curb father
CURB TRAINING & BUSINESS SUCCESS
Here in America we build our lives on the little things Like lil’ moments of joy, a lil’ happiness, a lil’ love , Lil’ Bubba curb machines. We help build that American dream – with opportunity to be your own boss and own CEO. With our machine you can deliver high quality products and service to your customers earning real income in a short period of time. This is Lil’ Bubba – this is the American Dream.
Gordon Buckland
The CurbFather
Welcome to the CurbFather - Thanks for joining us
Today I am going to share with you some of the really important secrets to curb business start-up success and speaking of startup let me fill you in on how I got to be here in USA sharing my story with you.
My wife Sheralyn and I were born in Warwick Qld – a small country town about 100 miles inland from the Gold Coast in Australia. In 1987 we were raising a young family and working multiple jobs. I had a position managing a team of tradespeople in a maintenance workshop and I was responsible for keeping all the equipment and machinery in a large beef abattoir operational. It was a really good job with big responsibility, but like many of you out there, we never had enough money to have the things we wanted and to do the things we liked. We were just working to stay afloat.
Making just enough every month to pay the bills but never enough to get rich. We were looking for the thing…. the right thing… that could be a vehicle to take us out of Warwick and on the adventure we dreamed of. We wanted to travel, to see the world , to experience other things and places. We wanted a nice house and cars and to have the money to share with our children.
So we were looking…. Just like some of you today! We were hungry for something to come along. And just like that things began to happen for us when my brother showed me a business opportunity in landscape curbing. At first I really had no interest because it was concrete… Concrete didn’t sound very inspirational. It sounded dull, grey and boring. But the affordability and the profitability interested my wife a lot! When my brother said we could pay off this business with just one job a month that got our attention. 2 weeks later we were in the Landscape curbing business. At first it was really hard because we were in a small town and we didn’t know anything about selling. That was all to change as we went about changing our life and started some self-development classes to improve our people skills. We were committed to making the business work as we had a loan to pay off.
About Company
PROFESSIONAL CURB TRAINING AND BUSINESS SUCCESS
The curb business was a simple concept. You brought raw materials like sand and Portland cement to the job site and mixed them together with water in a small mixer. You fed this special mix from a wheel barrow into a machine using a shovel and the machine pushed it out as a continuous concrete curb. It was really like magic. Back then the sand and cement cost us less than $1/meter and we were selling curb for $8/meter. We were making as much money in one day as I often made in my job in a whole week.
4 years later we had paid off the business, paid off our home and we suddenly had many options. We no longer had to stay in Warwick. We could start to travel and experience new things. In 1991 we sold the business, quit my job, rented the Warwick house and moved to Brisbane the capital of Qld. I was recruited by the Kwik Kerb company who sold the curb machines to share my ideas and improvements to the curb products and to sell their curb machines. With a mechanical background and knowledge of engineering I had developed ideas and processes that could be shared with others. We also operated a curb business in Brisbane for a short period during that first year but soon my wife and I were full time developing the curbing industry with new ideas and new products.
My Skills
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Photoshop
75%
Illustrator
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After Effects
80%
InDesign
80%
Curb Father Story
It was in Brisbane that my engineering talents were engaged initially to improve the design of the Edgemaster machines and subsequently to improve the machine manufacturing and production process. I was also being trained to manage the Kwik Kerb sales team. During this period in the early 90’s I spent a lot of free time in the R & D of my curbing ideas and I invented and then perfected the process of stamping a slate pattern into the curb with multiple color antiquing powders, special tools and polyurethane stamping mats. I developed the specific tools and the system and adapted the process for curbing using similar techniques already in use for pattern stamping driveways in Australia.
With the Kwik Kerb edging and tools perfected and curb installation system proven, I began teaching this brand new method to operators all over the world and this product still in use today is referred to by Kwik Kerb as EuroStyle. (My wife Sheralyn and I searched through many piles of slate in landscape supply yards around Brisbane for the perfect piece of slate from which to cast the slate impression mats still in use by Kwik Kerb to this day.) My method of stamping curb has since been copied by many other people and various versions are now in common use by companies through-out the world.
During my time with Kwik Kerb I had a keen interest in improving the Edgemaster curb machines and designing new curbing tools and new techniques to create special and unique concrete border finishes. It was my previous experience in engineering that allowed me to add many innovations to the Edgemaster to make it easier to use. Using my knowledge of the special metal properties of crinoline steel I designed a unique set of stencil type tooling and the method to create a very authentic looking brick and mortar curbing using cementitious mortar sprayed on with a hopper gun. The Kwik Kerb company subsequently filed a patent on my invention and we sold the new curbing product as Kwik Kerb EuroBrick. I also instigated the manufacture of the Edgemaster machines in an abrasive and corrosion resistant steel called 3CR12 due to my knowledge and use of chromium-nickel steels in the abattoir industry. My time working with the Kwik Kerb parent company lasted over 20 years as in 1999 I moved my family from Australia to the USA and opened the first Kwik Kerb office in USA in Orlando.
