(air whooshing) - [Announcer 1] Envista is pleased to support Working Capital.

Switch to empowered, switch to Envista.

Learn more at envistacu.com - [Announcer] GO Topeka's Entrepreneurial and Minority Business Development is proud to support Working Capital.

We share the vision to assist local entrepreneurs with growing their business.

- [Announcer 3] Additional funding is provided by the friends of KTWU.

- Welcome back to another episode of Working Capital.

On this show, we introduce you to a couple of entrepreneurs who have figured out great ways to run clean and compliant businesses.

In tonight's show, we'll meet business owners that tackled dirty jobs in some unique ways.

In our first segment, you'll learning how Unique Solution Services creates custom cleaning solutions for specific needs at home or in a business.

Then, we'll see how Eco Tec takes proactive approaches to environmental compliance support for companies and agencies around the country.

Stay with us as we explore a clean environment for business.

It's all about business, and this is Working Capital.

(upbeat electronic music) Unique Solution Services is a custom commercial cleaning company that can be tailored to fit specific business needs.

We have Jason Garland joining us today to talk about his unique services.

[Host] Jason, welcome to Working Capital.

- Thank you for having me.

- So what inspired you to start this company?

Tell me a little about your journey.

- Alright well, when I was in college, well, before college, I had a buddy, his father used to do cleaning.

And then when I went to college on the summers, I used to go help him.

And he used to be an anesthesia, anesthesiologist.

That's a tongue twister.

But then the next year I came back to work for him.

I used to play college.

I graduated from Benedictine College.

I played ball there.

And then I came back and he had quit his job and was doing that.

And I was like, well, something must be going right here.

And then my dad actually got into the business as well, back in St. Louis.

And then that really just inspired me.

And then a lot of it, when I, what initiated me to just do it was my daughter.

My daughter really inspired me.

I went through a tough divorce.

And after that, it was like, I'm a do things my way and for her and leave a legacy.

And that was the main thing that meant everything to me was leaving a legacy for her long-term.

- What were some of the difficulties you had when you were first starting out?

- [Jason] Ooh.

Money?

(chuckles) You know, when I first started, you don't really understand the magnitude of the financial sacrifices you have to take.

Granted, I was blessed.

I had a, I was a production manager prior to that.

So I had some substantial income coming in.

But when you make that full commitment and I quit my job, it was like, "Well, you had two incomes."

That's why it was so easy.

And then when you have that full commitment, things change really quick.

And that being said, I went through some tough hardships.

I almost went bankrupt, probably twice.

I remember, funniest- Well, it wasn't funny then.

I had lost my truck and I had a little beater car so I can, a little Honda, where I used to get to point A to point B to save on gas.

And I burnt the engine out on that.

And then I didn't have a vehicle and I cried in the car.

And that, that was, that was a life changing moment because I honestly, I'm a man of faith and I wanted to quit.

I was, I was burnt out.

I was working every day.

I was working 17 hours a day, easy.

I was taking my little girl with me.

And I'm trying to build the company.

And I'm taking her with me.

And I'm trying to just do everything I can.

And I felt like everything was against me.

I cried when that car went out because I'm just seeing smoke come out of it.

And I cried and I actually fell asleep in the car that day.

And I'll never forget this.

It's still getting to me.

- [Host] That's alright.

- My dad, my dad told me he got my back and "you not quitting."

And he came down like, like Superman.

He came down like Superman and we got, he was like, "Well, I'm, we're gonna get through this."

And literally in two weeks my company, I had my company doubled.

It was.

I don't know how.

- So, and that was kind of like a make or break point.

I mean, you could have just quit.

You could, I mean, that could have been the final straw.

You went to college.

I mean, you had some other things you're probably thinking of doing when you got out of school for your future, but this was it.

This was your own business or find something else and your little girl going to, to work with you, which I'm sure all she saw was a Superman also when you took her there.

But having that family help you out, that is a great thing for a starting business.

Not everyone gets that.

- Yeah.

I, yeah.

I came down, we got, we got me a car.

After I got the car, I, I I beg you not.

It doubled in two weeks!

- [Host] That's amazing.

- And then went from that to it just snowballed.

I ended up finding, you know, getting good people.

Good people is hard to find.

A lot of them are still with me.

And I've learned just be a man of your word in this business, because this is a loyalist business.

Being a man of your word, abide by your contract, do everything you can.

I always say, no, one's perfect, but I don't know why people think you should be perfect, but nobody's perfect.

But we are here to try to be perfect.

And that's why we do things that's customized to their business needs.

Not just having the same contract for everybody, you know?

- Mhm.

Yeah.

- So we customize it to your needs so we can make sure we attain those goals as well.

