Jim Garip with Design & Remodel Brothers

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio, Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by Woodstock Neighbors Magazine, bringing neighbors and business together. For more information, go to Facebook and Instagram and find them at Woodstock. Neighbors. Em You guys are in for a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Design &Remodel Brothers, Mr. Jim Garip. How are you? Man?

Jim Garip: I’m doing excellent today. Stone Thank.

Stone Payton: You. Well, it is a delight to have you in the studio. You and I have had a chance to hang out a little bit together at Young Professionals of Woodstock. That’s right. So excited to have you guys here in town. I know you’ve got some cool stuff coming up and I want to make sure we talk about that and please make sure that we do before we wrap. But I think a great place to open the conversation. And I got 1000 questions. We’re probably not going to get to them all, but maybe a good place to start would be if you could articulate for me and our listeners mission, purpose. What are you, your brother and your team? What are you guys really out there trying to do for folks?

Jim Garip: Man Well, we are seasoned in the industry that we’re in. We are originally from the North States, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and etcetera, lived all throughout the globe. And when we found out that Georgia had this beautiful little town called Woodstock, and after living here for a few years, we decided to give back to the community what we could possibly be doing on a more family level. So we decided to ensure the fact that we had a location here that was available for the clients and the community to come into where we could provide them with designing and remodel services in general all throughout their renovation.

Stone Payton: So are you finding that the community is embracing you guys, that the business community is embracing you guys? How do you find the the climate, if you will, the business climate here? What do you think so far?

Jim Garip: I think it’s spectacular. Stone. I think that Woodstock definitely is developing still and for this matter, that they are giving everything that they got to feed back into the business community as well as their local level. I think that their services and their and their the groups that they have set up all throughout the town is is very beneficial for small and mid level businesses. And I think that this growth pattern is to reach its climax around 2030 and I’m looking forward to being part of it.

Stone Payton: Me too, man. And that’s been my experience as well. I’ve been here a couple of years. April was a couple of years and I just found that everybody, the group at Young Professionals of Woodstock, the Woodstock Business Club, Cherokee County in general, it’s just been an easy place to do business and other business people that are genuinely invested in your success. You know, they’re not just meeting you and then trying to sell you something. They’re like, How can I help you? Stone? How can I help you get your thing off the ground? And it sounds like you’ve had a very similar experience.

Jim Garip: Yes, indeed. We’ve actually had a I want to say from both worlds, we have club meetings around the town where they are very cutthroat and they want to do business, business, business to a point where you have hundreds of cards being thrown at you and then you have the the network that’s more on the line with YPO, as you said, where they are focused on the the networking in a community matter where everybody just knows each other and just they relax. They go over topics on a weekly basis and they support each other on different levels.

Stone Payton: So how did you guys get into the design and remodel business in the first place? What was the path for that?

Jim Garip: That was actually our father. He was a GC, a general contractor located out in New York. And thanks to the unions that he was part of, we’ve seen him live hitting any type of renovation, whether it was interior or exterior. So naturally, growing up under him and me and the brothers, we decided to take down the family tradition per se and in our own ways with the different companies that we were working in. But hence, I said earlier it was it was about time that we actually butted heads together to to create a business for Woodstock instead.

Stone Payton: I love that verb there.

Jim Garip: Butted heads when it’s brothers. That’s the way it works. At the end of the day, you are brothers, so it doesn’t matter how well or how bad you are with your coworkers, but it’s family at the end, so it’s good.

Stone Payton: Who are the brothers?

Jim Garip: We have John and that’s the little one, I believe YPO he goes out to as well. We have Matt who’s available, but he hits the field more often than than the others, and he’s not really a social guy, I’ll say.

