Family Plumbing Legacy: Ryan Giles on Building RFG & Investor Tips

Introduction

Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. The show is designed to help Canadians invest better in Canada and the United States. We are the North America-based mortgage financing lender and provide education to both countries.

Discover how you can become a better investor and access the financing you need. Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show.

I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. Today, I've got Ryan with us from RFG Plumbing.

How's it going, Ryan? Pretty good, and yourself?

The Core Idea

Awesome, awesome. Thanks for coming on.

You're a local plumber. You're doing really well on the market. You've got lots of great Google reviews. So that's why I wanted to have you on here today.

But I want to go back to your childhood. How did all this start? It all started, me and my brother were about five and six years old. My dad was a plumber, so we were working on the back of his truck.

We'd go in on the weekends after school. We'd help stock the trucks, learn fittings.

Deep Dive

We'd bring us to jobs. My uncle is also a plumber, so it's like we wanted to hang out with our cousins. And it's like my dad would drive us to that job. So I would go help my uncle for a couple hours before getting to see our cousins.

Well, being around in the trade and being a fourth generation, like my grandpa, my great-grandpa, my grandpa, my dad, my uncles, my cousins, they're all plumbers. So it's like we've got a long line of plumbers in our family.

That's awesome. So with that being said, was there any cool tricks or any life lessons that they taught you along the way that you still carry with you today?

Always work hard. Think things through and piece it apart. A lot of people think jobs are impossible, and it's not impossible.

Practical Steps

There's always a way. Something that really sticks with me is that when everybody is willing to give up, you're seconds away from success. It's like we're healing or something.

It's super hard. I was actually just at an eel job prior to this, and I was healing. And it was pushing, pushing, and I'm like, man, it's getting hard. I want to just change to another piece of equipment.

And it's like the thing I didn't, because if I got two seconds more that I went, it's like got the clog in and out. And it was just like, when you're ready to give up, it's like, no, I got this.

There's a book on that. It's called Three Feet from Gold. I don't know if you ever read it.

Key Takeaways

Yeah, I'm going to check that out. That's actually pretty soon.

Yeah, it's cool. Not to ruin the story, but this guy was mining, and he had some land, and he wasn't finding anything. So he sold all of his equipment for dirt cheap, and then they found the biggest gold mine three feet from where the guy stopped.

That's crazy. Literally.

So it's, yeah, three feet. You're probably going to hear about that on Oak Island or something like that. And they're ready to cash in and be done. They're like, oh, there's the money.

Resources

There's all the gold and everything. But it's true. So that's why you don't give up on things in life or business or whatever it is. Because if you give up, you're never going to get it.

And like you said, two more seconds, and you got it. Well, that's it. And how many people are failed but still successful? There's a lot of super successful people that have failed.

And it's like, don't look at it as that. What have you learned? What can you grow off of it?

Yeah. Especially when it comes to plumbing. There's a lot of stuff that it's like, we may not always have the answer, but we will find the answer.

Introduction

It's true. And even if, whether you like the guy or not, but like Donald Trump, right? In his real estate investing portfolio, he actually went bankrupt, but he rebuilt stronger and faster because he learned from his mistakes and he moved forward.

No, that is. That is, yeah.

It's pretty sweet. Oh, that's awesome.

So then, so now you have RFG plumbing. Was it always RFG plumbing?

The Core Idea

So it started as RFG plumbing. We started in 2016. And then once we started, the business started growing. So we started networking with other businesses like electricians, HVAC, and those types of things.

Then it's like, we started referring these other companies, but then as their companies are growing, the issue we seen was their jobs became more of a priority than the jobs that we were sending them. So at that point, we started RFG electrical and it's just, it's been growing since. So that was, we were about two years into the business and that was about 2018, 2019 when we started that.

And it's been a success. It's been a little bit of a challenge, like any business until you grow and get your customer base. But then once you're at that point, then it's just now it's like the machine is moving, right?

That's it. Is there going to be any other niches that you get into besides plumbing and electrical? One of the things that we were looking at, and again, it's just finding the people, like everybody's struggling now with that. But in HVAC side, you know, so then this way, it's like a one-stop shop.

Deep Dive

There are other companies that we partner with and we do, that do renovations and do different things around your house and stuff like that. Those are people that we referred that we're always going to refer because they're good at what they do. But it's just, we haven't really looked at that side, but it's just more so the HVAC. So we got the trades covered because it's like when somebody is doing anything, it's easy to pick up one phone and sit there and say, no, this is what I need done.

And we're like, I got you. I can help you.

Right. Yep.

I love it. Now, what does RFG plumbing stand for?

