Covering the Marketplace, A to Z

SNEWS July 2006, pages 19 – 23
Article and Photos by Jim Gillam

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Operating from a brand new 4500 square foot red metal shop on his acreage in rural Lincoln, California, a few miles north of Sacramento, Aaron Zambrana has combined two seasonally opposing businesses into a thriving enterprise. Doing business as A to Z Window Screening (primarily in the spring and summer months) and A to Z Chimney Sweeping (primarily in autumn and winter), Aaron keeps his schedule book full and employs 5 other people.

“Chimney sweeping is actually my smaller business,” Aaron says. “My main business is screens because winters are very short here. We discovered that this unique combination of running two opposing seasonal businesses was the key to becoming a financially strong and stable company.”

Marketing

Despite the two diametrically different businesses, he seamlessly blends the marketing of his various endeavors. When showing up for a chimney job, he and his crew scope out the house for potential screening opportunities. Similarly, when doing a screen job, Aaron checks the potential for chimney work and / or dryer.

This information is captured with a quick check list that accompanies every field appointment, and is filled out by the service technician on site. Any additional services or repairs the customer is a candidate for are documented, and entered into the database by the office staff. This information allows A to Z to generate calling or mailing lists showing only the customers who are good candidates for the particular products and services that are being promoted at the time.

Keeping impeccable records allows A to Z to save money and time in their marketing efforts, and keeps customers who are not prime candidates from being bothered unnecessarily. In future contacts with the customer, Aaron or a staff member will ask the customer if she would “also like to get something additional (screen, chimney cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, etc.) done at this time.” Offering customers small discounts for doing more than one service during the appointment nets A to Z revenue it would not otherwise have.

Yard signs and road signs are another effective vehicle for A to Z promotion. Aaron has two A-frame signs he places in the street behind his truck at each job site, one for the screen business and one for the chimney business. This strategic sign placement ensures that A to Z’s service vehicles are as conspicuous as possible to neighbors and drivers passing by. “Without the signs, we would be just another unnoticed service truck parked on the side of the road as people hurry on with their busy lives,” Aaron says.

In addition, after every screen installation, chimney, or dryer vent appointment, he will ask the customer if he can leave a sign in the front lawn for about a week. Most customers are eager to help out this “little guy” and grant permission. Once the sign is placed, about 10-2- flyers are left on doors in close proximity to the yard sign. During that week, A to Z’s name and logo are further ingrained in the customer’s subconscious every time they leave and come home as they see the sign.

“Neighbors often ask about our services,” Aaron says, “and customers are provided an opportunity to become cheerleaders and refer us further business. Word-of-mouth endorsements are not only the most powerful, but also one of the least expensive avenues of generating new business!

“I get a much higher return from sign and flyers than you would think,” he states. “The signs are a one-time cost. You buy the signs, you’re done. The only downside is that you have to come back and get it like you promised. That’s extra time, but not much, because we only pick it up when we are near them servicing other customers, and besides, it is also an extra sales opportunity.

“When we’re back picking up the yard sign,” Aaron continues, “we have the paperwork from the original appointment. We say, ‘Thank you for letting us put up a yard sign. By the way, we noticed that (potential work item). Do you want to get that done at this time?’

We’re not calling them in the middle of dinner or twisting their arms,” Aaron says. “We’re just concerned and wanting to offer good service. I think our customers appreciate that. We get a lot of business out of it. The key to sales is consistent repetition and being pleasantly persistent.”

Infrastructure

A to Z Window Screens operates two full-size vans with big glass racks. “We can put any size screens on them,” Aaron says.

Aaron and his crew recently erected a 4500 square foot metal shop building on Aaron’s acreage near Lincoln. “It’s something I’ve always dreamed of,” he says. “It’s like a palace as far as I’m concerned.”

Inside, employees build screens on three large work tables. A variety of frame material fills racks on one side of the building. Completed screens are stored in a rack between the work area and van parking area for easy loading.

Why People Like Sun Screens

There is considerable demand for window shade screens in the hot Sacramento Valley, where outside temperatures commonly exceed 100 degrees F on summer afternoons. Shadeless housing tracts bake under cloudless skies and their residents are eager customers for Aaron’s products. “Screens can reduce the temperature inside the room by up to fifteen degrees,” says Aaron. “Sun screens often pay for themselves in two or three years with savings in air conditioning costs.”

