home presentation. That was our first objective. We've got to convert that to an in-home. We close like 70% of those super high close rate, get them into the showroom. You know, it's probably somewhere between 30 and 50%, we're going to close them. But then we had this category, we called tier two quotes.
[00:22:57] And those were people that wanted a quote, but would not scheduling in-home appointment and would not even, but it's like, you know, seven to $10,000 ticket and people would be like, no, I just want to send you my drawings. And it's like, okay. So we call those tier two quotes. Traditionally we would [00:23:15] close about 10% of those.
[00:23:16] And so we would go back and forth, like, is it even worth our time? To receive these people, get their drawings, scale them out, produce a quote, send it, and then go through all the follow-up. When we knew nine out of 10 of them were not going to close, we do use, this is the numbers. It was consistent. So very interesting.
[00:23:36] We're not supposed to be in people's homes. We're not supposed to have people in our showroom. And we're like, well, not sure how we're going to sell countertops. You know, without our bread and butter means of conveying the value that we bring to this. One of our sales reps who was, you know, at least here in Oregon, they directed, if you have staff that can work from home, they must work from home was the directive that [00:24:00] we received.
[00:24:00] And so we looked at this and said, we, I mean, we have office staff, they can check in and do follow. Most of the followup they do is over the phone anyway, or over the computer. And so we sent these folks them at one of our sales reps she'd been home for, I don't know, maybe a couple of days. And she had this inspiration.
[00:24:17] She said, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to start doing zoom sales presentations. And she drove in. I remember cause we were trying to avoid any contact, you know, and everybody was so freaked out in March about catching this thing, even coming into the showroom was like sort of a risk to come back in and get our patient kit.
[00:24:35] And she said, I'm going to do zoom presentations. And I was like, well, okay, good for you. More power to you. Let us know how that works out. What ended up happening to my utter astonishment [00:24:45] is that, and I think this is where some of our quote volume surged was that were people that wanted an in-home were happy to do a zoom cause they wanted countertops people that would've come into the showroom.
[00:24:56] We're happy to do zoom because they wanted countertops where we gained was all of these people that traditionally had said, I don't have time and I don't want you in my house. And I don't want to drive to your showroom. We were converting a whole bunch of those tier two quotes into zoom presentations, where for the first time we had the chance to actually convey, we would conduct a full sales presentation customers in their kitchen or walking them around getting dimensions.
[00:25:22] And our sales rep is literally on the camera showing samples, describing the different things that we do. And to this day, we are now doing [00:25:30] a significant number of our sales presentations over zoom. And our close ratio is just as high as it was prior. And so two things about that, I think just bear mentioning number one, it was an unconventional. out of the box approach to something that none of the rest of us had, even it hadn't even crossed our minds. And it turned into this massive asset that in that period, had we chosen not to do that? we would be looking very differently today. Had we just said, well, I guess there's nothing we can do.
[00:26:01] We'll just have to only close what we can close off of these tier two quotes that come in now, since we can't go to the home or they can't come to the showroom. That would have been hard to put a number on the damage that would have done to us. So, number one, [00:26:15] that contributed massively to the story I'm telling you in terms of how well we're doing the fact that we've added staff.
[00:26:21] The fact that we bought equipment is that adjustment to how we do business. And now. Currently not to just get us through that. Now it's set us up to where we're still converting. We have a much lower number of those tier two quotes because out of the three options that people have, most of them are going to choose one of the three because it just, it works.
[00:26:41] And so it's shifted into a longterm. Permanent improvement to the process that continues to benefit us.
[00:26:49] Rick Thomas: [00:26:49] What a phenomenal example of even if you weren't on the forefront of. Hey, here's let's do this. Somebody said let's do this at some point. And [00:27:00] at least being paying attention to enough of like, why not?
[00:27:03]And really innovation. I think we over-complicate what innovation can be for a business. Oftentimes it doesn't need to be some great brain child of somebody who's, you know, brainstorm. It's literally just saying, well, why not? If we got nothing to lose, we got nothing to lose, but maybe we had got a lot to lose if we don't try it, maybe that's the underlying story.
