What We Do For Our Home Renovation Customers In Fort Saskatchewan

Alright guys, thanks for joining us on our second YouTube video.

Yeah, thanks for coming. And the outline for today is going to be what my company does, Fort Sask Reno right now. I’m Tom, I’m the director of operations, and this is my partner and owner operator, Jim. Jim, could you start us off with a quote? Sure. Big business starts Small, Richard Branson. So he definitely, this guy knows about big businesses and an inspiration to many business people.

Yeah, that’s just how we started. Let me start you off with a statistic here. A recent report from Build Force Canada estimated the construction industry could be short as as many as 29,000 workers by 2027.

Yeah, that’s quite the stat. Hey, 29,000 workers short. So we definitely see that in our business. It’s hard, hard to find good people and I think it’s a problem that’s gonna continue to evolve and I’m not sure what can solve it. We’ve got our good workers though, for now. Yeah,

That’s the truth. There’s not as many people wanna work with their hands anymore.

No, no, for sure. Yeah. So I’d like to tell you about how we started out as Fort Sask Reno, we evolved into Fort Sask Reno. So in 2007 I started the company and it was a sole enterprise for the first, oh gosh, like quite a few years. Decade plus. Yeah. It was sole, sole proprietorship and we called ourselves Beaulieu Enterprises, our last name. And I think it was just an ego thing who doesn’t want their name on a company? But when we incorporated 2017, we changed the name to Fort Sask Reno.

And the reason being is that we wanted something that’s easily identifiable as being the local people is through the first few years. That’s a common story, would hear, oh, we hired you because you’re local. We hired you because you’re local. Yeah. And also no one can spell bold you or pronounce it so bold. You had to go. Yep. And so we incorporated July 1st, 2017, which is Canada’s one 50th birthday. I planned that, thought it was kind of a cool little deal. So 2017 we’ve been incorporated as Fort Sask Reno Inc. And yeah, that’s a little bit about the background of the business.

So you guys rebranded to Fort Sask Reno what does that company do? Fort Sask Reno?

Fort Sask Reno. Well, we started out just doing exteriors. It was new construction exteriors for the first, I think five houses actually was new construction only. And so I was doing siding, soffit fascia and stro vinyl siding to start with. And then I, I got into some renovation. I hired on with a renovation contractor for the, for the first, the rest of that first year.

And where I learned how to do the siding on renovations. So that entailed doing, it’s a little, little bit different than the new construction stuff is we well learned how to do the exterior insulation and those kind of things. So that was the company for the first couple years mostly doing just exteriors and, and residential renovations. I stayed with that, that first company subbing off the first outfit for one year. So I really had the business down pat and how to do the renovations on those, on those exteriors.

At that point I struck out on my own after about a year doing that and as Beaulieu Enterprises at that point. And pretty well just stuck with just that for the first couple years.

Eventually I got a, a break. I think that was my first big purchase, a break. For those that don’t know it, it’s it’s a large piece of equipment that you use for bending aluminum, colored aluminum and, and with that aluminum, what you’re doing, one of the main purposes of a break is for capping windows. You get an old window frame and it’s all gnarly, but the window itself is good or they don’t, they’re not ready to quite upgrade all their windows.

You can cap the cap the frame and make it look like new. So that was one of my first big purchases. Did that. And then a few years later, you know, I I always wanted to add, add services to the business and, and keep it growing. And so of some years later we ended up getting into some eaves trough, bought an eaves trough machine that was, that was quite the purchase. Bought another trailer for the VES trough machine. Yeah. And that Was a big investment.

Yeah, for sure. And it, it was scary. A little bit scary at first. I didn’t, I know much about tro I used the machine a couple times. My old boss showed me how to do it, but just threw caution to the wind and bought the machine and got into it. Awesome. Yeah, so at that point we’ve done, we did mainly that exteriors until how many years ago you think is around? 

We’ve been doing interiors for at least six years.

