Ep52 - Nick Markuta - What You dont know is coming-is already here

Dominic Rubino: Hey everybody and welcome to the podcast. Got a pretty interesting and

different episode for you today. The first thing I want you to know, is that the

person I'm interviewing is from the Ukraine. Now, in our industry, in trades,

we're dealing with lots of people who are immigrants, and maybe have thick

accents, and certainly is the case here today with Nick Markuta. Nick is calling in

from the Ukraine to talk to us, and I met him, believe or not, through a general

contractor who it seems has been referring this podcast to a lot of the trades he

works with. So, thank you to him. That's great. But Nick is from a company

called ArchiCGI. So, they do CGI for architectural firms. That means they do 3D

renderings and things like that. What you're about to learn is something I found

out in our pre-interview is that Nick and his company, I mean they're in Kiev,

75% of their work is in North America and the UAE. So that's the United Arab

Emirates. 15% is in Europe. They have 300 staff who do 3D renderings of

drawings.

The learning goal that I have for you guys today is to understand that

outsourcing things that will help you sell deals or build deals faster, better,

smarter is possible, and that other companies are already doing it. He has 300

people working full-time year round doing this, and most of his clients are in

North America.

So, stay tuned. We're going to hear from Nick at ArchiCGI. He's going to do his

best to explain to us how this stuff works. And the kind of work he does to make

cabinet renderings. He does a lot of 3D maps, architectural rendering,

development projects. That's where the general contractor has been promoting

this podcast, which is great.

Hey, I don't know if you guys know this ... Actually, I guess you can't know this.

I'm learning this myself, but we have more than just cabinet makers and

architectural mill workers on this podcast. Increasingly, I'm getting general

contractors, as well as associated trades. So, electricians, and plumbers, HVAC.

I've got roofers listening. Welcome roofers to the podcast. And so that's great. I

think the reason that we're attracting people to listen to this because there's an

understanding that this podcast really isn't about cabinetry. It's about the

business of running a trades business. So thanks to all of you who are out there

listening, looking for good information and great guests. I work really hard at

getting us great guests, and I think the proof is in the pudding that we're getting

people outside this industry looking at that. So, thank you very much.

Anyways. Stay tuned. We're going to be speaking to Nick Markuta from

ArchiCGI. He's got some interesting things to tell us that you'll be able to apply

to your shop, and turn things around faster for more profit for yourselves, which

is the reason we're all here. Okay. Let's get to the show.

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Hey, Nick.

Nick Markuta: Hello, Dominic.

Dominic Rubino: How are you?

Nick Markuta: I'm doing fine. What about you?

Dominic Rubino: I'm doing very well, thank you. I have to say thanks Nick for joining us again

today from beautiful Ukraine.

Nick Markuta: Thank you, Dominic. It's my pleasure.

Dominic Rubino: What are listeners don't know is that we already did this interview yesterday,

and I forgot to hit record.

Nick Markuta: It's fine. I enjoy being celebrity in Canada.

Dominic Rubino: So we had a great conversation, which we're going to re-have today. So thanks

very much, Nick. Hey. Before we get started, I just want to let everybody know

that we're talking about the global economy and how to make it work for you in

your woodworking shop. Nick's an expert at that, and he is the secret that a lot

of people don't know about. Nick, can you tell us about yourself and what you

do?

Nick Markuta: Okay. So my name is Nick Markuta. I'm working at ArchiCGI team. I'm plant

manager, and we are a large company. We deliver professional outsource 3D

rendering and mill workshop drawing services. We are located in Ukraine, but

we work from clients from pretty much all over the world. We have more than

300 specialists in our offices in Ukraine. So, around 250 are into professional 3D

rendering service and around 50 specialists specialize in accurate shop drawings

for cabinet manufacturers.

Dominic Rubino: I'm amazed, Nick. You have a team of 300 people-

Nick Markuta: Yep.

Dominic Rubino: ... that do 3D renderings for millwork and cabinet companies.

Nick Markuta: Yes. Our main service is 3D model and 3D rendering. But, we're also

professionals in doing drawing in AutoCAD, so it's also a large part of workflow,

and it's also [inaudible], and it's also work that can be outsourced for cabinetry

makers.