[00:27:28] We don't think enough about what truly do we have to lose if we don't try stuff, even if it fails.
[00:27:36] Aaron Crowley: [00:27:36] Absolutely. And we have, in this case, we have the benefit of looking back to see so clearly. And so it, it requires, I guess, an element of faith, you know, if you're on the front [00:27:45] end of this sort of innovation opportunity, you don't know that it's going to work out and some things may not, but I think your point's well taken that we've got to consciously in advance, be prepared To do things we haven't done before and to entertain things, we might have, you know, this sniffed in the past because it, it literally could be the difference between, survival, success, failure, whatever you want to call it.
[00:28:12]Rick Thomas: [00:28:12] It's it's interesting. I was just in a conversation earlier today with another client about this, about innovation. And we're talking about the binary mindset and a binary mindset when it comes to implementing some new change is that we do, or we don't. And if [00:28:30] we do that, the only measure of success is that it succeeds.
[00:28:35] And unfortunately that is such a reductive, process, as opposed to let's give it a try. Maybe it fails, but there's something out of that, that we will have learned. And I'm certain that in the process of learning how to do these zoom sales presentations, you haven't stopped. Like it's like, well, here we could do this differently.
[00:28:58] We can do that differently. That's what innovation is all about.
[00:29:02] Aaron Crowley: [00:29:02] Yeah, well, what's funny. We, sales meetings were things I just. Going to ask me, what's the one meeting that I'm going to try and find a way out of it was sales meetings. It just is [00:29:15] like, it's just a topic. I just, you got it. Keep talking about it. You got to always return to the fundamentals. You just can't not talk about it.
[00:29:22] Cause you got to fill the schedule. But that was the one meeting. I would, it was number one, it was hard. Cause people doing appointments and stuff, you know, and then, well, do we not have it because she's in the show, a customer walked into the showroom and now, you know, we got one of our sales reps engaged in this conversation.
[00:29:36]The tendency would be there. We'll just, let's just, we'll just wait for tomorrow. Let everybody know. We're not doing a sales meeting today. Now we do our sales meetings over zoom. Partially because we still got three people that are still working remotely, but even people that are in the office now, we all are checking in over zoom.
[00:29:51] And so our consistency on those sales meetings has again and the value to that you cannot deny the results [00:30:00] improve when you're focusing on it. And so that's another unanticipated benefit of this technology that it's allowed us to communicate more effectively and more consistently.
[00:30:10] Rick Thomas: [00:30:10] Phenomenal stories. There's so much more we could talk about and perhaps we'll do another one of these where we can unpack some of those other gems. But for the last portion of this, Aaron, before I let you go, is I want to take a step back and have you talk about the enterprise of Curly's.
[00:30:26] Cause there's more than just Crowley's Granite & Quartz. Talk, talk to a little bit about the other. The other businesses that are in this ecosystem that you've been creating for over these years. And what's been the response to those businesses. Also through this whole year of 2020. [00:30:45]
[00:30:45]Aaron Crowley: [00:30:45] Yeah, so we have. Two other companies we own, I started two other companies. One of them, I started myself and another one. I co-founded both providing, innovative products or the stone industry. We serve exclusively other countertop manufacturers like us. So, one company is called fabricators friend and 20 years ago, the industry was so much in its infancy. There was very little gear for the guys that stand out in the shop, in the freezing cold everything that you do in a stone shop has done with water and it's very abrasive. And so in the winter time, it is a unpleasant job.
[00:31:22] And so long story short, I had an interaction with a dry suit testimonial, I guess you could say, and [00:31:30] discovered that materials and processes existed, that we could apply to the stone industry to make fabrication more comfortable, quite frankly. And so we developed a product line.
[00:31:41] Exclusively for the stone fabrication industry. And it's a sleeve as a pair of sleeves that has a waterproof wrist seal. So that when guys are polishing, they don't have water soaking their sleeves or their sweatshirts, or what have you. We've got a couple of aprons and then we got a jacket.
[00:31:54]And so that little business fabricators friend up until about two years ago, we sold that product line exclusively through distribution, and then about an odd. And Rick tell me where to start. I don't know how much, you know, you want me to go into this, but we had a big player. One of our, it wasn't one of our biggest customers by any means, but they were a big fish in the pond began.
