Kameron: 00:00:00 On today’s episode of the Blue Collar Brain Trust podcast. We welcome
Mr. Eric Quander also known as “Mr. Q” from Quander and Son Construction in 29 palms, California.
Eric: 00:00:14 Quander and Son construction, is a company based here in 29 palms, California. We’re about three years old and, we specialize in home repairs and home building with a particular attention on manufacturing Adobe homes here in the high desert.
Kameron: 00:00:34 Adobe homes? Is that just because there’s a lot of Adobe homes out there, or did you wind up specializing in that for some other reason?
Eric: 00:00:44 Some other reason, the other reason being, We’re an environment environmentally conscious, manufacturing & construction company, and Adobe is one of the most environmentally friendly, materials that you can use to build large livable domiciles. Also, it’s very, cost-effective it’s simply clay straw, a little dirt. And with the proper mixture, you can create a material that will be fairly indestructible for a hundred years or so. And so, part of our company’s movement is self-sustainable housing. So, Adobe material is one aspect of it. Totally self-contained solar powered homes are the next phase. And then we’ll be talking about how we actually create water and make your home a totally self-sustainable environment. So that’s why we opted to specialize in green home building.
Kameron: 00:01:56 Fantastic. Yeah, I noticed when I was looking at your website that, you, you are very environmentally conscious, you also do some work with recycling, is that correct?
Eric: 00:02:08 Absolutely. I am one of the few, black certified California recyclers here in the state. And one of the big movements that I as an individual and I, as my company, uh, are engaging in, is called the, We Can Black America movement. And that’s an effort where we are encouraging 1 million Americans to collect their aluminum cans and plastic bottles to be donated to the We Can Black America project. What happens is that we’re developing an opportunity for black Americans to receive, reparations, but not from the government, from citizens, from the efforts of private citizens, the time for marches and speeches and asking the government for what is owed. And there is an argument to that, that some people have… but that time is over. It’s going to be about Americans helping Americans. And so, yes, recycling is actually the cornerstone of how I even started in this industry. And so it is something that we’re doing and Quander and Son recycling will be coming to a community near you, no matter where you’re hearing this, no matter what city you’re in throughout this great nation, Quander and Son recycling will be coming to your area.
Kameron: 00:03:42 That’s fantastic. I’m very happy to, get the word out there.
That’s a noble cause. So, thank you for doing that.
Eric: 00:03:50 Well, I appreciate that. And again, that website is www.wecanblackamerica.com
Kameron: 00:03:58 You’ve been in business for how long Mr. Q,
Eric: 00:04:02 Uh, this business for about three years, uh, give or take, uh, and we’ve had, uh, and are experiencing a meteoric rise. And we’re very grateful. Uh, the tagline for our company is quality is our legacy. And one of the things about entrepreneurialship is recognizing the various roles that people play, uh, in your organization. I, myself am not a particularly adept craftsman or a tool worker or anything like that. So, what’s important for my business to be successful is that I take care of pretty much the marketing and overall vision of this company, but I have, uh, enlisted the support and have employed, uh, people that know much more about how to fix everything and how to build things and, uh, that part of the business. So I encourage entrepreneurs as you’re starting your business to quickly get out of the way, and you take care of the vision and surround yourself with individuals that can handle some of the other aspects of your business. That’s one of the main things that causes many small businesses to fail is not defining roles within the company and setting objectives is a very important thing. Uh, but I would suggest to entrepreneurs and, uh, yeah, that’s a little bit about that.
Kameron: 00:05:38 —
That’s great. Um, that’s great. Any other advice you might want to give people who are looking to, uh, get into your line of work,
Eric: 00:05:48 Uh, to get into construction? Well, yes, do it, you know, don’t think about it too hard study long study wrong, right? Just of do it. If you have a vehicle and some tools, and you have some wits about you, what’s to stop you from registering yourself as a construction company and beginning to do the work. Now, are there certifications that you’re going to have to get in your state? Absolutely. Are you going to have to become a licensed contractor? Absolutely. But you know, I was actually in a meeting yesterday and I was talking to someone about the recycling company in their state. And that person was saying, well, this is why maybe it couldn’t work, or this is what’s going to make it challenging, or this is what or, or, or, or, and finally, finally, I just got tired of it. I said, shit, man, listen, I let others worry about what can’t be done. I don’t think about that. I just think about what I’m going to do.