Window Washing Roots

“I started out as a window cleaner,” Aaron recalls. It was a business he’d started in 1995 as a means of supporting his young family while he pursued a business degree as a full time student at California State University in Sacramento. Aaron developed a steady clientele of restaurants, offices and strip mall storefronts, with lots of summer residential customers.

After a while he started fixing broken bug screens for his residential customers on the side to make a little extra cash. While fixing bug screens, h became aware of sun screens, which commanded a much better price. “I was charging someone $20 to fix a bug screen and I would find out that they had paid $150 for a sun screen,” he says.

Seeing the potential income in sun screens and reasoning that he already knew about bug screens and “How different could they be, anyway?” he decided to go into the sun screen business.

Going into the Sun Screen Business

He began building a new business in screens. “I borrowed the tools and built a mobile screen trailer in the garage,” he remembers. “It was a little screen shop on wheels. At first I hauled it around with a Geo Metro! That didn’t work out very well, so I bought a Toyota pickup.

“I made more money that summer than I ever did cleaning windows,” he says, “It was interesting, challenging work, not just wipe it down and squeegee it off.”

Confident in the future of his sun screen endeavor, Aaron sold his window cleaning business to a member of his church.

Things were going fine until cold weather hit.

“We couldn’t GIVE them away!” he exclaims. “With our second child on the way and me in my last semester in college, the pressure was really on. We were dying a thousand financial deaths! I kept seeing the credit card bill going up. I was wondering, ‘Oh my goodness! What am I going to do?’”

Going into Chimneys

Finally, he talked with a window screening friend, Rodney Cozens (Elk Grove Mobile Screen & All Valley Chimney Sweep, Elk Grove, CA), who mentioned that he swept chimneys in the autumn and winter. Aaron liked that ideas and offered himself as a helper for a week to get a taste of the business. Rodney invited him to a Golden State Chimney Sweep Guild workshop where “Michaele Dempsey (Professional Chimney Sweep, Visalia, CA) shamed me into joining the guild,” Aaron laughs. “I didn’t have the money, but I joined anyway and went to every single event and read everything I could and joined the National Guild that same year. Ever since then I’ve made a real effort to get out and learn the trade of a chimney sweep on a formal basis, by the book.”

In the heart of the busy season in 2003, Aaron flew to North Carolina to observe the operations of Jerry Isenhour (The Chimney Doctor, Inc., Concord, NC). “I’d heard that Jerry was able to sit at his desk and write reports based on information brought in by his technicians. And he was so busy at that time as president of the National Chimney Sweep Guild and instructor at the CSIS Tech Center. I wanted to see how he did it.”

So he called Jerry and asked permission to visit for a week. “I rode in a truck for a couple of days and stayed in the office for a couple of days observing Jerry’s operation,” Aaron says. He discovered that implementation of standard operating procedures in all aspects of the business enabled Jerry’s company to function smoothly in his absence. Similarly, because his technicians have been well trained in documentation procedures, Jerry could confidently rely on their information in preparing reports.

Continual Improvement

Aaron brought these concepts home and began developing a series of detailed training videos conveniently stored on DVD (still continually under development). Each employee receives the same training and an employee can refer to the appropriate instruction video for a refresher course on a particular topic, “all without my personal intervention, and without me having to repeat myself!” says Aaron.

In all of his endeavors, Aaron tries to embody the concept of “Kaizen” or continuous improvement. Kaizen is a cultural mindset involving everyone in the business. “With Kaizen, every member of our team is required and expected to come up with one idea per week on how we can improve the way we do things here,” Aaron says. “No idea for improvement is considered too small or too grandiose.”

All ideas are reviewed and considered by the entire team each week during the Friday training meeting. Employees aren’t confined to offer suggestions regarding their own areas of responsibility, either. They can make suggestions regarding anything they feel can be improved upon. “Getting everyone’s input has achieved precious ‘buy in’ and an ‘ownership mindset’ among our team,” claims Aaron.

“The time one invests in improving a business pays off with more time for oneself in the future,” he states. “A time investment is often more effective than a capital investment in your business. I think that because it’s difficult to sit down, think a problem through, document it, train it and refine it, many small business owners are not inclined to invest their time working ON their business. Many would rather keep working in their business because that is where they are most comfortable. But if you want to really build your business to a point where it can function without your direct intervention, the owner MUST invest the time, blood, sweat and tears. There are no shortcuts, and no other way.”

Aaron takes pride in having a quality operation. “Our company is A to Z Window Screens, Chimney Sweep & Dryer Vent Cleaning,” he says. “It bears my initials so I take it very personally.”

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