Practical Steps

I love getting asked this. So originally it's actually for my, my dad and my grandpa. So it's actually like we, RFG is my initials, my dad's initials, my grandpa. So it's Ralph Franklin Giles or mine is Ryan Franklin Giles, but we also are known as the real fucking good plumbers.

Nice. I love it.

And where'd that come from? Was that the public or did you guys come up with that? So my dad, when I still remember the conversation back in 2016, my, my dad and my stepmother went on vacation and my, my dad's always big on planning. And so he, him and they went on this vacation and they both said, okay, if we're going to start a business, you plan on retiring about seven years.

And, um, it's just, and the reason why he said seven years is because any business and like any smart businessman will tell you that it takes seven years to grow a business. If you hit that seventh year mark, you know, you're good.

Key Takeaways

Right. And seven years ago they went on this vacation, they were talking. And so then my stepmother ended up going to work at the hospital.

So she's a nurse. So she was working on the hospital. I mean, my dad are just talking. And so they said, my dad said, if he ever went into business again, it'd be starting a plumbing company.

And so we were talking about it. We came up with the idea where my dad and he was big on, I want to name it after like his dad.

Right. And then with the RFG, because there's the RFGs, like there's, like I said, my grandpa, my dad, me, my son, my uncle, I have a couple uncles with it too.

Resources

And it's, it's big. Right. So it's like, I want to do something with RFG. And I remember just joking around and we're just like, oh yeah, real effing good.

And so I were like, he was big on it. He was like super happy. And I remember my son and my daughter were with me when I was talking to my dad and it's like, let's get in the car. We drove from Essex to the Leamington hospital, waited till my stepmother was on her break.

We're like, okay, boom, we're doing this. And then it's just like, here's the line.

Right. And, uh, yeah, it's been a hit. There's a lot of people and it's like, our biggest fear was, oh, maybe people aren't going to like it or it's going to throw them off. But, uh, I'll tell you, it's one of those things that once you hear it, you laugh, you remember it.

Introduction

You know, we get people that will chase us down the street for like sweaters, for pens, for whatever. And it's like, I love when we're driving down the road and they're like, real effing good. Like, so that's huge and it's cool and sticks out.

Do you have swag? Yeah. So we have, uh, we have sweaters, we have hats. We haven't gotten to pants or anything like that, but sweaters, hats, uh, or even actually it's cool because it's like my kids, we take the real effing good part off, but it's just RFG.

All my kids wear that stuff to school. Right. Uh, we have little work shirts and stuff for them. So it's like teachers know what that means.

Actually. Funny story. So in, I want to say 2020, I think it was. Uh, so we were contacted by Rogers to do a commercial.

The Core Idea

So for a hockey night in Canada, um, it was really cool. So it's like, we were going, okay, we need all these actors, whatever, like these people. And then it was like last minute, everybody bailed. So it's like literally there, my brother's girlfriend at the time, uh, my son and me were in this commercial.

And, uh, so my son got to be in this. This is his first thing ever.

And he's super, super excited. Uh, they let him say it, say the slogan. And so we, we filmed it. They ended up bleeping it out for obviously national television.

You could probably find it online, the unedited version. But, uh, when I told my son's principal, who was a customer of ours, um, uh, when I told him, he called an assembly, had everybody go down there. And so they could play it in the gym for him.

Deep Dive

So it's one of those things. And the edited version.

The edited version. Yeah.

Yeah. It was an elementary school. So they had to play the edited version, but, uh, that was huge. And it made me, I know that meant a lot to them and to, to everybody.

Right. And even now when people are like, oh, I seen your commercial. I like that's, that's our 15 seconds of fame, I guess you'd say, but it's still, it's one of those cool things.

Practical Steps

Yeah. No, I love it.

That's awesome. No, I know. Also this show is like mostly geared towards investors. And we're talking about how you work with investors and how things work.

Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? Yeah. So one of the cool things with knowing different real estate agents, home inspectors, different businesses is that, uh, from time to time we'll get contacted by investors. And like the, one of the biggest things are, is that like you're in Toronto or you're wherever you are in the world and you're buying this property.

You're trusting your real estate agent, whoever your handyman or this buddy is that they're making this decision for you. And I can tell you that we've seen from time and time again, where everybody knows a guy. And the scary thing is, is the guy doesn't always know. So it's like one of the services that we offer.

Key Takeaways

And then me personally, I like doing is I'll go in, we'll look and it's say, maybe it's not just necessarily plumbing, but it's like, there's other issues that we notice. I'll let you know.

I'll take pictures. We'll send that stuff to you. You know, or, but it's a big deal because it's just knowing what you're buying.

Right. And it's just, especially when we're in the market of where people are overpaying, like it's scary. Once you open up a wall, what's behind there, what's right. And it's like, even what's underneath the ground.

Right. Cause it's like, we, we call it where people are putting lipstick on a pig where it's painted.

