The Remodeler Digital Playbook Podcast

Crafting Excellence: Paul Jansen & Tessa Boudreaux on Growing Jansen Kitchen and Bath

• Rathna Ramakrishnan • Season 1 • Episode 14

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In this episode of the Remodeler Digital Playbook podcast, Paul Jansen and Tessa Boudreaux share the journey of Jansen Kitchen and Bath, from its founding in 1997 to its evolution into a leading remodeling business. They discuss the importance of design methodologies, the transition of leadership, and the unique customer experience they offer. The conversation also covers their marketing strategies, lead generation, and the significance of customer engagement and follow-up in maintaining relationships with clients.

They share insights on managing complexity, their future vision for the company, and personal stories that highlight their passion for remodeling. The discussion also touches on industry predictions and how they stay inspired in their work.

📌 KEY MOMENTS:

- 05:55: Design Methodologies and Tools
- 15:06: Marketing Strategies and Lead Generation
- 20:38: Building Customer Connections
- 29:58: Navigating Challenges in Business
- 36:33: Staying Inspired in Remodeling

🌟 What You'll Learn:
- ACTIONABLE TIPS to build customer connections and create long relationships.
- INSIGHTS into how to stay inspired and motivated while working.

🔨 Essential listening for remodeling contractors seeking to advance their digital marketing strategies.

🎧 Tune in now to transform your approach to digital marketing!

Ready to see real results from fellow General Contractors?

→ Step 1: Join our FREE Digital Dominance Club for Remodeling Contractors

→ Step 2: Follow us on Instagram

→ Step 3: Schedule a 1:1 call with Rathna now!

Let's rock your remodeling journey! 🛠️💰

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (00:03.576)
you

Rathna Ramakrishnan (00:06.145)
Welcome to the Remodeler Digital Playbook podcast. am super excited today to have Paul and Tessa from Jansen, both industry leaders in the remodeling business. They've been in business since 1997.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (00:06.826)
Welcome to the rematch.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (00:21.46)
Thank you.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (00:22.375)
and I'm very excited to have our first lady podcast guest. So welcome Tessa. It's exciting to have you here. We're just gonna talk about your story. So give me a little bit of perspective as to when Jansen was founded, your backstory, where you guys are at today. If you're comfortable sharing your revenue numbers, please do because it inspires other listeners to

hear your story and understand how you are where you are at today. So Paul, would you like to share with us the history of Jansen?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (01:00.248)
I can do that. Generally, we started back in 1997, my brother Ron and myself. I had always talked about starting some kind of a business and we had both had construction backgrounds. So we started in 1997 in March and soon after a third brother joined in, Richard, so there were three of us that ran the company and owned the company.

Along the way, we started doing pretty much any kind of construction. At that time, Ron had a residential contractor's license. In about 2001, I got a builder's contractor's license, which allows us to do some commercial work. So we expand a little bit there. In about 2002, we opened a showroom, which was unique to our company because and unique to the area as far as contractors go.

because we kept getting pulled toward kitchens and bath remodels. So we steadily grew that side of the business. in 2015, we actually rebranded as Jansen Kitchen and Bath because we started out as Jansen Quality Construction. So we do business as a kitchen and bath company now. It steadily grew. We're up to about between $4 $5 million revenue a year.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (02:27.971)
Congratulations.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (02:29.578)
And we kind of focus on, so we got away from any of the additions, anything kind of pulling you into that massive reframing. We'll do anything interior of a home. So if somebody, you know, wants to go in, keep their roof, but completely rework the floor plan, we'll go in and do that. We've just kind of gotten away from all of those additions and things like that, new builds, things like that, whereas they

