Today we’d like to introduce you to George Duvanov
George, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Greetings! Well… Let me see where do I start? I grew up as a third culture kid, having lived in multiple continents while traveling with my single mom all over the globe I can attest that my serial entrepreneurship mindset stems from her spontaneity. I always wanted to create, I’m a creative person and a visual analyst by nature. I attended various schools and colleges since I was 8 years old and practiced the craft of filmmaking all the way through college. I ended up graduating with a BFA in film and television production from Columbia College Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA. I vividly, remember not having a graduation ceremony as the pandemic rolled in full swing in 2020, my initiation in to full on professional workforce was somewhat staggered. I was one of the first graduates straight out of college to start working in film, I’ve worked on sets from the bottom up and by 21 I was already production lead and a production manager on HBO, LUCASFILM, NETFLIX and various other projects such as Blue Origin interviews, live productions… the list goes on forever. It didn’t take me a long time to realize that either I do this for 20 years to reach my objective of being my own boss or diverge and do it on my own terms. With my mother, sister and the rest of my extended family feeling the effects of the pandemic and the mass reform in the economy I decided that in order to support them while raising the necessary capital to present myself as a leader in the community I had to be a YES man. Granted, I was getting pretty complacent and comfortable up till the end of 2022 when projects started slowing down and the film strike was around the corner, I lost it all… the teams I worked with, the projects I was on and everything else came tumbling down…. I didn’t want to wait, I spent the last 2 years traveling to Atlanta to try out working on projects here and I loved it so much that I decided to move here. For all of 2023 I was focused on building a dream of mine to be my own person, I started out working with an insurance agency, this experience led me to meeting a good group of people in Atlanta my first week here. But… they were all roofers, construction magnates and entrepreneurs in a different industry.
They saw through my hurdles and my ability to persevere, I was offered to help them and of course profit share on various projects involving roofing, gutters and painting. I liked the hustle, being in a new city where people appreciate you for what you bring is a refreshing take on how one can view themselves. I gained confidence, as soon as I started gaining traction in building various businesses and learning the gist of the nuances that come along with being a crazy spontaneous risk taker (most college grads are what I call risk-averse, they don’t thrive under external pressure if it doesn’t seem to make logical sense such as the gigantic gambles you have to make when starting a new business). All of a sudden my clients kept asking me about gutter cleaning, something that is truly legit, something that fixes a pending issue that they couldn’t seem to fix with other contractors. The biggest issue they complained about is that blowing crap out of their gutters didn’t help with all the leftover debris and the added cost and frequency of doing so, so I decided to start GUTTER DADDY LLC. At Gutter Daddy we are family operated, my mother helps with social media stuff, I do the rest. We began offering a lasting solution that would provide full treatment gutter services that are all inclusive meaning that with one price you’re getting a roof treatment, a flush, a blow off and your spouts are getting bored out…. something which usually costs an extra penny or two to get done. We skip all that and offer the package for one simple price, depending on size and difficulty of course. With that in mind, I started offering services to my closest circle in mind, which is my current client base and my neighbors. Our current program allows first timers to get 30% off and waived fees regardless in which county you are we’ll come out and fix your problem or we won’t leave. People liked that, something that is not a surprise but more of a bargain in the sense of retaining their home value and longevity. Clients came to me with various issues, over the past 3 months I was able to build a somewhat holistic gutter spa experience for homeowners foregoing all the headaches that would come with having to do extensive work or repairs. Our pricing starts at a meager 150$ for a small home and goes up from there, people are satisfied that’s all I can say….
