Zack Colavecchio

The full conversation with Zack Colavecchio, transcribed. Lightly formatted for reading.

Millionaire mindset was a big one. So when you take all those, you know, the money, the mindset, and the happiness, and you fuse them together, you have this balance of, I gotta make sure I stay happy every single day, but we're going for the moon. And when, you know, I sit down and have a meeting with people and talk about where I want to go, and I say, I'm not going for $50 million, I want to be a first billion-dollar empire in this industry. People think I'm crazy.

Even financing partners, the BDC, when I told them what I wanted to do, they said, it's good to dream big. And I responded with, for you it's a dream, for me it's just my reality. And they weren't happy about that one. But listen, at the end of the day, don't let anyone get in between where you want to go.

Surround yourself with people that accept you for who you are, understand, and will push you forward and not hold you back. So without further ado, Zach, please introduce yourself. So my name is Zach Colavecchio. I am the CEO of Access Signs, CEO of SunTek Group, DJ and producer.

Very happy to be here. I'm glad to have you on the Montreal Entrepreneur Podcast. So you have 3 things going on here, like you're DJing, which is pretty cool, uh, for us understand the person that you are here, like, you are today. Who are you when you were in your teens or early 20s?

A very big troublemaker. So, um, that's something that when I speak to a lot of entrepreneur friends of mine, something that is very common. We all had a time in life where we felt out of place. We felt like things didn't really make sense.

And it's something that I realized actually later on in life throughout the acquisition of Access that things started to fall into place of why I felt the way that I felt when I was, you know, 12, 13, 14. In school, getting in trouble, trying to do things that they wasn't really allowed to do, in detention every day, because I had way too much energy for sitting in a classroom all day and being in the box. So I have kind of this lane of myself as I build my career of entrepreneurial journey that I want to really work on the philanthropy side in education. Reason being is because I felt like I was stuck in a box, and it's, you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer, you're going to be an accountant, or you're going to fail and you're not going to make any money.

You really got to follow one trajectory lanes that society wants you to follow, or there isn't really much out there. And it couldn't be further from the truth. And I learned that later on in life. So my whole, I would say from 12 to 18 when I finished high school, went to CEGEP, and then, you know, finished that but decided not to go to university, was really a decision based on as I got older, there were a lot of questions of me asking why.

Why do I have to do it this way? Why do I have to answer this question this way? There's another way to do it. And I kept getting the same response of, well, that's the way it has to be done.

And I wasn't comfortable with that. So I wanted to try and explore, and what better way than to branch out and do your own thing and try a bunch of things and see where it goes. But did you always feel like, within your heart, that you wanted to start your own business? And I can't say yes.

I think it's kind of something that fell into my lap. Okay. I got put into a situation we can— which we can discuss about, uh, one of the family businesses, the, the Suntec Group business, which I got into at a very young age and got kind of forced into ownership. I've always wanted to be so-called what they call an entrepreneur and do a lot of different things, but it was never, I want to own my own business, I want to start my own thing.

I would until I finished high school, I wanted to be an engineer. Oh, you did? So I had a goal to go to UTS. It was like my dream school.

I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. I love sciences, but I didn't like that so-called box. So when I got to CGIP, that's when everything changed, everything crumbled. And I said, wait a second, I was failing miserably, very, very bad in sciences.

And maybe it was a blessing in disguise that all this transpired because maybe if I would have done amazing and excelled at that, you know, curriculum, I wouldn't be where I am today because I would have followed the trajectory of school, go to university, get a degree, and become an engineer. But what happened was I was failing sciences. My chemistry teacher pulled me aside and said, what's going on? I said, I really don't have any interest in any of this anymore.

And that was after a year and a half of struggling. During that time, I was running the awning business. So I was already running a business, sitting in class and talking to my business teachers about things that happen in business, and they weren't able to answer the questions because for them it's just theory. For them it's just theory.

They don't have— they didn't have any practical knowledge of, you know, what it takes to run a business. Yeah. How old were you back then? Um, that was 17, 18, around that time.

I had been in the awning business since I was 14, 15, did— done every facet of the business. And if that— quickly tell us what that is, like what does it do? Yeah, so I have what we now— what I now call Suntec Group today was Schick Awnings. Okay, uh, pergolas, shutters, blinds, outdoor shading, a company that specializes in that.

That was my grandparents' business that they always had throughout their lives. And because it was a family business, I kind of led into there at a young age. I started working with the company around 14, 15 and did everything, did administration, was on the road doing installations, sold, learned how to— learned how to sell at a very, very young age. And I was very good on sales calls at 16 years old myself, selling products to these families in their homes.

And I kind of developed this love for providing a feeling to people. So I fell in love with this— I'm going to provide you an oasis in your backyard that when you come home, you have this tranquility. Yeah. And it can just kind of elevate your experience.

Of being home. I like that. And that kind of started to teach me about people, about reading people, providing them with an experience. And when you take that with DJing, which I was doing at the same time, and reading a crowd in a DJ— in a DJ world, and you put the two together, you kind of get this crazy mix of— I'm very good at reading people and controlling the room that I'm in and directing the conversation kind of where I want it to go, um, so that I can provide the best result to the people that are in front of me.

And essentially, my grandmother passed away when I was about I was in a situation where my grandmother was the one that was really running the business and my grandfather was selling. So we needed someone to run the business or else the business would go bankrupt. So I stepped into that role of running the business with my family. Anyone who's in a family business knows that it's very, very difficult.

This, this experience would eventually help me now working with my mom in the sign business. But it was me, my aunt, and my grandfather for about 2 and a half years. And then I said, this isn't working. The partnership wasn't working.

It kind of just fizzled out. There was too much tension in the office. , and I made the call to say either I take the business and I run with it or we close because I can't do this. 6 months of going back and forth of what are we going to do, what are we going to do, led to them saying, we're out, just take the business.

How old were you at that time? 21. 21. Yeah.

That's a big responsibility. Yeah. It wasn't a big business. You know, we were doing about $500,000 in sales a year, a couple of employees, nothing, nothing major.

But in taking that over, I was presented with cards that I— not every 21-year-old should be dealt. I found out through, you know, different ways and through my accounting team and my accountants that I was working with that the company owed a lot of money to the government. Why? You know, backstory, family, the way they were running things.