did start off building a couple of houses.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (03:00.821)
Amazing, very cool. So I guess your showroom is filled with kitchen and bathroom materials and supplies that people can come and touch and feel and choose from.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (03:11.28)
Right, we've got lots of vignettes set up, kitchen set up, vanity set up, showers installed, all of that so people can come in and actually see what we're talking about, look at what we can do. we actually have a stone and glass department also along with the company. So we're able to showcase all of our quartz and granite and all of that in our kitchen vignettes and then all of our shower glass and mirrors on all of our bathroom stuff.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (03:39.405)
And I said, where is your showroom?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (03:41.017)
Middle of Pensacola.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (03:44.353)
Very cool. And how do you come up with your vendor partnerships on what products you carry in your showroom?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (03:51.396)
we're actually pretty picky about who we bring in here. we like to be a little bit different from everybody in town. So we tend to stick with vendors that not everybody else carries. our stone, we kind of get from North Louisiana. It's a little bit different from what everybody else has stone wise around here. Our tile, we keep stuff that you're not going to walk in to just a flooring showroom and see, we don't carry.

any of the big big brands like dial tile or any of that. We kind of keep everything a little more everything's really tailored to being super custom.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (04:24.717)
I see.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (04:30.967)
very nice. So at what point did you, Tessa, did you come into Jansen Inc. and what initiated the, you know, the new ownership partnership for you to join, you know, the Jansen Brothers?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (04:44.792)
you

I've been here eight years. became the lead designer and sales manager, think four years ago. And then Richard wanted to retire and Paul wants to retire and Ron wants to retire. So that's when the new owners came into play. came up with a plan to where we could keep the company growing because we've got quite a machine going. But and it's tough to sell one to straight out on the market.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:03.564)
Thanks.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:08.707)
Yes.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:14.817)
Mm. Mm.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (05:16.074)
set up. So we have some fantastic employees here and we worked out a plan to eventually sell it to them. So that's what we're in the middle of right now. My older brother Richard has retired. He's been gone for about a year, retired. And we're working it working out where three new owners will be taking the reins in several years. And all three of us have been here for a while.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:30.263)
Nice.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (05:36.524)
and the new

amazing. So your employees that are going to acquire the businesses, new owners, and then keep the brand going. And you already understand the vision and the philosophy and how exciting what, what a great way to transition and exit your business. Paul, congratulations. I'd love to speak to you, Tessa, a little bit about your, your design. Do you follow a certain methodology? Is there like certain kinds of software that you like to use for the renderings?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (05:48.116)
Exactly.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (05:55.724)
Thank you. Thank you.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (06:07.672)
you

We use Chief Architect pretty much for everything that we do. It's just so easy to do your renderings and floor plans and all of that. And it definitely helps with sales. We've come a very long way since we've started doing the renderings and things like that. It just makes it a lot easier for people to see what they're going to get and what it's coming from. We still use 2020 for all your cabinet pricing, things like that, but we really, really, really rely on Chief Architect.

for 99 % of the stuff we do on the design side.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (06:43.757)
Very cool. So you have a degree in design. Did you go to college for that?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (06:48.632)
I actually, I have a degree in graphic design, not interior design. I fell into the interior design world and I've been doing it for I think 18 years now.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (07:00.301)
Very cool, very cool. So Paul, when you look at the remodeling industry considering you've been in it for decades, how has it changed? What were the initial struggles that you had when you brothers decided to launch Jansen and then you spoke to us about the evolution of niching down, making it a kitchen and bathroom business, but how was your journey from when you began to now and what are you seeing as what's happening with the remodeling industry?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (07:09.677)
with it.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (07:29.694)
That's a great question. We started out on a very different route and we would take on any kind of contracting work from replacing rotten wood. We actually built five custom houses along the way and just kept searching for the right fit and where we could excel. We eventually landed on kitchens and baths. We bought the showroom and got it going.

We needed a place where people could come and touch and feel the material they were getting, lay things out and decide. then we, at about the same time we had the showroom, we hired our first designers. And that was a big advantage to us over anybody else doing remodeling or new construction even, but especially in remodeling, because it offered a service that no other contractors had. And it's been a big blessing for us. People like Tessa coming in.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (08:23.33)
I see.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (08:27.927)
and given their opinion and given their ideas and just developing the program. And that's what really got us going into our niche.