Being from a creative background I’m still very involved in growing my passion, that passion translates well into GUTTER DADDY LLC, where we butter your gutters and leave them spotless of any sort of blockage. I love being able to play with flyers on Canva, creating content and building an audience that can laugh and enjoy the whole process. Everyone wants the gutter daddy, everybody loves the price and everybody wants me to come back. I pay well, I value safety above all and I believe in my community. If I can solve a problem and be creative while doing so that’s all that matters. Atlanta is my family, I am a family type of guy… Having my family support me is the biggest sense of fulfillment a man can receive. As always you can call me directly at 818 477 8788 and talk it out. I’m a yes man and I’ll find a solution for you regardless of how bad it is, gutter daddy is always there. We’re dependable, we’re independent we care about our community. What else is there to ask for?
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
not at all, not smooth in the least. I don’t come from a wealthy family. I’m a third culture kid who was born in the States but have never lived here till I was an adult. I didn’t have an immediate referral base or friends I could rely on, no family in the country… nobody. I’m 25, I don’t have money to spend thousands of dollars into marketing and various other streams…. I help my mom whenever I can, I have student loans, car loans and credit card debt. How do I get out of this hole is a persistent question. Being an entrepreneural spirit. I began working alongside people who already had the necessary equipment, facebook marketplace is a great avenue for equipment as well… I took many steps…. my biggest struggle was surviving through dead weeks or periods where I felt like my business was dead as nothing was booked. With persistence and capital being slowly injected from my other income streams such as roof inspections, bartending and various other things I finally was able to hit full throttle. I constantly found my checking account being under 3$ but I believed I could get that next client that next contract and keep moving forward. I created a steady stream in doing so, knocking on doors, asking for clients in exchange for commission or referral fees was a great idea. Im currently building a sales team, and its definitely a great deal because the issue many sales people struggle with now is maintaining active cashflow, commissions dont pay out as fast and people are stuck waiting weeks till they get a dollar. I incentivized many to start working with me through a generous commission split of 20% of the gross profit from every gutter job. imagine making a 100-200$ an hour and getting paid out the next day as soon as the job is complete (average clean takes up to 2.5 hours) and then everybody is paid out. People liked that, great talkers could make 300$ in 10 minutes of talking to a family or multiple…. It is truly the easiest way to gain traction and build yourself active cashflow, after all it is not that hard when everybody in Georgia needs to maintain their gutters year round… its a very green state with varying weather and winds… People don’t hesitate when they hear the benefits of getting our services… that helped a bit too…. to be honest this is a fresh concept but as long as I can help people make money I can grow my business… that is the most important thing you could do.. give people a purpose and help them feed their families along the way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m most proud of the fact that I can adapt to any environment… I do not care at all about the hard road, as long as I can feel accomplished at the end of the night. I can write you an entire feature film budget blindfolded in 3 days if you need to… I can also make you feel amazing about your home. Who else can do that under all that pressure? Not many, having a lot of burdens and expenses is a gift because it forces you to adapt and overcome.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Facing hardships at a young age, not being picked for anything and everything because I didn’t fit the image or the look…. I worked with people in their 40s and 50s who couldnt dissect a simple budget or schedule…. I’m trained, I can do it in my sleep… but nevertheless, I never held a full time W2 job at a studio or a production company… I was forced to pave my own path…. It was always like being 3 steps behind the competition even when I had so much more experience and so much more to offer than the rest…. It didnt matter when everyone and everything around you is so cliquey…. I dont fit in, I’m a gullible weirdo who values intellect, efficiency and progress. people like comfort, they hire whomever provides them comfort. Nobody cares… my worst luck to date is not having used my skills to the fullest just because i didnt fit in. But when I did get opportunities to work in various fields I always exceled…. the biggest good luck was gambling on myself and hiring myself.
Pricing:
- 150 and up of full service
- most 2 story homes are around 350
- bigger mansions and large square footage homes are around 400-800
- single story homes average at 250
- amount of downspouts, linear footage of gutters and size of home is what determines the price as there may be more equipment used… we make sure the client gets the full treatment.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gutterdaddy.co/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564941045723
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gutter-daddy-atlanta
Image Credits
Shot by George Duvanov
Flyer Created by George Duvanov
