Shed Geek Podcast

Building the Future: Where Sheds Meet Software Innovation

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 47

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Matt Black returns to the Shed Geek podcast for a revealing conversation about navigating the changing shed industry landscape. Drawing from his dual perspective as both the owner of Black's Buildings and creator of MyShed software, Matt offers practical wisdom for shed businesses facing today's market challenges.

The conversation opens with Matt sharing exciting news about Black's Buildings expansion into modular certified homes and their stunning new office designed to showcase top-tier finishes. This strategic move allows their sales team to start with premium options and work down rather than trying to upsell from basic models—a subtle but powerful sales psychology shift.

As Matt discusses industry trends, he pinpoints a meaningful change in consumer buying behavior: "The hurdle is higher to overcome to make sales now than what it used to be, simply because people are more conscious of where they spend their money." This heightened customer caution requires shed businesses to elevate their sales processes, product knowledge, and customer experience.

The most compelling insights come when Matt reveals how technology is transforming the shed business. Today's customers expect what Matt calls "an Amazon-like experience"—clear communication at every stage from configuration to delivery. MyShed software helps businesses deliver this experience through automated updates, seamless inventory management, and data-driven decision making. His team has created a digital infrastructure that allows shed dealers to compete effectively in an increasingly online marketplace.

Perhaps most valuable is Matt's perspective on preparing for future growth: "I think we're too small for our britches at this point. We've built systems and processes to allow our business to grow into." This forward-thinking approach has positioned his companies to thrive despite market fluctuations.

Ready to transform your shed business with technology that enhances rather than replaces the personal touch? Reach out to Matt directly or explore how these insights might reshape your approach to selling in today's changing market.

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SHED GEEK:

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek podcast, Matthew Black, round number three. What's?

SHED GEEK:

up.

SHED GEEK:

What's up, my friend?

Matthew Black:

Everything.

SHED GEEK:

Everything, yes sir. Is this three? This is the third one.

Matthew Black:

This is the third.

SHED GEEK:

You're like becoming a regular podcaster

Matthew Black:

yeah, I'm excited about that. I appreciate the opportunity

SHED GEEK:

well, we appreciate you being here. It's awesome and excited to know what you're up to

Matthew Black:

yeah, just still chugging along.

Matthew Black:

Uh, we uh a lot of things going on kind of across the industry. Really exciting things happening with my shed. You know blacks were constantly striving to grow that business and, as any shed company owner would know, right now, you know, times are a little different. The last part of last year and coming into this year, I know a lot of people have seen, you know, some slowdown. So, we've been, we've really been doing what I feel like are some awesome things to combat that and allow us to still see growth despite a changing climate for shed cells. So, uh, just across the board been really busy, um, working with my teams to uh to keep moving the needle and keep seeing progress so we get to hear all those secrets here today huh, I might share one or two.

Matthew Black:

I don't think I could share them all, but uh, but absolutely.

SHED GEEK:

Well, one thing that I know is a new office.

Matthew Black:

Yes.

SHED GEEK:

I saw that and it looks amazing.

Matthew Black:

Thank you,

SHED GEEK:

congrats on that,

Matthew Black:

yeah, I appreciate it. I'm very proud of that office. One of the things recently with Blacks Buildings that we've achieved is we've started our modular certified building company, so we are now able to build and sell fully finished modular homes. So, with that we redid our office space and in this segment we offer good, better and best in a lot of the different products that go into these. So, when we built this new office space, we focused on nothing but the best. We wanted to represent what the best of all things could be, and I'm proud to call it my office. I truly enjoy going to work every day and having such a nice space to work out of, going to work every day and having such a nice space to work out of. So, yeah, I'm really, really happy with the results and customer feedback has been tremendous.

SHED GEEK:

I think it was a great move Gives you room to upsell, to show people that Absolutely Top in class, you know like top of the line what to expect For sure.

Matthew Black:

Yeah, yeah, because most people want to come in and say they want the best and absolutely we'll quote you the best and then we'll work you back from there. You know what things truly matter most to you. Do you want the really nice cabinets, but you're okay with the cheaper flooring, you know? Do you need the higher-end shiplap paneling or do you want to go another route? Higher end um shiplap paneling or do you want to go another route? Um, you know we, it's much easier to sell off the high end down than it is to sell off the low end up.