And we still see that we're one of, we're not the only one anymore, but we are one of the only ones that offer the design service as a contractor. Whereas most people in town, if you're hiring a contractor, you're going to get a designer separately and then you're using subs and all of that. Whereas with us, you kind of start with your designer from the very beginning. You get a designer plus Paul Ri associated with your project so that you have one of the owners and a designer at all times.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (08:48.055)
Yes.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (09:08.118)
And then we keep everything else in house also. So that kind of that's kind of where our little niche is

Rathna Ramakrishnan (09:14.839)
Very nice. you're, go ahead, Paul.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (09:17.706)
So as we grew, wanted to control the jobs as much as we could so we could keep our products or projects to a high level of quality. So instead of using a lot of subs, we keep, as Tessa mentioned, we keep a lot of those people in-house that do our tile setting and our sheetrock and our framing and our cabinet setting. And we have our own fabrication division for granite and quartz. And we have our own glass department.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (09:28.163)
Mm-hmm.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (09:40.053)
Wow.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (09:47.61)
when we do a shower we do the whole thing we do the glass the plumbing we have a master plumber on staff that's been here 18 19 years

Rathna Ramakrishnan (09:56.651)
Incredible. Incredible. So you're not only a design-build firm, you also have your showroom and you have your full staff that has kind of literally grown up with you, understands your philosophies and your brand, right? And just delivers high quality experiences. That's fantastic. Congratulations. Let's pretend I'm a homeowner that's interested in doing business with you and I find you online and I come

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (10:25.254)
and that is...

Rathna Ramakrishnan (10:26.037)
into your universe, what does my experience look like from the moment I make contact with you to becoming an estimate that's generated to a project that puts revenue in the bank for you? Could you walk me through that entire pathway of a new leads experience?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (10:28.216)
What is my experience so far from the one I've been going down with?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (10:42.712)
Let's begin.

So normally when somebody comes in, I normally take on those leads as the new designer kind of to talk to them, see what they want to do. You know, if you're doing a kitchen, are you wanting to take out walls? Are you wanting to blow out something and make it bigger? You want to move into another room? Are you wanting to stay in your footprint and just kind of update bathrooms? Are you wanting to make it bigger? You want to stay in your footprint? All of those things. And then from there, we kind of talk timelines and things like that. Let them know, you know,

We're about a month and a half to two months out for a designer to get to your project to look at for the first time And then once we get that schedule, they're good with our timelines We go out there Paul and I and then a designer is gonna go out We walk through the project with the customer on site Kind of go through what they're hoping for what their wants are their wishes all of those things measure out the space and then the designers come back to

Rathna Ramakrishnan (11:20.247)
I see.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (11:43.418)
put together layouts, together floor plans, and put together a very basic price point. Normally we give them on bathrooms, we kind of give them like a $5,000 price range of saying, hey, this bathroom is going to be 60, but you'll probably be somewhere between 57 and 62, something like that. And then once they're comfortable with price point, then we jump into actually finalizing a layout.

of picking out all of our materials, getting it contracted, and then getting them in our install queue.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (12:21.037)
Very cool. So if somebody calls and says they want a two or a three day bathroom, you're not it. Cool.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (12:26.392)
We're not it and we know that we have some guys we can send them to we've gotten referrals we send people to but yeah, we're we're normally about a month and a half to two months out on consults and at one point we were about six months out and then Yeah, it was crazy and then for projects to start once you sign your contract We're anywhere from about 12 weeks and up depending on how busy we are at the time

Rathna Ramakrishnan (12:42.157)
Congratulations.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (12:47.82)
you

Rathna Ramakrishnan (12:56.627)
And homeowners are fine with that because they choose to work with you and they want that experience in high quality space designed by you. And at what point does the homeowner come to your showroom to pick everything that I, which is the fun part as a homeowner.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (12:56.978)
And the homeowner is a part of that because they choose to work with you and they want that experience and high quality. You know, space designed by you. at what point does the homeowner come to your showroom to bring them...

So the presentation after we go to the house the presentation is done in the showroom that way we can go over numbers kind of show them different cabinet line show them different showers give them a lot to think about we print out 3d renderings and all of that for them take home look at we try to come out with as many layouts as we can you know if somebody's doing a kitchen normally you can get two or three of them give them all of that to think about and then once they decide what direction they want to

Then we get them back in the showroom to start going through cabinets and where do you want pullouts? Where do you want certain things and then move into finishes?

