Carter Gustafson on Entrepreneurship: Taking the Leap and Keeping it Clean

Entrepreneurship is a journey filled with risks, rewards, and countless lessons. Recently, Kelly Wendlandt sat down with Carter Gustafson, a young entrepreneur who runs Rivers Cleaning Services, to discuss his experiences in starting a business, managing risks, and ensuring customer satisfaction. The conversation provided valuable insights for aspiring business owners and highlighted the real-life challenges and triumphs of an entrepreneur.

From Planning to Action: The Startup Grind

Kelly kicked off the podcast by asking Carter about his morning routine, which involves some door-knocking and running Facebook ads. For many, the thought of starting a business is a dream, but the planning and execution can be daunting. Carter shared that his journey from idea to action took a few months. “I thought about it probably in January, got it set in February, and started getting jobs in May,” he recalled. This timeline underscores the importance of planning but also the reality that plans evolve once the business is operational.

Carter emphasized the necessity of adapting on the fly, saying, “Your plan is never really set until you actually start.” He illustrated this point by describing how he’s changed his business cards 17 times and continuously tweaks his approach to door-knocking and sales. This readiness to adjust is a hallmark of successful entrepreneurship, especially in the early stages.

Embracing Risk and Ensuring Customer Satisfaction

One of the key topics discussed was the element of risk in entrepreneurship. Carter, still in school and without significant financial obligations, doesn’t feel the pressure as intensely as older entrepreneurs might. However, he is mindful of seasonal challenges, particularly the impact of winter on his window cleaning business. Despite these concerns, his proactive approach to sales—never going more than a few hours without landing a new client—keeps him optimistic.

The conversation then turned to customer satisfaction, a critical component of any service-based business. Carter’s method is straightforward yet effective: he walks customers through the completed job to ensure they are happy before leaving the site. For gutter cleaning jobs, he uses before-and-after photos to demonstrate the work done. This hands-on approach not only ensures high customer satisfaction but also builds trust and credibility.

Lessons in Growth and Persistence

Kelly and Carter also touched on the broader lessons of entrepreneurship. Kelly noted that the average entrepreneur starts young, which correlates with a higher tolerance for risk. Carter fits this profile perfectly, embracing the challenges of starting a business at a young age. He highlighted the importance of action over prolonged planning, advising aspiring entrepreneurs to “just get out there and go for it.”

Carter’s business model relies heavily on word-of-mouth and organic growth through door-knocking and Google search visibility. He plans to hire additional help only when he is fully booked, ensuring he can maintain the quality of service his customers expect. This careful, measured approach to scaling his business shows a keen understanding of sustainable growth.

Join the Journey

Carter Gustafson’s story is a compelling example of how a blend of planning, adaptability, and customer focus can lead to entrepreneurial success. His journey is a testament to the power of taking that first step and continually refining one’s approach based on real-world feedback.

For more inspiring stories and practical advice on starting and growing a business, subscribe to The Kelly Wendlandt Podcast. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level or need expert advice, contact Logisolve today.

Stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in your entrepreneurial journey.

AI Generated Transcript

Kelly (00:00.512)
One, and We are live with entrepreneur, Mr. Carter Gustafson. Carter, how is your morning going, sir?

Carter Gustafson (00:07.726)
It’s going good, going good, how about yourself? Good.

Kelly (00:10.275)
Good. Is it a pretty typical morning for you? You’re up and kind of planning the day for what you have for jobs or how does your mornings usually go?

Carter Gustafson (00:21.294)
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I don’t I got to get up too early because right now we’re just doing some door knocking I’m just starting to run some Facebook ads. Hopefully that’ll bring me some business But usually I like to get up out get up out of bed like 8 o ‘clock make some breakfast hit the doors at like 9:30 / 10

Kelly (00:37.167)
Sure. So a lot of people watching this, I’m sure, have thought about starting a business. Many people I talk to dream of owning their own business. But I think it becomes difficult as people start to plan and go through the process, know, taking that, eventually taking that leap. And so it’s always interesting to talk to someone who is doing that.

