Ep 264 - Options for Home Office Mastery

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Preneur Secrets, the Electricians podcast. I'm your host, Clay Neumeier, and with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, Joseph Lucchani, and we are the Electric Preneurs, a couple of master electricians with business addictions, here and ready to serve With what? Well, with our daily freemium coach call to help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. This episode is no exception. So sit back in the hot seat, take everything we have to give. Just promise to take action, and I promise you we'll see some wins on the other side of this thing. Joe, how are you doing today, brother?

I'm doing amazing and, for lack of better words, I am so pumped for today's episode because anytime we start talking about things that involve options and building and designing, oh, I love it. It makes me so happy. What are you, man? How are you holding up with all the power out of?

situations you had to deal with. Yeah, well, this one's one of my favorites right now, and just because of that power pole being replaced on my block. Hey, I'm one of the well, roughly 13% of people I'm going to say North Americans and lump Canadians into this, because US and Canada are very similar on this but we looked up the stats and 13% of people at this point, us at least, are working from home full time, and I'm one of them. You're one of them. We are these people. And so when there's a power interruption, the utility was nice enough to let us know. We got an eight hour interrupt. I've got to figure something out. It's a big pain to carry everything out to a remote office or a co-working space. I wouldn't have my screens, I wouldn't have my microphone. Yeah, guys, got to rent a podcast studio. That's a huge pain in the butt, man. So how I'm doing is great, because I went and rented a generator and made it work. No, I do not have a full time standby system. I'm like the mechanic with the worst car on the block, right, yep, but that's how I'm doing, man. So I'm equally excited to get into this options for the home office. By the way, can I throw one more stat in there, just because I'm passionate and excited about this? Of course, we said 13% full time. That number might not have been heavy enough for you guys. 28% are in a hybrid model, still since the pandemic. What that means is 41% of people in the US workforce have a home office that may need to not be interrupted. That's almost half of your customers. Are you capturing this opportunity? What options can we give people to help them so that their laptop doesn't die, the screens don't go out? They can do cameras and meetings like this. Joe, where do we begin with this brother? Two directions.

First, it comes down to their physical productivity. The second goes down to their comfort while doing the productivity, both in very wide angles. But let's start with the productivity first. That's okay. Love it, because that's the first thing you're led with right.

Okay, Can I just point out that I love that you have two angles and neither of them were about technical upgrades, a different trim of pot light. No, no, no, we're not going to go in here and push surge protection there's actually some logic behind this to help people with their emotional needs and the quality of life.

Yep, if we start with productivity first. You mentioned earlier well, what happens if you needed to lug out your equipment? Well, obviously that wouldn't work. If I asked you to move all your screens and your microphones and your backups and your computers, you'd be pain in the butt, especially if you lost power due to inclement weather. You're not going to go hop on the road or go through a hurricane or whatever just to get your service going.

Yep.

So the first thing would be do you have a home backup system? No, now, that could be in stages too, like earlier. Originally, you said well, what about a USB? What about an unenturable power source that could just?

back up UPS.

UPS. Sorry, I always get the too confused, I don't know why it's like one of those dyslexia things I got you, brother. Anyway, the fact is is that we go into, we offer that system and we say all right, I can get you anywhere between one to three hours of backup home power. For some people that's more than enough than what they need, cause maybe you experienced frequent outages but not extended outages. So the option of being able to say you have three hours of backup is more than enough for some people and simply just having the power system under your desk is great, thank you.

So go ahead. Sure, can I ask a quick question? Sure, can we get a UPS without the beep?

So yes and no, because the thing is that most systems they'll have a frequent beep that comes by every minute to five minutes. Most of them offer delayed functions where you can delay the beep. Only some of them have a silence function, because once they get close to the shutoff period, usually the silence is overrided and they will beep regardless. So like, imagine, let's say I was on remote power right now and we're on this physical podcast, yeah, and in the background you get peering beep, beep. Like eventually that would piss some readers off or listeners off, and they just hop off and I'll listen to us, yeah, so it wouldn't be functional to that extent. Right, really, my personal view on the uneratable power source is simply being able to have an extended time to transfer until your generator kicks in, right? So your first level is you got your UPS. The second level is do you have a automatic or not a manual portable generator backup system that powers your essentials, your lights, your heat, your computers, your internet? If necessary? Do we have transfer systems for those systems? Is the inlet where the system needs to be? That way they're not lugging it, because you know what If you lost power five minutes before your meeting, do you want to do it very quickly. Do you want to have to wheel it around to the back of the house? No, you'd want the inlet to be right next to where you're storing it. Plug it in, press one button and go.

Yeah, and for me, I mean today, that was literally I've got a rent one, a rent, a portable generator, no wheels on it. I mean, you saw the thing? We laughed about the picture, right? Yeah, no wheels, a Honda 2500, which is just enough to keep everything going, but I'm an hour into this with drive time and rental and messing around and lifting and throwing my back out. All of this is an experience I'm having that makes me wish there was something just thought of in advance and in place.

