Shed Geek Podcast
The Shed Geek Podcast offers an in depth analysis of the ever growing and robust Shed Industry. Listeners will experience a variety of guests who identify or specialize in particular niche areas of the Shed Industry. You will be engaged as you hear amateur and professional personalities discuss topics such as: Shed hauling, sales, marketing, Rent to Own, shed history, shed faith, and much more. Host Shannon Latham is a self proclaimed "Shed Geek" who attempts to take you through discussions that are as exciting as the industry itself. Listeners of this podcast include those who play a role directly or indirectly with the Shed Industry itself.
Shed Geek Podcast
Steel Tariffs and Industry Integrity
Steel tariffs have officially arrived, and their impact is already reverberating throughout the metal building industry. In this candid conversation, Jared and Eric dive deep into how these economic changes are reshaping business practices, pricing structures, and customer relationships.
The duo shares real-world examples of how some dealers are responding to economic pressure with questionable tactics – from hidden contract clauses that allow price changes after deposit to refusing to disclose manufacturer information until after payment. One particularly alarming story involves a customer who nearly fell victim to a bait-and-switch scheme until discovering the fine print allowed the company to arbitrarily increase prices after commitment.
"The quality of the industry will rise if everyone gets together and says we have to be better," Jared emphasizes, highlighting how economic challenges might ultimately strengthen the industry by rewarding transparency and ethical business practices. Both hosts stress the importance of due diligence for customers and integrity for dealers during this transitional period.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn when Jared reveals a surprising TikTok shop experience where a customer purchased a $30,000 building with a single tap without speaking to anyone – demonstrating both the opportunities and pitfalls of evolving sales channels. This leads to a thoughtful discussion about trust, consumer behavior, and adapting to changing market conditions.
Whether you're a metal building professional navigating tariff impacts or a potential customer wondering how these changes affect your building purchase, this episode delivers the straight talk and practical wisdom you need. Connect with us at jared@thesteelkings.com or eric@thesteelkings.com – we'd love to hear your experiences in this changing industry landscape.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
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To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: J Money LLC
Hey guys, what's up? This is Jared and this is the Steel Kings podcast. Over there is Eric. We are back for another episode with you guys this week. Eric brother, what's going on, man? How are you?
Eric:Happy Monday. It is June 9th at 2.15 pm. We've got a lot on the books today. Man, I'm doing pretty good. I am wore out. I have a yesterday. If I did an episode, I would not have a voice because I was screaming all weekend.
Jared:Yeah, I was raising my voice, I guess, yeah, yeah, you're staying busy, man, we're both staying busy. Man, this is our first episode 16. For those who are following along at home If you're listening to us on YouTube or watching us on YouTube or listening to us on the audio feed thank you for being part of this, this journey that we're on, like I said, episode 16 this week. And, uh, bro, it's getting into the summertime. Man, kids are home.
Jared:Um, I'm finding myself a little bit busier with them. Um, trying to balance podcast life, metal building life, pole barn sheds, uh, soccer. You know now you're fitting in like basketball camp and you know I'm finding myself just dragging in the evening time. But I'll tell you, brother, I really love this time we get to spend together, Eric and I. So, just so you guys know, eric and I don't get to be in the same room all that often. We're both too dang busy and we stay in our lanes. But, like, bro, this is our time to just hang out and chill out with you guys. Um, eric, what are you up to man? You had a busy weekend. Man, give us the, give us the low.
Eric:You know, I I said I got married last year. I moved to Germantown, Ohio, which is a little quiet town off the beaten path, and I joined this little I would call it community church, but it's really bigger than that and kind of got plugged in there and they're active, they church, but it's really bigger than that and um, and kind of got plugged in there and they're active, they, they're helping the community and like a lot of stuff. And I I touched base with this guy named Brad Higgins and he had a vision and we there's a metro park not a metro park but like a little town splash pad, kind of a river thing, down in downtown Miamisburg, Ohio, and they gave us the facilities for the weekend and we rallied, I think, uh, five or six non-profits, um, and 12 churches all through this kind of I'm just gonna say, for a lack of better words a party slash revival down there all weekend there was bounce houses, toys, people were evangelizing, there was food, food trucks, chick-fil-a came, a bunch of little side businesses and, man, it was just an odd time of fellowship in the public and so a lot of people just wandered over there, because the strip of my Amesburg is, so we ran into a lot of people that you would never run into. You know, in the side, the four walls of a of like a traditional church, I'd say. And, man, it was good.
Eric:I'm tired, though. I ordered a ribeye steak at 1030 PM. I was slaving all day and we ended up crashing, crashing out, and I ate super late and I've been not feeling the best, but now it's time to get back to real life. Man, it was an Epic weekend and looking forward to doing it next year. They already booked us. They said come back please, and which is a good thing, that's a good. It's good. It's good for you're in the city, you're involved with the city and, yeah, it's always important for the local churches to be connected to the city because it's a good resource for, for, uh, people in need and different things like that.
