Don’t miss this episode of the Rocket Roof Show! Dynamic and full of wisdom, Kimba Garcia shares how she went from hairstylist and single mom to meeting husband Robbie and creating a multimillion-dollar business.
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Robbie was rappelling down skyscrapers and hanging billboards when he met Kimba. Both were making a comfortable living, but he was always traveling and keeping their newly blended family together was the goal. So, they made the decision for Robbie to leave his job and live on one income while he started working in construction. The mindset was “pay the bills and be together.”
Their construction business began somewhat naively; it wasn’t long before Kimba realized she had to learn business, or it would run her over. Communication skills came easily as a hairstylist, but business knowledge had a learning curve. One million dollars in revenue passed through the company the first year with no significant idea of where it went. This fact caused Kimba to walk away from the salon and join RKG full time. Leading and developing a functioning business machine became her new goal.
By reading and listening to podcasts, Kimba taught herself through the knowledge of others. Once she had more business understanding, it became clear that personal development was needed to lead the team well. As the company was poised for growth, it became even more important to understand the paperwork and have proper photos, documents and safety protocols in place.
Kimba found coaches along the way for everything from accountability to finding internal balance. Learning she is someone who will persevere and not quit, Kimba also learned that self-talk matters. Coaches helped her know this inner power and see that she is adequate for each task because she is willing to learn what she doesn’t know. Not afraid of a challenge, Kimba tells herself “I can do this,” instead of pondering who am I to think I can do this. Though admittedly she says, “no, I was not up to the challenge” of starting a new company and “if I had known how hard it was going to be I might not have done it,” but she and Robbie were determined to keep their family together so if it meant eating beans and ramen noodles that’s what they would do. This was the focus when deciding to start and scale a company.
“We either get better or worse but sitting still is not an option. This is why we scaled, we are going to grow it, or it falls apart.” Robbie and Kimba want to teach others and be successful for themselves and others. Team members have left long-term careers to be with RKG; they take this responsibility seriously.
Time efficiency is credited for making it all work. Utilizing children’s sports practice for listening to audiobooks, doing yoga at 6am, and delegating; it all adds up to keeping the machine working.
Kimba takes notes from every book because “authors are giving you their most important knowledge and information in their books.” Don’t get trapped thinking you don’t have time or have to learn the hard way. You’re going to learn one way or the other; either to not make mistakes or by cleaning up after your mistakes, but the most tactical things are in books. A book is inexpensive while it might be thousands for a good coach. Prioritize reading and invest in yourself.
Kimba struggled most with tracking numbers, bookkeeping, and gathering data correctly. Today, she enjoys this part of the business and finds it becomes a story and pattern that is easy. She tracks every lead, where it comes from, if it’s closed, and keeps on top of the cash flow so no unexpected crunches hit. “I used to say, I’m a people person. I don’t like the numbers. But now, I like the numbers because I understand the numbers protect the people and are the key element of the business.”
Delegate when necessary. The owner should not have sole responsibility or be the single point of success or failure. And it is equally important to set your people up for success and not failure. Make job descriptions clear and allow them to utilize best strengths. This was how their new general manager was found. Kelly had a successful career for which RKG was a vendor. Kimba recognized in Kelly the key strengths she wanted in the GM and recruited her.
Kimba gave great tips for developing positions and hiring staff, writing down all that needs to get done in the company, breaking those things into departments, breaking the departments into jobs/positions and then qualifying what are the best personalities for the positions. Design your avatar or ideal person for each position and seek them out. Often the best people are recruited not hired.
The only regret may be losing someone that was a high achiever because of the company culture at the time. Thankfully, no one has left over profit or production failures but often “the people responsible for cancer in your culture are not the people who create it, it’s the people who tolerate it.”
The future is exciting at RKG as team leaders build their own teams and the company expands into solar. Nothing frightens Kimba and Robbie. They believe in their abilities and team and know that if things break along the way, they will find the solution to fix them!