Matthew Black:

Um, so we, we've got actually, another building that is kind of our mid-tier model. It's one of the sales offices, um, that Nathan Reagan is actually in, so, um, we've kind of got a better and a best. We still don't have a, a good offering, um, so that would be our lowest, but we don't offer any crap. So, the worst you're going to get from us is good stuff.

SHED GEEK:

Um, and then we work our way up from there. Well, I like it. I know you always put out a good product and, um, that's exciting. It's been just exciting get to know you. You've always been a supporter of Shed Geek, absolutely years, and we appreciate that. You've just been, uh, been um, yeah, you've been a, a friend of the show, yes, sir, or sometimes so absolutely appreciate that. What are you said? The industry's a little different the end of last year and this year. What are you? You seeing as some pain points.

Matthew Black:

Yeah, I think a lot of it actually has to do with our customers. So just the consumer confidence in making these large ticket item purchases. I think the hurdle is a little higher to overcome to make the sales now than what it used to be, simply because people are more conscious of where they spend their money. You know we've had so far this year every month has been tremendous, but once again we're doing a lot of things to make it. So, I don't know that all shed companies are seeing that. I've heard from many that are struggling. Maybe it's a regional thing, because I've seen certain areas that seem to be doing really well while others are struggling right now. But overall, it just kind of solidifies the concept that we should always be striving to be better. So, in these times, especially when you can see, you know, declines happening or stagnation, where you're maybe where you used to a growth.

Matthew Black:

These are the times when you double down, and you really work on your company. One of the things I like to say about our business is, you know, there's a saying too big for your britches. I think we're too small for our britches at this point. We've built systems and processes to allow our business to grow into. So, we're. You know, we run EOS. We we're very focused on what we're doing and how we're doing it and who's doing it and when it's going to be done, all of the things involved, and it's just really helped us keep going in the right direction. But, like I said, avoiding that stagnation and just constantly bettering is definitely what we're focusing on

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SHED GEEK:

Do you think that that's a main difference? You alluded to some companies doing well, some companies seem to struggle. What are the obvious differences that people should look at, say, a big part of it is sales process related.

Matthew Black:

Um, you know how you're selling your sheds? Um, definitely, sheds aren't selling themselves as they were. You know a few years ago where sales were easy you simply had to have sheds and you could sell them. Now it's critical that shed sellers know their product. Product knowledge is the foundation for any sales process. You must know your product inside and out, because your customer will see if you have a lack of confidence in a response to a question about any of your products, or even if you have to say, well, I don't know, but I'll get you an answer.

Matthew Black:

Just those kind of things really aren't acceptable in a pristine sales process. You must know your product, you must have the answers, you must say them in the right way. It's not just what you say, it's how you say it, what your body language implies. Everything is so important in a sales process and I really think right now you can see the sellers who are great sellers and have invested in resources to help them constantly better their craft, and those that are of inventory. That does drive customers to you.

Matthew Black:

But how much more sales would you do if, if you were actively in beyond just marketplace and all the, the norm or the normal um marketing places for shed companies. But are you actively, you know, seeking new leads and how are you doing that and how are you handling those leads once they come and how much attention do you really give them? And you know just handling a lead correctly? We could do 10 podcasts on because that is such a in-depth subject. But that that really I guess you know how you handle your leads is really what separates the, the men, from the boys right now.

SHED GEEK:

I think no, no, that's. Uh, there's so much everybody's. You know it's not, it's not like everybody's in a panic. I don't feel like um, because you know you're, there are some seeing success. I think that you're just I don't know. But the question's always been posed for years since I can remember is like when do we hit our bubble that pops? You know, when are we oversaturated in the market? To me, you know that oversaturation starts to create conversations about acquisitions, because it's kind of like how many more can you know this guy's uncle and nephew and brother?

SHED GEEK:

start a shed company.

SHED GEEK:

And then there's more and, uh, who's not going through? You want to start a business, but it's kind of like do you have all of the information of what it takes to help make a business successful, from the from the business management side to the building? Yes, you know, we've. We've seen some companies we work with see increase and it create a problem in another area. Yes, so oh, we can help yourselves. Let's get you from seven to nine. Then, all of a sudden, we don't have the labor, yep, and we don't have the labor and we don't have the infrastructure to be able to do this. So it's, it's trying to move. You know, turn that airplane on a small circle instead of this big. Absolutely, you got to take, you got to take the whole business into consideration. When you see an increase here, now you see, oh, no, we've got to increase in our lumber buying or metal or whatever components you're needing, or you know, I'm struggling with adding a bay yes.