Resources

It's nice. Everything's all nice, brand new, but what's underneath the ground.

Nobody's fixed it. And it's just, that's when all of a sudden you buy this property, you put tenants in and then it's, oh shit. There's actually shit on the floor. And we do have an older infrastructure as far as plumbing, even citywide, but just, we have a lot of older houses here too.

So this is definitely important. Windsor definitely has some old stuff. And it's, you know, you look at some of these older houses where people have been doing some of their own work over the years and it's bandaid fixes or it's, it's fixes aren't right. And it's like, we come in and it's just my mentality.

And especially from having my own properties is like, I like fixing everything because it's once I like, and what we did at my house was it's like brand new sewer on the ground, everything. Because the minute that I spend a dollar on flooring, I spend a dollar on anything, right? Is that now in five years, if that were to go, what is it going to cost me?

Introduction

Okay. Inflation's going up. So it's like, if you spend a little bit of money out front at the beginning, you get everything done. Now, once you get those tenants in, like in theory, you should have 50 years, right?

So it's just like, then that way it might just be painting or whatever, small stuff. You're going to get it. People are on a budget, right? And everybody wants to make money.

But if you don't invest the money at the beginning and get things done, it's how much more money you're going to spend over time. And it's, you add those little bills up, that will be twice as much, if not more than what the one initial cost would be. So we like to break things down too, for people. So it's just like saying, this is major fix, this is minor fix, or this is what we believe you need to fix now.

No, that makes sense. So I'm an investor. I'm in, even if I'm in Windsor, Toronto, doesn't matter where.

The Core Idea

Let's say I'm an investor. I'm buying this rental property here in Windsor. What are some common, what's the most common issue that you're finding in a property? Or maybe biggest piece of advice that you could give to an investor to prevent flooding or sewer backup, that type of thing?

One big thing, especially in Windsor, we get a lot of floods. So it's like the backwater valve sump pump subsidy program, which is something that we do offer through the city.

Could you elaborate on that? So the city of Windsor offers a, it's $2,800 rebate. And what that covers is for a backwater valve, a sump pump, the disconnection of a collection box, which is a square box, your storm and sanitary meet. So they give you money for that to offset the cost of, say, a flood in your basement.

So now what's cool with that is that we have the technology. If you have a clean out or not, we can camera, we can find exactly where your sewer is. We pinpoint the best spot where a sump pump would go. And ideally too, it's like we help plan it because it's say you own this house today.

Deep Dive

What happens if you sell it tomorrow? So we look at it as the next person that can come in. This is how we kind of plan things. Maybe they want to put a bathroom, maybe whatever, turn this into an apartment.

So the nice thing is with that program, with what we do is we help you plan that aspect. Same thing with putting a sump pump. A lot of people put them in ridiculous spots, right? And it's like, what's the best spot in your house that we could put it in?

It's nice with that. We go through the program.

We explain it. You get pictures, all that stuff. We fill out the city paperwork, which makes it super easy for the homeowner. And then the only thing the homeowner has to do at the end is we get paid.

Practical Steps

You get an invoice that says paid in full and you submit it to city hall, which I'm pretty sure is all online now. For the homeowner, they pay up front and then get reimbursed? So unfortunately, the city of Windsor hasn't caught up in today's standards. Like I think there's maybe 20, 30 companies, plumbing companies in Windsor, Essex County.

And to me, what I think is they should be doing is that if what check's getting made out, like it should go to the people that are licensed within the city. But apparently there were some companies doing fraud.

Okay. Other companies. When we had the big flood in 2016, there were some companies coming down here and they're scamming the system. They were, oh, hey, you know what?

We'll do it this way kind of thing. And so the city just made it now where the homeowner has to pay us up front and then they get the reimbursement on the end.

Key Takeaways

Okay. Just prevent fraud.

So 2,800 bucks. Is that including HST? So the backwater valve sump pump, it ranges from people's houses. Like we have a standard typically, depending on people's houses, right?

If it's a house trap, how deep your sewer is. It's pretty basic around there. I mean, typically we're on like 4,500 bucks plus tax for the most part.

You get the $2,800 rebate. And this is saying for an inside one. We sometimes run into the city of Windsor where you could be outside and have a house trap outside. So you have to do a little bit more digging.

Resources

You have to get locates, all those types of things, which we do. So that's a little bit more costly because you got the other contractors that have to come in and dig the dirt. And then we got to bring that in. But we try and be reasonable.

We try and keep it consistent. It's like the kind of the pandemic where everybody went crazy and was like selling toilet paper for X amount of dollars. We've been consistent because it's, you know, it sucks that your house flood. And I didn't ask for my house to flood.

I'm not going to deal with it. Agreed.

