Grout Geek | Application Preview
Grout Geek is seeking government grant funding to support its rapid growth and address urgent business needs. Currently operating from a cramped home office, the company plans to invest in a larger workspace to enhance administrative efficiency. Additionally, they require a second company vehicle equipped with specialized tools to accommodate increased job demand.
The business has experienced significant growth, especially during the COVID pandemic, as more homeowners undertake cleaning and renovation projects. They have successfully built a solid reputation, earning numerous positive reviews by focusing on excellent customer service.
The founders, a young minority couple, bring impressive backgrounds in the stone and tile industry and military service. They started Grout Geek as a self-funded venture and are committed to continuing their growth by hiring more staff, improving their office, and enhancing marketing efforts, all while maintaining a high standard of service.
Grout Geek faces competition from established franchises, but their unique strengths include firsthand knowledge of competitor operations and a strong local connection with customers. This allows them to offer better pricing and personalized service, setting them apart in a market dominated by larger companies. The funding would enable Grout Geek to leverage these advantages, facilitating its expansion and sustained success in the industry.
-
General Information
Business Registration Number: 16314
Location: Ventura, CA, United States
Length of Operation: 1.5
Number of Employees:
Annual Gross Income:
Annual Gross Expense:
Open to Loans: YES
-
Funding Usage
Grout Geek is growing very rapidly and although we travel to our job sites, all administrative and other business fucntions are done from our home. We are currently using a small desk in a spare bedroom to conduct our business and we have completely outgrown the space. A portion of the funding would go to investing in a upgraded office space where we can conduct our business. Another immediate need is a second company vehicle equipped with a truck mount tools. Our business has grown to the point where we need a second vehicle and personnel to run an additional route.
-
Business Plan
Grout Geek is currently growing faster than we can even keep up. In fact we had to significantly reduce advertising because the volume of inquiries we were receiving was more than we could schedule at one time. COVID has caused a large spike in our grout, tile and floor cleaning business with more people spending time at home and finding home improvement projects. In our first year, our plan was to work hard on establishing a good reputation in the local community and building a customer base that is loyal and continues to do business with us as well as recommend us to others in the community. So far, we have had great sucess with getting 5 star reviews and positive feedback. Our reputation, excellent service and great customers have created a great foundation for us to expand. In the next phase of our business, our plan is to improve our office space, hire additional administrative personnel to help with the increased call volume, purchase a second vehicle and equipment so we can run two routes at the same time, hire personnel to run the second vehicle and route, invest into providing excellent training to our new hires, increase our marketing expenses and most importantly we plan to continue providing excellent service that we stand by. Grout Geek was a dream that was developed by a young minority couple in their early 20s. Since a young age, German has worked in labor in all aspects of the stone and tile industry from installer to warehouse manager, fabricator, estimator and refinisher. During high school and immediately after, German spent time developing his craft by working in the industry it and taking pieces of knowledge from each person he worked for. As for myself, I focused on developing my education and eventually earning a Masters Degree while working full time and serving in the United States Air Force. With both of our skills and motivation combined, we started Grout Geek and have developed it into a promising small business with huge potential for growth. To this point, we are completely self funded and self taught. We take our business and our service seriously because we worked extremely hard to get here. We take pride in our journey and we are hopeful that an investment will boost our ability to keep growing.
-
Self Identified Competition
There are only a few other competitors in the area including the Grout Smith, Santa Barbara Stone and Tile, and Grout Doctor. All three of these companies are franchises with multiple locations and much larger teams. Ironically, German has worked for all three companies so he understands their strengths and weaknesses. Because they are franchises, they have much more funding, newer equipment and many more employees than us. In the same regard, these companies lose the human factor and the local connection. There is a high employee turnover rate and technicians often make mistakes and consistently need new training. We have the advantage of having worked for our top 3 competitors and taking the knowledge and best practices from all three into our own business model. We have also seen what their weaknesses are and as a small company we are able to address and overcome these issues. Large franchises are not as connected to the local community as we are which gives us an advantage in creating personal relationships with our customers who in turn give us their loyalty and recommendation. Because German worked as an estimator for some of these companies, we know what our competition is charging and we are able to offer better service for a lower price. When our customers are comparing bids, our success rate is very high because we can predict the competitor's pricing as well as offer many more years of experience and knowledge. I have no doubt that our quality of work will beat any of our competition because our focus is on getting the job done right even if it means spending more time on it.
-
Contact Applicant
Subscribe to our Administrator Dashboard to gain full access to this application. Learn More