SHED GEEK:

That slows us down.

Matthew Black:

Those are all you know the good problems to have is hey, I'm growing and I don't know.

Matthew Black:

You know I don't have capacity to produce buildings. Well, find some wholesale distributors. I don't have a dealer network. Go to existing dealer networks and see if they would carry your product. Um, you know, there's solutions for that. I think more people are seeing the downside, um where they, like I said, probably a lot are plateaued. Um, definitely, some are down, and one of the things that I'll point out is, like you know, cash flow. Um, cash flow is so important, but it's easy, when there's strong cash flow, to not really focus on your operations and not optimize things, but in times like what they are now, it becomes imperative that you understand your cash flow.

Matthew Black:

If you're, if you have, you know, large amounts of inventory that have been produced for this season, and I'll even say this I've you know, this is our, our busy season. We're in spring. I see companies offering 20% off their sheds right now and it's like uh, this, this is not the time when you would expect to see people especially not that heavy.

Matthew Black:

I mean we still, you know, this time of year, uh, we'll still discount. I know there's a whole conversation to be had about to discount or not to discount and does it devalue the your brand if you offer discounts even, not even just discounts.

SHED GEEK:

But like um, me and Kyle used to talk about this, he was always of the mindset of sell when it's hot, yeah, when things are going out the door, that's whenever you do the discount. I mean him would like argue back and forth and I was like, no, you do, if you're going to do the discount you did when sales are down. He's like, why not hit it while it's hard you have? Any thoughts about that like is there? Is there a better time?

SHED GEEK:

because we were just going off our emotions and guts. I think exactly. I think I don't know that we were using data.

Matthew Black:

Absolutely yeah, we and we are very data driven uh, we know our numbers down to our colors. I mean, we track, we know exactly what percent of the buildings that we sell are of a certain color, filtered by month and by season, which sizes sell best in what areas, and that's one of the advantages of software like MyShed we have all that in the dashboard, so we do use a lot of that to make these decisions and see what the results of these decisions are. I do agree with doing some value-added promotions during this time of year when things are hot. This time of year when things are hot, like you know, get, you know, buy any building over $5,000 gets $200 worth of free options or something Gotcha.

Matthew Black:

So, we, like this time of year that's what I feel is best is like to add value, because people are already looking to buy. We're not trying to convince them to buy because we're offering a discount. So, if they're already looking to buy, let's add value to what we're offering a discount. So, if they're already looking to buy, let's add value to what we're offering, above maybe what our competition is doing, and then they see that and they'll be like well, I was looking at this up the road, this company is going to give me this in addition. So, we're not trying to turn non-buyers into buyers, we're just trying to steer buyers our way. Gotcha, that makes sense. I like that quote.

SHED GEEK:

Like we're just trying to steer buyers our way. Gotcha, that makes sense. I like that quote. Like we're not trying to turn non-buyers into buyers, we're just adding to the value of those who are buying. So, people know you in the industry is twofold. You have this really cool like double-edged sword that you're out there You've got Blacks and then you've got MyShed and you kind of use MyShed. Maybe you know, maybe I'm speaking for you. Maybe it was started as a catalyst, maybe it was started as a launching pad for to help blacks. Yeah, you know, because a lot of things happen in the industry. I've been, I've been having this conversation, and I want your thoughts on it here lately. But a lot of people who start things in the industry start them out of the reality that they have a need, and no one serves that need and then sometimes it ends up to the point where it's like, oh, other people need the solution that I offered. So, I'm going to put this out. Is that why, you break

SHED GEEK:

it down, Because I'm going to make a mess of it.

Matthew Black:

Yes, For sure.

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Matthew Black:

So, you know, MyShed to me is a platform that helps me with Black's Buildings to sell more sheds. It helps my dealers during the sales process to sell quicker, to sell with more confidence. It is a great tool. I did build this, or my team and I. We built this software for the industry, but I definitely benefit greatly from it. We've just been working really hard on this product.

Matthew Black:

My shed is light years from where we were a couple years ago. We've doubled down, we've learned from our customers what they really want and need in a software and we've tried to provide that for them. And we've even gone beyond that. And you know, with our ERP system it's something that is new that can literally be the digital backbone of a shed company to know your numbers uh, true, uh without having to do all these calculations or having spreadsheets. And any shed company owner who has sat down to figure their true cost on sheds knows the mess it is to pull all of your supplier invoices together to see your current cost on all those with all of your build sheets, what materials are required for a certain building, and then put all that together to give you a true cost of materials. Our system will do that on its own. We'll provide you a list of materials needed to build the shed, your total cost for the shed, so things like that.