That's a pain. Yeah.

Introduction

So, okay. So that's great advice for an investor. Now back to maybe a business owner or somebody starting business, right? Because you've done this for a long time.

You're one of the highest rated in the city as far as the Google reuse that I looked up, which is kudos to you. So what would you say to somebody who's starting a business? Doesn't have to be plumbing, but what are some success tips that you could share with them? A lot of people don't realize how many hours that you have to actually put in as a business owner.

A lot of people don't realize they think success is like that. And granted, there are the odd people that walk into and get the money and all that stuff. But those are the people that don't appreciate their business and don't appreciate their employees. We've done a lot of hours and it's just like, you have to take every role on in your business when you first start.

And it's like, don't be scared of the challenges. And like, we've gone to different business meetings, gone to different things. There's no like business education other than it's just, you learn on the go.

The Core Idea

Right. Yeah. It's like, you know, it's like when you, your kids say, how do you know how to be a parent? It's like, you just, you learn right along the way.

And it's kind of, it's the same thing with business that we've learned. We failed at things.

Like definitely. What was the right decision? What was the right path to go? And it's like, we've learned those things and don't be afraid to fail because you're not always going to have the answer and everything's not always going to work out and be that success.

But it's like what you learned from that mistake or by me not being able to do this, it led me on this path. Yeah. And be honest, be upfront with people.

Deep Dive

If you can't do something. I like that you said, don't be afraid to fail. There was this, man, I forget the book or I would quote it properly. But what they're saying is like in school, you raise your hand, right.

To answer the teacher's question and people are embarrassed to get it wrong, right. And their classmates will tease them if you get the answer wrong.

Right. So they say a lot of people today, they're scared to do something wrong because it leads back to their childhood when they would get teased for it. So it's cool that you said that because it's true.

It's perceived fear, perceived fear. If you fail, it means nothing. It's yes, the real fear, like falling out of an airplane, right.

Practical Steps

Without a parachute. That's a real fear.

But yeah, I agree. Starting a business, it doesn't have to be scary and you are going to make mistakes, but that's how you learn.

So I love that you said that. Like, and everyone, like, it's great to think, oh, hey, like you look at like the Amazon, for example, everyone's like, oh, it's a major company. They're making all these billions of dollars. Wait, people don't realize he started out selling books.

Like in a garage too, wasn't it? It was a garage. My great uncle, I remember in the States. So when Amazon was first starting out, he was selling books, small scale.

Key Takeaways

Right. So it's just, I remember when you learned about this and now you look at this huge company and like, and companies could veer off and get into other things. But we started as plumbers, like we're plumbers and it's like growing into other things. And it's just like, you learn, you bring other people in and it's just, and that's how your business grows.

Right. With anything. And it's a fun, it's a fun ride.

Trust me. I get to work with my dad and my brother and we're all the same. So we butt our heads, but it's just, at the end of the day, it's like, we've built something from the ground up. My kids get to see this and it's just like, they get to be a part of it.

And it's like, now that's the next generation. And it's just to be able to have that and sit there and say that we made this for everybody. That's a, that's a huge thing.

Resources

I love it. That's awesome. So you're an investor or you're a business owner and you're in Windsor and you need a plumber.

How do people find you? How do they reach out to you?

So there's a lot of good ways. For one, you can call our office, which is 519-817-7117. You can check out either one of our websites. com, or find us on Facebook.

I do like that you touched on the reviews actually. And one good thing is when you're hiring any contractor, read the reviews. Or like a lot of people, they trust the Facebook where they, they ask. But you'll see like in our reviews, like it's just where people aren't just saying good job.

Introduction

They did this. It's like, they'll write and like what the experience was. And like, I like reading that. That's like our positive motivation to sit there and sit and like, Hey, you made the right choice.

And you know, you made, make it fun at the end of the day. I love it.

No, that's great advice. And I agree.

Always check the reviews. Cause you just never know.

The Core Idea

People can appear. It's great.

It's great. But yeah. If they have reviews, good job.

Blank. Oh, they're all five stars.

It's great. How do you know they're real? I mean, that's where people question. Where if you look up and they like story, story, story, it's like, huh.

Deep Dive

You know what I mean? Cause it's like either they have some good marketing guy taking the time to write all those or, you know, or people are actually going out and word of mouth is huge, especially.

So that's where it's really cool. And I'm looking forward to helping whatever investors and making your properties and wins or an Essex camp, you know, have the best plumbing, have the best electrical.

That's for sure. That's awesome.

No, I appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming on the show and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you so much for tuning into the show today. If you found value, please follow the show and read it five stars.

Practical Steps

It would mean the world to me. And lastly, all the resources that we spoke about are at the bottom of the show notes. Looking forward to seeing you on the next episode.