Rathna Ramakrishnan (13:50.113)
Mm.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (13:53.805)
Do you charge a deposit or a down payment because your design process sounds intense and very giving and giving them so many options?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (14:03.575)
We have a consultation fee that we do charge kitchens are 250 master bathrooms are 250 and hall bathrooms are 150. And then we also do if somebody says, hey, I really love your project, but and I love what you came up with, but you guys are a little out of my price point. We also do sell our plans based off of the hours that our designers have put them into into it and get them ready for somebody else to come in and do.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (14:22.723)
you

Rathna Ramakrishnan (14:32.119)
I see. So they take their plan and they go to a different builder who can probably do it at a lower price point. But typically it doesn't work if you take a certain design with your vision and try to have somebody else kind of.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (14:33.496)
you

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (14:42.484)
It's very, very seldom that we have that happen. Most of the time when people get through to that point with us, they see what they're paying for. They see why the price point's where it's at. They see our products. A lot of the customers and clients we go out to are either past clients or referrals. So a lot of them aren't even looking at going elsewhere.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (15:06.497)
Right, because they know you and they trust you and they feel comfortable with you about the quality of your work. Nice, so what do you guys do for marketing in terms of lead generation for yourself? Is it pretty much a referral-based business or are you running ads? How are you keeping your pipeline full with potential leads?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (15:12.532)
Exactly.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (15:28.28)
That is a great question. And along the years, we have tried a lot of different things from billboards to mailouts. Right now, we're in a position where most of our leads are generated by referrals or somebody Google's us. They just look us up and us online. And that accounts probably for, I'd say 85 to 90 % of the jobs that we do. We really don't do much marketing at all or marketing.

budget is very very tiny. It's Google ads and it's some Facebook posts every now and then of projects that we've done but we do signs in the yards where people will drive by and say hey I saw you sign in my neighbor's yard but other than that we really don't advertise. It's a lot of word of mouth or just Googling and people calling us because we're the number one reviewed contractor on Google.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (16:25.647)
So are you running Google Ads? Are you just relying on your Google Business profile to give you those referral leads? Okay. And is it a certain dollar amount you're spending a month or is it a percent of what your revenue targets are?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (16:28.248)
We do run Google Ads.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (16:37.208)
It's a certain dollar amount that we keep it under. in comparison to most companies, I think I just had a consult with a Google guy yesterday and in comparison to most companies, are our budget on Google has just way, way lower than anybody else, but we're still bringing in the searches. So.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (16:57.131)
Right, I think because of the age of the brand and the domain authority you have because of Paul being in business for so many years and having consistently done good work, the Google algorithm remembers that you're a high quality contractor and probably anytime somebody searches for a best kitchen remodeler or bathroom remodeler in Benesco, Florida, it's showing you.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (17:19.072)
Yeah.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (17:20.043)
I did notice you have reviews on your Google Business Profile. Do you have a plan in place on how you collect these reviews? Do you solicit reviews from your happy clients at a certain point when the project is being finished? Or do you just let it ride and have it happen organically?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (17:33.676)
you

so when we go out and we get pictures of people's houses, they normally, we ask them to write a review for us to put on their website that accompanies all of their pictures, kind of saying how their project went and kind of reviewing everything start to finish. So those reviews tend to be a little bit longer and kind of walk through their projects. And then the ones that we don't take pictures of, we normally send a link to and say, Hey, we just closed out your project. here's a link.