Matthew Black:

With blacks this goes back. We're a little small for our britches because we only have the one manufacturing location and this works fantastic for that. But even for these big companies where they really need this, if you've got multiple manufacturing plants and you can't be at all of them all the time, this gives you invaluable insight into what is going on, helps you track your inventory and do all of that. So, yes, blacks and MyShed kind of work together for the betterment of each other. We have learned through Blacks things that we would like to have. For instance, you know fillable RTO contracts and you know fillable RTO contracts and financing contracts within the software things that are just necessary to make the sales process smoother instead of having to switch back and forth from here to there, having things just all in one place in one process.

SHED GEEK:

What are, what are like some of the challenges along the way that you guys have experienced, that you feel like I wish I knew this, then what I know now, which is all our lives, isn't it?

Matthew Black:

Absolutely.

SHED GEEK:

What are some of the things that you feel like you've been able to overcome?

Matthew Black:

Yeah, we have listened to our users and there has been a lot of growth in areas just the way orders are processed through the system, the flow of things. You know, at first, we had ideas that maybe they should flow this way but through talking with customers we've kind of changed some of that and the speed of things. There's been a lot of learning experience, especially early on when we first kind of released MyShed. We learned a lot from that time and that's allowed us to make our product that much better. We listen to our customers. We've actually recently been reaching out to all of our customers and just soliciting feedback and just, you know, we want to meet our customers where they need us to be customers where they need us to be. So, if they need something, you know we aggregate all of the responses, and you know we kind of rate them on. You know universal tasks that should be done or created and yeah, we're always working to give our customers what they want, need and expect.

SHED GEEK:

What I'm trying to think of things that other people have faced along the way, whenever I think about just technology in general and you can use technology as a universal description across the retail market.

Matthew Black:

Yeah.

SHED GEEK:

But tech has really hit the retail market in general, but it's you've just really seen. I remember writing a, an article, a column called with the tech, and just talking about all of this explosion of different things that have hit um, we kind of talked about your why, kind of like you know where it came about, the early challenges that you've had to overcome, how, how do you feel like you and others can adapt to that? Or maybe the better question is, how can the industry adapt to it? Because this is my personal opinion here. Okay, this is my personal bias coming out here, but I tend to judge things more harshly. I don't understand. Yes, it's easier to criticize things when I don't understand them, but as you begin, like the players that's maybe a terrible way to say this, but the players of the industry, you know they're embracing these things Absolutely.

SHED GEEK:

They use these things to the, the, the, the full capability of what they're able to be used for.

Matthew Black:

Yes.

SHED GEEK:

And you don't want to like present, like this doomsday picture of like, if you don't use it, you're gonna fall apart. Yeah, I still think you can build a shed and set it up by the road, sell it and make a living. Absolutely. The question is can you scale a business? Because if you don't want to, then maybe you're fine, that's exactly, but if you want, to scale a business yep, yeah, and the software is definitely crucial as you scale a business.

Matthew Black:

You're totally right. There are a lot of people who are just fine to build a shed here and there and sell them and feel content and not go after more. But there's a lot of us out here who want to grow our businesses. I feel convicted that I should be growing my businesses and it's something that software definitely helps you with. It will make it much less difficult as you scale just to have a tight grasp on what is happening and a good understanding for maybe, what is to come. But data is key to all of it and really just knowing where you're headed and where you want to be headed and then charting that course and following that way.

Matthew Black:

Planning is so crucial and setting goals.

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Matthew Black:

Definitely, software is a key component to any company that wants to grow. I know for a fact there's still plenty of companies out here using spreadsheets to calculate their prices on sheds and they handwrite their work orders, and they fax it over to a production plant. All of that just gets a little bit in disorder and then you have things like change orders come up and how is that handled? The great thing about software like MyShed is when it's changed. It's changed everywhere, so it's not chasing down pieces of paper that got sent out and you know no, don't build that, it needs to be like this. Oh, it's already gone into production. Sell it as inventory. I'm sure many of us have seen that before. So, you know it's crucial for a shed company that wants to grow to have some software solutions in place, and definitely a 3D configurator. You know your dealers will thrive with a 3D configurator, where without it, mostly they'll be selling inventory. So, if you want them to sell custom buildings, that's a key piece there. But yeah, our customers are wanting more of an Amazon-like experience, Like when you buy you know what you're buying. You get email that says you just bought this and it's going to be delivered in this time period and then another email. This is out for delivery. Like um, the landscape of sales has changed and the we call it the customer journey. What is? What does our customer journey look like? And like with my?