Jared:So, yeah, yeah, man, yeah. So I mean, I was just blown away by it.
Jared:Yeah, I know you're planning on doing a standalone episode, so I'm not going to dig too deep into it, but I know that's kind of what motivates you, man. So, doing the business, you know, doing the business with us, you know, doing the podcast with me, you know all of that's for the greater good of what you want to do, not just, you know, in your church life but in your community. And you know I always do the shout out at the end of the episode. But I mean that's really what you're all about, bro, and I love giving you that platform to kind of share that with the folks.
Eric:And expect this. I will be in Belize in July doing a youth camp, and so I'd love to do a quick 15 minute little. Whether it's with you or solo, it'd be cool to be live from a different country and we definitely got to get.
Jared:We definitely got to get you some content, brother, because I think sharing that with the folks is going to be good man. Like I said, I'm just, I'm just busy with soccer. I'm busy with soccer and trying to know what's your what's your daughter's up to?
Eric:you're, you're. It seems like every time I talk to you got literally like it's, it's one thing. It's a soccer field, it's a. It's one thing. It's a soccer field. It's a school event, it's basketball.
Jared:Bro, this is like yeah, we went to WWE so I took my. I've got an 11-year-old going to be 11 this year and I've got twins that are going to be 10. So, there's only 13 months separating them. So really, it's just triplets, right. I mean it's like having three kids that are the same age but they months separating them, so really it's just triplets, right. I mean it's like having three kids that are the same age but they all like different stuff. They're starting to kind of, you know, talk to boys.
Jared:And my oldest just got a cell phone, like an actual cell phone, which has been kind of nerve wracking, but she's, she's responsible with it, you know, mainly just to check in with us because she's walking. You know she likes to walk, and she likes to get around the community. So, I feel like, you know, keep your phone on. You Make sure you call dad. Facetime. You know it's funny. The first day she had it she FaceTimed me from the school as she's walking to the library. And you know, I appreciate that. You know technology is one of those things like we can get on this podcast and obviously talk to, you know, dozens and hundreds of people at a time and all that, but you know when it starts getting into, like your kids, and you know I remember when I got my first cell phone and it didn't do anything.
Jared:Yeah, I want to try to keep this down and my, my oldest twin, Julie, is super into professional wrestling. She caught the bug for me. We've been to a couple of shows. The last year went to a SmackDown, so SmackDown came to town and took her and daily with me so I got daily the oldest, Julian, Sadie, the twins, and Sadie's my wild child. She's uh, she's different, but she uh, real mechanical with her hands, starting to get really hands-on with stuff and I mean she could probably fix anything that she breaks. She she's always wanting to tear stuff apart and tinker. It's just one of those things. Three totally different kids, three totally different personalities. Julie's doing soccer right now, so we're staying busy on weekends with that and just trying to enjoy my time with them as they're getting older.
Jared:I want to do one quick shout out. As always, this episode of the Steel Kings podcast is brought to you by our studio sponsor, J Money. Whether you sell steel buildings, sheds, windows, doors or pools, J Money makes it easy to offer flexible financing to your customers so you can close more deals without the hassle. Grow your business with payment solutions at jmoneyllc. com and tell Joel and the team that we sent you the Steel Kings Brother.
Jared:I want to talk a little bit about the steel tariffs. That's the topic for today. I know we talked about it briefly in a previous episode but looking at the newsreels, this is June 9th that we're recording, so you guys are going to get this towards the end of June. But steel tariffs took effect June the 4th. We kind of knew it was coming. We had talked about it, I think, back in April, something like that. We just touched on it briefly and I think we felt a little bit of hesitation and maybe throwing it out there as much as we are now. But I think it's really hitting the forefront. I mean as somebody who is in the line of fire every day, like you and I, we're feeling it. Manufacturers are squeezing. You do a lot of sales. I mean you are the top sales guy at Dayton Barns. You're all over Facebook marketplace. You're all over the place. What are you seeing right now, brother? Pricing buildings, talking to customers. What's your, what's your feeling?
Eric:You know, um, I'm still having a ton of convos, but it's definitely a talking point Um, not from a customer standpoint, but from a pricing standpoint. Um, not from a customer standpoint, but from a pricing standpoint. Um, I think a lot of people and let me just say this, the steel tariffs is just one of them there, there's tariffs on everything there, and if you just do a quick Google search, I mean, uh, solar panels, um, EV, got their remove. You know, there there's not removal, but things are shifting on like, uh, like a product basis, um, and, and so there's other, like semiconductors. There's, um, there's not removal, but things are shifting on like a product basis, and so there's other, like semiconductors. There's tariffs on that now, and I think those are even higher than the steel ones.