- [Host] That's great.

Here in a second, we're gonna take a little break and then when we come back I want to hear more about your business and especially about your employees.

[Host] How you've kinda, you were on, you know, [Host] you were teetering.

[Host] And then all of a sudden you are providing for a lot of families here in the Topeka and Lawrence area.

So, it's time for short break.

Please stay with us as we talk more about keeping it clean.

We'll be right back.

You're watching, Working Capital.

(electronic note) Welcome back to the show.

We're joining Jason Garland of Unique Solution Services and learning a little about his business and how his entrepreneurial journey has shaped up.

So we were speaking a little bit ago, how you kind of had a turning point.

And then in that week, you doubled your business.

[Host] Which means you had to start bringing on employees.

[Host] And as you say, you have a pretty good team there.

Tell us how you first started finding those employees and how that was able to grow your business more.

- Oh, word of mouth.

Oh, between word of mouth, fellow of the entrepreneurs, and a buddy, his name is Brian Young.

He was helping me out.

He owns a business as well, cleaning.

Just establishing a good name.

And because of that, you know, you get one, then they tell somebody else, and then they tell somebody else.

And that's how you becoming a staple because they trust you.

You know, one thing I liked about the business was just, I, I got to a point, the reason I lost my truck was because I was paying my people before I paid myself.

And that's something that people don't understand, where you have to make that sacrifice.

I'd rather, I'd rather keep you long-term than, than you know, so the business can sustain, than, you know, sacrifice for myself.

So long term, big picture, that's the vision, right?

The big picture and the vision.

Is this going to be here 10 years from now?

That's the main goal for me.

It's not about the five-year goals.

I, I want a brand, you know.

And the brand is 10 years from now.

Can you still talk about my company?

And that's the goal.

And because of those sacrifices, I'm five years in now and well going on five years in now and I want, I want another five to really sustain myself long-term.

And not only with myself, but with the community because the community is what's really sustaining me.

- So with your new employees and your newfound clients, how are your books looking?

I mean, how is the debt, how is the capital there?

What have you been able to achieve so far?

- Well, I went from bankruptcy to out of debt, besides the new house.

- [Host] That's amazing.

- And that's a blessing in itself because of, you know, I went from struggling to pay bills, to almost getting evicted, to now several condos.

And I own my own home for my girls now.

And so, you know, moving forward, I've had great support as well from my family and, and girlfriend.

And she's been with me through the ride as well.

And so like to me, family and community is where, why I'm where I'm at right now.

And that's why I always try to give back, I've done that to high schools.

I've, you know, I'm a football coach at Highland Park High School.

And you know, I try to give back there as well, because to me that's key.

I think you stay blessed by giving, giving a piece of yourself back to the community.

- Now you went to college, you graduated.

- [Jason] Yep.

- So what can you tell us about college versus actually finding that money in, in service industries and that type?

Cause you know, a lot of kids coming out of high school now, it's always been beaten into us, you know, go to college.

That's the best route for you.

But anymore there's a lot of good jobs, skilled jobs, in areas like services and other industrial applications.

I mean, how can you speak to that?

To the, to the children out there who may be watching?

I mean.

- Well, I'm gonna say this entrepreneurship is not for everybody.

You, you, you, I feel like I was built for this in a lot of ways.

My mom owned business, pretty much the majority of my life.

She owned several beauty shops in St. Louis.

My grandmother, same way.

My aunt's the same way.

My dad dived into it as well.

But he stayed in corporate America for the last 40 years.

I did the corporate America way.

It wasn't for me.

Do sometimes I feel like I can go back?

No.

(both laugh) I'd rather, it's a saying in the entrepreneur world.

I'd rather work 100 hours for myself than 40 hours with somebody else, that's me.

Some people need that security.

You gotta understand there's a risk.

You know, there's a huge risk factor because you can lose a count.

And just like that, everything changes.

So you have to be- understand there's wins and losses in this game, but I'm, I'm, I'm betting the house on myself every day.

I'm okay with that.

I can sleep well with that.

And I don't mind that grind.

I always say hustlers hustle.

You, you know, you, if it's in you, it's in you.

- We got about 30 seconds left.

What, where do you see Unique Solution Services going?

I mean, where's your growth going to come from?

- Oh, well obviously the community and the, and the commercial industry with businesses.

And also with just, I use a SEL program.

The company techie that's helped me a lot.

It also helped me control my growth.

I wasn't necessarily out here trying to go pound the pavement.

That actually helped me grow in a pace where I didn't implode, if that makes sense.

Just because you get a bunch of business and your numbers look good, does not mean that's good.

At all.

So I've learned that lesson.

