Jake - Epoxy Vegas
Jake started his company during the pandemic and did whatever it took to grow and secure consistent jobs, whether it was working bar shifts at night, or working on his knees for 10 hours with a hand-grinder because he didn't have the means for a walk-behind grinder. It paid off though, and he is scaling his company increasingly fast, taking over Las Vegas' epoxy niche. We got to hear about his humble beginnings and learn from his whatever-it-takes mentality, and are excited to share with you his impressive story.
1. When did you start your company?
I officially started in May 2020. In the beginning, it was moreso doing friends and family’s floors, still ramping up to take it as a full time job. How it all really began though was while I was in the military, I had someone install a floor in my garage for me, I paid good money for it, and it failed right away. I realized it was because they didn’t grind the floor. That piqued my curiosity so I started researching different products and practicing on my own floor multiple times, testing out different products. Before stepping away from the military to do epoxy full time, I had a contracting job to go back on base… but then covid happened and then that didn’t work out, so I had to scramble to bartend at night until epoxy took off.
2. Did you have any major roadblocks, and what did you do to overcome them?
The first roadblock to occur was once I decided I was going to start, I assumed my family and friends would be excited, supportive, and positive. But that wasn’t the case, I actually got a lot of negativity. Someone told me that I had 3 kids to feed and that I needed a steady job. It was unfortunate but I learned to step away from the people that didn’t want to see me succeed. I had to look to surround myself with positive people and entrepreneurs that were successful, in order to learn from them and adapt their mindset. The next hurdle was capital. I didn’t really have money to buy a grinder or vacuum off the bat, so I would use a hand grinder in the beginning… 8-10 hours a day, and then I would go bartend at night to make ends meet.
3. What tips do you have for those starting out in the industry?
I think it’s important to learn the basics, but nothing will train you like doing an actual floor. At the end of the day, you can learn the basics from different providers and schools, but nothing will teach you like messing up a floor, haha. I see so many people waiting to get perfect before they market themselves, and the reality is, that will probably never be the case. When you’re out actually doing floors, you get to tackle imperfect concrete and imperfect conditions, which is way different from a temperature-controlled training facility.
Once you’ve decided you’re doing this, the actual key that many people overlook is marketing and social media. You HAVE to be consistently posting and hiring professional marketers so you can actually attract leads and perfect your craft on real jobs. Most people overlook a website and google ads and SEO and think it doesn’t matter but it’s something that compounds over time, so you actually need to start it early. A website is so vitally important, especially optimizing that website. Something else is I’ve noticed that people don’t like to be on camera, but it’s actually so important because it builds trust with people - you’re the face of the company and people want to feel like they can trust you. If they’re considering you and 3 other installers, at the end of the day they will feel like they have more trust in you JUST because they have seen you talking on camera.
4. What was a pivotal moment in your career if any?
I didn’t have anything pivotal to a crazy extreme. I think for us, the simple fact that we are completely steady now is pretty amazing. I’ve been able to bring on 2 guys so now we’re at a point where we are starting to scale. I was only afraid to hire people because I didn’t want to hire them and not be able to pay them. But now we’re expanding and it feels great to be able to do that
5. What is your favorite type of floor to install?
If we’re talking contractor-to-contractor and if I’m trying to teach someone to get out of their 9-5 and make money, then flake systems. From a business standpoint, flake floors are a quick turnover and you are in and out quickly. I think at some point, you have to do both because the metallics are more of a wow factor for social media. But for better profitability, you want to perfect the flakes. Metallic can be finicky and there can be so many things that go wrong and imperfections that pop up, not to mention it takes a lot longer to install those floors so… get your flakes in order!
P.S. If anyone is in the market for wanting to quit their 9-5 and is starting out, please feel free to reach out! I’m happy to provide any advice and tips and tricks.
Jake's website: https://www.epoxyvegas.io/
Jake's insta: https://www.instagram.com/epoxy_vegas/
