Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitchell Clay.
Hi Mitchell, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My background has always been in sales. I started out in business to business sales when I was 21 and worked for the largest merchant processing company in the country. The quotas you had to meet with this company was painstaking high but I was always able to come out on top. It took a lot of overtime, hardworking and self motivation to achieve any level of success there.
That position made me fall in love with the sales process, but I started to grow tired of selling the same product. I knew I loved to sell, but wasn’t in love with what I was selling. From that decision, I decided to get out of business to business sales and to try out something new.
In 2010, I saw an ad for an in-home sales consultant for a local window and door company. At this time in my life, I knew very little about construction but knew I was good at sales and figured would be worth a shot to apply. Upon meeting the sales manager, I knew that this company would take me to a different level. They handed me a psyche test to see if I would be a good fit for their company. Once I completed the test, the owner reached out to me and advised they would be willing to take the chance.
I was grateful for the opportunity and wasted no time in hitting the books and researched everything I could about the home improvement industry. I continued to work with this company for close to two years when I decided to move to Houston, TX to be with my future wife.
When I arrived in Houston, I decided to stay in the home improvement industry but something that would be a little more fun and bring out my creative side. A friend of mine recommended I try and get into the bathroom remodeling industry. I applied and was instantly hired on by one of the biggest bathroom remodeling franchises in the country. I worked with them for 2-3 years and was breaking numerous records in sales. It was at this point, I decided to leave that company and create my own.
In 2015, I founded the Bath Kitchen Pros that’s what started my original journey in becoming one of Houston’s top bathroom remodelers. In 2019, we had some internal issues among the partnership and decided to separate. At this moment I decided the next business would solely focus on bathrooms alone and that is when we created the company EZ Bath.
Throughout the past 7 years, we have installed thousands of bathrooms and continue to have an outstanding reputation.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
When starting a company you never know what to expect. In 2015, I started the Bath Kitchen Pros with only $3,000. Whatever I put into marketing had to work or I would’ve been instantly broke. The first thing I did was put an ad in the paper and I received only one lead from it, but luckily I was able to sell it and from there I was able to market a little more.. It really felt like I was building the company brick by brick.
There were times, especially in November and December months, where it appeared the company wasn’t going to make it. I just had to ignore those days of despair and push through and would eventually see a light at the end of the tunnel.
One thing I’ve learned throughout this journey is that everyone is trying to sell you something, not all of it is good or as it appears. There were a lot of bad decisions made in marketing, hiring the wrong people, inventory purchasing and jobs being sold.
Some examples of the poor marketing decisions came with hiring people to handle our SEO and Adword campaigns. The companies that would handle them would not be able to generate any results and costs thousands per month. I had to quickly learn all of these things for us to even stand a chance at survival. I’m not saying all of these companies are bad actors, but in my experience, I was never able to find a good one.
As far as inventory purchasing, our suppliers would increase costs on me all the time and never let me know this was happening. I turned a blind eye to it and before I knew it, was paying triple to quadruple for things. With one phone call, I was able to save on any one of my suppliers. However, I had to and still do have to make those calls on a frequent basis to make sure they don’t randomly jack up our costs to astronomic highs.
In the beginning, I would grab on to any job I could get because I needed business to survive. That leads to poor judgment when trying to find and sell jobs. I was taking jobs where at the end we were losing money instead of making money. It wasn’t always because a job was undersold, it was due to things that were unforeseen but expected in hindsight. There are warning signs that I would dismiss because I wanted the job so bad. Nowadays, we know to avoid or to charge correctly.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our company specializes in bathroom remodeling. We primarily focus on the bathtub and shower area. We are known for our solid surface solutions which are 5 foot by 8 foot panels that contain 0 grout. They are practically maintenance free and come with a lifetime warranty.
I’m most proud of the reputation we were able to build. We continue to have a 5-star rating with now over 65 reviews on Google. No complaints on the BBB and A rated on Angies List. These are very high achievements in my field of work.
In my industry, there are a lot of one man armies. Contractors that work out of their home or garage whereas EZ Bath is a company with employees, and a large team of contractors that are true professionals in their craft. When you go with EZ Bath, you don’t ever have to worry about your bathroom not being complete, or a warrantable item not being repaired or fixed.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I found that talking to your vendors and asking them for other business owners’ information to reach out to is the best way to create a network of like-minded successful people. People that are not your competition but are in like industries, you will find, are more than eager to help you with your success.
Pricing:
- Expect to pay $8,500+ for a tub to shower conversion
- Walk In Tubs Generally go for $13,500 and above
- Full bathroom remodels have run anywhere from 25k to 45k
- Right now we are offering 72 months – 0 interest – financing
Contact Info:
- Email: admin@ezbathremodel.com
- Website: https://www.ezbathremodel.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EZBathRemodel
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ez_bath
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrSqX2FjCQ_rpUnXAvUipg
Image Credits
Mitchell Clay