Six plus, eh, yeah. Let’s see, I think it was maybe around 20, maybe more. I think 2015 we first started doing bathrooms. Yeah, we were doing an exterior in Fort Saskatchewan. And I think that that customer had a, a previous contractor that was supposed to do a bathroom for, and then he jammed out, so she said, you guys are good. I know you guys could do my bathroom. And we had some skilled workers that had previous experience in that. So that was our, our first bathroom. We ended up doing three bathrooms for that lady. Yeah. And that really kicked it off from that point.

So bathrooms, and eventually we just continued to add the services where now we’re, we’re doing all manner of, of residential renovations, whether it’s bathrooms, kitchens, basements, we still do exteriors, windows, doors, roofing, all that good stuff. Yeah. So that’s where we’re at at the moment.

So with all those different services, how many different team members do you have?

Yeah, currently there’s 11, 11 staff directly for Fort Sask Reno. And of course we do use some local subcontractors, fully vetted people. We won’t take just anybody. No. We have standards to meet and we gotta maintain our high standards. So that’s, that’s the team for the time being.

Yeah. We’ve grown a lot since since the roots of sole proprietorship.

Yeah. We really have taken off. And even in the last few years it’s really taken off. So we continue to grow and, and succeed.

So where does the, your company, Fort Sask Reno mainly operate?

Mainly we’re doing, we like to keep it local. We like to be the Fort Sask people. We will travel some in general. We’ll do about a half hour radius after that. We gotta start paying travel time and, you know, all our guys that that work for us are living in Fort Saskatchewan. So we love working in Fort Saskatchewan and so do our guys.

So we try to focus on that. But we’ll, we’ll go out of town, you know, we’ve worked, we’ve worked in Red Deer, we’ve worked in Pinoc, and yeah, of course we do all the little towns around. We’re no one from Edmonton wants to go to Broder, Heim or Lamont, those things. But yeah,

Those smaller communities can be hard to, for the, the homeowners to find qualified contractors willing to go that far out to Broder, Heim and Lamont. Yeah, For for sure. A lot of Edmonton contractors don’t even want to go to Fort Saskatchewan. They think we’re out in the middle of nowhere. What, it’s just down the road, half An hour. You Hear people say 20 Minutes. Right. Saskatchewan, I’m not going to Saskatchewan. Yeah, Saskatchewan. Yeah, that’s right.

So what would you say your business does best?

I would say what, what sets us apart from other contractors? It’s communication. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It’s, it’s honesty and communication. We, you know, we’ve been around so long, we have such high Google reviews that you know, we’re just the go-to people and we don’t need every job. We have more people looking, looking for our services than we can service at the moment. You know, we’re booking out not that far. I guess we’re a couple months out, but that’s a, that’s a decent amount.

So we we are really setting ourselves apart from the others by communication. So we really vet our clients. We try and talk to them repeatedly, whether, you know, just for the initial phone calls or emails Yeah. And follow up with them before we go to the site, make sure we’re a good match. We’re not a good match for everybody.

And so what we’ll do is make sure that we’ve got a good match there. And then we show up on site. We’ve already got a really good background on those, those people, about what they really need. And that’s what really sets us apart is we find out what the client needs and when we deliver that to them I don’t need to make a sale. I, I turn down work all the time. I’ll, you know, we’ll tell people you don’t need us. What you need is someone else, or we can’t, you know, that’s not something we can do for you. And so I’ve got no problem turning away work or just advising the client.

You know, sometimes they come up with some crazy ideas just because they don’t know. So they really appreciate that honesty. And they say, well, these guys are real honest. They could have taken me for a ride here. But no, they just gave me some good advice and I’m gonna definitely refer to them like honesty, communication, honesty, trustworthiness, with those things, you can’t go wrong.

Yeah. And often we find that the bar set pretty low in construction, so it’s pretty easy for us to shine just by showing up when you say you’re gonna show up and Yeah. Delivering a quality result to the customer.

