Hi my name is Tony Dimovski and I’m the CEO and founder of Gold Crown Service Inc. I was clued in to this thread from our local relationship manager.
I thought whom better to explain who we are and what we do then me. Before I formed Gold Crown Service with Chris Hines (Our President) I was in the HVAC contracting industry in the Metro Detroit area for nearly 20 years and Chris was formerly the director of franchise operations for an international restaurant chain for nearly 30 years. The problem I saw in our industry was that many independent contractors were making less and felt they had to charge less than a national franchise. Consumers today have changed the way they shop, most people shop exclusively at huge national chain stores such as Wal-Mart and Home depot. I noticed our news media always targets the worst independent contractor in the area and runs a story on how “The independent contractor that ripped off a customer”. This type of news gives the rest of us good guys a bad name. Because of how independent contractors are portrayed we as a group are doing less every year. Who ever thought the supply house that we bought your supplies and equipment from would become a competitor. Utilities and National Big Box stores like Sears and Home depot are getting into our business and I got sick and tired of it.
Not to mention all the unlicensed and uninsured side jobbers (hacks) that are working for peanuts and killing profitability. I challenge any service contractor to compare what they charge today with what was charged 20 years ago. I bet it’s the same if not less, but inflation has no problem keeping up.
Gold Crown Service Inc. is a way for quality independent contractors to separate them selves from the pack. All our contractors are felony free and blood drug tested. We are not a franchise; GCS is more like a union of independent Contractors.
All our member maintain there names and independence, GCS has two types of start up options one is $499 that includes complete background and credential checks, 10 panel blood drug test, Photo Id badge with GCS logo and Date of background and drug test. We also provide decals that are by 3M (controltac) our decal is 5 1/2” tall and surrounds the top of a service vehicle. The sides of the decal say Gold Crown Service and the back has our web site
www.getgcs.com. Our decal won’t take your identity away, it makes yours stronger and helps build a brand of quality by having it. Along with the GCS logos are the logos from the drug testing company CVTUSA these logos look like a sheriffs badge and are placed above the front wheel wells and back door, it says Checked Verified Tested and is a great way to show your customers you care about there safety.
To address the other post about our compensation plan, we have local commission sales people that get paid when they help a contractor become a member. I along with many companies don’t want there comp plan made public. One or our District managers was a little aggressive a posted what we pay our outside sales people. I can understand why some contractors think it’s too much but if you think about it, our sales people have to show what we do to contractors and solicit commercial and residential customers for our existing members. That’s a lot of legwork, we pay them a signing bonus for every new contractor that comes aboard and a percentage of the $79 a month from all the local members dues. Work that comes into GCS from the efforts of the outside sales staff is given (free) to our members. Even leads that come from our website are free to members, a percentage of the monthly dues that our members pay goes towards advertising and lead generation. We even pay our members that bring in leads for other trades. The only time we charge our members for leads is when a lead is generated from expensive advertising such as Yellow pages, TV and Radio and newsprint. And when we sell leads we only sell exclusive leads. That means we don’t sell the same lead to a half dozen contractors each time, one to one ratio this gives our guys better odds on the sale.
We also have a $149 start-up and it’s the same benefits and features but does not include the decals. We prefer everyone get the decals, but some guys say I’ll get the decals later. (If you get the decal upfront we usually throw in a bonus).
I called a couple of members that can give you their perspective on our company and I hope they chime in on the discussion. But I can tell you some of our members have been able to save as much as $800 on insurance savings. It’s amazing what we can do united together on our savings and advertising, and most of our contractors would tell you they would have no problem paying way more than $79 in dues compared to the additional income that’s made from the leads we pass to them (mostly free leads).
In a nutshell were a national company made up of small to medium sized quality contractors. Designed by independent contractors for independent contractor. It’s not an open door admission; we are selective on how many members we bring in to ensure our guys stay happy. Although we are new to this market we hope to improve business and reclaim lost ground from the national franchises, local utilities and big box stores. If you have ANY questions or want to talk to me directly feel free to call me. I’ll be happy to help you get acquainted with our company and what we do for the independent contractor. Toll Free: 888-438-4270 extension 530. Afternoons are best Mon-Fri.
I think I'll pass on that, thank you.