Eric:So, I don't know if getting into the politics of it, but certainly people are shopping with caution because prices are a little different. With caution because prices are a little different. So, a lot of times people on Facebook are like hey, my neighbor got a building and they're going into it with this preconceived notion that that, that it should be the same price, and so there's a little extra to overcome. And so, I would say you know I'm. I'm selling one a day out of Oregon. I'm fortunate that the tariff hasn't affected that particular area of the United States, but certainly some of the suppliers are either removing their discounts or lowering them in response to it. It's probably a good time to be diversifying what you're selling, and we're lucky to be in a couple different things.
Jared:It's hard to put a tariff on a tree, so if you're buying something with wood, that's uh if you're in the I mean, I just want to say this too if you're in the Ohio area, contact the guys at country cabins. Um, if you're not selling wood sheds, I know that they're open to working with you. Um, if you're working with steel manufacturers, right now is the time when you need to be looking across the board to maybe take a pivot. We're still super happy with our, with our guys over at American steel. They're still doing a great job for us, but they, you know, they, like everybody else, you know kind of cutting down on the discounts, giving us a little bit less leverage to work with.
Jared:And you know the difference between us and somebody sitting and listening to the podcast. You know you have to be on the fly, willing to adjust pricing. You have to be on the fly, willing to eat into your commission levels, because you are going to get beat right now. There's always going to be somebody lower. I don't care what product you're selling, whether it's woodshed steel buildings, pole barns. You know the competition's never been tougher, and now with this, it's going to get even tougher, cause I mean, you know we were talking sitting back in the end of March and you and I were like man, we're getting ready to get busy and you know taxes are coming in and you know we're starting to ramp up a little bit, like you know, like normal, but it's not at the level it's been the last couple of years. I I mean we're noticing it pretty significantly at this point.
Eric:One of our bigger suppliers, um, or one of our bigger partners, um, feel free to mention the name, but they're, they've had a discount going for quite a while. Um, yeah and um, and that's going away, which is kind of shuffling some things around, so opening the door for some other things, other, um, maybe some people we haven't been using as recently, so it's going to be networked as well.
Eric:So, I think this is going to stretch us in a different way. But I mean, like you know, we woke up today. We've got plenty of orders coming through, we sold a ton of buildings last week and um and so, uh, we're fortunate to be pivoting. So, if you're an individual seller or a small time, now it's time to you know, don't freak out, just look around, look around, get on some forums. Call us, call Jared, call you know, call myself.
Jared:And yeah, email us. You know we got dedicated. We got dedicated podcast emails now. So, I'm Jared@the steel kings. com, he's eric@ thesteelkings. com. We want to hear from you guys. If you guys got a cool story, if you guys are out and about, if you guys got a cool lot, give us a shout man. We'd love to have you on the podcast. We are open to everybody. We welcome Competition is friendly.
Jared:We're not going to be looking to take any of your leads or sell any of your buildings. There's plenty of buildings to be sold. I think right now, what I'm seeing, or what I'm feeling, is that the cream is really going to rise to the top. You got to be better than your competition, not just on price, because, buddy, right now they want to know that the building's coming and they want to know when it's coming.
Jared:And I think that's been the biggest struggle from a conversational standpoint. I've got several project managers in here that are working leads all day and that's the number one question. I get like, hey, can I promise a lead time? And most of the buildings are four weeks or less with a slight picture and a down payment.
Jared:Most everybody that sells steel buildings knows that, but at the end of the day, we're competing against people out there that may not be given all the truth, maybe, maybe not. You know, and again I would challenge you if you are struggling that way, you're never going to get beat with the truth, because you'll feel good at the end of the day If you, if you lose the deal, at least you told the truth. You know, and Eric and I have both been in situations where we've probably spoke out of turn. Um, I don't want to act like this isn't a Dayton Barns or a Jared or Eric problem. You know, I've been in situations where I've made promises that I ended up not being able to keep because somebody didn't keep their promise to me.
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Jared:you know and ultimately you know that's really.
Jared:you're only as good as the word of the person you're working alongside of. That's why I love working with Eric, cause when Eric tells me something, I can write it down and it's gospel right. But if you don't know these manufacturers that you're working with, if somebody cold called you one day and said hey, we'd like you to sell metal buildings for us and we'll give you a higher dealer commission than what you're getting from your current supplier or manufacturer it isn't always going to be like tall grass and tall cotton, right? I mean, it's going to be one of those things where you really need to do due diligence on what you're selling. Believe in it. I love what I do here, so I don't struggle with it. When I tell a customer certain manufacturers are 12 weeks or less with a site picture I don't blink my eyes twice. I know that if I'm going to talk to a customer, I give them what I tell them I'm going to and if not, I'm going to stay in touch with them.
