Brady Jolly

Jolly Plumbing | Drains | Heating | Air
"Reimagining how the world experiences home services"

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

New wraps hitting the roads soon 🔥

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

@STLChrisH Love it! Congrats, brother

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Interesting perspective. I may see it a little differently.

I’ve seen plenty of companies with strong lead flow and solid sales KPIs that still struggle because operations isn’t dialed in. In our world, the real opportunity is widening the spread between gross margin and overhead. Too many companies operate under 50% gross margins with 40%+ overhead, which leaves almost no room for profit.

I’ve led a company with solid marketing, above-average sales, and poor operations… and the opposite. I’ll take a highly performing operations company all day.

Marketing and sales absolutely matter, but operational execution is often the real secret sauce.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

I’ve done both residential and commercial, and personally I prefer residential.

It’s less about price and more about service. It’s typically less demanding on overtime and on call for technicians. The cash cycle is excellent. It’s one of the few segments outside of retail where you can do tens of millions in revenue with virtually no AR.

That doesn’t mean it’s better than commercial. There are commercial contractors who absolutely have it figured out. It’s just my personal preference based on our experience in both.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

On Friday we ordered 8,500 lbs of dog food through our Unclogs for Dogs campaign. A new partner, Kinetic Dog Food, matched it, bringing this round to 17,000 lbs and pushing us past 40,000 lbs donated over the last three years.

This started as an idea from our marketing guy at the time when we were struggling to generate drain calls. It worked immediately, boosted call volume, and made a real impact in the community. A true win-win.

Since then, other plumbing companies across the country have adopted similar campaigns, which has led to hundreds of thousands of pounds of dog food donated nationwide. Proud of the idea, the execution, and the people behind it.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

@STLChrisH Looks great. Congrats!

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Awesome thread on the personal challenges that come with owning and growing a business.

You don’t build resilience overnight. You build it through experience, mistakes, and a lot of scar tissue along the way. That’s what ultimately makes you a better leader when the pressure is on.

This one made me reflect on how far I’ve come as an owner and how much more there still is to learn.

[Sam Allsopp @sam_allsopp_]

https://t.co/I4jVoZBhpc

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Really enjoyed this. These are some of the feelings I’ve dealt with in my 11 years running my business and I’ve never been able to put it into words or explain it to anyone. This does a really good job of that and will help me reflect and think through how to handle the daily challenges that entrepreneurship throws me. Thank you!

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

We’re about halfway through installing the new basketball court at our office.

In 2013, my dad and I built the original court together. It ended up becoming a big part of our space, our culture, and how we connected with our team and community.

Doing this install together again has been the best part. The first photo is from the original build, the second is from today.

More to come as we get closer to the finish line.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Big fan of full commission if it works for your space (sewer sales, HVAC sales, roofing, etc). Set up commission structure that increases as gross profit dollars per job increase, decreases as GP decreases. Don’t set commission structures on revenue only. Set expectations of lead volume expectation during hiring process (under promise and over deliver on this).

Just my two cents. Good luck!

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

@STLChrisH Love it! Congrats

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

This year we ran a Heat for the Holidays contest and asked our community to nominate someone in need. Our team voted and selected Bill, a lifelong Norwood resident who has been living without heat for the past three years.

Bill served 11 years in the Army, later worked as a postman, and has faced some real challenges the last few years. Being able to help him was an incredible moment for our team.

Huge thanks to Johnstone Supply for providing the furnace and to our team for rallying together and handling the install.

https://t.co/GyoyuRsDTP

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Cleaning out some closets at the office and found these posters from 2015, right when I was taking over management. I had a million ideas. Some were good. Some… not so much.

What I did know was that we needed direction and a set of common goals to work toward. Looking back, it’s clear we often overestimated what we could accomplish in the short term and underestimated what we could accomplish over the long term.

Ten years later, it’s a good reminder of how far we’ve actually come. Progress doesn’t always feel fast day to day, but over time it adds up.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

@AizikZimerman Nice!! We’ve been doing this campaign for several years and it’s been one of the best ones we’ve ever done. Love it!

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Today we took delivery of our new hardwood basketball floor.

About 10 years ago we moved from a 4,000 SF space into a 27,000 SF building that felt way too big at the time.

One unique feature was a large showroom, roughly the size of a basketball court. My dad and I looked at it and said, this should be a court.We raised the ceilings, bought a used floor off Craigslist for $2,500, and used old baskets our church was getting rid of.

That court doubled as a community event space for years and helped us fund the bigger building while we grew into it. As the company grew, we outgrew that phase, but the court stuck around.

Today it’s used by our team, for fundraisers, and for large company meetings. It’s become part of what makes us different.

Always wanted a real hardwood court. Found the right used one, it showed up today, and it gets installed in two weeks.

More pictures to come!

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

My whole team of about 65 has my cell number. Honestly, it’s never caused issues outside of one late-night drunk text 😂.

The upside of having a culture where anyone can reach the owner far outweighs the occasional inconvenience. It builds trust, keeps you grounded, and shows you’re accessible.

That said, the chain of command still matters, and most things should go through managers. But knowing they can reach me if they truly need to builds a powerful culture.

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

@AizikZimerman That’s an insane close rate on membership sewer scopes. Nice! What’s the average sale on those?

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Is it just me, or does this feel like a bad thing for customers?

It seems like it’s going to surface pricing from the low-price, low-service contractors who are willing to ballpark numbers over the phone without actually seeing the home or understanding the problem. That might look helpful on the front end, but it usually leads to a worse experience once someone gets on-site and the price changes.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out and what Google does with it.

[Chris Hoffmann @STLChrisH]

Will be curious to see how this plays out with Google.

Most service companies only quote service fee over the phone. Very hard to give actual estimate without getting eyes on the project / need.

And scheduling availability is a function of call priority level / membership status.

So without gathering the appropriate details, giving availability would be tough.

Who knows— maybe Google will penalize those who don’t give availability and pricing blindly?

Which will then erode the end customer experience (by changing price after seeing scope of work on-site), or not having enough detail to assign right priority (and availability).

[Brady Jolly @BJolly10]

Our Christmas party is my favorite event we do at Jolly. We pack the office with our team and their spouses, have a big meal, run a full casino night with prizes like Yetis, Blackstones, TVs, and end it with a karaoke after-party.

It’s a fun night, but more than that, it’s a chance to celebrate the year, meet families, and keep building the culture that matters so much to us.