Matthew Black:

One of our key features is communication. We want to communicate with the end customer, the person buying the shed, where their building is in the process, or, you know, if we've received a deposit, we automatically send out the receipt. When a building goes into production, we will send them an email saying, hey, we've started building it. If it's inventory, it doesn't go there, but we still send them an email when it's scheduled for delivery. Just that way they have a receipt of sorts. With that, Usually the driver has spoken with them to coordinate, but everything has a trail and it just makes them feel better about their purchase and the company that they decided to go with. Because you know these aren't small purchases. A shed is the third or fourth largest purchase most people will ever make, so we've got to be considerate of that. But the expectations for the customer journey and the customer experience are changing rapidly, so we've got to be prepared, as shed dealers and shed manufacturers, to deliver on those expectations.

SHED GEEK:

Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. What are your thoughts on sort of like the state of the industry now? What are the things that you think that dealers struggle with? What do you want to create? What kind of like experience do you want them to get when working with my shed, or even calling blacks and asking for, you know, advice or consultation?

Matthew Black:

yeah, absolutely so. Uh, big things I think for dealers is having a, a marketplace to actually sell their sheds on, um, something of a shop, not just like Facebook marketplace where you can go and list things, but an actual, actual point-of-sale system. That way you can sell to people by sending them a link to your inventory, just making things look really nice. The dealer perspective is where we meet our customers, so that experience needs to be cultivated with great attention to detail. You know we go a little above and beyond at Black's, I would say. But like we have a fridge that is always fully stocked with probably 20 or more different types of beverages and we always ask our customers if they would like something to drink and if we do give them something, we always restock immediately afterwards. So, it's always a perfectly full fridge of every assortment. Just the little details, because the shed lot up the road is not doing that. So, chances are this will stand out in that customer's mind and just overall experience.

Matthew Black:

If you, you know, are doing your business, running your business out of a shed, make sure that shed is a nice shed that is, has done well. People really are noticing the small things as their buying decisions become more complicated. You really have to go above and beyond with some of these customers to actually get the sale now, and the little things that differentiate you are really important there. Also, like with my shed, we have CRM integration. So, we've worked with Shed Geek Marketing Go High Level.

Matthew Black:

We've got some great integrations there that allow us to do automations and really, when you look across your network of dealers or salespeople, it's really valuable to invest in things like this for them. These are investments that will pay off. They can be pretty expensive up front, just depending on how you configure them, but this is an investment in your dealers, make no mistake, and this will result in them getting more sales. I'm not sure what other shed companies experience, but working with Shed Geek Marketing, we've received a tremendous amount of leads and we do every day. We expect I'm not going to give any exact numbers, but quite a good load of leads every day through our marketing endeavors, and how we handle those leads is a little different than a lot of companies. A lot of that is due to the automations we have in place and just the processes, and that relieves some of the pressure off of our dealers or salespeople, because some of the things that they would manually have to do before are now getting done automatically, and we've really seen some great results there.

SHED GEEK:

So yeah, we're that is, that is something. How do you combat that with the mindset of I would rather a robot not answer for me. They're not going to have the same personal touch that I have. I have one example I will give in a minute, but I'm just curious at how you can combat that.

Matthew Black:

Absolutely yeah, and when I say these automations, I get where you could construe that as a robot. But you know, simply, you know, for every style that we have, we have 28 different styles, we have different email sequences and text sequences, and maybe that does seem robotic, especially with the texts, but you know we formulate the verbiage in there to not seem that way and then if there is a response, then it triggers us to respond back. So, we stay away from kind of the appearance that they are not dealing with a real person, though I don't think that's something to be afraid of. The real person, though I don't think that's something to be afraid of. I think people are becoming accustomed to you know, more AI involved experiences. But you know, with what we're doing, I don't feel like that comes across and I say that we actually I got a message this morning from one of my sales people and, uh, it was a response that somebody gave to the automated message, um, and it was just kind of funny.

Matthew Black:

It was like who is this? And you know it's um. Of course we get that message and instead of them, but they, we told them who we were. You know, to start with um, that it's blacks buildings. We're following up about the shed you designed, um, this garden style shed. Uh, just wanted to see if you had any questions or if there's something we could help you with this essentially something generic like that. And then, um, maybe this customer thought that it was a robot, because they were like who is this?