Jared:We had one come up recently Eric, I know you wanted to talk a little bit about this. One had a deal on the table. I think it was out west, maybe Oregon. I think you've been really hot out in Washington, Oregon, places like that. We had a deal on the table and the customer was balking he had a cheaper price and get to looking at the contract and the contract basically States like hey, we can change the price anytime, anywhere, any, any, anyhow. Like there was so much, you know, there was so much verbiage in that contract. Tell me about that.
Eric:So, I was thinking while you were talking. You know, I think, when, six years ago, when the steel metal building game started exploding, I feel like the companies that were at the top, a bunch of people left. Those companies started their own thing, and there were so many suppliers and so many people selling that it was a race to the bottom. What I can say now is it's going to be a race to trust, because a lot of people are not networked like we are, and a lot of companies are not networked because they put all their eggs in one basket, and when people get reeling and they're not righteous, humans slash companies. They will lie, and so a lot of things are. There's going to be more ripoffs.
Eric:Now. I can tell you that right now, for a fact that I that that people are gullible. They've never bought metal buildings before. If you're perhaps a customer, make sure you do your due diligence. Let me touch on what Jared just said. You know, and I can't remember, what the company name was. I want to say it. I don't remember, though, and I don't want to missay it.
Jared:Describe it to me and I'll decide if I want to share that.
Eric:Okay, so the company.
Jared:The company, the name you were competing against.
Eric:Yes, I can just tell you this?
Jared:I can just tell you this.
Eric:I've been doing this now. They've been doing this now. I don't remember who it is, but I've been doing this now.
Jared:I've been doing this now for about four years, with you or so, right around that point.
Eric:And I read these people like a book.
Jared:You have gotten a quote like if you're dealing in high volume metal building sales and you've gotten a competition quote, you've come up against these guys and again don't want to badmouth anyone in particular, I'm not going to share their name, but I will tell you this If you're dealing with somebody who's got a significantly lower price than you, listen to what Eric's about to say, because it's going to be something to pay attention to this guy.
Eric:This particular customer had committed, he got reeled in. He committed to a building price, got onto a contract with a company and there was not only there was a couple parts, but the main part was that in asterisks Okay so. So, for example, I remember back in the day when a when a company would sell you a building and they would want vertical siding, they would leave off the word vertical and then, after the person purchased the building, they would add vertical siding, would add like 1600 bucks, and that's how people would sell the building to the customer. Sepa is they'd hide a detail until after the signature on, and then they would hide behind this asterisk. It buried in their contract details that said a company has right to change the price at any given time, and so, instead of saying you know, we're locking in on this very project for three to six months, or something like that, they would basically put in there that we can change the price, and then they would plan to screw you over. They would literally plan to add something later and then threaten never to give your money back. I mean, this is exactly what the guy did. So, the guy, the customer, had this price. And I said, sent me, send me, send me the contract, let me look over it.
Eric:And, red flag after red flag after red flag, the number one thing was that after the guy bought it, they called him back and said it's going to be a 2300 more box or something, whatever the cost was extra. And I said, well, why would they do that? He said, well, I would have bought it from because the guy got a quote from me before. And so he said, well, I bought it from you. And I said, well, why did you buy it from them? So we had a cheaper price.
Eric:And I said, well, that didn't work out because what you signed was basically a variance, like we're gonna, we can change the price anytime. And so, at what happened after that was that is exactly that. So, um, the seller lied to the customer to get them to commit and then change the game on them after the fact, and uh, and blame engineering came back and said this is what we need to add. It was totally phony. I'm glad you said we're not going to rip the company's shed, but they've done that, man, it's so heinous.
Jared:They were the first company that I ever came up against a metal building quote on. I remember Colin. I remember Colin, a tip of the day, and you guys are already doing this. But I mean, just for those of you that aren't, I call dealers all the time. You've probably talked to me matter of fact and it's not a matter of I'm trying to necessarily close the sale, don't get me wrong. Like, that is absolutely why I'm trying to find the information. But, like, if you're a dealer, your due diligence is to supply the customer with all of the information necessary to make a good and educated decision.
Jared:If you call Dayton Barns, we're going to tell you exactly who's manufacturing your building and what to expect when they come. We don't hide behind the cloak of well, you know, got to close you. Before I give you that info, I mean, just think about that. If you're sitting where we're sitting and you're working selling metal buildings, if you were buying a metal building, wouldn't you want to know who was putting it up? Wouldn't you want to know the reputation of the people who are installing the building? We've talked about it before. I can't say it enough the most important part of a metal building process, from start to finish is the install crew. If you don't know anything about your install crews, you need to figure it out. Some of the most talented metal building salespeople that I've talked to learned from spent time with they know exactly who the install crews are for the manufacturers they work with and they're able to supply that information. Not only that we've got install crews, that we have their numbers, so that way when the install crew gets there we know when they're on site with our customers. We go get building pictures, we meet and greet with the customers. We go out of our way to make sure that that process is seamless, truly from start to finish.