[00:32:14] They got [00:32:15] bought by private equity and they started acquiring. We had really maybe two like national distributors and then a whole, probably eight to 10 regional distributors. Well, this one company decided to become the biggest fish in the pond and essentially acquired almost all of our regional distribution customers.
[00:32:34] And so all of a sudden we went from having no big customers to one company that's like 80% of our sales. So about two years ago, we launched our a website to sell direct for the first time and have been slowly trying to build that For what I imagined could be a day when that 80% business customer decides they want to go another route and 80% of our sales, you know, disappear.
[00:32:57] So we're trying to build a direct to consumer direct, I [00:33:00] guess it's B to B in that sense line you know, build our own customer base for that product line.
[00:33:05] Rick Thomas: [00:33:05] Well, but I think that the important thing to understand about that is, is you're already strategizing how to deal with that. It should that eventuality come to fruition.
[00:33:15] Aaron Crowley: [00:33:15] And here's, what's interesting. You mentioned you have an innovation that. May not work out in terms of how you originally imagined it to, but along the way, you discovered something else that you couldn't have discovered had it not been for that exploration. And I'll say that this retail sales thing is not working out quite as well as I had imagined it would, but we've discovered another opportunity that fits within that, that I think could become much more of a viable.
[00:33:44] You know, [00:33:45] pursuit and so I think you're exactly right in what you said.
[00:33:48] Rick Thomas: [00:33:48] Excellent. Describe briefly about no lift. And then I'll kind of draw a circle around the three of the businesses, but yeah. Talk to us a little bit about no lift.
[00:33:57]Aaron Crowley: [00:33:57] No lift installed system is this other company that I find myself involved in at the ownership level. Granite and quartz countertop installation. Up until we developed and introduced this product was basically done by brute force on the job site. Typically you'd have two guys lugging these extremely heavy and I mean, most people, even weightlifters athletes can not comprehend how heavy granite and quartz countertops are.
[00:34:25] And that is, I am not exaggerating that Rick. I had a buddy that played [00:34:30] varsity football, came in to pick up a countertop one time. And he, I mean, his reaction was so he was dumbfounded. He literally was like, I didn't think things could weigh much that you would pick up two installers will pick up. Actually over the course of a year, the cumulative weight, the two installers would pick up as 500 tons. They would lift those counters once to load their rig, pick them up again, to load the Dolly and then pick them up a third time on the job site to put them on the cabinets. And so we had is this dynamic where you just wear people out, literally.
[00:35:02] Rick Thomas: [00:35:02] I was, I can take of is all the chiropractic visits.
[00:35:05] Aaron Crowley: [00:35:05] Yeah. Yeah. And unfortunately I think very under-reported in terms of the workers' comp industry, it's just a, it's a knuckle dragger type [00:35:15] mindset that's just sort of your Rite of passage. Yeah. Your back hurts. It's called installing. And so unfortunately the brain drain that occurs where, you know you, those guys are every bit as skilled as a journeyman electrician. HVAC CA anybody that has gone through all that apprenticeship to learn a skill and a trade and has extraordinary value to the business, they work for an installer is no different. The problem is that after. I've said it's probably three to seven years as the majority lifespan of an installer before their body physically gives out.
[00:35:45] And they literally cannot do the work any longer. Some guys make it to 10 years, these weird freaks, you know, they're, they just have a body that can sustain the wear and tear. So anyway, long story short, that dynamic had been going on in our business since day one. I just came from the [00:36:00] chiropractor from just residual back problems.
[00:36:02] I have. And I have it installed as an installer for nearly 20 years. So we were ha we had a couple of guys that back in 2013, I think it was two inch long time installers. Good, dependable, just quality. Individuals that were both reaching that sort of again, of what their bodies were going to be able to do.
[00:36:25] And both of them were saying, Aaron, I do not know how long I can keep doing this. I literally am starting to consider what do I got to do? What else can I do? Can you put me into the shop? And so that really was the impetus. And we developed a card, a piece of equipment. We built a head kind of a concept.