Did you do a lot of planning prior to starting your business or

Carter Gustafson (01:11.79)
I’d say at least a couple of months. think I thought about it probably in January and then I really got it set in February and then we probably started getting jobs in May, like first week of May. So yeah, there was some planning to it. mean, not years of planning, but months and just. Yeah, but you’re never really, your plan is never really like set until you actually start. And then once you get started, then you’re going to see stuff that you didn’t see.

Kelly (01:31.43)
some amount,

Carter Gustafson (01:41.198)
when you had it like planned and not doing it. Cause once you get started, I mean, then you’ll see what you need to change and you’ll see what you need to like improve on and switch that around, switch this around. Like, mean, I’ve probably changed up my business cards 17 times. I’ve changed up how we do the jobs five times. I’ve really changed everything, how we knock the doors, how we get sales. And I mean, yeah, you never really have it fully set until you actually get out there and start doing it.

I think the best thing is just to get out there and just not, mean yeah, planning’s great, but I think the best thing to do is just get out there and actually do

Kelly (02:11.597)
Yeah,

Kelly (02:19.811)
Yeah. And again, I think I hear that from a lot of entrepreneurs, that there is a little bit of a ready, go aim or whatever, you know, it’s it’s you kind of go and then you’re, you’re planning as it’s going. what about the risk side? Did you worry before you started? Or do you continue to worry about the risk part of being

self employed and employing other people or is that not something you think about too

Carter Gustafson (02:51.09)
well I’m pretty young so I’m still in school. So right now I don’t really have to worry about it too much because it’s not like I gotta pay for rent or really pay for that much things. I mean I still got some things I gotta pay for but the only thing I really worry about is probably the winter because you can’t clean windows, or I mean you can clean inside windows in the winter. So that’s really the only thing I worry about right now but I know if I just get out there and go to the doors I mean I don’t think I’ve ever been four hours without getting a sale. Sometimes I get a sale

I mean sometimes I get three in an hour, so I’m not really too worried, at least the way that I work right now.

Kelly (03:24.217)
Is

And so you’re doing your businesses cleaning house windows. So you’re going to different housing, you know, suburb, neighborhoods and you’re walking around and you’re knocking on doors or how do you generate

Carter Gustafson (03:40.782)
so there’s really two ways it’s like organic cause I’m on Google. So if people find me from Google, can get them booked. And then I like to knock their neighbors. So I get booked and maybe starting at like nine, get done at 10, 10 30. Then I go knock the neighbors and that’s a really good way of getting jobs. Just letting them know, Hey, I just did gym down the street. And he like, I know gym. was like, yeah, would you like a quick quote? And most of the time they’re just like, like, sure. Yeah. Or just leave me your card. But I think that’s

good way at least to start out. Just because at least you’re generating business.

Kelly (04:14.071)
Is the, right, is the, but it’s really organic, door knocking, or occasionally people finding you on Google and you go out to their house and you’re, you or you and your team, you’re cleaning windows, washing windows, you bid it before you start. Is it harder, the sales part harder for you, or is the delivering of a good quality?

service, making sure that the glass is streak free and perfectly clean and what part’s harder.

Carter Gustafson (04:49.614)
Well, if they haven’t cleaned their windows in a while that like hard water can build up so that can be pretty tough to make them spotless, but Yeah, I’d probably say the delivery part But it’s not hard. It’s just it can be tedious at sometimes others times not if the new construction I mean, it’s just a easy Go through clean but other times. I mean I’ve had to re clean windows ten times before I got it right just cuz Hard water. I mean you got

Other, I mean, the insides is never bad. It’s just the outsides. So it depends how long they haven’t got it clean. So I’d say, definitely the delivery compared to the sales. The sales, you just, I got that down, I

Kelly (05:30.223)
Okay, okay. I should actually have you come out to my house because Mrs. Wendland and I haven’t cleaned our windows probably in 20 years since we’ve started. It might be 25 years that we’ve owned this house, so it would be good challenge for you.