Jared:And I know you're sitting there thinking well, Jared, Eric, I'm one guy sitting in the middle of nowhere and you know I sell a couple of buildings a month. I get that. I get that we can't go to every site that we. Eric's not going to Oregon, right, he sells a lot of buildings in Oregon. He's not going there Now. He just went cross country from Dayton to Washington and back and did stop at some customers properties in Wyoming and Idaho, and that's a one-off. We know you're not going to be able to travel all over the country but at the same time, do your due diligence.
Jared:Man, I can't tell you enough Like the quality of the industry will rise if everyone gets together and says you know what? We have to be better. We want you to be better and we want to help you with that. That's why we're on this podcast and and you know, we, we talk and we talk, and we talk about the same type of type of topics because it's important to us and it should be important to you.
Jared:Um, you know and I'm not trying to tell you how to feel or think, and neither is Eric but I think if you can hear insights from somebody who is doing it at a high level and you might be doing better than us we might learn something from you. Very, very good possibility of that. But at the same time, um, you know, I feel a calling on me. I know Eric does too. This podcast is meant to call you out and get you motivated to sell metal buildings. Eric, tell me a little bit more about that deal, cause there was one specific thing about it, and if you don't touch on it, I'm going to. But go ahead. Is there anything?
Eric:else I know I cut you off. You got to refresh me. I pulled up the convo. I was trying to read through it.
Jared:Well, okay, so your customer was dealing with another dealer and that dealer kind of, and I think that the sales rep, I think that the sales rep and all and all truthfulness probably just doing what he was told. You know, I don't think that he was being malicious or anything like that. He probably knew that that was the policy but at the same time he wasn't necessarily being malicious, so I don't want to throw that out there. I will tell you, if you're not familiar with the state of Oregon, they need seismic and site specifics on almost every single building in Oregon. I think that that's what it comes down to.
Jared:A lot is that we do the due diligence upfront so all my guys know how Oregon works. We've got spreadsheets for pretty much every state that we service. You know Florida, Oregon, parts of Texas, New York State, New Jersey. There's a lot of a handful, maybe two handfuls of states that require random odds and ends. In Oregon. We always price site specifics in seismic because more often than not you need it and if you're buying a $30,000 building and you're not told that you're going to need $3,500 worth of blueprints, you're talking about a 10% difference in the price of the building and most of those manufacturers need that cash, need that money for those site specifics upfront. So, we go out of our way to make sure that the customer knows hey, you're not only going to be paying us, you know, a few thousand dollars down to secure your order, get it coming, get it on the way, but you're also going to have to have $3,500 ready for some sites.
Eric:So, this company okay, I'm reading the combo now I've got to pull it up. Number one they didn't offer the door size. So, the guy wanted a 14 wide roll-up door. I know everybody, we know everybody that goes to Oregon. The guy wanted a 14 wide roll-up door. I know everybody, we know everybody that goes to Oregon. There's not a 14 foot wide roll-up door. Those things it unless you bought your own. And since the company, I knew who they were. I knew who they, who were they were using. The customer didn't know who they were using. I knew who they were using just based on the quote, because the line items matched up with who we were going to use, and so the guy lied blatantly. It was the same company we was quoting. Same exact building, different price. The guy was lying. You could tell sold from a different so that sold from a different dealer.
Eric:So I start to chat and I, you know, I, I and I'm just reading the the question um, oh, now I got the quote. I'm pulling it up now, um, and it said he won't tell me the manufacturer until I make the down payment. That's a huge red flag. You're not going to tell me who is going to put up my $20,000 building. What kind of ridiculous crap is that.
Eric:I want a sedan, let me buy a sedan. I need a four-door with AC, a Bluetooth, low miles. And they're like, yeah, I got something for you, can't you? Until you, until you give me some cash, I'm not going to tell you the make and model. Like, you are an absolute idiot, turd, you're a turd, nothing burger, if that's what you're doing, you're an idiot, like, literally, this poor guy, this poor guy. Dear Rokey, thank you for your interest in our metal building services. We have requested your quote and then, oh, by the way, we're changing your price also, and okay. So laughable point here is that if you act that way, you're going to get busted Facts and then you just make it easy on me, a person, that's like, yeah, I get the most likely tomorrow. I just look back man, I'm just making me sick. He says this makes me sick. I'm just, I'm sorry we're gonna have to get some filler because there's a lot of combo.
Eric:I really cared about this guy. I cared about this guy so much man.
Jared:What you end up with. What you end up with is you end up with not just a happy customer, you end up with an extremely happy customer who then gives reviews, who then tells all of his friends, family, neighbors and otherwise hey, I got my building from Eric. He's a great guy. He told me the truth. I did pay a little bit more, but I got exactly what I asked for. And then some, I got a permitted building. I got it up in a quick amount of time and it wasn't any more or any less than we agreed to. It was the exact penny that I paid.