But I was now 21, owned my condo, had an asset that the government could take if they really, really wanted to. And I was presented with go bankrupt or fight, you know, to pay it down, keep my head down and just chunk away. So I decided the harder route. You did that.

Keep my head down, chunk away at, you know, rebuilding the company. Closed everything, closed the office, got rid of all the employees. And I said, I'm going to do everything myself. I might have to do this for a year or two, but the only way I'm going to get out— to cut the expenses.

Exactly. So I had to reduce expenses. To next to nothing. I moved the whole entire company into a U-Haul unit.

There were a lot of long nights in a U-Haul unit of me sitting there at 2 o'clock in the morning questioning, what did I get myself into? Yeah, at 21. At 21. Yes.

Was this the right decision? And I think that's something that every entrepreneur experiences at one point in time. And I think it's recurring, you know, when things are hitting the fan and things aren't going very, very well, it's very easy to say, what did I get myself into? The despair.

Yes. Is this worth it, you know? And when you find something that you're passionate about, whether it be business, whether it be one aspect of the business, not necessarily the industry, but that feeling, feeling that I was able to provide to people is what kept me going. Because you have to have that.

You need something that you're passionate about. You need something that makes those moments worth it, for sure. And I kept my head down, built the company up to about a million in sales, got ourselves out of that slump, and then Access happened. So that was another challenge on its own for management managing the businesses because Access Signs needed way more work than what was anticipated.

So tell us, that's a nice segue into Sign, so tell us what is Access Signs? So, um, we are a commercial architectural signage manufacturer. We work with retail chains, developers, architects, designers across the US and Canada and provide signage solutions, architectural paneling, digital signage to companies all over North America. We have a very, very good book of business that we've worked on growing in the last year and a half, but the important part of it is how I got there.

Yes. So my mom's been in the business for 40 years. My aunt, while she was even with me at the awning business, has been in the business for roughly the same. They owned a company together when they were 20, started their own little thing, and they kind of branched off in different directions as they grew more experienced in the industry.

So my whole entire life I was surrounded by signage, surrounded by art, surrounded by branding and logos and marketing. And what happened was this plague that we all got hit with, COVID During COVID my parents had moved from the West Island to Griffintown. Where I was living. My sister had moved from the West Island to Griffintown where I was living.

So we all lived within one block of each other. And because everything was closed every single night, we would have dinner together, kind of like when I was growing up. So I went from being on my own to every single night, Monday to Friday, I would have dinner with my parents. And over the course of that time, I started to see my mom's attitude deteriorate, her happiness deteriorate because of her relationship with her partners at the company.

It was getting very toxic. The company wasn't evolving the way they needed to during COVID when everything was kind of everywhere. You have to imagine retail and restaurants and all this stuff that weren't opening anymore. Retail chains were going from opening 15, 20, 35 stores a year to nothing.

So you— they were losing millions of dollars of business overnight because that's part of your— yeah, exactly. It's a big, it's a big part of our market. And the company wasn't set up to make decisions quick enough to react to that. And they also weren't proactive enough prior to say, if ever something like this happens, we're diversified enough that we won't feel it as much as if we would concentrate on one market or 2 or 3 big clients.

So when I started to see this happen, I said to her, let's buy company. And the response I was, was, was given was, are you crazy? You're nuts. It's never going to happen.

Every week I would kind of bring it up. So what do you think about buying the company? Oh yeah, keep dreaming. Week after, so are we going to do this or not?

And it was a constant 6 months of me saying, let's buy, let's buy, let's buy. This is a great opportunity. The relationship isn't great between you guys. The company's on a decline.

It's a great opportunity to get in right now. After 6 months, she finally said, okay, but how? She was a partner in the company. My mom owned 21%, and at that time there were 3 other partners that owned the other 79%.

After 6 months, He said, you know, now we got to figure out the how. I don't know how you're going to do it. I said, let me worry about the how. You just commit to saying that.

Led me speaking to banks who said, no chance, your company's on— the company's not making money, we're not going to invest. Other bank, private investors, we're not interested. After about 6 months of me searching and trying to figure out the how, I ended up signing a deal with the BDC who funded the whole transaction. Nice.

They agreed to buy the company, but there were conditions. Of course. One of the partners was suing the company. That had to be settled.

And then the negotiations had to happen on, you know, final amounts. So I had to come in as a, you know, mediary party who settled the lawsuit for the company because none of the partners were speaking to each other before even owning the company. So I was acting on the best interests of the company before even owning the company, and that took about 6 months just to do that. Another 6 months.

Yeah. And the person who was suing the company— father's a lawyer, brother's a lawyer, son's a lawyer, they're all lawyers. So just on that lawsuit, you had about 5 lawyers to deal with. And then because there were 3 partners, between those 5 and the other 2 that were in the transaction, there are about 8 lawyers.

8 lawyers on a $3 million transaction is unheard of. It's— everybody, all the lawyers have to get paid. Everyone's got to get paid. It doesn't make sense.

My lawyer was like, what the hell is going on? How is this even a reality? So that whole process took about 13 months. For a company that size, for it to take 13 months to close a deal was insane.

But we ended off on a very good note. Everyone was happy. I was very, very happy because I got the real estate, I got the company for a very fair deal, which led into me purchasing the company, handing off the percentage of the amount to my mom. So that we're 50/50.

Okay. But I had one condition on the whole entire thing, which this comes down to family business. I said, if we're doing this, we're doing it my way. Try and tell your mom of 40 years in the industry that we're going to do this my way and I have absolutely no experience.

Yeah, she's like, I know more than you. I know this industry, you don't. I've been here, I've owned the company. And I said, I understand that, that knowledge and that experience is going to be incredibly crucial for us.

For sure. But I have the entrepreneurial mindset, which is going to help us restructure and then take us to the next level. So would you say she is more operation? My mom is very good in sales.

Sales. She is probably— and I've met a lot of people in the industry— probably one of the best salespeople within the industry and within anyone that I've ever met. That's great. So I needed her there.

I needed her to focus there, and I needed her to let go of everything else. And what's your main role? I'm the CEO. I oversee that.