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Oh no. Sam, what's going on? Are you okay?

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Yes, I'm fine, Lisa. I was just trying to get a screwdriver and all this other stuff fell down. I'm ready to go buy a shed so we can have some space in this garage again.

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I agree, I keep looking at the shed Mr Jenkins bought. Let's ask him where I got his.

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Howdy neighbor, we're wondering how do you like your shed?

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I love it. It's exactly what I needed, and I couldn't have asked for a better service. And where did you get it? Hmm, I can't remember, but let me check Something. This nice will probably have the builder's name on it somewhere. Hmm, no, I'm sorry, I can't find a name anywhere. Well, we finally got a shed.

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Yes, I just hope we're happy. The thing is a lot more shoddy than I expected, and I'm sure I told them I wanted a window, but they didn't have it in the paperwork so I couldn't argue. Boy is this a lousy shed. We haven't even had it two years, have we?

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Barely. It was just a bad deal all the way around. Mr Jenkins told me the other day that he likes his shed so much he wants to get a second one, but he still can't remember where he got it.

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SHED GEEK:

If you put all the customers out there in a box that have a possibility of purchasing a shed in a 500 mile radius, if you put all the customers out there and you have a shed lot stationed every so often and there's I don't know, I know there's going to be way more.

Matthew Black:

Oh, it's going to be a lot.

SHED GEEK:

But I'm just going to use for simple 10 to 12 lots and I know that's probably more like 10 to 1200, but yeah it seems like at least uh, if you use like the 10 lots most people you can do fine with this brick and mortar location for the people who drive by your location absolutely but you can actually get in front of that entire population with the right marketing that's right and then once you actually get a closed or one of those leads on there yes, it's the same as them coming onto your lot.

SHED GEEK:

Yes, theoretically, in a lot of ways, theoretically I understand they're coming onto your digital lot, yes, instead of coming onto your brick and mortar. And we have been accustomed to feeling comfortable already as salespeople, where, if they come to the lot, the influence of buying the power is in the salesperson's like psyche, because the person came there looking for a solution. Yes, as opposed to you reaching out for them. Yep, you know, reaching out to them. The psyche should still remain the same when they reach out to you, just because they're not in front of you absolutely.

Matthew Black:

Yeah, they're um, I get where you're going with that and I have always been a proponent for online sales With Blacks. We do have some dealer locations now. For years we did not, but we have always been successful with our online presence and it's definitely very important, and how you handle that is very important. I would say that you know we have different nets that we throw out to catch customers, like with Facebook leads and Facebook ads. It's a big net, so when you say 500 miles, we literally might be going 500 miles wide with this net and we catch lots and lots of prospects that submit some kind of lead. And these are the places where those things like the automations are extremely important, because when you, when you cast that broad of a net, then you need processes to help you handle what's in that net. And then you have things like google ads, uh, where you know you're. These are customers that are more likely searching out your product, uh, because their search terms are leading them to see your ad, um, and so that's a different net and we have different processes to deal with all those.

Matthew Black:

In my shed. We send a lot of our leads directly to my shed. We have a great system in place there, some really neat functionality that is unique to us that really allows your sales process to be more informed and have better conversion rates. So, yeah, I think that it's wise for any dealer of a brick and mortar location to also consider using other advertising methods online just to cast that broader net. These aren't people who are necessarily driving by every day.

SHED GEEK:

Yeah, that's the thing, just catching these people in this radius. Online, you have a better opportunity to sell.

Matthew Black:

Absolutely.

SHED GEEK:

Because they may never approach a lot. Yes, and they may start their process there, where, at a minimum, they come to you yes you know, and then you use all of the tools that you have for sure to close this out absolutely right, yeah and you're saying my shed will help the dealer with that absolutely.

Matthew Black:

Yeah, we, yeah, we will help intake those leads. So, we have a lead section where it's essentially a lead card at the beginning of the builder. We ask for customer information at the beginning and a lot of business owners, when we start discussing you know my shed with them have come to us with well, do we, you know, are customers going to fill this out? Are they? Is this? Do we really want to ask them their phone number? Maybe they're just going to X out of here? And you know we have data for click through on everything and it is amazing, literally 95% of people leave an accurate phone number. It's like 98 plus percent on the emails. So, it is very valuable to ask for this information and we almost always receive it. If somebody wants to, they can just put in some random numbers and some random email and get into your builder that way.