Jared:And speaking of that, I want to give a quick shout out to the guys at J Money. If you're struggling with finding the financing, contact the team at J Money. You can get upfront payments, not just as a dealer, but as a manufacturer. If you're selling inside, those guys can help you get deals across the table when the customers are struggling with funds. I know that RTO is popular. We use RTO here, but I can tell you the guys at J Money know exactly what they're doing.
Jared:I also want to give a quick shout out to our newest sponsor on the Steel Kings podcast, and that is the team over at Versabend. So Versabend is a product from Cold Spring Enterprises. You guys just saw our episode with Wendell. Because you're in Steel Game and you're not using one. You're missing out. The beast bends bows and three moves, flat handles, multiple tubing sizes and switches between them in seconds, with no tools and no hassles. Right now the tool is 19,500, average shipping price around 600 bucks and there's no tax on the equipment. If you're out of state and they're in South Carolina, get ahead of the curve, visit csecarport. supply or call 864-446-3645. And seriously tell Wendell the steel Kings put you onto him, because he will appreciate it.
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Jared:I wanted to catch up a little bit for you. No, keep going, brother so.
Eric:So I he sent me the quote and I don't normally ask for quotes. I just there was some red flags. The guy sent me the quote, quote. I read it and I said if you want the 14 tall, I'll sell to you for 17 K, but keep in mind. And I said it says 17, six on the page. I said I'll do 17 K.
Eric:X Y Z company and me are selling you the same building, same company, same installers. Fyi, they are not going to tell you that, but I'm telling you. And he said how are they able to do the roll-up door? And then I had I had Michelle check. I said I just called XYZ. They do not offer a 16 by 10 roll-up door. So, then I was like, Hmm, why would they tell this guy that they can do something they can't? And so, it made me think that they just wanted the money. I said well, can you find out who they're selling? Manufacturer wise for XYZ company? Apparently they cannot do a 16 by 10. I'm wondering about them.
Eric:I said I want to earn your business, I will care about it more. And he said he won't tell me the manufacturer until I make the down payment. And I said, wow, that's insane. You obviously want to verify. I'm curious for multiple reasons, but now I'm like why would you hide that information? Lol, I'm on the phone with the other owner. We're trying to figure this out. That's you, Jared? I said I can't figure out, Unfortunately.
Eric:I think it's bad business to not share who it's installing the building. I'm transparent about it. I could care less if you buy the building from me, but you should not buy it from them. Is a generic plan building stamped by engineering? I said in all cases, yes, he says that matters. And I said, at worst, this company is scamming, they're being deceptive. Yeah, they have good reviews, so I don't want to say too negative. I love the industry. So, I want to stay positive. This is me saying this. I'm saying this time I want to stay positive, I love the industry. Under the customer info it says 24 by 50 by 12, but in the line items it says they don't even have prices anyways. It shows a 26 by 32 by 14, which is not the same, it's not the same building, and so, anyway, let me call you, so I'm getting close.
Jared:I haven't told you about this, eric, it just literally popped into my mind. So, we're trying all kinds of avenues on advertising. So, this is all. Again, we want to circle back to the main topic, which was steel tariffs how to compete. Yeah, sorry about that. No, no, no, bro. I want to talk about stuff like this because firsthand experience is what I want to share and what we should want to share. I can tell you this we work on Meta, google, all the advertising platforms. We've tried a little bit of everything. One thing we tried recently and I haven't shared this with Eric, so I'm excited to see his, I'm excited to see his reaction to this.
Jared:So we recently set up TikTok, and Eric and I have both been kind of Uber opposed to TikTok. It's not something that either of us use as a social media platform. It just kind of, for whatever reason, just hasn't suited our fancy. We're more Facebook guys. I think maybe it's because of our age or whatever, but we set up TikTok. We have a guy in our lives, one of our project managers, who is really aggressive on social media. Super nice guy, Chris.
Jared:I got to give you a quick shout out, brother. I know you love podcasts, so hopefully you're listening. But I can tell you this he really got me motivated about TikTok. We set we uh set up Tik TOK shop. We set up, uh did a couple of paid ads and then things got some good traction. Uh got a couple of leads. It was pretty solid Um. But when you set up Tik TOK shop, just tools of the trade, um set up Tik TOK shop, they can buy from Tik TOK shop, they can buy and pay on tiktok shop. So we get a call in the shop and the customer's like yeah, you know, I was reading your post on tiktok. And he's like yeah, I paid, I paid for the building, and like I just wanted to get some info. And I'm like, brother, I don't have a clue what you're talking about how much money did he give?
Jared:us like Like 4,600 bucks.
Eric:He paid it over the internet.