I oversee everything. I'm very implicated in all departments as we restructure. We're still in the process of restructuring, and it's a year and a half because every department literally had to be flushed to zero. And how are we doing it now?

Because the way we did before wasn't working. So you go a department at a time and gradually, gradually you do everything. Patience is the most important thing in those situations because you're bleeding, you're not making money, you want to fix everything right now. But you have a team.

Yeah, you have to delegate, change processes, let them fail, and then correct so that they can learn on their own. Exactly. And then throughout the whole process, what have you learned? The acquisition process.

The one thing that I will learn that I learned that I would say is crucially the most important is nothing ever goes according to plan. You can plan and you can plan and plan and think about it and think about this alternative and that alternative in this situation, which might happen. You can't prepare. Something is always wrong.

Something— construction— something always happens. Something always goes wrong. And I think the most crucial skill in that is speed at which you make decisions, patience, and allowing yourself to fail and getting comfortable with failing. A lot of failing.

Yes. Knowing that you're going to make mistakes, especially in a field that you know nothing about. But the best way to learn is to fail. So try and make as many mistakes as quick as you possibly can, and then you'll have that, you know, armor under your belt of, I now know I can't do this, this, this, and this because I already tried.

So within the first 6 months, I had tried everything. So knowing what you know now, would you advise somebody to purchase a business instead of starting one from scratch? 100%. Why?

I think there's a beauty in change. And when you start from scratch, you don't see the change. I think there's a, there's a beauty in impact and impacting the people and, you know, the lives of our team just by making change. I'll give you an example.

I had, I had an employee. I don't like to call them employees. I call them team members now. They're, they're part of our family and which is part of the culture that we instill within the companies that we're one big family, we take care of each other.

When I purchased the company, he was halfway out the door, been with the company for 20 years, one foot out already. And my main focus for the first couple months was just getting everybody on board of my vision for where I want to take the company. 6 months in, he came to me and he said, we may not go public one day, but with your vision, I think it may be a possibility. If we ever do go public, I want to invest.

That's a good compliment. So to hear, to hear that from someone who was halfway out the door and miserable and wasn't enjoying coming to work every day is the little things that make it all worth, you know, the financial gain and the profits and the growth of the company is great. But when you start affecting the lives of the people around you, I think that's— there's so much gratitude and beauty in that. And I don't think you can get that in starting something from scratch.

You know, there are times where starting something from scratch is great, but there are advantages to purchasing a business. And I would— if you're up for it and if you're willing to take the risk and have sleepless nights and everything be on your head and on your shoulders, I would always recommend it and I will continue to recommend it. Just make sure you're ready. And When you purchased, now you're the new owner coming into work, how did the employees react to the new boss?

Very challenging. Um, the company really didn't have any culture at the beginning. I've been in and around that business since I was born, so I saw the fluctuation. I always used to call it the graveyard.

I used to tell my mom, I'm walking into the graveyard, because you used to walk into the building and there was no atmosphere. Everyone was behind a computer doing their job, and that's all it was. It was a job. There was no camaraderie, there was no fun, there was no excitement.

And I took a very alternative approach to that at the most people are coming to a company, say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, it's going to be great, it's going to be fun, you know, all that stuff. I came in and the first meeting that I had with the whole team, I said, I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes and I know absolutely nothing about this business. Good way to get everyone confident about, you know, your abilities. But I said, even though I say that and I'd never run a business like this, I've never had a team this big, I know nothing about the industry, and I'm going to make a lot of mistakes, we're going to act quick, we're going to fix quick, and we're going to have a fun.

It's a good way to start a meeting. And we're gonna do it in a way that gets everybody on board and really make it so that we're all one big family. So I'm going to be on the shop floor with you, we're going to be testing things, we're going to be doing things, I'm going to be on the road, I'm going to be at suppliers, I'm going to be everywhere. But we're gonna fail fast and learn quick.

And how many people? When I bought the company, we were 28. 28. We're now 50 already.

Yeah, a year and a half. Wow. Yeah, I, I'm in the process of onboarding another 3 people right now, so we're just about to hit 50 about this week. Wow.

So you're growing really fast compared to where the company was. Yeah, we— revenue-wise, we're at about 80 to 90% growth year on year right now. Profit-wise, we're at like a 400% growth. But how did you do that?

How come the ex-owners couldn't do what you're doing now? When you're too consumed by a job and by a paycheck, you don't have the mindset to look at everything from an outside perspective. And I think that's something that was to my advantage, that I knew nothing about the business. Yeah, it's a very good point.

So I was able to take a very outside, very macro perspective on the whole business and say, okay, this is the way it's done in the signage industry, but why? Yes, question everything. Yes, why? And there's a lot of books that talk about this, the, the 5 whys, to ask why 5 times until you, you know, dig deep enough to get to the root of the problem.

I was asking that while looking at what is everyone else doing, but not within our industry. What's everyone else doing in industries that are light years ahead of where we are? What is automotive doing? What is aerospace doing in manufacturing?

How are they running their business? What is media doing marketing-wise? What is everyone else doing in different industries? And how can I pull those— that 1% of things that I think could be very beneficial and bring it in?

So a lot of it was optimization, and that's optimizing every single department. Give us an example of a department that had to— that really needed it. Manufacturing, 100%. There was no control on our costs, on what we were spending, why we were spending, and when we were spending it.

The system— very hard to run a manufacturing company when you don't know why you're spending the money that you're spending and how much things are really costing. So I came in and I looked at the system that the company had in place and I was like, okay, but how much does this actually cost? Well, we think it costs this. Okay, but you, you don't know exact.

How do you know your margins are good? How do you know that you're selling at a good price? Maybe you can drop your pricing and be more competitive to gain more market share. They didn't know anything.

So I had to come in and kind of say, okay, now I need to implement this software to essentially calculate all this stuff, which is a feat in its own. Implementing a manufacturing software took over a year, over a year and a half to just develop the software for it to work. Okay. You, you went and got it done.

It's a company that's in the US, um, that I decided to work with after testing multiple ERPs. Essentially, it's a guy from tech and a guy from manufacturing that came together to make this beauty child of a software that is very AI and tech forward, but at the core it's a manufacturing software. So that allowed us to kind of see where we were at, what, when we were spending, when material was being ordered for a job, was it being ordered too late, was it being ordered too early, were we not planning ahead of time, how much money was that costing us, and, and then efficiency. So it's how How can I get every department as efficient as possible so that I can grow the company without growing our team?