Matthew Black:

But we do require that at the beginning and through our constant save state, I mean, it allows us to always know what that person was designing when they left.

Matthew Black:

So even if you don't submit it for like a quote or go through the order process, we still have a lead tied into a building and even a library of custom designed buildings.

Matthew Black:

If that customer has designed multiple buildings, it is indexable for them so they can view every model they've designed all in one place, without having to go through their emails and click on this one to see this building place, without having to go through their emails and click on this one to see this building. It's all in one nice screen where they can go through and see everything they would have designed. And, once again, as a salesperson, that's super useful because you know what the interest is when you call a customer and say, hey, I'm with Black's Buildings. I saw you were on our 3D configurator designing a shed. It doesn't hit with the same impact as, hey, I see this 12 by 16 garden shed you designed. I was wondering if you, you know, like that window placement or if you think the windows would be better on the end. You know just that better informed sales process just to get a little more traction with your potential customer.

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SHED GEEK:

So, Matt, we're probably 40 minutes in on content, but outside of just talking about things in the industry, blacks my shed trying to create, you know, powerful content for people to listen to, something they can chew on and take away. What are some thoughts that you want to give? What are some other things with my shed that are worth talking about? You know integrations, things that you guys have done and built. You know, um, communication is a big thing in the shed industry. What are you, what? Just what are your thoughts on these?

Matthew Black:

yeah, no, absolutely so. Great communication is imperative to all of us at my shed we are literally doubling down on our communication and our customer service, and we have three lines of customer service, and we are working diligently to be known for that. There's a lot of companies in this software space that are known for lack of communication and at times we've even experienced that. But right now, that's the biggest pain point that we know our users have been experiencing, our potential users have been experiencing with some of the companies other than ours. It's just hard to communicate, it's hard to get things done, hard to make changes, pricing, updates. So that's where we're doubling down. I can guarantee that if you call, somebody will answer or will call you back within an hour during all US time, from 8 to 5, east Coast to West Coast. So we have great customer service there. If it's after hours, we will return your call the next day before noon. We will return your call the next day before noon. We have policies in place that reward our customer service people for being on top of these things. And this is going to allow us to address the pain point that many of you have experienced with your software. We are not that software. We are the ones who will be there, who will work with you, who will stay on top of things for you.

Matthew Black:

So, as far as integrations and those type things are concerned, we really work in the spirit of partnerships. My brother-in-law has actually come on and is working with us. He was the vice president of partnerships for Sage for many years, which is a Fortune 100 company, and we have really looked at what integrations and what partnerships are adding value. And one of the most recent ones we've completed is our QuickBooks integration. So, your bookkeeper or accountant will be very happy with the way things are done. Without you having to compile it all. You'll have a great look at your business financially and it just eliminates a lot of work from the bookkeeping side of things. So that's one of the most recent ones, but we're working hard to engage in more partnerships, particularly in the software space. Even within our industry, we have opened our platform to different stacks of modules that would allow us to partner with another 3d design company. If you want to use a different company for your 3d tool and use our back end, we have modules for you that don't require you to buy the full stack. We can sell you what you need. So we. So we're excited to be open in that way.

Matthew Black:

Another key differentiator for MyShed is you know payments, how you accept your payments.

Matthew Black:

Do we require you to use a certain processor, and a lot of people may not know this, but there are some software companies that actually get a kickback from the card company. So they lock in a rate that is lower than the presented rate with the card company and they require their users to use a certain company Stripe or Square or whatever for processing, but they actually get a kickback of the difference in the price that's charged to the shed company to process and the price they're paying to the credit card processing company. So we're proud to say that we have no such kickbacks in place. We are open to different payment providers, so if you have a different company that you want to use than Stripe or Square, as long as they're willing to work with us and create a API bridge, essentially just connecting the two platforms together, then we will work with them. Once again, we want to provide the things that our customers need. We're looking to add value to your business, not take away.

SHED GEEK:

What's left for Matt Black man? What's left?

SHED GEEK:

you're gonna keep going

Matthew Black:

yeah, I, I'm just really excited for where we are with my shed. To be honest, it's um, it's so exciting. We've built a really great team. At first, it was myself and my partner, Nathan, who does the uh, the coding, or heads our development team. We do have a team of developers, but we didn't really have a lot of software people involved and now we have software people and it's really showing and just the progress we've made as well as the milestones that we've been achieving. We're not just a shed software company, we are indeed a software company. So we are really proud of that, really, really proud of my team at Blacks. We've been growing and doubling down on all of our processes and just making them as good as possible.