go leave us a Google review if you're wanting to. And we've been doing that for about a year and a half now and our Google reviews have just gone above and beyond and people call in all the time and they say you know you're the only five star rated contractor on Google which makes a big difference.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (18:24.717)
Yep, people like social proof. They want to hear from another homeowner how their experience was. You mentioned for some of the finished projects you don't take photos. Is that because of confidentiality, privacy issues, or it's just the nature of the project? Okay.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (18:39.212)
The nature of the project. We try not to take pictures of all the kitchens that look the same. know, if you're doing a white kitchen, you can only have so many of those on your website. The hall bathrooms are very hard to take pictures in because they're tight spaces. Master bathrooms, you kind of have to watch again, tight spaces. we kind of, pictures aren't, they're not cheap. So we want to do those, we want to showcase the projects that are above and beyond.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (18:45.207)
Hmm.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (18:55.415)
I see.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (19:08.993)
Right. Well, the Google algorithm really loves organic photos. So even if you do like before and after photos with an iPhone and post it on your website, even though it won't present very beautifully to a potential homeowner, you're going to get the SEO benefit of it. So that's what I tell my clients. Like I know photography is expensive and then some of them do drone photography, the exterior contractors. It just adds up. But just old fashioned iPhone photography still does the job.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (19:09.832)
Thanks for

I think it's before.

We have to go to the

Okay.

Right.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (19:37.622)
And a lot of our customers do their iPhone pictures with their reviews and things like that.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (19:42.249)
Yeah, nice, nice. So do you have a process in place where you follow up with the finished project, like on the first anniversary or you say, hey, homeowner, we redesigned your kitchen thinking of you. How is it going? Or there's not enough time in the day to do that kind of follow up.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (19:54.862)
Thank you.

We do keep in contact that way. We keep in contact. One of processes, one of the systems that we use is we have a project manager for every job.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (20:02.563)
Sweet.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (20:12.962)
So they have a face and a name of someone to keep their contact with every day on the job. And that person lets them know what's coming up, what's going on. And they have a pretty tight friendship by the end of a job. And that has been a very big help. It makes the customers feel very much at ease. And it just, it really, it brings a lot of...

connection, customer connection with the company really does. So we don't really run into those, know, every once in a while you'll go to a project where somebody will say, a contractor came in here and did this and this is messed up, but I just didn't want to call or I didn't want to get into having to call or whatever where our customers don't just call because they know that they have that designer that they can talk to or they still have their project manager's cell phone number that they can call and say, hey, my faucet.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (20:52.362)
Mm-hmm.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (21:08.574)
isn't working right or my dreams kind of clogged and we'll just go and get it taken care of.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (21:14.295)
Yeah, in the end, business is all about those personal relationships. So they feel comfortable. And remodeling is definitely such a personal business because you're in people's homes getting to know their dog and kids and...

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (21:29.068)
So early on we decided that the best advertising was going to be to do every job with so well that that customer was going to spread your name around. So every job we do, expecting that when we're finished that customer is going to be so happy they're going to tell all their neighbors.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (21:39.042)
Right.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (21:46.199)
Right. And it's worked because you've been in business close to 30 years. So, right, that's the only way to do it. Do you use any AI at all today in your business? Do you use Jack GPT or Bard or Gemini or one of those things in your day-to-day operations? No. Cool.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (21:52.78)
that.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (22:00.562)
don't if you've ever heard of it. We don't know any of it. No?

Rathna Ramakrishnan (22:07.085)
Well, ChatGPD is an interesting tool to use for a lot of things. It can analyze your profit and loss. It can give you some timelines. If you have a project and you're trying to lay out a timeline, you can feed in the data and it can give you stuff. it's pretty cool. There's several use cases in the remodeling industry that you could potentially use it for. And then client communication to just draft up letters and emails and follow throughs that you can send.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (22:20.778)
Yeah.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (22:34.2)
Thank you.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (22:37.099)
use any other tech stack like software to keep your business going like Build a Trend or Acculinks or how do you run your projects.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (22:43.16)
We use Google pretty much for everything. We've kind of got it set up through Google Drive where we can upload everything that has to do with a project and then all of our guys can log into their Google accounts and pull it up on their phones and see and get answers to questions, specs that they need, kind of whatever. So we've got it all really linked in through Google.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:09.429)
Nice.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (23:09.944)
We have tried some. We have tried Builders Trend and a couple others, but it just wasn't the perfect fit for who we are and the amount of work that we do.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:20.181)
And do you share photos and project progress with the homeowner through the Google Drive?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (23:27.416)
We don't. 99 % of the time our homeowners are going to be there. Most of our customers, our homeowners, live in the house during the project unless it's a full remodel and then they'll move out. But they're normally real close and they're seeing the project every day. They're talking to a project manager every day, things like that.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:32.428)
Right.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:42.658)
Yeah.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (23:49.825)
Very cool. So Paul, when you think about all the projects you've done, is there a favorite or one that stands out in your head, either by virtue of the project value or the complexity of the design, or perhaps the homeowner had a unique situation?