Eric: 00:06:56 Uh, a very, uh, you know, some of your listeners probably know, uh, Cordona, he’s a real estate guru guy and he said something wants it. I really appreciate it. The reason why most entrepreneurs aren’t successful is because they give up, don’t give up, especially when you feel like giving up. Right? Uh, I became an amputee. I made a left below the knee amputee. I became an amputee in February of 2018. I started my company in February, March and April of that same year. Now I understood that to some people. And I had been an educator for many years to some people, man, the guy just got his leg cut off. He’s going to start a construction company.
Eric: 00:07:53 Yeah. You want to imagine it. So that’s, I take advantage of that lack of imagination and others, nothing stops should stop you. I don’t, you know, and people have challenges in life. We all are human beings having this, uh, experience. I’m just so the philosophy. So what keep going. So that would be my philosophy. I believe that it’s in each individual circumstances and we’ll either a draw out your determination or it will, or a power, your determination, and no progress will be made in your life. I choose to push the envelope to confront in myself, whatever prevents me from being successful because no, there is no excuse if your life is not what you want it to be, it is no one’s fault. Or I don’t even like to use that word, but it’s no one’s responsibility, but yours, Jim, get happy. No one cares if you do or not.
Kameron: 00:09:01 Well, you sound like you sound like the kind of person I’d like to hang around. You must have a lot of friends.
Eric: 00:09:06 I don’t know about that word, friends. Most of my friends that I’ve known for 30 years or so.
Kameron: 00:09:13 Anything that’s happened since you started your, uh, business that that you’ve learned that, uh, has kind of changed the way you think.
Eric: 00:09:19 I used to be much more optimistic about Americans, especially the generation after mine. I’m 50 years old. I now am more pessimistic. I feel that there is a sense of entitlement. That is a fallacy. I feel that for whatever reasons or influences, there are too many people in our country think that shit’s supposed to be easy. And I don’t know where people get that idea. I don’t know, but it’s a fantasy that you’re in to be powerful and to be successful. It’s hard. And it’s supposed to be so to be free is hard as a black American, I have a particular understanding of the concept of freedom, right? So to me, if you’re a non-person of color and you’re don’t have the life you want, you seriously need to think about what decisions you’ve made in your life.
Eric: 00:10:29 I mean, that’s just a desert is putting it real. And that’s how I talk, right? There’s no reason for you to be a white man in this country and not have everything thing that you want because you got it all laid out for you. Don’t blame the government don’t blame. The Mexicans don’t blame the inwards. They taken my job, they got the benefit. Uh, that’s all that. You’re just a lazy bastard that ain’t smart. So accept that and say, okay, I’m going to be the working class. Cool. I’m not the boss. Cool. I accept that in my life. I would never accept that, but there are people and everybody has their role in this world. Except your role.
Kameron: 00:11:10 Uh, how about COVID-19? Has that made it more difficult for you? Or are you finding that you’re actually a lot of people in home services have been telling me that business is actually getting better for them in the, during the pandemic than it was before. Or are you finding that to be true?
Eric: 00:11:25 Absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that I’ll be, it is unfortunate. The negative aspects of this pandemic having hit our nation, a lot of small businesses have bolded, but for those in the home building construction, especially out in my region, this was a boom time. Why people are leaving the cities and coming out to the country. Those people don’t know anything about surviving here. They need every aspects of their house looked after and agenda to, until they can, you know, experience that learning curve and learn about surviving in the high desert. Okay. How to have a home here. I desert that’s. That means business for us. Okay. As far as in the cities, what I’m recognizing is okay, as people are leaving, the city apartment buildings are being emptied out. Those apartment managers got to keep those buildings looking good. This is a perfect opportunity for your cleaning company to go into those apartment buildings and the management companies and say, is it time to reassess your cleaning contract?