So it's— Squeeze every, like, yeah. And it's not working people harder, it's working smarter. Yeah. It's implementing systems to automate certain things that happen all the time.

So I started looking at the process in a macro level and say, okay, so I'm going to look at one process, dig into it, and then if I see that one task or one email or one notification is sent out more than 2 or 3 times, I'm automating it because it's the same thing that happens every single time. It's repetitive stuff. So I'm looking at how much can I automate to increase productivity in every single department. Manufacturing is obviously the one that costs the most money and there's the most on the line because our industry is very, very custom.

You make a mistake, costs a lot of money. So it's a matter of what can we do to increase productivity and reduce error. And I think just in reduction of error and planning, we reduced our costs in the shop by about 35%. Wow.

So all that stuff put together leads to to the increases. Impressive. Thank you. I'm surprised that the, the other people didn't— that they— well, they didn't figure this out.

You and me both. No wonder that they were struggling, or they didn't know how, because the company's been around for 35 years. 35 years. And the culture was not in place.

There was none. It was every— and even it— I think culture starts, you know, top down. And if you're not leading with a good culture and a culture of inclusiveness and you actually care about your people, you'll never get it. It's going to be felt by your team and the people in the organization.

And even the owners that were there before were there for just a paycheck. People can see that. And everybody— yeah, as much as you try to hide it, it's very, very, very noticeable. Um, when you lead, you know, from the back and you tell people to go forward versus leading from the front and pulling everyone with you— that was one of the big shifts that I made when I came in, is that I'm gonna lead from the front.

Nice. I'm gonna be the coach to our team and take everyone with me. If you want to be on the ride, let's go. It's going to be a ride, you know.

It's going to be fun. It's going to be crazy. We're going to move quick, but I'm not going to be behind you telling you what to do. Talk a bit about your emotions throughout the whole process.

It's been a year now during the acquisition process. I'm sure you were frustrated. Was there anger? Talk a little bit about the emotions throughout the past year or so.

There was a lot of frustration during the acquisition period, which tested my patience because I knew they weren't living up to the potential of what the company had. And I really didn't want it to drag on more and more because the more it dragged on, the more we lost people, the more staff left throughout the acquisition because they were just over it. And, um, I was, I was very frustrated along that one-year period. And partners had left, but they were still partners.

My mom was running the company. It was chaotic. And when I say that tested my patience, I really had to, you know, say it's going to be okay, it's going to happen when it happens. And when it happens, then I'll be able to come in and do everything that I got to do.

But as an entrepreneur, when you see something and you know it can be done better or improve on it, it's very difficult sometimes to not want to say, why don't you do it this way? I see it being done this way, that could improve XYZ. And that relates a lot to personal life as well, and the impact on being an entrepreneur and your personal life, because your friends confide in you. They don't want to hear, okay, but why don't you do it this way?

They just want you to listen. So tested my patience. Very frustration— frustrating and very rewarding all at the same time, because every milestone that we like got over. Every hill that we climbed and got through, it led us closer to the end game.

And I kept having to tell myself, you're one step closer, one step closer. We don't know when that— where that finish line is, but we're one step closer. Baby steps and we'll get there. That's very encouraging for anybody listening that are— that is going through something like that.

Yeah, so it's— a lot of people talk about goal setting and macro goals versus micro goals, and you know where you want to go, but you don't necessarily know everything that it's going to take to get there. And it's kind of gradual uphill battle. As long as you're going uphill, you're doing something right. But there's peaks and valleys along the way.

Expect that. Expect it. It's going to come. Get ready for it.

Yeah, but if you can handle it and you sign up for that game, sky's the limit. Yes. Entrepreneurship. That's what it's all about.

That's it. All right, let's pivot a little bit into sales. Now, you're nationwide. Yeah, you're in the US.

How do you do all of that? Everything is manufactured here. Okay. We are manufacturing in the South Shore is the hub of what we do.

The company over the past 35 years has built a partnership of installation companies and signage companies across US and Canada that we essentially ship our signs to them. They handle the installation. So we get the contracts, we ship to them, they take care of the rest. But it's always us handling the communication with the client.

They're kind of working as an auxiliary department of our company. And that has led to more partnerships, more business. And more flexibility. You don't have to necessarily increase your overhead to have a team here and have a team there.

Partnerships are the way to go. And that will lead to certain acquisitions. If I'm giving a company 85% of their business, I may as well buy the business. But those are for future plans.

And until you get there, it's just a matter of working with the right people and finding people that have similar values to you so that is felt when they're front-facing the customer. That's crucially one of the most important things that I've changed. When I came in, I vetted every single supplier that we work with, had a conversation with them, made sure that it fit. I don't care how good you are, if it doesn't fit, I'll find somebody else.

So walk me through that process. You have them on a Zoom because they're far away, or do you have to go and meet with them? Um, a lot I went to meet. Okay, the key ones I went to meet.

The rest was phone calls and Zooms, and then gut feeling. So seeing the way they communicate with clients, seeing the way they talk to me and my staff and saying, does that work or does it not work? And there were some times when I had to bring it up to them and say, listen, this doesn't work. And a lot of them made corrective course and fixed the things that didn't work for us.

But there were a handful that I just said, we're not working with these people anymore. Makes sense. Yeah, for sure. And how do you generate sales?

You're in the B2B. How do you go about getting new clients? So our sales team, we're very, very fortunate right now that we don't necessarily do a lot of outreach. We're starting more now.

You know, with the rebranding, with the new website, with all the marketing that is, that is following. But a lot of it is networking, a lot of it is past relationships, past jobs. People come to us, especially with my mom, you know, having 40 years experience in the industry. Everybody in the industry knows her.

So that leads to having amassed a massive network of people that will want to come to us because someone that they know trusted us and they felt that confidence. So when a recommendation comes from a friend of yours that like, no, no, no, you've got to call them, you'll have nothing to worry about. That trust factor comes in and it's building, building on that. So I would say it's about 25% outreach, cold calling, cold emailing, LinkedIn, driving around and seeing developments that are, that are going up in the area.