Stone Payton: So now that you’ve been at this a while, and particularly now that you’ve been at it a little while here in this community, what are you finding the most rewarding about the about the work? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Jim Garip: Well, the best part is they’re your neighbors. You know, almost everybody that you’re working with. We are specifically focusing around Cherokee County. So, you know, the people that you would assume that you would never meet before are coming up to you asking for help in what they’re trying to do with their businesses or their their homeowner level and whatnot. And it’s always fun to see the fact that you could actually speak with a neighbor much easier through the business route than on a normal daily route.

Stone Payton: All right. So let’s talk about the work a little bit. What I’d like to do is sort of paint the picture of beginning a relationship with a, let’s say, a prospective client. They’re not even a client yet, but they’re seriously entertaining the idea of doing something different with their home. I’d love to play out a little bit of a scenario, though, because I want to get a picture of what things look like very early in the relationship, what that process is. Yeah, walk us through that.

Jim Garip: Well. It all comes down to what the the the the client to be, let’s call them is interested in and what it is that they need. When we could dissect the ideas of what it is that they think is great and looks good on HGTV or Instagram or Pinterest and what it is that they actually need is it could be completely different worlds. I mean, there have been cases where they would assume the fact that, you know, clean and modern and chic is the best way to go. So they would go ahead and showcase what they’re interested in, and then we would dive into the project and then find out the fact that they have a lot of plumbing issues where it could get flooded. So back to the question, the way that we would start is actually go out to their location after they stop in or call us. And we would do a full scope where we’re taking measurements, we’re taking pictures, taking other required recorded work. And if needed be, we’ll go ahead and go through the permits and the county records and etcetera to find out exactly how deep we could actually take this project and the level that they want.

Stone Payton: It sounds like your business is a little I was going to say a little, maybe a lot more consultative and relationship oriented in the early part because I’m coming to you with very limited knowledge. If I’m looking at redoing the kitchen, there are some things I know I want different, but I get the sense that that you might at that stage be saying, okay, well, what are you trying to achieve with that? Have you thought about this? Or, you know, we’ve been doing this a long time. Here’s something we saw that was really cool. Might be something you want to consider. There’s that back and forth early on as opposed to just going there and taking the order and executing.

Jim Garip: No, no, no, no. That’s that’s definitely dangerous in the field that we’re in. There are a lot of companies out there that does it. There are a lot of companies that that does provide a lot of promises in the beginning, too. But to be to be precise and to the point, it is very important to understand exactly what the client is in need of and what they want to ensure that everything is on paperwork so that we could execute it the right way within the time frame, within the budget that’s requested.

Stone Payton: So do you find yourself from time to time having to address I don’t know what’s the right thing to call it a myth, a misconception, a misunderstanding, because you are dealing with people that don’t really understand, like you do countertops or whatever. You know these things, the backsplash, and they don’t really understand how they interact. They just like you say, I mean, we’re guilty of it at our house. We my wife is glued to HGTV. She likes to love it or list it, you know, like she likes the to the other brothers, brothers, the other brother brothers.

Jim Garip: Right.

Stone Payton: And they’re very entertaining show. So it’s which is great. It’s probably great for your business. It probably inspires people and gets them to thinking about it. And I got to believe that people like Holly and I probably walk away from some of that with some less than accurate notions about some aspects of the process.

Jim Garip: Yeah, no, it definitely is. I mean, you definitely hit it on the on the spot right there. I think that the biggest myth is the time frame that’s given for these projects, because the fact that a lot of people do tend to look at the, the finished product regardless if it’s in a magazine or if it’s on an a post that they found on social media or just the HGTV episode where they’re airing something that’s within half an hour, that’s really a myth. You got to understand the real scope of it. I mean, just considering a countertop exchange in your kitchen could seem very, well, easy and and could be done in about a week. But you got to consider there is a possibility that something might go wrong where you can’t really wash your dishes for a whole week where you have to use your tub for these things. So or go out.

Stone Payton: To eat every night. That would be our solution. Well, that’s.