I'm sure you love all the spaces that you design because that is the nature of remodeling. is there a story, for either of you, do you have a story to share where you went in and the homeowner had a stringent budget and then you stuck to the budget or they needed a complex design and you were able to achieve it? Any fun story that comes to mind?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (24:25.592)
Yes, there are so many but one one particular customer that's a couple that we we did some remodeling on a house for them and They sold it not too long after that. So they had us come to their second house and We did several jobs several projects on it

And then he moved to a third house and asked him and completely remodel it and we did a complete remodel on it and and they just become really good friends after the years. But that's the kind of trust that we really we treasure highly because that means a lot to us and it means a lot to them. I think. That's definitely my favorite part.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (24:51.458)
Wow.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (25:07.203)
What a great story. Cool. How about you, Tessa? Do you have any complex designs that you dealt with or any fun story that comes?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (25:18.824)
I enjoy the full house remodels where people are wanting to, like we're working on one right now where she just wanted to completely change the layout of the house, get an extra bathroom in there, get some extra closet space, get a bigger kitchen. So we took the entire house down the studs and completely reworked the floor plan to make it work for her so that it can be her forever home and be everything she's ever wanted. So those are definitely my favorite ones.

puzzle.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (25:49.641)
Yeah, I like the way you call it a puzzle. Fit everything in, fit the budget in, very cool. As you all know, remodeling is such a complex business. So many little details, subcontractors, employees, supplies, timelines. How do you?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (25:53.585)
Exactly.

Thank

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (26:07.512)
you

Rathna Ramakrishnan (26:07.519)
your day Paul, if there is a young remodeling contractor listening to this episode, what tips would you like to share in terms of your, either your daily time management or tools that you use or hacks, or perhaps you have a fun morning routine that gets you through the day. I'd love to hear how you juggle, you know, how you keep your sanity and juggle this complex business.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (26:32.749)
I don't know. Luckily, I was blessed to have two fantastic brothers and we thought a lot along the same lines. We just knew what the other one was going to do and along the way we just filled in whatever thing we needed to have done we would do, whether it was a sweeping the floor or running deliveries out or every morning the guys...

Rathna Ramakrishnan (26:35.733)
you

Rathna Ramakrishnan (26:54.481)
you

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (26:57.634)
We have about 35 employees. So the guys get together and they get their marching orders and they head out.

when the project managers have their schedules every day. It's been a long term experience getting that set in place with the right people, getting all the right people in the right seats. And we get people like Tessa that joins the team and it's really exciting that way. But we just have to keep at it and keep looking for new options. We've tried lots of different things along the way and some work better than others and some didn't work at all.

just keep trying something until we found a system that worked for us.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (27:40.247)
Never give up, right? The fundamental rule of entrepreneurship. But when you look at your three brothers, did you have different strengths? Did each of you wear different hats in different roles as you were building the company ground up?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (27:55.491)
We did. We

We had different strengths. My older brother Richard is a machinist by trade. So he looked at the CNC machines in the granite shop. They were like big toys for him. He's got the most incredible mechanical mind. can fix anything. So he was very good at that. Ron is very methodical. He did have some build, had a lot of good carpenter experience, construction experience, and even had a

Rathna Ramakrishnan (28:12.427)
and nice.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (28:27.13)
separate career as an AC technician. So HBAC technician. So he's very well rounded too. I just do whatever I can. So I actually held the contractor's license and we just all work together and just fit. So thank God for all our different gifts.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (28:50.007)
And I jack of all trades. At what point did you bring