Walk up to the site, find out who the GCs are, and continuous outreach in your network. Work, you know, keeping yourself top of mind, keeping the company top of mind in the network that we— the niche that we want to target. And you deal also with a lot of big brands. Are they more like repeat business or— Yeah, so we have, I would say, 15 to 20 clients that are repeat business every single year.

The volume fluctuates, but we like to come in when they're on the rise to kind of help them organize. So we're not— we don't really just act as your vendor. We provide your signage. We really try and act as an extension of your company.

We're your department and you're part of our family now. So we're here to take care of you and make sure that all this stuff goes as smooth as possible. We've seen a lot of success in that approach because a lot of companies that people work with are just a vendor. They're just a supplier that supplies a product, whereas we try and come in and optimize their process and optimize the way they operate on the signage side of their business.

Okay. So a lot of it is, you know, 10 to 15 stores a year. 20 to 50 stores a year. We have some that do 50 to 100 stores a year, and that's, I would say, 80% recurring year on year.

That's pretty good. It gives you a solid base. I don't think it's something that— listen, if you're comfortable staying where you are, it's great. But if you want to grow, relying on that and getting comfortable with the people that you work with may not always be the best approach.

Because if you want to grow, you've got to get yourself out there. And that's where we're at, you know. How, how can we grow? How quickly can we grow without without overextending ourselves and get into new markets.

I had a meeting today actually with a manufacturer of parts that we use in our signs, and they presented me with a new product, a product that they supply but not to our industry. And I was in the meeting and the guy said to me, I don't know how your brain works, but I love it. So I'm going to show you something that we don't necessarily show in these meetings because signage companies don't necessarily go there. But I'm very creative, I'm very entrepreneurial, and I'm always looking at what, what can I grab?

What's the next opportunity within our industry and within different brackets and branches that we can branch out on of stuff that we already do? And now my mind's racing on what can I do with that product, like where can I take that product and bring it into our catalog of things that we can provide? I, I fully understand what you just said, but I had a post the other day. I talked about, um, sometimes like as entrepreneurs, like we're always thinking about what is the next thing, what is the next thing.

But simultaneously, we have to be aware that we can't just be jumping to the next thing, otherwise we never go anywhere. So there has to be like this little balance, you know, to be able to move forward. 100%. And I think that point, like talking about that, that comes down to the team that you have around you.

You can't have all people like us on your team. It's going to be chaotic. You won't get anywhere. You're going to hit walls everywhere you go.

So it's very important to have the team around you that that can kind of narrow yourself down. So, you know, we're the creative thinkers that think big, think very grand, think, you know, we're going to the moon and we're a bit delusional. We're doing a lot of different things which can get very, very chaotic. But you have those people that are beside you that say, okay, this is a good idea, this is a good idea.

How do we have to— like, how— what do we need to do to do that? And like, let's narrow ourselves down and try one at a time and not do 100 things at once. As you see, I have multiple businesses. I like to do 100 things at once.

But who's stopping you? Who's putting the brake on the pedal to say, hey, Zach, you know, let's do this one first before we move on to the next project? Within my team, you know, speaking just access, my director of operations has been in the sign industry for 45 years. My production manager, my director of production, is an engineer.

So he's the more pragmatic of like, okay, but how are we going to build it? And then I have the side of, I've been around forever, no one's ever done this. So I get that, that defense. And listen, sometimes I say, okay, but that's, that's great.

That's, that's the beauty of it. No one's ever done it. And then we kind of sit down and brainstorm and find a way to bring it into our market and then bring my mom in to say like, now how can we market this? How can we sell it?

Because we have this product that can blow up, but we now have to bring it to market. And the CFO comes in and says, uh-uh, we're not paying for this. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

We don't have the budget for that. We can't do this. We can't do that. Stop spending money.

Stop traveling to go see new products. Yeah. That's the beauty of having a team around you for sure. Because otherwise you keep bouncing everywhere.

That's it. They keep you on the track, you know? You know, entrepreneurship is a journey that is not a straight line. You're avoiding rocks, there's things being thrown at you.

And having a team that can kind of keep you within boundaries but also allow you to explore and it not feel restricting— because a lot of times if you don't have the right people around you, it can start to feel restricting, like I'm being held back from doing something that I want to do. And having that balance of the two is what keeps you from not derailing too Or maybe they're too afraid to tell you no. There's that too. That's a very big possibility.

You know, as the CEO of the company, sometimes people aren't necessarily as comfortable to say like, we shouldn't do this or don't do that or this makes no sense. So I think it all comes down to that team. I guess that's the difference between being a solopreneur and when you're building a business. As a solopreneur, you're alone.

So all of your ideas stays with you. You can't talk to other people, say, oh, you know, this is good, this is not good. And then you just go everywhere. Sometimes you lack focus and direction just because of that.

Yeah. And that's a big thing. I've been posting a lot about it lately, but I joined EO. Yes.

Yes. Which is essentially something that I had never heard about until this year. Maybe there's a reason because I had that whole part of me that was solopreneur. The Onibus was— Onibus was very much solopreneur.

I was doing everything at the beginning and then I started to realize that I can't do it all myself. So I had to start to build a team. This year I got presented with EO EO is an entrepreneurial organization that is worldwide. Each major city has its own chapter.

And basically a client of mine from the awning business is in EO, told me you'd be the perfect fit for this organization. And I was like, okay, I'm going to start looking into it. 4 days later, one of my suppliers from Quebec City who's around my age said to me, yeah, I'm part of this organization, EO, for the Quebec chapter, and I think it'd be amazing for you. It's all business owners.

5 million in the US. $1 million a year in revenue, and they vet who goes in very, very rigorously. So you're vetted by their staff. You're then put in a group, in the group chat, saying, here's a nominee to join EO.

Does anyone have any— how do they say it— comeback or reason why we shouldn't let them in? So you're vetted by the team, and then you're vetted by the whole group of members. And within about 2 months, I was accepted into the group, and provided me with something that I was missing that I didn't know I was missing. What is that?