Jared:Yeah, with Apple Pay Didn't call it and talk to nobody.
Eric:Pro tip get a TikTok account.
Jared:Well, let me share this. Before you just run out and get a TikTok shot, you got to make sure that the customers are reading.
Eric:I am not going to do it.
Jared:So, I personally listed the building. I gave him a pretty good discount on it. I think it was a 30K building. It was one of our dark nights and the customer didn't read the description all the way and he said I didn't realize that the building was going to be 30K. And he's like I'm a contractor, I'm in the Louisiana area, what can you do for me? I said, brother, I don't have your money. I said as far as I'm concerned, you can call your credit card company and cancel the transaction because TikTok's wanting to take a really high percentage off that payment. Anyway, I hadn't set up Now listen, this is the crazy part had not set up purchases, had not set up a bank account, had not set up nothing.
Jared:And this guy had almost $5,000 of his personal money inside TikTok and TikTok didn't even notify me. Now, I'm just some guy in an office. I love helping customers. I called the customer. I said look, I'm going to cancel the order here on TikTok. I don't have your money, tiktok has your money. But I got to talking to the customer.
Jared:Customer is a contractor, does concrete, does all kinds of stuff in Louisiana area. He's part of a conglomerate that services like 12 different locations. They do like nationwide work. I just got to talking to him. I said, brother, stay in contact with me. I shot him a text. He said I'll let you know as soon as I get the money back. But he wants leads on concrete. So, he and I are going to work together on building projects in his area to see if we can't connect customers with concrete, and he's going to end up buying a building from me. We're just going to work it out a little bit differently. Probably get him one of our pole barn kits and just a super nice guy. But I can tell you we saw the flashing lights and everything of TikTok and thought, man, this is going to be awesome. You can create yourself a customer service nightmare in a real hurry. The guy was super nice and we were on top of it.
Jared:But man, I'm telling you, you got to be mindful of what you're doing out there, because I can tell you, it's not always going to be rose colored glass, I can promise you. Eric. I want to hear your opinion on that. I mean, I know what you're thinking, man. We should list a bunch of buildings on Tik TOK. We'll get a bunch of orders. But I will tell you this Is it not crazy that a company would take payment and I've not even authorized them to do that? It was supposed to be a lead gen.
Eric:Where did the money?
Jared:go it was in a holdings account with Tik TOK. Same on Tik TOK. Ago it was in a holdings account with tiktok.
Eric:Same on tiktok dude. Crazy, crazy. I didn't notify me, didn't email me. Full disclosure.
Jared:I'm gonna check out tiktok now yeah, yeah, for sure, I mean for sure, like at least call us and buy now we're not getting, yeah, we're not getting off, did the guy?
Jared:think he was buying a building for 4600 yes, yeah, swiped his apple, pay, that's like a 30 freaking wide swipe swiped his, swiped his car or tapped his apple pay and was on it and, like I was asking him, I said, man, do you really make a habit of doing this? He's like I just thought it was a deal that was too good to be true. And I said, brother, it's a deal that's too good to be true. I can't sell you that building for 4k, I said. I said that's what I'm gonna make on it.
Eric:I said that's what I think you can get a team metal building for 46 yeah I mean you can get a metal building, but it's gonna be like a rickety.
Jared:You know it's gonna be something you put together. Yeah, gonna be some kind of, some kind of put it together on your own kind of a kit you get from a big box store or something I don't know. I again, I can't stress to you guys enough, being on top of things in your business right now, with everything going on, man, people are looking. They're looking for our product. People still want and need metal buildings. They still want the size of it.
Jared:it was a dark night, 30 by 50 by 12 30 okay 30 by 50, by 12, lean to, he's gonna buy, you know I've always been fascinated that people are getting you know Carvana.
Eric:You just buy a car online. You don't even test drive. They literally drop it off it's insane because I think, mechanically speaking, I would much rather buy something that doesn't require constant attention, like a car, I mean, unless you just trust it. Maybe you got Carfax. But it's fascinating to me how people buy big items from the couch these days and how people trust it or they want to trust it Well, with cars, with anything really, you can put a return policy on and how people trust it or they want to trust it.
Jared:Well, with cars, with anything really, you can put a return policy on it. I think Carvana, a lot of the online dealers they'll do a three-day return policy, something like that. But when you get this building folks, it's there, I can assure you it goes into the ground, whether it's an auger anchor, whether it's concrete, whatever it is. That building's there to stay and it's not meant to be picked back up and taken back away. And I can tell you there's not a whole lot of returns in the metal building world.
Jared:I mean, we've had a couple probably I don't know, probably two or three that I can recall, where customers didn't pay their bills and their buildings were taken away and I got a phone call. And I mean those calls are funny because you know customers will call and say, hey, my roll up door isn't working, or hey, my man door isn't working, or whatever. Okay, well, how's everything else Building's fine, other than that? Well, I'm also getting calls from the manufacturer that the same person hasn't paid their bill. So, I have to tell the customer look, you know the. The warranty is only applied once the building's paid for. You know you, you can't get a warranty on something that you haven't paid for Like.