SHED GEEK:

I've got a question for you. Now with our new adventure, e-commerce, is that going to play into any of your software?

Matthew Black:

E-commerce. In which way?

SHED GEEK:

Well, we just started working with ShedHub.

Matthew Black:

Yes.

SHED GEEK:

Managing partners now ownership um. Is there a way to help more shed sellers?

Matthew Black:

absolutely. Yeah, I think it's imperative for, like we were talking on partnerships earlier, just to add the value to both of our potential clients. You know, for things like the MyShed inventory shop to be connected to ShedHub and that way you know, when an inventory is created or assigned to a ShedBot then it automatically populates in ShedHub and it would be important that it's a push-pull relationship where if it's sold, it's also removed. But yes, e-commerce is the way things are going. It's a space that I know from a shed manufacturer's point of view, but I don't really know from. You know, like ShedH ub that's a way different story the things that have taken place there for them to be, you know, top 10 search results nationwide, or amazing results. These are things that Jeff Huxmann has done a great job there to really get it in front of customers in a buying stage without having to spend that money on ads.

SHED GEEK:

You still have to prove it, man. You still have to prove it to the industry and I'm going to tell you right now this industry can be a hard one to sell to some days, Absolutely.

Matthew Black:

Yeah, but I've heard you say it before If you even just sell one shed a year, then it will cover. You broke even two sheds.

SHED GEEK:

You made money, so it's only going to feed the beast eventually. I guess any of these platforms, every single platform you can think of in one's name today, even if they're not successful I would make the argument several of them already are, but let's just assume that they're not. It doesn't matter because it's the future. It doesn't matter because someone will do it and it will eventually and it's easy to fight back against that and just kind of be like, well, I'll never use it. And it's like, and it's easy to fight back against that and just kind of be like, well, I'll never use it. And it's like, you know, I'm going to get on a soapbox, ain't I, I better get off. I better get off now. It's just, you know, because it's hard to again, it's easy to insult things you don't understand.

SHED GEEK:

That's what.

SHED GEEK:

I've done my whole life. So then it's like you know, once I started learning things, I started seeing them in a different light. I'm just going to stop there before I get on the soapbox We've had such a good podcast, I don't want to ruin it with some negative thoughts.

Matthew Black:

But I do have a little feedback on that. So, I mean, the seeds have been planted for platforms like ShedHub to be successful. Are we seeing the results today that we will likely see in five years from now? No, we're not. But the sales environment is changing at a rapid pace. There's so much happening with technology these days and it happens as fast as we can blink. Changes are happening, happens as fast as we can blink. Uh, changes are happening. So, uh, customers are increasingly buying products online across all things.

Matthew Black:

Uh, people buy their groceries online. People buy.

SHED GEEK:

I don't know what the percentage is it's just a changing of the world, it is the whole world is changing, so you know to be there and be present and to be working on it.

Matthew Black:

Now. Maybe you're not selling 100 sheds a year off of Shed Hub, but you know. What does the future hold We'll see. But you can't have the fruit without planting the seed.

SHED GEEK:

That's right, what a good word, and that's awesome. Any final thoughts, any questions for me, anything that's just kind of on your mind, anything that you would want to put out there.

Matthew Black:

Uh, the only thing I'll say is um, if anybody's interested in my shed, uh, you can reach out to me directly. Uh, my email is Matt (M- A- T-T) @ my shed. io. Uh, you can also call me on my cell phone, 615-547-3299. Willing to take any and all calls. I'd love to speak with you about what we've got going on. If you've had a demo before, I recommend you get a demo again. Let us show you what we're working with now. We have some really awesome new features and processes. We're really, really proud of what we have. We do feel like we're truly the best product in the industry. Check us out for yourself, but give me a call, Shoot me an email. Either way, we'd love to do a demo for you and show you what we can do for your business.

SHED GEEK:

Excellent, all right, I don't have anything else, unless you do. I think it's I think we're good. I think it's went really good. I appreciate you being on here a third time. Who knows, Maybe we'll have a fourth a fifth, a sixth?

Matthew Black:

Yeah, I'm excited.

SHED GEEK:

We'll see what the future holds there. Perfect. Thank you, Matt. Thank you,