As an entrepreneur, it's very hard to speak to people within your inner circle about the things that you go through every single day. There's a lot of stuff you don't want to let people in on. There's a lot of stuff that people don't get and can't comprehend. And in a lot of times, you're not looking for sympathy, you're looking for experience, you're looking for someone that can actually provide you with value.

And not to say that that support system that you have is not important and not valuable, but for effectiveness in business, having that kind of community that you can go talk to, which leads to, you know, that team that's around you that you can actually talk to about things and not always be shut down, provides you with a space that is safe, that you can be entirely open about everything that is happening. And they're very structured in their approach. Basically, the chapter is split up into forums of 8 to 10 people, which is your inner community. NDAs are signed.

There's a lot of confidentiality and you have to go very, very, very deep. Deep into the emotional aspect, how business is affecting your life, how you really feel, your business, the 1% of your business that no one really knows about. And it allows you to fully open up. And they have a strict rule of you cannot give advice, which I thought was very, very interesting when I sounded like that.

They cannot give you advice? They cannot. No one can give anybody advice. They have to share from experience, and then it's up to you to do what you want with it.

I like that. The reason is, is because if, let's just say you give me advice on a situation of you should do this too and it's going to fix your situation. And if I do it and it doesn't fix the situation, I might have animosity towards the other person or kind of resentment towards the other person because I tried it, it didn't work. Whereas with this approach, it's no advice.

In this situation, or I was in a similar situation about a year ago and this is how I handled it. You take it the way that you want to take it and you run with it. And then you have to use your discernment to see is it good for you or not. Correct.

You have to be the one to make the decision whether or not you want implement what they did. It can't come from them saying you should do this, and that's in the bylaws. If you start to do that, you can get kicked out of the group. Do you have to go in person, or is it virtual?

Uh, no, it's in person. You have a forum meeting once a month in person that you have to prepare for, fill out kind of like your journal, and if you don't fill those out, there are fines. It's, it's very, very serious. Um, if you don't fill it out, it's like a $500 fine.

Wow. For for lack of respect because everyone took the time to fill it out, you didn't. If your phone goes off during those 3-hour forum meetings, there's a fine. So it's very much controlled when you're in those settings.

And there are settings where it's very, very fun. I just got back from LA. We were there on the chapter retreat. So once a year we do a retreat, and it's for everyone to kind of get out of the chaos of running businesses.

So it's 3 hours every month, 3 to 5 hours depending on, you know, the forum that you're in. Okay. And then you, you can always— you're in a group, you can always communicate back forth. But I like how you said that you didn't even know you were— that's something you were missing.

And I definitely agree with you. There are things that other people won't understand because what you go through as being a business owner, it's not the same as being an employee because you might get answers like, well, why don't you just maybe go get a job or something that you don't want to do, you see? Yeah, exactly. And it's— listen, it's something— it's a conversation I have with my girlfriend all the time.

I just say, I appreciate you being there for me, but you just don't understand. You don't get what I'm going through. And as much as I can open up, I don't want to burden you with that. And I guess that's just something that I've battled, not burdening the people that are around me with what's going through my head.

As an entrepreneur, we're a little bit chaotic inside of our minds, and we think very, very big, and we want to do everything, and we move very, very quickly. And that can come with its challenges of just, you know, staying afloat and having that sounding board of people that understand, people that get it, and that people that have faced the exact same things you faced provides this very safe, calming environment where I can share and not be judged. Yes. You know, because another, another aspect to it is because it's businesses that are all over a certain, you know, volume and revenue, numbers talk.

Number conversations are a little bit bigger. So if you're speaking to someone— and this is not to discredit people, you know, our chefs and that are very, very happy with the money that they make. But when I'm talking about a $5 million deal and that I'm not happy with this and I'm not happy with this and I'm not making enough money on this deal, and you have someone that is making minimum wage, they're just like, yeah, well, when I'm making minimum wage, what are you talking about? Like, that's amazing.

You're talking about a $3 to $5 million transaction and I'm doing this. And I was like, I understand that, but I'm talking about, you know, making 2% more because it's going to affect this and it's going to affect that. And how can I get that margin instead of just being happy that I'm making money. Yes.

And those conversations can be very, very tough to have, especially with people that are around you if they don't understand. Yes, for sure. So they help you also to be able to manage your stress level and what you're going through in the company, to be able— when you come back, you're like, okay, you recharge. Basically everything is about that.

It's about you as a person. It's very personal, which is something that I was not expecting. Everyone that is there shares from the bottom of their heart. People share about family, they share about how they're handling their relationships with running a business, how they're managing being a parent while running a business.

Very much not only business, which I thought was super interesting as well, because it will help me kind of grow up, like, grow as a human being, as a future father, a future husband, and allow me to have that group of people that get it, that understand, that have experienced things, that have made the mistakes, and try and find some sort of work-life balance that makes Sense, um, I think it's something that's always a challenge. It's always something you're working on. But if something is a priority to make the time for it and you find ways. And what do you see that among those entrepreneurs, well, business owners that you're meeting, what, what are some similarities that they have?

They're all, all over the place, just like I'm all over the place. And listen, I've got a lot of, um, not necessarily hate, but a lot of comeback on me being in a car with friends and I'm answering an email. It's gonna take me 5 minutes, but I gotta answer this email. Or being somewhere and I gotta step out to call and I'm going to come back.

Give me 5 minutes. Let me just handle this. And it's the first— my first retreat because I just joined the organization. But what I noticed in LA is that everybody does that.

We had, you know, this basketball game that was organized and someone got a notification on their watch that they had an emergency at the office. They stepped out, picked up their phone, were on a 5-minute call, came back. So seeing that we're all the same and it's not just me that is obsessed like this with, with our businesses and what we're for, um, our mission was, uh, refreshing, honestly. Yeah, you're like, I'm not alone.

Yeah, when you feel that I'm not alone, it's comforting. Um, as, you know, corny as it is to say, it's very, very comforting to have that. And what are some of the biggest mistakes that you've made, could be in family life or business? Allowing business to consume a lot more of my life than it should have, and not just, you know, being there and listening to the people that are around me.

One of the main things that, uh, ruined one of my relationships. I was in a relationship for 7 years, ruined that, um, because I was too consumed with my mission and where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, and I had blinders on. You were there, but you really weren't there. And taking those blinders off and realizing that, just appreciate the moment.