Jim Garip: Good. That’s good for you. I would hope. The fact that a lot of people do consider that as another option as well. But yes, sometimes timing is something that really needs to be considered regardless if it’s a business or a home per se, where the timing needs to be showcased on on what it is that needs to be done for the full scope of the project.

Stone Payton: So I think I just accidentally created a marketing strategy for you. If you’re dealing with a job that’s, you know, several thousand bucks, maybe you could turn around and go and get $100 worth of gift certificates to local restaurants and just tell them right up front, look, the work we’re going to be doing, you’re going to be a few evenings without your dishwasher, without your stove. Good idea. And here’s here’s a, you know, a gift certificate. You know, maybe it’s not the prime 120, but you could probably get quite a bit over at pure.

Jim Garip: Oh, no, I like that idea. There are a lot of companies that we’re currently working with anyway through YPO and etcetera. Right, right, right. So I think that that might be actually something good to have. But the problem is it’s not always in Woodstock or Cherokee County.

Stone Payton: Right, Right.

Jim Garip: If you do have a job that’s located south of Atlanta, yeah, we’re going to be pretty much limited with that coupon book.

Stone Payton: But these are considerations that you need to inform the client and you want them to be well informed. You want to manage those expectations, and then you want to blow right through them. If you can.

Jim Garip: Absolutely. No, definitely. That’s well said, Stone. I mean. I mean, yeah, just timing is not the only aspect that you have to consider. It could be just the colors that you’re choosing, whether you’re looking for tiles, if you need it for the floor, the wall and etcetera. It’s always good to have an expert just just chiming in if needed.

Stone Payton: Be So let’s do talk about the scope of services. What all might that encompass?

Jim Garip: Well, we do specialize in kitchens and bathrooms, thanks to our father. That was the GC work that he was primarily focused on. But that was that’s never limited to what it is possible to do. Anything that is interior, that could be flooring, that could be a drywall job, that could be a framing job, that could be a fireplace job and etcetera installations of windows and etcetera. All of this is included in the remodeling services that we provide.

Stone Payton: Oh, wow. Yeah, much broader than I guess I had had anticipated. All right. So there’s that early consultation, getting everybody on the same page, managing expectations, setting up a timeline. You guys must be like really good project managers. Well, I’d starve to death if I were in your business.

Jim Garip: No, you have to be, because we don’t really go out and do the work ourselves 100% of the time. Yeah, I mean, this is just one of the downfalls of just being the brothers. I wish we had more brothers. So thank you, Mom. Thank you, Dad. But because the fact that we cannot reach all these possible projects throughout Atlanta, I think that, you know, you have to ensure the fact that everything is to the T with the team that you’re working with and the client to ensure the fact that there is no communication problems and ensuring the fact that the timeline is being prepped, prepped for whatever needs to come up. So project management, yes, that’s definitely something that we specialize in.

Stone Payton: Well, you mentioned a word communication. The other thing that would be valuable to me, I think and I know it would be to my wife, Holly, who will have a real appreciation for project management because that’s part of her work at a little company you may have heard of called IBM. Oh, so good little company. She’ll have a lot of appreciation for that, right, Because she’s got spreadsheets that she’s managing and all that. But just communication, you know, like and maybe you you have some built in points of communication that speak to that piece of it. Because I got to tell you, man, from the customer perspective and there’s a lot I can I can I can take, hey, we’re not going to make it out there today. We got a flat tire or we got doubled up on a job. But just communication is I mean, that’s just so important in it.

Jim Garip: It is for for small businesses out there. I’m sure that the little three lettered word, I call it between the brothers, but CRM, that’s where it’s at. If you have a good CRM program that is that is that is the heartbeat of a business like this that that we’re that we’re executing in the region here. Crms are very good keys and you should invest into a decent company that you are capable of working. If you cannot hire somebody that could CRM is where where you basically map out everything who you’ve spoken with throughout the day, how many minutes you’ve spoken with them about what type of project, What was the part of the project that you’ve spoken about? Who needs to be notified of this? What kind of a calendar event that needs to be in place and et cetera, etc.. So CRM is the key.