Correct and obviously, if there's a justified need for it at this point, you could increase the options to include either an automatic or a solar power battery backup system. But I would recommend that before you jump toward those, you establish the need prior to it. But that's only the productivity of the backup power. We're talking about a whole office and it runs 95 percent of the time with functional utility. So what can we do? Well, we know that when people have better quality lighting they are more productive and more comfortable. So the first thing I look for is say okay, how many recess lights are in this room? And if it's not recess lights, do they have adequate illumination, not just to see the work but to feel like the room is warm and lit? Because if it's not, people will often feel disassociated and they won't be as interested in enjoying their work. So is the Kelvin temperature correct and is the lighting adequate? If you think about a home office, when was the last time that you needed to either have air conditioning, or you felt like you wanted a fan, or you wanted a pop-up fan, or even you wanted a window AC? Would it be justified now that if your window AC kicks on and shares the same circuit as your computer, that after the 15 amps is drawn, that it might affect your equipment. Would it not be justified running a dedicated circuit so you could power these things or have the ceiling fan installed Right? Lastly, for productivity, is it adequately heated? Because I can guarantee you I mean I've got a space heater around me right now and I've got a heater on the wall, but I'm in a subterranean office. It gets cold down here. Yeah, if I didn't plan for it, this would be space heater central all the time, and who knows what that would be doing if I didn't run 20 amp circuits for every outlet, because I'm an OCD electrician, right.

Yeah, you got it man.

Okay, so that's productivity. Any questions or add-ons? Before we jump into the comforts, no man, let's keep going. Okay, comforts are where it gets fun. I love comforts because if you don't enjoy the space that you're working in, you'll never be as productive as you could be Like. When I go to my office, I genuinely enjoy it, not just because there's swords and lightsabers and stuff all over the walls, it's because I've made it the most comfortable space I could possibly make it. So the first thing you come into is you say, all right, am I comfortable? Well, if I have heat and I have AC, I'm good. But what more requires comfort other than just lights? Well, personally, as I'm on the spectrum, I don't like flickering lights, so fluorescence are completely out. Then we know we're doing an LED upgrade. Are we installing dimmers so they can be properly dialed down that you can enjoy it regardless of the system? Do you want to install spotlights for people who, instead of having a ring, stand up, if they know they have a desk and they plan on doing podcasts or computer resume conferences? What's stopping you from putting in track lighting and physically having all the heads eliminate the backing? Do they have a dedicated outlet for their computer system or is it sharing with the same thing that their spouse is plugging the vacuum into upstairs? We don't know, but what would happen if they did? Is it worth saying you know what? If this is your office, let's get your own office power. There are three circuits in this office. Why? Because I only needed two, but I made sure there's more right Now. The more fun stuff is when you start figuring out their personality. So, as someone who loved smoking cigars, I had a cigar station in my office. We're literally I have a ventilation room. So the benefit is that we had a 650 CFM fan on a quiet Panasonic plugged in and it's already vented. So if I wanted to smoke while I'm working, I could. So for anyone who walks into an office and you see that air purifier on the wall, know that they're smokers, just like. Just assume that's the case and offer a ventilation system. The amount of people who didn't seem like smokers who then jumped over the ventilation system, it's amazing. It really is Okay. Continuing on with comforts. What about speaker systems? Well, some people enjoy having background music, and it's not always. I could just have YouTube running in the background. You can install speaker bulbs. Imagine taking down one recess fixture or one recess bulb, plugging in a speaker bulb and then pairing it to the customer's phone. So the benefit is is that when they go into their office, it's geo-fenced and they can play music, and it comes out the ceiling, or it can come out of the ceiling fan, or you can install in-wall speakers. My suggestion is learn your customer, learn what they like to do and, as a result, you can pair things that they're going to use that they will genuinely enjoy. What are your thoughts? Gleip?

Yeah, yeah, man, I agree and my mind's running wild too. I mean cable management. Oh heck, you look at the desk and maybe they've got like me. I've got an L shape in a corner where the cable management is actually facing the rest of the room, and if that looks a mess, would it be wrong of us to offer helping with a solution for that?

Or labeling. I mean, think about this how many companies come in and say, oh well, we're going to come into your office and they have one IT guy company runs all the wires but he never labels them. And then you want to figure out where they're going and you're like, oh well, now I have to take it all apart and trace it. One of our services is we offer a whole home electrical circuitry identification, but you could also extend it to the cable management. Simply say, for your comfort and convenience, I've created a schedule labeling where both ends are identified. They're both in proper velvet wraps or Velcro wraps, and we have everything identified. So if you ever need it, we can always just hand in your schedule and you already know what equipment you have and how it's connected.

Yeah, man, I couldn't agree more, because I just know what it's like being a homeowner as you do too, with a large honey-do list, and even our own creature comforts sometimes don't get addressed. The things that are on our list, open cycles that are still consuming a little bit of energy, like that extra tab you left open about a Christmas present that you stumbled upon but didn't know where to put it. You know what I mean. It's just one of those things, and I do believe something I've learned wholly from you as well that we should help eliminate those things, at least make it a choice. It's just an option. Hey, I noticed in our conversation that this was also a concern.