Like, we're, we're going there, you know, we're going to get there, but love every day. Stop worrying about you're not there yet and really work towards loving every single day. To be a little bit more patient, basically. That's That's it.

So, um, around 23 to 26, I spent 3 years doing a very deep introspective dive on myself. 3 years? 3 years. 3 years after I got out of the relationship to just work on me and really figure out why I was the way that I was, why I looked at certain things the way that I did, which led to a lot of tough conversation with my parents about things in my childhood that, you know, led to today and why I thought certain ways about certain things and why I was so keen on building this thing and building this life for myself that I wasn't as restricted as to a job, to like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.

And the freedom to explore and the freedom to have fun and the freedom to travel. So that, that 3-year period led to me figuring out that I had this obsession on my— on the end goal. And I was so worried about the end goal that time was just passing by. Yeah.

And I was getting places, but you didn't even see it. I didn't even see anything I was missing family events. I was missing things around me. People were passing away and I never took the time to spend, spend time with them because I was so consumed with where I was going.

When I took those blinders off and I started to take a step back, take a step back for a second, look at what you've built, look at what you've done, look at what you have, and just appreciate it every single day. Yeah, sometimes we even forget all the things we've achieved. That's it. Yeah.

And that led me to getting to the point where I was able to balance going after my, my goals and my dreams while being happy and while enjoying every single day. That was pretty good. I like that. But 3 years, it took a long, it took a long time.

I had to unpack, you know, 20, 23 years of whys, um, and why do I act this way. Um, dealt with anger management when I was, you know, younger. Why was I feeling that? Why, why was I so angry?

Why was I so rebellious? And where did it all come from? Like, what was, what was I trying to achieve by being that way? Okay.

Um, and yes, it took time. Yes. But to sit here, you know, at 28 years old, about to turn 29, and say I've got it— I don't got it all. I don't have it.

I don't have it all figured out, and I don't think I ever will have it all figured out. But I've got the happiness down, and I wake up every day and I can't wait to start. You're like, Monday, yeah! Listen, for me, Monday is the best day of the week.

It's a new challenge, it's a new week, it's a new opportunity to do something incredible and work towards a dream, work towards a goal of building, building something. And Gary Vee talks about this a lot of, you know, stop worrying about the macro goal and enjoy the process, enjoy the journey of where you are going in every single day and being happy with that. And then shit's gonna come, you know, it's gonna happen, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna fail a lot. But he talks about a lot of— a lot of people are trying to go 5-0.

I'm just trying to go like 90 and 47. As long as I'm above 500%, I'm gonna try everything. And what is the best piece of advice that you've ever cotton? The best piece of advice, I would say there's, there's two, and I'm going to mention both of them because, um, I think they're both very, very important.

One, it's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. As bad as things get, it's gonna be okay. And I use a very, very dark analogy on when things are going bad, which is not for everybody, but an analogy on it could always be worse.

It's just business. It can always be worse. Yeah, you lose money on a deal, okay, you're still alive, your family's still here. An employee makes a mistake that costs a lot of money, no one's dying, it's just business.

And that kind of puts things into perspective of, you know, it's all going to be okay. Uh, and the second piece of advice I got at a very young age from, uh, one of my ex's fathers, who was a very prolific businessman in Montreal, uh, he said, never say I don't know. When someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer, never say I don't know. What do you say?

Let me get back to you. I'll get you the answer. Let me find the answer for you. Let me figure it out.

But never say I don't know. I like that. And that's something that I've held with me, and it helped me so much. At the beginning of the journey of buying access because I knew nothing about the industry.

So people were asking me questions and I was like, listen, I really don't— in my head I'm like, I really don't know the answer, but let me go and get you the answer. Let me find out and I'm going to come back to you. And it helped me a lot because you're honest about the fact that you may not have the answer right now, but you're going to go get the answer. And a lot of people respect that, the ability to say that I don't know something and not just act like you do.

So I don't know the answer, but I'm gonna go get better for you. And it also pushes you to go and find the answer instead of saying, well, I don't know, and then you just say, I don't know. Exactly. So there's a lot of benefits to that.

I like that. It's really nice. And what are your plans for the next 3 to 5 years? So we're going to be opening an office in the US next year, uh, for Access and the awning business.

Our first target is Miami, and then second target's LA. So East Coast, West Coast. With that will probably come 2 to 3 acquisitions per year. So my goal by the end of 2023 was to set the company up to be in a position to to scale and to have our plans in order.

And then from 2024 to 2027, '28, and then as we grow, 2 to 3 acquisitions per year. Okay, so acquisition meaning buying competitors? Yeah, buying competitors to basically increase our market share, um, and our kind of piattaforma visibility in different states. And is that here in Canada, or doesn't matter, it could be in the US as well?

It's going to probably be split half-half, if not more the US Yes. Only reason is because volume in the US is another, another game. We have a client that we do, we handle their Canada locations, another company or two handle their US. Canada, they open 10 to 15 a year.

US, they open to 100, 150 stores a year. So the volume game is crazy once you start going to the US. I have a very, very good tax specialist that's on my team that is taking us there, and he has been doing this for 35 years, works in the, you know, $100 to $500 million acquisition range. And he said to me, Zach, you've got it, you figured out, you're on the right direction.

Just make sure you're ready. Don't go until you're ready, because once you get there and you get into the US, it's going to be fuel in your rocket ship that you've never even experienced. But you will crash faster than you will grow if you're not ready. And you'll break all the systems.

I took that very much to heart, and it took time to think about that. We were supposed to open an office in the US this year. I said, we're not ready. And it might be next year, it might not.

I really don't know. But all I know is that I won't do it until I feel 100% confident. Confident that we can maintain culture and we can maintain our mission and our values as we, as we grow. It's a problem that I've seen in a lot of companies around us and in other industries that we work in, that companies grow too quick.

Yeah. And they, they're not set up to handle it. Then they lose their why, they lose their values, and it kind of leads to failure at the end of the day. Sometimes we think scale, scale is all good all the time, but every time you scale the, the foundation, you know, you have to like keep redoing and keep putting— that's it.