Stone Payton: Well, and you’re communicating with your customer. You’re communicating with some of these other people who have specific expertise in that domain and you’re putting them on the job. And you’ve got to vet those people and really trust them. That’s right. Because they’re you know, they’re facing your customer. I mean, you got you got a lot of moving parts in your business.

Jim Garip: Yes, indeed. And ensuring the fact that everything does get done within the budget and the timeline, that’s that’s something that me and the brothers, we literally go out to the cigar bar and enjoy it and kind of congratulate ourselves with because it is something that’s very hard for us to keep up with. But when it is something that’s executed properly, that is something that we celebrate within as well.

Stone Payton: So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a firm like yours? I’m operating under the impression that probably your best sales tool is just doing great work and getting, you know, but say more like, do you do you get out there and shake the trees a little bit and and try to cultivate new business? Yeah. How does that work?

Jim Garip: Well, word of mouth is the strongest marketing tool, in my opinion, and that is something that has helped us basically transition into doing this family business rather than what we were doing before. We were basically working for three different companies for three different positions. And, you know, all of the people that thankfully have have the experience of working with us previously are now supporting us with the jobs to help us transition into the market as a as a new company. So word of mouth is very important. That’s definitely a spot on. On top of that, I personally believe that outreach programs are very. Important. You have to communicate, you have to socialize, you have to network, and you have to treat it like it is a networking event to a point where it’s more more on the how could I say this, more on the on business side of things. You have to relax. You have to socialize in a matter of finding out who that person is that you’re speaking to and what kind of issues that they might be having. And put your put yourself in their shoes and actually execute a communication channel for hopefully where you could pick up a job or two later on down the road. If you focus on just getting excuse my French, but shit done. That’s not always the the accurate way of approach when it comes to it. That is one way of definitely getting it through. But that’s not that should not be the only and first route that you go to.

Stone Payton: So do you find that there are other people that you’ve built relationships with you get to to know them in their work that are in the home services arena, that are good, good connectors for you. Maybe they can refer business to you because maybe they handle maybe they’re a roofer or something they handle Another aspect. Is that also a piece of the puzzle?

Jim Garip: Absolutely. Anyone who is in the construction business or construction industry in general would know that referral programs are a thing. Everybody specializes in their own little thing, and it is very hard for a company to specialize in everything. Yeah, you cannot do that by yourself. You cannot do that with only just one team. It takes it takes corporate level management to take care of stuff like that. Just the other day, for example, we went to Firestone. I swear I thought that it was only a tire place, but I guess not. They do maintenance, they do all the things for a car. So, you know, if you are in the industry that we’re in excuse me, if you are in the industry that we’re in, referral programs are very important and we do work with a lot of pool maintenance people. We work with roofers, we work with insurance companies, we work with exterior based landscaping companies, hardscape companies. We work with people that just does painting jobs that need support on just our end. Again, if if we do keep that communication channel open with with these businesses on a professional and on a personal level, it does come back to us at the end.

Stone Payton: Well, and I got to tell you guys, I’ve known Jim for a little bit now. Jim is that guy, Mister roofer, Mister pool person. His first move is not going to be how can you send me some business? His first move is going to be, What can I do to help you? And he’s going to want to learn more about you, the person, and he’s going to have his antenna up for how he can serve you.

Jim Garip: That’s right. There are a lot of jobs that’s available out in the market. People come up to us assuming the fact that we do roofing because we do remodeling. But, you know, it’s something that we don’t specialize in. And I do pass it on to somebody that that has vetted with us.

Stone Payton: And really, that’s it’s the right thing to do. But it’s also it’s good mojo, but it’s actually it’s almost enlightened self-interest. If you can be the guy that knows the guy. Exactly. Right. Exactly. It’s one of the things that’s fun about having a radio show because, you know, every week I’m talking to different people and, you know, you may need a custom sport coat. Well, I’ve got a couple great places for you to go. That’s good to know. And if I send you there and you mentioned me, I don’t know if they’re going to give you a price break or not, but they’re going to make darn sure they serve you well. There you go. Right. That kind of thing. It’s good to be the guy that knows the guy.