Really. Yeah, for sure. Like renovation contractors are often grouped into the same bunch as like used car salesmen and whatnot. There are some rough people in our industry. Yeah. So it doesn’t take much to shine, but we, we really shine too. Like we, even amongst the, the good contractors, I think we’re, we’re better than most.

So let me ask you, what are some of the other, other offerings that Fort Task Reno provides?

Okay, well, aside from full exteriors and that, that’s including, like I said, all the siding, soffit, fascia, windows, doors, roofing. We’re doing decks and fences. We’ve got some amazing carpenters and framers as well. We, we do full house renovations and we like to get those jobs as well. When you’re doing the top to bottom, you know, the customers moved out preferably. And so you’ve, you do everything from top to bottom. You’re doing a complete basement, you’re doing all the bathrooms, you just make the house new. And we’ve done a few like that where it’s complete interior and exterior and, and so yeah. We really do it all is what it boils down to Tom.

Yeah. Those are some of our better jobs when we’re starting from the top and working our way down.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And having an empty house when you’re doing the full renovation, that, that’s really nice to have for us as well. If you’re doing a large renovation like that, we definitely encourage our clients to find some other accommodations for a month or two and just avoid all the mess.

Yeah. It’s, no one wants to live in a construction site.

No, no. We’re clean and we do what we can, but it’s just not gonna be perfectly clean no matter what you do. And we tape off the rooms and close off the heat vents and that kind of thing in the areas we’re working, but it’s gonna be a mess Yeah. For a bit until we’re done.

So speaking of the customer, let me ask you who, who would be your ideal customer?

Ideal customers is gonna be someone that wants Fort SA rental. That’s, that’s it in a nutshell. Like, we like people that have vetted us as much as we vet them. It’s a two-way street. And so a a perfect customer, someone who really has looked into Fort Sask Reno realized these guys are a different cut. They’re a cut above the rest. And I can be, I can be assured that I’m gonna have what I want when, when they’re done. Yeah. So that’s really an ideal customer.

Okay. Let me ask you, what’s one thing that you wanted to try and do better every day?

Yeah. It’s a, it’s a daily goal to really live in the moment and, and, and be aware of your, your goals and really your head space. Yeah. You know, and make sure you’re on the, on the right track with your goals and your ambitions and you know, try and I am a firm believer in continuous improvement and nobody’s perfect. We’re amazing. We’re not perfect though. No. And when you make a mistake, you just admit it and solve up to it. Own up to it, solve it, fix it, learn from it, move on.

Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of problem solving in this industry, so Yeah, there definitely is. That’s one of the, that’s one of the things I really like about it is the problem solving. It keeps it interesting. There’s never one day it’s the same as the last.

No, there’s a lot of challenges in this industry, especially in renovations. It’s certainly opening up a can of worms.

You never know what you’re gonna get until that demo is done. Yep.

You find a lot of rot and we always fix it up for our customers. We’ve never had a customer decline, rot repair on their home. They’ve always wanted to protect their investment. Oh. So let me ask you, what are some of your biggest business goals?

Well, one of them is the, the five star Google reviews. That’s really important for our business. Yeah.

We’ve been preaching it a lot lately.

Yeah. We preach it a lot and we’ve been getting a lot of them. So we’re currently at about a hundred, well, we’re exactly 1 24. Yeah. We keep an eye on ’em. We sure enjoy receiving those business reviews, those Google reviews. We’re at 1 24 as of today. And our goal is to get 500, 500 five star reviews. And we’re also looking to continue to build on this Yeah. Youtube video business. So we’re, we’re looking to get you know, at least 2010 minute videos.

And that, that will be a couple, couple to start. That’s some, some near term goals for us. Aside from that, it would be continued systemization determining what works. We already have a pretty good handle on it, but it’s documenting those proven processes and training the people, making sure everybody’s on the same page and repeating. But those are some of our, our, our big goals at the moment.

Yep. So systemization, the YouTube videos and Google reviews, that pretty much is our goals in a nutshell. Thank you for joining us on our second YouTube video and stay posted for the next one coming up. And don’t forget to like and subscribe.