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (28:55.544)
I guess I was the first employee. We had a part-time employee at the end of 97, probably the first part of 98. And then we just steadily, slowly grew. After Hurricane Ivan, which hit here in 2004, that was a terrible time. Even for contractors, people think contractors make a lot of money, but that was a stressful time.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (28:57.597)
I see.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (29:14.541)
Mm-hmm.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (29:24.44)
We were up to about 60 employees for part of that just to maintain and help our customers get through. And that was very tough, very tough time. And then the recession was a tough time. But you just have to keep working and keep coming to work and figure out what's gonna work the best and keep moving forward.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (29:47.875)
Did you write the remodeling boom when we had the pandemic? This is where you just swamped with projects with people home and upgrading their spaces and stuff?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (29:58.442)
It's been a very strange time since the pandemic. Yes, we stay busy. We shut down for about two weeks right at the beginning of the pandemic. And then we separated the guys into teams.

and kept them separated. So if somebody did get sick, that team went home, but we could keep moving, keep moving forward. And we kind of did the same thing in the office where the girls would have a day that they would go out on projects with Paul. So we were working shifts coming into the office that we got everybody work from home computers to where they could do all of their design work from home. They could come in and do a presentation. We'd have, you know, our showroom was technically closed, but we'd open for a couple of

in for presentations, sanitize everything, and then do it all over the next day. So it was really working in blocks to keep going because we did feel that we got very, very busy.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (30:55.011)
Yes, yeah, like most remodelers did. And you probably already had projects in the pipeline that you couldn't just stall, so.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (31:03.448)
That's right. Exactly. We normally stay anywhere from three to six months out on pre-sold projects.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (31:10.753)
Nice, very cool. So Tessa, this is such an exciting time for you to become an owner, employee owner. Do you have any certain vision for the company or what are you looking at from a future perspective of where you're coming in? Because you understand the brand and you're still working with the founders. So it's such a fantastic opportunity for you.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (31:20.472)
Thank

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (31:38.461)
It's an amazing opportunity. I was completely floored when they asked me to do it.

I think right now the three of us that are in line to become the owners, for the next five years while we still have Ron and Paul, we are trying to learn as much and soak in as much as we possibly can. Less plans to change and more plans to let's learn everything that we can from them while we still have them.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:14.115)
So you have a five year plan in place, Paul, to retire.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (32:15.672)
Yes, yes we do and that would be the complete transfer of the company in that amount of time. So we have some very, very fantastic employees.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:28.981)
Amazing. So for each of you, I'll start with Paul. When you're not working, what do you do for fun?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (32:30.424)
So, we'll eat. That's it.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (32:36.768)
I have a married to Vicky. We've been married 33 years this year and have two daughters that are 26 and 21. We just went up. took my daughters to a race this week in Talladega. So that was exciting. One of them wanted to go. So they said, Hey, we'll go to a race. So she lives up in one of them lives in Birmingham. The others in school and mobile Vicky and I like to go camping whenever we can. That's what we like to do to get away.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:41.751)
Congratulations.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:49.909)
Nice.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (32:55.404)
Night.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (33:04.715)
into nature absolutely. Those nature bats, they're good for you. Amazing. How about you Tessa?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (33:04.92)
You find some place where the phones don't work? That's right. I hang out with my dogs a lot.

When I'm not at work, I tend to stay home and just hang out with my dogs on the weekends. We're nonstop during the week, so when it comes to the weekend time, I am a cut off from the world and relax when I can. I think we both live within 15 minutes.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (33:37.015)
Very cool. And your commute is short. Do you live close to work?