So when I, by using the SEL program, which is a search engine program, you put it in my system or carpet cleaning I pop up, right.

But by using that system, it's helped me grow in a great efficient pace where I can take on a business and give you a good performance other than imploding and just taking on everything because I'm trying to go get the business and then trying to work five or six different angles.

So I do what works for me and the company.

- Fantastic.

I wish you success in the future.

It sounds like you've had a, you created a great path for yourself, so thank you, Jason.

- Thank you.

It's time for another short break.

When we return, we'll meet a business owner that has taken a proactive approach to environmental compliance support, stick around.

You're watching, Working Capital.

(electronic whir) Welcome back.

Christine Tipton is the owner of Eco Tec Associates, LLC, which helps organizations sail through what must seem like a never ending sea of environmental compliance.

Welcome to Working Capital, Christine.

- Thank you.

I'm happy to be here.

- So give us a little overview of what your company does, kind of an elevator pitch.

- The elevator pitch, basically what Eco Tec does is we help the, our, customer or the client, which is usually the Department of Defense.

We usually are the ones that help the client develop environmental policy.

We help them write instructions to carry out those policies.

And then, we also do training at individual installations for them to implement those policies.

And then, usually a few years later, we go back and we help them with auditing and assessing just to see if they've got it down.

- So it sounds like you're dealing with a lot of red tape.

So to me, you must love what you do.

How did you come to start Eco Tec?

What was the journey?

- Wow, well, the journey has been a long one.

I actually started at Hallmark cards in 1990.

And then 10 years later, I got a call to come and interview for a position at the 190th, the Air Refueling Wing.

It was a civilian position and do environmental management out at the 190th.

So I left Hallmark, which was a big decision.

It was a great company and I loved everybody I worked with, but in terms of being a calling, I don't think it really was a calling.

So I went to the 190th, became the environmental manager.

I was there eight years, five years in I started doing work for the National Guard Bureau on top of my regular installation work.

And I got, head-hunted is a strange word, but I got approached at one of the national conventions because I was also giving speeches on different topics for the National Guard Bureau at the national convention level.

And I was approached by Booz Allen Hamilton, a pretty big company, a consultant firm, and worked for them for a few years.

And then I went to a small business.

It was a little easier contract wise.

And then that small business got bought big, got bought out by a big business.

And so I worked for a big company again.

(both chuckle) But interestingly in the government world, it's a little bit better to be a small business because the contracting mechanisms that are put in place, benefit small businesses a little bit more.

So I decided I'm not going to try to go to a small business again, I'll just be the small business.

- So you wouldn't, you didn't really have plans to start your own business.

- [Christine] No.

- It's just the way everything came together.

That was the easiest way to do your job the best.

- Yes.

It was the easiest way for my clients to get to me is, is why I went ahead and started that.

- [Host] Into partner defense.

I mean, that, that's pretty huge clients for small business.

I mean, is it, is there a bidding process?

I mean, or are they seeking you out?

[Host] How, how do you get those contracts?

- It's actually both, there is a bidding process.

It's probably one of the more difficult things to work through.

But it's, it's like a two level bidding process.

You have to bid to be eligible to bid.

And basically it's a third party, transactional entity that you have to have relationships with in terms of contractual levels of business.

And then once you get those put into place, then you can bring your clients over.

- [Host] Fantastic.

- Yeah.

- Well, we've all been going through COVID and now a business that's dealing with government and dealing with some of our larger installations.

How did that affect your business?

- Actually, it was pretty detrimental.

We've made it through thankfully, but we've had to do quite a bit of adjusting.

We've had to modify contracts.

I have people that work on site and they could not work onsite anymore.

So we had to modify contracts for telework.

We were also doing a lot more things virtually than we would normally.

We didn't do that initially.

And not only was the government falling behind in things like inspections and required things, but we were as well within our- We have a period of performance for our contracts.

And if we can't physically go there that causes some problems with the, the contract limits.

- [Host] So how much capital did that affect for you?

- About 53% (laughs nervously) - [Host] Did you have to lay anyone off or anything?

- I did not, no.

- That is fantastic.

- [Christine] Yeah.

Yeah.

We, we were, we were in pretty good shape.

It was just very difficult.

And what I did, since we weren't doing work work, I actually paid employees to do volunteer work.

We did work with Shawnee County Emergency Management, answered phones.

But I felt like it's nobody's fault that COVID occurred.

So I'm going to keep all my employees for as long as I possibly can.

- [Host] Fantastic.

- Yeah.

Well, we'll learn a little bit more about your business here in the next segment.

- [Christine] Okay.

- It's time for another break, but there's a lot more to come.

We'll be right back.