So it's just like a building, you know, it's just like the building we're sitting in today. If you don't build the foundation properly, you can go as high as you want, it might work for the first 10 floors, it might work for the first 30 floors, but you'll get to a point if you don't do the groundwork properly, it's going to fall. Yeah. And I don't want to make that mistake.

Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to those things, while managing, you know, um, the macro speed and the micro speed. So what is your day like? Because you have a lot on your plate. Yeah, it's, um, because we're still in the process of optimizing, I'll I'll give you an example today.

Uh, this— the last couple days I've had to restructure my whole project management division at Access because it just wasn't working the way it was run. I had to appoint a director of project management and restructure the team. I find myself in whatever comes to me, whatever needs the most attention that day. I have my task list of things that I want to do that day, balance between things that I got to get done for, you know, for the job as being the CEO and things that I want to get done for growth of the company.

I find myself still very implicated in the day-to-day operations of the company. My goal for the next 6 months is to gradually come out of the day-to-day operations once I have the proper people in place to handle each department. So my day-to-day is operating, very much operating Access Science, working on plans for SunTek and operating that business because it's really only me and I utilize some of the team members from Access, but the company is really me. So balancing that and seeing what our next steps for that company and then and DJing on the weekends, which is totally unrelated, but a passion of mine that I— people have asked me, like, you now own this company that's almost worth $10 million, you're still DJing?

And I was like, I will never stop. It's not in the plans and it just won't happen. So when somebody meets you, how do you introduce yourself? Hey, I'm Zach, and what, what do you do?

What— I like to call myself, or what is tokenized, as a serial entrepreneur. I don't just say entrepreneur because I like to do 100 different things and I like to be kind of everywhere, man. I'm always looking at what's next. So there's always another opportunity.

My father-in-law is a very wealthy entrepreneur. We're looking at different things to do together, and I'm fortunate enough to have someone that has run a business for a very long time, you know, as guidance in certain questions that I have. So I say, I'm Zach, I'm a serial entrepreneur and a music lover, and, uh, that's the way I introduce myself. And it's an— I think it's an ever-evolving thing that I haven't figured out yet.

Um, I haven't figured out the proper sentence, the proper tagline to go next to my name. Um, it's something that has changed from, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a business owner, to I'm a serial entrepreneur and innovator. There's definitely a side of philanthropy that is going to come into that, and, you know, community building and taking care of the community that is around us. But I'm not there yet, and I think that's the beauty of it.

So now let's move on to the short answer questions, unless there was one particular point you wanted to make. No, you— we covered everything. We went places that I didn't want to— didn't, didn't plan on going. But, um, I think that's the beauty of these conversations.

Yes, Exactly. So what are some books that you like and you think entrepreneurs, it's a good idea for them to read? I would definitely say all of Gary Vee's books are very interesting in different, different ways. I like to balance books that are very structured in Gary Vee's approach of like happiness first and the rest will come with the, you know, the business strategy books.

I'm actually reading right now, I believe it's called The Next Five Steps or My Next Five Moves. Patrick Bet-David. I'm in the process of reading that one right now. Incredible book.

It was very— it was actually given to me from my father-in-law, who is very, you know, advanced on the book reading and likes to read all new books and is an innovator. And it has helped me a lot in operating the business and what are the next 5 moves for our company. So I've, you know, got a lot out of that book, and I'm only halfway through. One book that I see on everybody's shelves that I think I think not many people pay enough attention to is Tools of Titans.

I think it's called Tool of Titans or Tool of Titans. The book is about— it's a big one, but it's built to not be read in order. So it's Tools of the Titans. It's a bunch of lessons, and the concept of the book is you open it up at any page and just read.

So you'll find yourself on a lesson that will help you about life or about business, about entrepreneurship, about different things, and you just read that lesson. And I think It's a, it's a quick read because you're not going to read 700 pages of, you know, advice and different tools in one sitting. If you do, I bless you. I was never a big reader until I started, you know, exploring business books.

Millionaire Mindset was, was a big one. All of Lewis Howes' books helped me a lot on the mental aspect of how I look at business and how I look at money and growth. So when you take all those, you know, the, the money, the mindset, and the happiness and then you take Grant Cardone's 10X book and you fuse them together, you have this balance of I got to make sure I stay happy every single day, but we're going for the moon. And when, you know, I sit down and have a meeting with people and talk about where I want to go, and I say I'm not going for $50 million, I want to be the first billion-dollar empire in this industry, people think I'm crazy.

Even financing partners, the BDC, when I told them what I wanted to do, they said it's good to dream big. And I responded with, for you it's a dream, for me it's just my reality. And they weren't happy about that one. But listen, at the end of the day, don't let anyone get in between where you want to go.

Surround yourself with people that accept you for who you are, understand, and will push you forward and not hold you back. I think that's a great message right there. Yeah, that summarizes it all. It is.

That's the basis of everything. And what do you like about the city of Montreal? It's very creative. It's very accepting.

There's a lot of industries that I didn't really know about that were excelling in Montreal. Montreal, which I found out about in LA because we got a whole bunch of tours of production studios that work with companies in Montreal. So I think it's a city that is very creative, very collaborative, and has a lot to offer. We're also very spoiled with our restaurants.

Anyone that really has traveled a bit and eaten around has always said, or people that have come to Montreal have said, you guys are spoiled with your food and your nightlife. I've been in LA for so long, so I can be an advocate for that. But to summarize, I think it's just a very collaborative place. It's a very accepting place for people that want to start businesses.

Go Montreal. Listen, Jake was on your podcast. He's a very good friend of mine and they're advocating Montreal first. You know, Midday Scores is pushing Montreal as the forefront and they want to be the next big brand in Montreal to put Montreal on the map.

Toronto has their stars and New York has their stars. A. has their stars. Let's put Montreal on the map.

He talks about that a lot. I know. And, you know, you know, we don't forget where we came from. Yeah.

Throughout my course of entrepreneurship, I thought about leaving, but I don't think I ever will. I may do— I may split my time, you know, between at our headquarters here and then having the offices across the US. But Montreal will always be my home, and it will always be the place I want to, you know, represent. Well, it was nice, Zach, to have you on the show.

Thank you for having me. Until next time. Until next time.