Eric: 00:12:40 Who’s doing your landscaping. Who’s putting down your carpet. Do you want to beautify your business? Because you’re building why? Well, everything that goes down, let’s come up. It’s about positioning. Are you going to be there? When the market goes back up and people start moving back into your business. So that’s where you come in as a salesman to sell your services. And maybe you do it for only a portion of the cost of what your regular cost is. But my philosophy is I’d rather say cure that customer, give them great outstanding service, make yourself indispensable and then renegotiate your contract and they’ll pay what you’re asked. Why? Because you’ve demonstrated that they make money when they work with you. And I think that not enough business owners in general have that passion. I don’t want you to, with me unless you’re making money. I don’t want you to, it’s not about being selfish and Oh, I want to make money.
Eric: 00:13:44 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You’re not going to prosper. That way. You only prosper by providing outstanding service and getting the callbacks and getting the referrals. You don’t do it as a one-shot wonder. And that is what set my business apart. That’s what my clients tell me. They tell me, this is what happens, Mr. Q we’ll call up another contractor. They’ll we’ll try to schedule an appointment. A they won’t show up B they’ll show up, say, they’re going to give us an estimate. We never get the estimate. See, they give us an estimate, determine a start date. They never show up D they give us an estimate. We determine the start date. They show up, they start to work. They never come back. The reason why they give us are they give me their business. It, cause I won’t do a, B, C, or D.
Eric: 00:14:33 I’m going to get there. You say pretty close. I might be a little late, but we’re going to get there. We’re not leaving until the job is done. If it takes one day, it takes one day. If it takes a week, it takes a week. But I don’t leave. My men don’t leave that site until the client comes out and says, you’re done. It’s not up to us. It’s to my client when they say, Oh no, y’all done. Okay. In fact, I’m where my workers are so that they’re not really happy with that. They’re not happy until the client is gushing saying, man, you guys went above and beyond. That’s when my guys are happy, just doing the job. They’re not really happy with that. Cause that’s easy. Any loser can do that. You can do better. Who can do it better? That’s the question and tests that business owners have to have in themselves.
Eric: 00:15:28 No, no one does this better than me. And if it’s not that case, what do I have to do to get there to where it is unquestionable. This is the best company for me to choose. I make it to where it’s easy because I assume most people aren’t that bright. So I make it easy. I’m gonna make it to where if you choose another company over mine, it ain’t got shit to do with me. It’s because you’re not very smart because I’m going to give you outstanding service at a great price. What else do you want? Right? What more you want? And I let people go straight forward. I let them know that it’s your choice. But when you call me back because you didn’t give me that initial bid off the top, no you’re going to pay double that.
Kameron: 00:16:18 You’re quite a character, Mr. Q, I really appreciate having you on the show. And uh, I look forward to talking with you more later.
Eric: 00:16:26 I want to encourage all your listeners and viewers of this podcast. If you have questions or thoughts or considerations, anything you’d like to contact, I’m a people person. If you haven’t gathered that by now, I love people. I just love working with people and talking. And that’s how I get to know myself better is by my network. That’s what brings me closer to my divine self. Okay? And so I always welcome engagement conversation. Even if you disagree, especially if you disagree, let us talk about it. Let’s figure it out because I don’t know everything. I might be wrong. I might be wrong.
Kameron: 00:17:07 What a rare attitude that is these days. I think that would be the solution to 90% of our problems. If more people had that attitude, let’s talk about,
Eric: 00:17:18 Have you been married for any time as a man? You learn, I’m going to assume that I’m wrong. I tell my wife, I encourage you. Contact us. You can find our website at www.quanderandson.com. Again, that’s www.quanderandson.com and you can call our toll free 24 hour phone number which is (888) 243-7377. Again, that’s +1 888-243-7377. And if you’d like to email me, you can email my name, [email protected]. Or you can send it through our company email address, which is [email protected]. I welcome all your questions, concerns, phone calls, voicemails, and no matter where you are in the country, we can certainly make the way to help take care.
Kameron: 00:18:27 Eric, thank you very much. Thank you for being a guest on The Blue Collar Brain Trust Podcast we’ll have to have you on again sometime I really enjoyed having you.
Eric: 00:18:38 Oh, please do, sir. I’ll come on in. Anytime you requested, sir. All right. Thank you.
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