(electronic whir) Welcome back.

We have Christine Tipton of Eco tech associates with us.

So you deal mostly with the Department of Defense.

How does what you do transfer more into the private sector?

- Actually it transfers fairly easily.

Basically any service or manufacturing or company that has anything to do with touching the air, touching the water, or touching the ground, we can actually help them with some of those things.

If you have a parking lot, we help with your stormwater runoff plan.

If you have a business that manufactures things, you also most likely have solvents and other hazardous materials, which would also lead to eventually hazardous waste.

So we would help with your hazardous materials and hazardous waste plans.

We also do training for those.

If you have a company that builds widgets and you have emissions from the smoke stack, we can help with that as well.

We help you with your air emissions program and help you with your permitting.

So if you have a, a construction company, we can help you with your stormwater permits as well.

- So you guys start from even before some problems pop up, cause some stuff that they're know is going to happen.

- [Christine] Right.

- All the way through the auditing process.

I mean, how long has your general contracts last with these businesses?

- It depends on if we're doing the full rollout from conception to auditing.

That usually is a five-year contract.

If it is something that is just one of those many steps, then it's a plan and that can take a month up to a year.

So it just kind of depends on, on the scope of what it is that they're asking of us.

- Where do you find your employees and what qualifications do they have?

Do you, do you pick them from places where they're already dealing with this, or do you find someone who you can train inside the business?

- A little bit of both.

It depends on what I'm looking for at the time.

I've been in the business for a long time.

I know the heavy hitters in the business.

And honestly, that was one of the things that pushed me into doing this in the first place, because they, I have a lot of people around me that have done this for a very long time.

And they're always picking up the phone saying, "Hey, when can we work for you?"

So, I don't usually have a hard time finding very qualified people.

- During COVID.

Did that, did they, did your employees shrink at all?

I mean, did you have to let anyone go?

- Uh no, I kept everybody.

And even if we didn't have work, I encouraged them to go volunteer their time.

- Did you have to apply for any PPP funds?

- I did.

And that helped keep us afloat for a few months.

So that was incredibly beneficial.

- [Host] Fantastic.

- [Christine] Yeah, it was very excited about that.

- If the Department of Defense dried up, if those contracts, for some reason, weren't there, where could your business pivot to?

- We could pivot to anything in the commercial or private industry sector.

We are guided by federal and state regulations.

And honestly we're guided by host nation regulations as well, because we also do work overseas.

- What's the hardest thing you've had to deal with, whether it was a client, something- I know you can't tell us a lot about what you do, but is there something that sticks out where you really had to, you know, find a way around to make, to make this work.

- The only thing that I would consider to be a difficulty is my learning curve when it comes to contracting.

I came from the background where we were project managers and we did all of that, but there is a whole other animal when it comes to how you push a contract through the federal government.

It is actually a lot easier on the commercial side of the house.

- So when you first started this, when you branched out and said, this is my business, I mean, how do you raise that capital?

How did, how did you make the leap to doing your own thing?

- Fear was a lot of it.

So I had a good bank of fear.

You have to be very patient.

A lot of it's not necessarily the monetary piece because for what we do, I don't have to buy a building.

I don't have to buy equipment.

I buy a computer and what you're selling is intellectual capital.

[Christine] So in terms of startup, I actually started up very, very small.

I just wanted to take care of myself.

I didn't necessarily want employees and all of the things that come with that.

But I found very quickly that my clients kept throwing things at me.

So I obviously had to expand.

So that's where it gets a little trickier, but I'm pretty conservative when it comes to bringing new people on.

I only will bring a full-time person on if I know that I have several years of work for them to do.

If I don't have that in place, they'll be part-time until I can find enough work for them.

- That's awesome.

- [Christine] Yeah.

- Well, thanks for sharing your entrepreneurial journey.

- [Christine] You're welcome.

- Well, that's it we've come to the end of our show.

I'd like to thank Jason Garland from Unique Solution Services and Christine Tipton from Eco Tec Associates for being with us this evening.

It's been another informative show and we'd like to thank you for watching.

As always, if you know of an interesting business or management technique, we want to hear from you.

[Host] So give us a call or drop us an email.

[Host] We look forward to seeing you next time.

It's all about business and you've been watching, Working Capital.

(electronic music) (electronic music continues) - [Announcer 1] Envista is pleased to support Working Capital.

Switch to empowered, switched to Envista.

Learn more@envistacu.com.

- [Announcer 2] GO Topeka's Entrepreneurial and Minority Business Development is proud to support, Working Capital.

We share the vision to assist local entrepreneurs with growing their business.

- [Announcer 3] Additional funding is provided by the friends of KTWVU.