Rathna Ramakrishnan (33:46.017)
Fantastic quality of life. Amazing. Very cool. considering we're coming up on, you know, five years since the pandemic happened, 2025 is around the corner. What are you predicting, Paul, for the remodeling industry? there going to be an upswing? The next five years, what do you predict as a outlook for the remodeling business with your decades of experience under your belt?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (33:50.018)
So that's a part of for our care system.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (34:13.33)
Wow, put me on the spot there. I believe that this is an election year, which is always very different. Everybody's tentative right now. And we have been blessed that we have enough work scheduled through the first part of the year. So I think next year is still going to be fine no matter what happens with the election.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (34:15.659)
You

Rathna Ramakrishnan (34:32.738)
Nice.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (34:39.69)
I feel that we're in a position, we're solid enough that we're gonna be okay. I don't think the remodeling business is gonna go away at all for quite some time. I think when people were stuck at home with the pandemic and they saw what needed to be done at home, I think we're still catching up with that. There's still some pent up demand.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (34:53.314)
Mm-hmm.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (35:03.171)
Be nice.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (35:05.27)
And then we always keep our eyes open to see if there's some other service that we can come up with for our customers to help make things easier and make things go smoother for them. We always keep our eyes open for that.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (35:20.632)
What would be an example of that?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (35:24.012)
like recently we brought on a, closet system, like a full on closet design system. Cause we do a lot of master bathroom suites and closets and all that, where we were sending people elsewhere to go get closet systems. And it just kind of turned into a, now there's more people involved and you're waiting on this company or, our customers were like, well, can y'all do it? And can y'all do it? So we went out and we found a closet system to bring on. now our design.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (35:35.351)
Mm-mm-mm.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (35:53.786)
are doing that too.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (35:55.403)
Amazing, very cool. So just value add to the homeowner. Do you attend any of the industry conferences or shows to keep up to speed about all of the new products and new things coming about in remodeling?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (36:00.628)
I think.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (36:10.434)
try to go to KBiz every other year and then we do one trade show a year with the designers. We've been doing the golf course flooring show for the last eight years. I think this year we're gonna switch over and we're gonna go do surfaces instead, take them to something a little bit bigger, let them see all of the new stuff coming out and things like that.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (36:33.965)
So you have homeowners that come to these shows and those convert into business for you.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (36:40.348)
We don't do any of the like shows that are local home remodeling shows or anything. No, we don't do any of those.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (36:48.705)
I see, so you just go to the big vendor shows and then get all of the knowledge. And then KBIS is of course fantastic. Yeah, there's just so much stuff going on. And I like your style of going every other year so you're not stressed out like going to the conference.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (36:55.784)
Exactly. Absolutely.

It's a lot to take in. Yes it is.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (37:07.373)
Yeah, every time there's like so many new things, new faucets, touchless faucet, singing, dodo. I'm like, fantastic. this is...

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (37:14.712)
Yeah, I took my mom, we went, year before last I took my mom, because she was like, I'll just tag along. And it was so funny watching her walk through it because, you know, being in the industry, we know that there's 5000 different toilets and she walked in and saw 5000 different toilets and her mind was just blown as to how and why there were so many different toilet options.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (37:38.532)
I know it's incredible. The first time I went to the show, was like, wow, just this rows and rows and rows of toilets. It's an important piece of our lives. So we absolutely need those options.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (37:44.17)
Days long.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (37:53.849)
Right. And it helps keep us looking to what's new to see what's out there, see what changes are.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (38:01.859)
Very cool. So I have one last question. How do each of you stay inspired?

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (38:03.97)
Good.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (38:11.97)
think it's with each new project. The thing I love about remodeling is that every project you do is different. Every customer is different. We're not doing track homes. We're not doing spec homes. So we're designing for a specific person, a specific family. We're designing to make their houses their homes, their forever homes. And I think that's kind of what keeps you going and what we do because everything is different and you're making it for that.

person.

And I agree it's every single job is different. There's no even if it's the same exact safe and size It's everyone's different and just to be able to help somebody See what can be in their house? They they've heard they're so used to whatever they had that gosh it if they just could do this little thing it would be so much nicer for them and To see them light up when they do that that is that's that's just a blessing it really is

Rathna Ramakrishnan (39:12.343)
Very cool. Well, I really appreciate each of you for taking time out of your busy day to hang out with me and share your story. It was a delight to get to know you. Thank you.

Paul Jansen/Tessa Boudreau (39:22.38)
Well thank you. We appreciate it.

Rathna Ramakrishnan (39:25.079)
Thank you.