"To lead effectively, stay ahead while managing the present. Know your business, anticipate changes, and adapt swiftly."
Dana Staszkiewicz Tweet
Dana Staszkiewicz and Chuck are a sibling consulting team dedicated to assisting businesses in achieving profitable growth and seamless transitions.
With firsthand experience in revitalizing and selling their own family business, they possess invaluable insights into the intricacies of dealing with private equity firms and succession planning.
Their approach offers a means to mitigate risks and provide a short-term resource infusion to ensure clients’ success.
Chuck, Dana’s brother, ventured into plumbing entrepreneurship over a decade ago, swiftly elevating his business to a $12 million enterprise with 70 employees.
Following a Thanksgiving conversation where Chuck shared his business challenges and Dana offered counsel, the idea of collaboration emerged. Despite Chuck’s invitation to join forces, Dana initially declined, citing affordability.
However, drawing from a corporate background in retail with expertise in visual merchandising, buying, and a decade-long stint in ad agencies working with Fortune 50 companies, Dana eventually joined Chuck, embracing a role with no predefined job description.
Recognizing the need for change, especially as Chuck desired to step back from day-to-day operations due to family commitments, Dana observed operational inefficiencies within the company.
Despite its substantial size, the business functioned akin to a solo endeavor, lacking crucial processes and neglecting financial reviews. Subsequently, they embarked on a transformative journey, culminating in the sale of the company in August 2023.
Over a span of 3.5 years, they propelled the business from a $12 million entity with minimal profitability to a $20 million enterprise with double-digit profit margins, with Dana assuming the role of General Manager overseeing daily operations.
Their seamless collaboration and shared success prompted discussions about their collective future. This led to the inception of The Opus & Golds Group in November 2023, aimed at assisting businesses, particularly in the home services sector, in reaching their next milestones.
With firsthand familiarity with the challenges inherent in running a family-centric business, including managing numerous family members within their own enterprise, they offer a comprehensive suite of services ranging from on-site consultations to Zoom sessions, tailored to meet each client’s unique needs.
Their clientele spans various industries within the home services sector, encompassing plumbing, HVAC, pest control, water damage restoration, electrical services, paving, and beyond, extending their reach nationwide.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Dana Staszkiewicz: I’m the Co-Founder of The Opus & Golds Group, I started this company with my brother Chuck.
At The OG Group, our mission is to empower businesses not only to flourish, but also operate with unmatched efficiency!
Whether the goals involve optimizing for sale, securing a family legacy, or granting the team the reins to run the show, we possess the expertise and dedication to make it happen. Your success is our mission, and we’re here to ensure you achieve it!
We exited our home services company in August of 2023 with 130 employees, selling to a PE firm. I teamed up with Chuck 3.5 years prior (coming from corporate retail and the ad agency world), when the company was doing $12M, had 70 employees, no processes, and working with a negative to low profit.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Dana Staszkiewicz: We a consulting agency that helps businesses in the home services industry advance to their next level, whatever that may look like; selling, passing on to family, etc.
We are different as we have first hand experience running, selling and turning a negative profit, $12M and 70 employees with no processes in place, company into a $20M, 130 employee, double digit profit in under 3 years.
Additionally, we are siblings and had several family members that worked for us. This is common in the industry and there are a lot of complexities that come with that.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Dana Staszkiewicz: We definitely experienced this, especially as we started making changes and had a bit of chaos happening.
We discovered that our culture wasn’t what we wanted it to be, we had certain departments driving the company and culture versus the Leadership Team.
We weren’t holding people accountable and that was frustrating people as they were working hard and wanted others to do the same.
Once we figured that out, we started putting things in place: job descriptions, KPI’s, 30-60-90 connects with new people, one on one meetings, team meetings, company meetings, setting meetings cadences overall which improved communication and accountability.
We also sat down with every person, for 15 minutes, and ask what their “why” was. It was important to know what their drive was to come to work everyday, it was quite a profound and moving process and discussions.
We would see them in the hallways and ask how they were doing on their journey to buy a house, vehicle, trip, etc. Slowly the culture started changing.
From there, we also started doing fun things like Friday BBQ’s, calling out birthdays, sending things when employees had baby’s, a death in the family, fun celebrations overall and many more things.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Dana Staszkiewicz: We definitely utilize a lot of online applications, websites, etc and love it as it allows us to work with clients across the globe! We use Zoom and Slack to interact with our internal team as we are spread out, and also for our clients.
We are in the process of setting up a web based program where our clients can interact within a locked down community with each other and us.
We are starting to build out in that same site, drip programs, a place where we can upload different trainings, and so on. We have a Facebook group that is open to all, not just clients, that we ask/answer questions, post great info, interact and help each other.
It’s a great way for potential clients to understand us and to see if we would be a great fit, all the while learning. While The OG Group is still in its infancy, we move fast, listen to our clients and mentors to determine what’s working (or not) and move accordingly.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Dana Staszkiewicz: I think there are multiple challenges that business owners are facing: burnout, changing economy, lack of focus, being stuck, no mentors, to name a few.
We know first hand what it’s like to have someone walking along side to help with the stressors of business (it’s what helped us to get where we did). This allows for real feedback and to help you see things that you might not see.
With the world constantly changing, owners need to be doing the same. You need to be many steps ahead, looking out on the horizon to be a leader and, more than relevant, all the while keeping the day to day going, knowing your business and numbers and adjusting accordingly.
Unfortunately, many owners are so overwhelmed with the day to day, it’s hard for them to get to that point, let alone think that they can.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Dana Staszkiewicz: I’d say the most underestimated part of running a company is knowing your numbers. Not just basic P&L numbers, but REALLY knowing your numbers.
A yearly budget is super important, how can you get where you want without a vision? We started our budgeting process in November of each year, while it was super hard in the beginning, it was a large factor in how we drove the company.
Once the budget is done, you don’t just walk away from it, it’s communicated out across the company, appropriate for each person and their role.
The first thing I did each day was come in and look at the prior day’s numbers, I would see trends and know when things needed to pivot or adjust and would communicate out accordingly.
I had our numbers by the 15th of each month and would review with our Executive Team, talking through what was going well, wasn’t and we would adjust. From there, we would sit with each manager, having the same conversation.
This allowed the whole company to know the vision and we would constantly adjust according to the business so we weren’t getting to the end of the month or year and wonder why we were down, didn’t have a profit and so on.
This is a foundation to running a business and we work with and require this for all of our clients. If you don’t have this, it’s hard to propel a company.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Dana Staszkiewicz: Success to me means loving what I am doing, while being financially rewarding, and being able to help others out, both personally and professionally, while having time for my friends and family.
I love to push myself, always learning and growing, and want to help others do the same!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Dana Staszkiewicz for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Dana Staszkiewicz or her company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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