Jim Garip: Exactly.

Stone Payton: Exactly.

Jim Garip: Well, that’s that’s I mean, yeah, you got to be stone.

Speaker4: All right.

Stone Payton: So what’s next for you guys? What’s what’s on the horizon? You’re going to try to scale this thing and grow it or what’s like next 12 to 18 months? Where’s the focus from an entrepreneurial business perspective?

Jim Garip: Well, for the next year, we are trying to just focus on the shop that we have and utilizing all the the social networks that we do have and ensuring the fact that we are keeping a steady ship, as they say, because it is very, very important to ensure the fact that you are giving your best and everybody is getting the best out of you. And once we could take care of that for the next year, the next step would be to moving into importing material from wherever it needs to be, because that’s something that we’ve done with other companies that we were working with. And it it drastically brings the prices down. So that’s something that we’re definitely looking to looking forward to down the line.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Stone Payton: All right. I’m going to shift gears on you a little bit before we wrap, because I’m genuinely interested and I always find the responses to this question fascinating. Passions, if any, outside the scope of the work we’ve been talking about. My listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel, and I have a real heart for supporting young entrepreneurs. Yes, you do? Yes. How about your thing? Man?

Jim Garip: We I’d like to definitely shout out to Stone. He definitely is a supporter of the of the community on a. Level, especially as the youngsters, as people call it, because I’m a youngster myself, don’t get fooled by my voice, but I truly do appreciate. Stone Definitely. That’s something that he does provide to the community, and that’s the whole reason why I’m doing this. So, you know, shout out to him again. But on my side, I love music, arts, creative stuff. That’s something that I personally do on the side. I do love to hunt as well. I love camping. I’m one of those guys that brings only ten items with him for the weekend, if not for a whole week if possible. I like to be alone sometimes because it gets so crowded in my head. Because the fact that we are open seven days a week. So if I could get a week in there, I really do like to be in the nature and just enjoy whatever is out there in general.

Speaker4: I’m so glad I.

Stone Payton: Asked and you’ll appreciate this. I’ve been working on one of our main tree stands. My brother is going to come up and hunt with me a lot this year from Tallahassee and I’ve really been trying to doctor it up with the camo and all that, and I’ve got the pool noodle that, you know, stuff so that it’s just easy to rest your arms. And I sent him a text last night. I said, All we’re missing is a cup holder and a USB port and we’re ready to go.

Jim Garip: I got to see that. I have to see that.

Stone Payton: No, it’s a lot of fun. But I think it’s also important and valuable, too, to have something like that that’s a little disconnected in some respects from the work that I call it. White space.

Jim Garip: Yeah, No, Well said.

Speaker4: Well said. Yeah.

Stone Payton: Yeah, that’s.

Jim Garip: Important. No, I definitely do agree. This is something that us brothers have not done properly with the jobs that we were working for before, which is weird because you would assume the fact that you are giving in 125% at the end of the day, but when you’re working for someone else, it kind of has that different feeling to what it is that you’re providing to the quote unquote team. But once we actually established our location here, we had the general rule of once it’s once it’s 6:00, unless it’s it is an emergency, one out of the three needs to go home. Oh, wow. And then we would have to circulate that because it’s very important to just pause, enjoy life out of work, enjoy the house, enjoy the kids, enjoy the dog, and enjoy whatever else you could do to kind of regen back into into reality in the morning.

Speaker4: All right. Let’s leave our.