Mm-hmm.

That's why we've included it in our top option.

Yeah, so the little things that people don't often think about is running spare circuits for that exact reason. So remember, I mentioned that I have three circuits here, even though I'm only using two Every one of these. I have two 20-amp circuits and a spare 30-amp. Do I ever expect any to 30-amp? No, but at the same time, when I finished the whole basement, what are the odds that I'm going to want to go through and say, yeah, I'm going to fish an 80-foot line through a trough. You know, I'm sure it's going to work out fine. I don't need to cut any holes. Or I could just run a larger circuit than I need, just in case. And now it's available as a multi-branch circuit, if I wanted it to be. So, when you think about it whether you're running a circuit to an attic, whether you're running a circuit to an office, just offer to run a spare circuit and say I hope you never need it, I hope that you never have to access that, but on the chance you did, maybe your equipment changes, maybe your office needs to be rotated in a way, maybe you need to change positions. At least you know that we have this availability and that you won't have to open any walls to access it.

Love it, man, really good. You got me thinking about my own office here and about you know what? If there's not a niche office development company already, there probably should be, because with 41% of the population working from home, at least for some extended periods, seems like a no-brainer man. This stuff's important, and I have a feeling that many of our listeners before this podcast may have got stuck at surge protection, which, by the way, we didn't even mention.

Well, that's the thing I figured. We didn't want to touch on it because we already mentioned in the beginning, like, hey, there's more than that. But like, even with your surge protectors there are so many different styles and there's so many systems. The kind of great protection you'd want if someone has a solar home and an EV and they have all work from home is different than the kind of person that just kind of uses it as a vacation house and they're only there a couple of times of the year. One would get almost a high-grade utility charger from Square D.

The other.

You can get a $50 leviton from Home Depot. Like there's different grades for different people.

Yeah, man Couldn't agree more Even just having I think we did an episode on like the Home Link an MTS and an interlock, so that when I go rent a generator it's just plug-and-play and your homeowner could already have that sized, buy you and have instructions on exactly what to do. I mean, it's that simple.

Yeah, it could be so simple. Yeah, I agree. Really, when it comes down to backup power, same concept as a handgun. I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I'd rather it to be safe and at least now I know it's ready for me when I need it.

Gosh man. This was a fun episode. Let's crank out a couple of action items. I'm thinking, of course, basic and all-star. What do you want, basic or all-star, today?

I want the all-star on this one, because I know that there's a lot of fun things we can still dive into.

All right, I'm going to try not to rob you and here's what I'm going to do. Actually, I've got a good basic. Then Episode 87, if you guys go back to Episode 87, how, the why will show you what to offer. I think that couples nicely with this episode and it's one I find myself recommending. Often, Especially when so many electricians are just stuck in tech brain. There's only so many levels of surge protection. There's only so many trims I could offer on this light, we get stuck on the switch. The technicalities of the equipment. When understanding, having that conversation to understand why, the root cause of why are we doing this and that episode does so wonderfully is highlight, getting that answer before we do anything. So I don't think it would be a mistake to say let's go back and listen to that and then come back and listen to this and what you're going to have is a head full of ideas and then take action on this stuff and let us know your wins on your next home office options that you're setting up. Joe, go ahead with the all-star brother.

I thought at first that was going to steal from it, but then I realized that there's a lot more we can dive into, and that is have you ever wished that, when you were doing a project, that you knew all the technicals in advance, or that you're like, hey, I'm going to put in a pool system? I wish I knew everything in advance, then I could do it the right way. We could actually be those people for our customers, because how many home offices do you go into that you have to service on a daily basis? If 41% of the country is doing it, the odds are that you've probably seen more home offices than they have.

Yeah.

So wouldn't it make sense that you, having all this experience, that when you see someone doing it or see someone trying it or developing it, or even working in an existing space, that you can think of ways to enhance it? So the All Star Action is simply saying, if you're going to go into a home and you see a home office, look at the things that you wish that you could have offered to others, and you'll often find or wish that you could have had yourself, and you'll often find a really solid set of options, such as you know what I've recognized a lot of people have tripped their computers because they haven't plugged it into a search strip, so, as a reason, or into a power strip, so as a result, I'm going to install quad boxes in the floor under their desk. Or you know what? I realized that enough people have lost power and had to lug generators, like our friend Clay, and now I'm going to install interlocks. You've seen the problem before it's happened, so you know what could happen. That means, if they don't get a solution to it, that's on you. If they decline it, that's on them. I want you to keep in mind that if you don't offer it, they cannot take it and, as a result, that puts the blame on you for not giving them the services you know they could have had.

That's huge man, hot mic in it. Guys, this has been another episode of Electric Pinner Secrets and a great way to finish out this week. Episode 264,. If you got some value from this, let us know where you heard us first. I'm Clay. This is Joe. We're going to see you again next week. Thank you, guys. Can we see soon?