Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Lance.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In 1996, I moved to Colorado from Texas with the hopes of becoming a pro snowboarder. Well it didn’t take long to figure out that I was unlikely to become a pro snowboarder. I mean the kids there are skiing and snowboarding before they can even walk. Well I had moved there with a job already. I worked for Benjamin Moore paints pulling orders at the warehouse in Mesquite. I got a transfer to a plant in Denver. I worked there a very short time, mainly because I hit a fire sprinkler pipe with a forklift and flooded 2 floors of the building. They didn’t fire me but I was so embarrassed that I quit. I didn’t really have any skills at the time so I just started applying for jobs. I had over 22 jobs that year. I did everything from delivering sheetrock to building log cabins. Some of the logs we set were huge, like around 2 foot diameter. Well in the Colorado Mountains in those days, they were experiencing a boom of growth. Everybody was building. There was a lot of shady fly by night companies. Twice in a row I worked for construction companies that would work us for a couple of weeks that way they could get a draw on the job, then they would pack up and leave in the middle of the night, leaving the workers there trying to figure out what happened. The office would be cleaned out and computers all gone, nobody there to get mad at just weeks of work down the drain and not a penny to show for it. IA plumber named David Nelson, who is now the owner of Grizzly Plumbing and Mechanical in Silverthorne Colorado, heard about the situation and he said he could get me hired on where he worked, which was Mid-County Plumbing. So I took a job there and I took to plumbing like a duck takes to water. I found a box of donuts on the job site and lived off it until I got my first paycheck. I ended up getting homesick for Texas though and came back. I took a job with my uncle who is an electrician just so I could have a job to show up to, but as soon as the plumber on that job showed up I went over and asked for a job. Ronnie Boone (RIP) with Boone Plumbing hired me on the spot and I started right after I walked over and quit working for my uncle. The electricians called me a traitor for the rest of the time we were on that job, and my uncle never paid me for the 2 hours I worked. So he still owes me about $14 to this day. Robert Putman with AAA Electrical Contractors if you’re reading this you can keep the $14. lol
I worked for several other companies in the Dallas area and always tried to learn from the best repair plumbers in the business. Most of those guys have since passed away sadly, but I try to keep their memory alive by doing the best work I can do and honor my mentors in that way. I have been involved with so many different aspects of plumbing that it would be difficult to contain in a little article like this. I have done huge heavy industrial projects like Factories for Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plant and built restaurants and night clubs all over Deep Ellum and Lower Greenville. Ronnie Boone used to say Adair’s Saloon made the best burgers in town and their grease trap would clog up about once a month and we would go work on it and then stay a while to eat and hang out with the local regulars. We built a lot of bars for a couple of guys that we called “The Concept Boys” I don’t remember their name now but they would come up with an idea for a nightclub then we would build it. They would run the bar for a while, then sell it. Bar after bar after bar we would repeat this over and over. I don’t know if any of those bars are still around, but just by the sheer numbers I think there has to be some still around. We had a good time and I learned a lot, perfecting my plumbing skills day by day. Those were the good old days.
In 2009, I invested my savings into starting my own plumbing repair business. It wasn’t much, but the little I had got spent as wisely as possible. I just tried to make the best out of my situation. I named the company after some vanity license plates I had. I remember the day I went in to the DMV with a list of plates I would like. I was thrilled when I found out that FIXXER was available. I bought those plates and that was that, my new identity.
Even with all the hard work I did, I could not have done it without my wife. She supported me 100% the whole way. You know they say behind every successful man is a woman that made it possible. and necessary. Lol. The actual day we started the business officially we were flat broke. I mean we had negative $30 dollars in the bank. The first checks I brought home for $300 dollars had us dancing in the kitchen. We finally had some relief!
We have had some ups and downs throughout the process of growing a plumbing repair company in Mesquite from scratch. We started out printing out some door hangers, and my wife and I walked and walked and walked, hanging those things on doors. Funny thing is that I still have customers that have those old door hangers in their kitchen drawers and pull them out whenever we come to do a plumbing repair. The door hanger has a funny little hand I drew holding a plunger. If you have one of these save it, it might be worth some money one day! Lol
One of our biggest breaks in business came after I got a call from the BBB – Better Business Bureau, Brian Reagan was the person that contacted me and told me about all the benefits of joining the BBB. It was very early in the timeline of my business and we really needed to boost our exposure. We did a small ad campaign with the BBB and we got the phone ringing.
We try to get most of our plumbing repair work from word of mouth referrals and that works quite well for us because when we make a customer happy they will tell their friends, and that’s what we want. Small businesses really rely on the customer to spread the word about a good experience they have, and I wish for everyone to support small business. When you support small business you are not just lining the pockets of a huge corporation that treats everything and everyone like a number, you are helping to put food on the table for people that work hard every day. You are helping put shoes on kids and helping to buy dog food and cat food.