Jared:Come on Like you know, if you don't pay for it, chances are they're going to take it away, chances are they're going to show right back up, load it right back up and they're going to drive your building back to where it came from, cause, at the end of the day, nothing's free, eric. Nothing at all. Nothing at all is free.
Eric:And I think metal building doesn't cost 4,600.
Jared:That is, that is correct. So, you know I was thinking bro for about $4,600,. I can send you a scale model of the Dark Knight, the.
Eric:Lego version.
Jared:I can send you a really cool version of the Dark Knight. That's about a 30 inch by 50 inch by 12 inch tall metal building scale. He understood and he was a nice guy. Like I said, I made a good connection. The guy was a nice guy. Like I said, I made a good connection. The guy was super nice. He's going to leave us a review, just kind of outlining his experience and thanking us for our help. And again, there are so many companies out there. If you happen to be a customer and you come across our podcast, we'd love to sell you a metal building. There are lots and lots and lots of reputable metal building dealers out there. Chances are there's one in your local community. But give us a call. We'll help you on every aspect of it and we're not going to just tell you hey, they suck, they're terrible. We don't do that. You know, we want to work with you. We got a handful of manufacturers that we really trust and enjoy working with.
Eric:Like I said, we were trained today, we were framed from name dropping today. So we don't want to, we don't want it.
Jared:That's right. We don't want to be. We don't want to be anything more than good stewards for the industry. Metal buildings is a great industry to be in right now, I know. With the tariffs and everything, it seems tumultuous. It seems like we are headed off this cliff right now and we need a parachute. I tend to trust and have faith in what's going on here and I think it's going to rid us of some problems. I tend to be a little bit more trusting than most folks. I think we just trust the process.
Jared:At the end of the day, the prices on steel, the prices on buildings, probably needed to go up a little bit anyways, I know a lot of the manufacturers that I've been talking to are feeling the squeeze. They're feeling the squeeze of percentages when you talk about if there's 100% pie and a dealer takes 20% and install crew takes 25%, that doesn't leave a whole lot of meat on the bone for these manufacturers. That have payrolls to meet, they have facilities to maintain, they have all kinds of bills and expenses that a dealer, a small time dealer and you know we're a medium sized dealer, we do what we do really well, but I mean you know their, their bills super, exceed ours. So we have to work alongside those people because if they decide one day that they don't want to do this anymore, then Eric and I are looking for new partners. You know, that's just all there is to it, because we want to stick with the people that brought us to the dance. Those folks like American Steel. We can't give enough love to those guys.
Jared:If you are in need of a metal building supplier, contact the team at American Steel. They will get you what you need. They service almost all the United States. We've got a lot of other partners. Reliable Metal Buildings Love those guys too. I want to give those two companies a really good shout out, because right now they're keeping us in the game. They're keeping us steady, keeping us on our toes. Bro, I think we're going to wrap this one up, eric. I think we've touched base on the steel tariffs. We've given a little bit of a lowdown on what we're doing. You got anything else before we finish up this episode, brother?
Eric:You know, I think that's a good stopping point. You know, my final words are is definitely, if you're a customer, there will be more. There's going to be an increase in spam and scam now because people are going to be gripping tight to trying to keep up with sales, because prices are going up. So just make sure you do your due diligence. And if you're a dealer, you better be transparent, because something else is coming your way. So we want the industry to survive, so that's all I got.
Jared:Get out in your communities. Be a good neighbor, be a good friend, be a good protege, be a good, whatever it is that you do, big brother, big sister, brother, sister, mom, dad, whatever you're doing, get out in your community. I want to give one last shout out to our friends over at Cold Spring Enterprises, the industry pros behind the versa bend, the most efficient square tubing bender on the market. If you're still using a five bend method to shape bows, you're wasting time. The versa bend makes a complete bow in just three bends. That's right. Faster bends, less downtime and precision every time. Built to handle two inch, two and a half5, 2.25, square tubing plus 2x3 rectangular tubing in 12 and 14 gauge, the VersaBend is made for real builders doing real work Switching sizes, tool-free and done in seconds. Adjust angles with the built-in stops and center marks to hit that perfect roof pitch every time. If you want one, the VersaBend's $19,500. If you're outside South Carolina, there's no sales tax. Average shipping's around $600. Give the team over at Cold Spring Enterprises a call. Check out our friends at J Money for all your financing needs.
Jared:We will be back at you next week with another episode of the Steel Kings podcast. I am Jared, he is Eric. We are the Steel Kings and for this week we're out, peace out. Guys, have a great week. All right, talk to you later.