[00:36:41] And Built this mechanical lift is basically an [00:36:45] installation cart that lifts the countertop up to cabinet height. And then it has a feature where that the frame of that cart rotates the countertop into the horizontal position so that it can be slid onto the cabinet. We call it the no lift install system and And so we introduced that to the industry in 2015, I think the very end of 2015 and have been just grinding away trying to convince this ho hardheaded industry that there's a better way of installing for these these installers out there.
[00:37:13] And this year was a breakout year for us. I mean, we've been at this hard, hard since the end of 2015, all in. And and I, it was about the same time, probably about April, may it just, and I don't know if it's just pure coincidence. If there are other things at work, [00:37:30] there's a, we have a variety of theories as to why that timeframe seemed to where we turn the corner.
[00:37:36] And it's just an amazing year. We sold. It was a record year. Massive
[00:37:40] Rick Thomas: [00:37:40] it w it would not surprise me at all that among other things that the continued lack of labor PR probably for business owners are finally saying, look, I gotta figure out another way to do this. I've only got a few people I can depend on. I can't get any more labor and I got to keep them going. I can't afford to have them burn out.
[00:37:58] So, you know, doubt among many other things. In kind of wrapping up here, Aaron, th the thing, I want to point out my observation about this and for those listening, is that maybe this wasn't your intent? In no lift and in fabricators friend, because [00:38:15] in both of those, you were solving specific problems experienced in the shop or an installation.
[00:38:21] But if you look at what you do from a value stream point of view, starting from the time that the slab enters the shop to what you do to get it out the door. Your reaching as much of the channel as possible. So not just on the supply side, you know, business to consumer, but to your point, the business to business aspect of it.
[00:38:45] So knowing, recognizing, Hey, there's a whole lot of other guys, just like me trying to slept slabs, you know, through our shop and not kill ourselves doing it. Maybe there's something that can be done there. And that's. [00:39:00] That's I think from an enterprise development and scaling point of view, that's really the of the many things I'm impressed by what you've done here.
[00:39:09]And for people to really pay attention to that are not only are, have their own businesses. But are looking to do investment in businesses is looking at the various aspects of the channel. So well done. Aaron. It's really cool. I love rooting for you guys.
[00:39:28]You're an easy company to cheer for man. You're the good guys
[00:39:32] Aaron Crowley: [00:39:32] I'm sure glad you're on our team because your advice and your, the role you've played in getting through some of these tough times and getting to the place where we can see this, you know, from [00:39:45] a. Whereas, not that long ago, I saw these just as three distinct annoying things.
[00:39:49] I had committed myself to, that I had to do to feed my family. Whereas today I'm beginning to see them as now. These are engines that allow my family to accomplish what is most important. And we serve an extremely important purpose outside of the work itself. And and you've been, I just am so grateful to be to
[00:40:09] Rick Thomas: [00:40:09] guys are the case study, Dan and Mo more to be written about and talked about in future episodes when it comes to that. Kind of the family enterprise, but again, very excited for where Acrolinx is going. And thank you, Aaron. This has been awesome. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of questions.
[00:40:26] I'll post the links into the podcast for [00:40:30] all three businesses, if somebody wanted to reach out to you what would be the best way to do that?
[00:40:35] Aaron Crowley: [00:40:35] Yep. I can probably just give you my email address. I have a if you wanted me to just share that
[00:40:40] Rick Thomas: [00:40:40] Sure feel free
[00:40:41] Aaron Crowley: [00:40:41] Aaron, that Aaron crawley.com is the way that other fabricators typically get in touch with me.
[00:40:47]Rick Thomas: [00:40:47] And you do actually you've done speaking and seminars and actually some coaching also with other business owners. Yeah. Not a surprise. You are a wealth of experience and wisdom. My friend, a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
[00:41:01] Aaron Crowley: [00:41:01] School of hard knocks,
[00:41:02]Rick Thomas: [00:41:02] That's how you earn it. Yeah. So anyhow we'll leave it at that. Aaron, this has been awesome. And thank you again.
[00:41:10] Aaron Crowley: [00:41:10] Rick, thanks for the opportunity to chat with you.