Today we are growing our company and we are growing plumbers from scratch, teaching them how to fix plumbing the right way. We do a lot of tunnel work, repairing rusted cast iron pipes and copper water pipe under concrete foundations. My friends sometimes ask if I am scared to go under a house, but no I love tunnel work. It is usually a decent temperature even in the hottest days. The digging crew we use digs the tunnels nice and wide so we don’t have to worry about cave ins. There was recently a death in the plumbing community in a tunnel collapse and it gives us a lot to think about as far as making sure every job is safe. We don’t want any accidents.
We had one time recently that one of my customers didn’t answer the door when my employee showed up and he knocked and rang the bell. No answer. My guy then called the customers husband to find out what was going on. The customer rushed home from work to find his wife was in a diabetic coma. The ambulance came and told them if my guy had not done what he did and called him when he did that she would be dead.
When I am not at work I love going out to the country for some boating at Lake Ray Hubbard, 4 wheeling and I am also active in the custom knife collecting community. I’m not really sure when that started, but I have made a lot of amazing connections within the custom knife community. Some of my favorite knife makers are Brent Vaccaro with Black Widow Knifeworks and I am an admin for his Facebook group. Jonathan Miller with Sick Boy Knife Works, Todd Heeter with Heeter Knifeworks, Eric Luther Knives, Ryan Forbes with Copper Shed and a local fav in the DFW area is Jon Waltz with Edge7 Custom Knives. One honorable mention I can’t leave out is Erin C. Healy, the former managing editor at Blade Magazine and current operator of Erin’s Edgemasters Facebook group. She is doing something amazing right now and teaching the custom knifemakers how to improve the community in more ways than one. Some things are teaching them about how to build a website and how to take good quality pictures of their products.
I have made a lot of contacts in the plumbing world as well. Some have become fantastic mentors to me as I grow my business. I have given several of them a place of honor on my website on the affiliate’s page. Guys like Ben Kohn with From Sinks to Sewers and Austin Taylor with Dynamic Drains of Texas and John Johnson with Water Works Plumbing OKC and Bath Fitter. We help each other out with ways to better benefit the customers by improving our craft. These are the guys that make a difference and help to make plumbing great.
I heard a saying a while back that basically says that if you give enough people what they want that eventually you will get what you want. This saying has inspired me and taken me to places that I never would have thought possible. I try to always remember where I came from and what got me here. I have had a lot of hard times, but I have had some amazing times too. I think one day I might write a book about it.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely has not been an easy road, but few things that are worthwhile are easy. I just try to make more good decisions than bad ones. There is always struggles and I heard that instead of hoping for an easy life it’s better to hope for the strength to endure a hard life. After all calm seas don’t make good sailors. I try to focus on the good things in life like my beautiful wife and kids. When the stress of day to day life gets me down I jump in the truck and take the family somewhere fun.
I have had to learn a lot of things the hard way, but I did learn. After all isn’t that what it’s all about, improving yourself?
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Fixxer Company Plumbing – what should we know?
Fixxer Company specializes in repair. We tend to get a lot of weird calls that have something about them that is difficult to diagnose. Sometimes it is a drain that won’t drain or a leak nobody can find. I remember one job we had at Hardee’s Produce. There was a leak in the ceiling, a drop ceiling. You can easily lift the tiles and look into the ceiling. The odd thing was that there was no plumbing overhead, but there was definitely a leak. It did not leak all the time. I started asking the employees’ questions and someone told me that the leak was always after 5pm. A clue! I waited til 5pm and watched. As I was sitting in the corner, I saw the cleaning crew come in. Ten points if you know where this story is going. I followed them as they made their way upstairs to the utility closet. They turned on the mop sink and started filling up buckets. They were splashing water all over the place like they were at a water park. The water went through the cracks in the floor and traveled along a steel beam all the way across the building and dripped in the exact spot in the office where the leak was originally reported. My detective work paid off that day. The cleaning crew had to revise their habits and to my knowledge was never again reported as a problem.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I have had several amazing mentors through the years and I have already mentioned them, but currently I have a great team that makes my life so much better. My wife supports me every day and my kids give me the drive to keep moving forward, so that I can provide a good foundation for their growth into eventual adulthood. They are still pretty young now, but I hope to give them the best life I can. My dispatcher answers the phones 24/7 and without her I would probably have pulled out all my hair by now because it’s hard to work and answer phones at the same time. It never fails that as soon as my hands would get dirty, the phone will ring. My crew is amazing as well, from the digging crew to the plumbers that I employ, everybody I surround myself with are hard workers and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done right.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.FixxerCompany.com
- Phone: 214-534-1468
- Email: fixxercompany.customers@gmail.com
- Instagram: @fixxercompany
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FixxerCompany/
- Twitter: @fixxercompany
Image Credit:
Cheryl McNabb, Marcela Lance, Jason Lance
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