My position with Kwik Kerb in USA was Chief Operating Officer and later President, but I fulfilled many roles including the development of operator training manuals, sales operation manuals, training of hundreds of new business owners, design and development of new products, marketing and sales management and I was the main person worldwide to troubleshoot customer problems. The Kwik Kerb system was a great success and we expanded the company to bigger and bigger premises first in Altamonte Springs FL, then Lake Mary and finally in 2005 to a location in Sanford FL. The huge downturn in the economy starting in 2006 became a real problem for Kwik Kerb as the business relied heavily on the co-operation of lending institutions to finance new business buyers. By 2007 Kwik Kerb had few customers having enough capital to purchase new Kwik Kerb systems.
Gradually the company was downsized as importing equipment from Australia became unviable without lenders available to fund the sales. Eventually the tough recession years took their toll and in 2012 the company could no longer afford to pay me. We parted company with Kwik Kerb and Sheralyn and I started our own local Orlando Decorative Edge installation business in November 2012. We had come full circle as we took on the job of starting a Curb Business from scratch in USA. It was an excellent opportunity to implement all the strategies I had been teaching for 20 years. It was an immediate success with unlimited customers and my son Jamie became heavily involved in the curbing operation. This allowed me more time and I was soon back looking for new challenges.
In 2015 Bob Matthias (owner of The Concrete Edge Co) invited me to have a look at his Lil’ Bubba manufacturing operation and offered me an opportunity to partner with him in growing the Lil’ Bubba Curb Machine company. I liked Bob’s straight forward, no nonsense approach and I have been with Lil’ Bubba developing and growing their product line and business systems ever since. Today Lil’ Bubba manufactures and sells more equipment than all the other curb companies in the world combined. Lil’ Bubba’s rapid growth is an awesome achievement and is the result of a dedicated customer centric approach and a philosophy of never having a back order item. That way a Lil’ Bubba customer can always be confident he can get what he wants – when he wants… no exceptions!
So that is the story of how the CurbFather got here! We have developed a busy company, manufacturing every single item a new or existing curb business could need. We carry sufficient stock to be able to ship most products on the same day they are ordered. We are full service fabrication shop with water jet and plasma cutting tables, Mig and Tig welding , brake press and paint booth. We make our curb machines and trailers right here at our facility and it’s truly a one stop shop where virtually everything that goes into a Lil Bubba Curbing System is manufactured, painted and assembled in-house. The business employs more than 40 people to build you a quality curb machine, concrete mixer tools and trailer package.
We even create your advertising materials in-house. We have a team of talented digital experts designing marketing logos, advertising materials, trailer wraps and yard signs for our new owner/operators. After our team designs and has approved by the customer the new businesses marketing components – the Lil’ Bubba Print Shop then prints the marketing assets and creates the trailer wrap and laminates it with a UV protective film and our install team then adds the wrap to the finished trailer. We even wrap the customer’s trucks and rear windows to complete the professional image. So when a Lil’ Bubba customer arrives to pick up his Curbing Business, he or she truly has a complete business on a trailer with not just all the best equipment that money can buy … but an entire business packaged ready to go.
At Lil’ Bubba I have created a full range of proprietary concrete additives, pigments, antiquing powders and sealers specially for curbing. We have developed the right additives to help the installer easily create strong durable and easily finished concrete curbs. We manufacture special stamping tools, mats and rollers that are used in the production of the curb and have a remarkable set of tools developed specifically for the creation of our unique Moroccan Natural Stone Curbing. When a Lil’ Bubba customer leaves our facility he is pumped , he is enthusiastic and he is excited and this translates to instant success as he goes about starting his business with the right equipment and the right attitude.
This formula for success did not happen by accident. It happened over a period of 3 decades of dedication to this industry. 3 decades of curb extrusion development and 3 decades of new inventions and new techniques. We have the sum of the knowledge, of 3 decades of experience, of literally thousands of curbers who have gone before you. With Lil’ Bubba you are not a guinea pig! This is no experiment to see what works. You have the benefit of the knowledge of all the shortcuts, all the things that work best and from day one you know how to do this business the right way. This takes the risk out of your venture. This makes your investment in a new business much safer and you and your wife and your family have the peace of mind knowing that you have made a great decision for your future. A great decision to enhance the economic fortunes of your family going forward.
Come join us! You deserve success! Lets get started!
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