Carter Gustafson (05:43.618)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know I’ll do that for sure. Yeah, I’d love to.

Kelly (05:48.343)
It’s a long way from it’s a long way from north the northwest side of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, where your business is located. do you hire people? Do you have do you have people that on bigger jobs you bring along with

Carter Gustafson (06:01.644)
Yeah, just me and my buddy. Just a guy I went to school with and I’ve known him for a long time. Just me and him.

Kelly (06:09.057)
Okay. And do you plan on hiring people as the business grows?

Carter Gustafson (06:14.658)
I’d say not until like I’m booked out. mean, no point in just hiring someone when I can do it with my own hands. So maybe in a couple of years, who knows, once the word to mouth spreads, because that’s really in this business, I’ve seen a lot of people online talking about word to mouth after months or a year that should really start spreading. mean, I already got some word to mouth. So when that starts spreading, hopefully I can bring on some people, but until then I’ll just wait until I’m booked out.

Kelly (06:44.761)
Yeah, I think people like the fact that the person selling the work is doing, actually doing the work. You you’re obviously not able to scale like that as a business, but the fact that you’re taking responsibility to do the delivery to make sure the windows are really clean or whatever your product ends up being, that I think there’s plenty of people that appreciate that you’re closely connected to the finished product because I think that’s pretty rare.

these days. So that’s good.

Carter Gustafson (07:16.738)
Yeah, totally. I agree, yeah.

Kelly (07:21.464)
How do you make sure your customers are satisfied? Is there a process you have to do you follow up? Do you just wait for a phone call saying, hey, you know, we’re happy or no, we’re not happy or how does that

Carter Gustafson (07:36.268)
I just do, when we’re done, just walk them around, just show them everything. Cause I don’t want to, I would rather have them find something that they didn’t like compared to when I go all the way home and they’re like, you need to come back. So I just do like a walkthrough with them, make sure everything’s looking good. And then if we’re doing gutters, I’ll obviously just take before and after pictures because they’re not going to get up on the ladder and go up there. So, but yeah, I just do a walkthrough, just show them pictures. They’re happy.

So that’s what I do.

Kelly (08:02.543)
Yeah, makes, yeah, makes some sense. Yeah. And earlier you were talking about how you don’t worry about the risk too much. And, and I’ve read in plenty of places that the average entrepreneur starts under 30 years old for that reason, because people under 30 tend to be less risk averse. And so they, they’re willing to, willing to try anything and, see if it works. you, kind of fit squarely into that, that group of people.

Carter Gustafson (08:31.948)
Yeah, yeah, I got a lot of life to live, I can start something now and yeah, I’m ready.

Kelly (08:35.801)
You ready to go?

Kelly (08:39.663)
Well, that’s great Carter. So thank you for being on the show with us today. It’s great to talk with you. And if people want to get a hold of, yeah. And if people want to get their windows cleaned in Minneapolis, St. Paul, where do they find Carter Gustafson’s business?

Carter Gustafson (08:47.8)
Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Carter Gustafson (08:58.222)
You can go to Rivers Cleaning Services. I got a card right here. The number is 763 -587 -3339 or you can just look up Rivers Cleaning Services on Google. And then it’ll bring it right up and then you can give me a call from there or go on my website.

Kelly (09:16.653)
And I think for anybody who is thinking of starting a business, great examples of how a little bit of planning, but taking that leap is scary, but has to be done earlier. And adjusting on the fly is so key to meet customer needs and keep the business meeting the customer demand. And then that’s how you grow. those are some good lessons.

Carter Gustafson (09:43.244)
Yeah, no, for sure. You always gotta make sure you’re just taking that leap and going forward. I’ve seen people that just sit there and plan for years and then they just either forget about it or just never do anything about it. So, I say that’s probably the most important thing.

Kelly (09:57.347)
Well, congratulations on starting your business, Carter Gustafson. For the rest of you out there, thank you for watching the vodcast.