Stone Payton: Listeners, if we could, with a couple. I call them Pro Tips. And I’ve got two different sets of pro tips. Pick one, pick them both. I one would be someone who is beginning to think about redoing that den, redoing that kitchen, redoing the the bathroom. Like, what are some things they should be thinking about? What are some things that they should be doing to kind of get ready to talk to someone like you? Maybe some questions they should be preparing to ask or some things they should be ready to share. And then also, if you’ve got any insight, counsel, hard learned lessons for entrepreneurs. You know, a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs and they got a little something going and they’re trying to take it to the next level.

Jim Garip: Well, the first portion of the question, if you are interested in going down the renovating or the remodeling down, down that pathway, first of all, definitely check in with your partner. That’s that’s that’s the golden rule number one. Oh, that’s funny. Definitely check in with your partner. I’ve I’ve had plenty of cases where a lot of a lot of people, let’s just say, will be calling in and and ensuring the fact that, you know, this is something great that they’re interested in. You know, they have these examples in ET Cetera. And then we go out for measurements and the partner has no idea why we’re out there and what we’re doing and etcetera. So please do share your, your your thinking process with your partner. That’s definitely step one. Step two is definitely a scout around for ideas. Please understand that. You might have gone to a friend’s house where you thought that dining room set was really nice or that kitchen was amazing, where the the lighting fixtures were something that you’d been interested in for the past five years, but you haven’t gotten done. Just you have to understand that what may seem visible at their place might not work for your place. So you have to know exactly what it is that you want versus what it is that you need. So just definitely be scouting for ideas and then run it by whoever is the expert that you decide to work with.

Jim Garip: And the latter question that was asked about the boobs. Yeah, well, on our side of the industry, my recommendation is you need to know what you have in the pocket. You need to know what kind of services you could provide. You have to know what the scope of the of the of the labor or the material that you could provide for the clientele. You have to know who the clientele is, what areas you want to hit. So you need to know what’s in your pocket before you go out. I mean, it is always easy to become a handyman because that’s something that you’ve done all throughout your life. But you’ve got to understand that if you mess up somebody else’s house and if you do not have an insurance claim, that’s something that you have to really consider before you pick up that hammer. So again, just know what’s in your pocket and know what it is that you want to get started with. But if you if you have an idea that’s boiling in the back of your head, go out there, create something, you know, be be your own man or your own woman and become become the person that you that you ought to be and and get the support that you need from the community to achieve it.

Stone Payton: All right, man, What’s the best way for our listeners to connect with you? Learn more, have a conversation with you or one of the brothers, whatever you think is appropriate. Let’s just make it easy for them to connect with you. Sure.

Jim Garip: Dnr bros.com. That’s short for design and Remodel Brothers. We tend to keep our website updated. We did our own website and we are very active with our blogs and etcetera, so definitely keep up with us there. If you’re interested in stopping by the showroom. We’re located on Main Street right by 92, you’re more than welcome to stop in as well. Or if you’d like to give us a shout out or give us a call, we’re available on the social networks as well as the number that’s portrayed on the website.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. And although this is really evergreen programing for the most part, so this is a little bit of a time sensitive thing, but you’ve got something coming up pretty soon, right?

Jim Garip: We do. We do. We are actually we decided to get our grand opening up and our lovely mayor is going to be stopping in as well. If you are in the area, please do stop by our showroom. That’s on 9550 Main Street. And it’s going to be on Thursday at 10:00 in the morning.

Speaker4: All right.

Stone Payton: And Thursday is what, like the 20 what?

Speaker4: It’s going to be the 24th.

Stone Payton: The 24th? Well, color me there, man.

Jim Garip: Absolutely.

Speaker4: We got food for you.

Stone Payton: So fantastic. Well, it has been an absolute delight having you here in this studio, getting a chance to tap into your insight and your perspective. Thank you for the work you’re doing. Keep up the good work. Don’t be a stranger. Let’s have you come in periodically and keep us updated.

Jim Garip: Man Absolutely. Stone You.

Speaker4: Got it.

Stone Payton: All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Jim Garrett with Design and Remodel Brothers. And everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.