Dominic Rubino: Right. It's such an interesting find. I found you through very ... It's weird. There

was a general contractor who told me about you. I've got people listening to this

podcast that I don't necessarily think are listening to the podcast. I thought it

was all just cabinet makers, and joiners, and finishers, and architectural mill-

workers, but really it's business owners in the trades industry. So, one of them

suggested that I look you guys up, and I did, and here we are. I didn't think when

he made the intro that you guys were as big as you are. I thought you might be,

maybe, a five man shop. You've got 300 people?

Nick Markuta: Yes. It's specifics of nowadays economy. So, [inaudible] have connection. It

raises the barriers, and we have the right labor, and we have the right expertise.

Ukraine is not the best place for young engineers and 3D modelers to start their

career on the internal market, but we can provide our services for other

countries with stronger economies, and we can evaluate the difference of

exchange rate. This is how it works nowadays.

Dominic Rubino: Yeah.

Nick Markuta: So, we enjoy what ... We hope that it's the right service to provide.

Dominic Rubino: Well, I mean I've heard from other people that you guys do fantastic work, and

you're right. The global economy even reaches into something as ... Everything

that our customers, the listeners here, make somebody touches in their shop.

So, it would be difficult to think how the global economy can impact that, but

for those of you listening who've been wondering why some of your

competitors are generating 3D drawings, who are maybe still beating you on

price, and adding that extra layer of value, or wondering how it happened. We

have talked in the past on this podcast about outsourcing offshore consultants,

offshore contractors, and Nick at ArchiCGI is one of those companies.

Let's put this all in a little bit of context. Let's just use a small kitchen as an

example. Maybe define for me what a small kitchen means to you, and then tell

us how many hours that would take if I was a business owner to have that

turned around back in shop as drawings?

Nick Markuta: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Okay. For us, a small kitchen looks like a project where

we can do two tasks. First of all, we can make a prototype of this kitchen, a

photo realistic 3D rendering to show how it would actually look like when

implemented. So, clients may provide different materials, textures, apply

different elements like doors, and so on. Once the designer, the manufacturer,

and the client have approval, so the production starts. For production we can

provide AutoCad millwork drawings. It's something that cabinetry makers

typically do their selves, but they can cut costs and save the time, concentrate

on business development, and leave this job for us. For example, for

professional 3D modeling and photo realistic image the rate is $20 per hour. For

AutoCad work we have much more specialists in Ukraine, and the rate is $12 per

hour. Price-wise I would say making a 3D model takes around maybe 12 hours

for a 3D and photo realistic rendering-

Dominic Rubino: Right.

Nick Markuta: ... so, if someone needs a presentation from the images, with the images it's like

200 maybe, $240 for a set of two images in a small kitchen. Once the owner of

millwork shop, or cabinetry shop has approval from his clients, he needs to

manufacture this kitchen, and I would say that we would be more than happy to

provide professional shop drawings to actually do this kitchen. It means we

need to show all the element sections to have it produced. So, actually it might

take maybe price-wise around $400 or maybe $500 for a set of shop drawings

for a small kitchen.

Dominic Rubino: Right, but that's labor that we don't have to do on our side here. We can just

offshore it and have that work done while we're doing other work. I've seen

some of your work. I mean, you guys ... It's more than just a 3D realistic

drawing. I mean, you put fruit bowls on the counter, and plants in the corner,

and a carpet, like what I would call context. You add that livability context to

these photos. It's incredible. I imagine that helps people make the buying

decision on the other side.

Nick Markuta: Yes. It's called approach working with the libraries. So, we have purchased

various libraries. We have more than 40,000 different elements of décor and

additional items to put in just to make the image more selling, and rich with

detail when needed. Actually we can do not only kitchen, but create the

atmosphere as if someone is already living there, and how this kitchen can be

used.

Dominic Rubino: Yeah. I think that's an amazing use of technology that really helps our listeners

help their clients make the decision. When we first started talking about this,

Nick, because we did a pre-interview, and of course, we had yesterday's

interview, but I was thinking that the best application for this would be with the

more residentially focused cabinet makers. But, then we got to talking about

architectural mill workers could use this 3D rendering as part of their marketing

on their websites. Taking existing plans and creating a 3D model to put on their

website, even though the projects already built. Just to show people who need

to see it visually how it works.

Nick Markuta: Yes. Not only on websites, but on social media as well. So, many companies

maintain Instagram channels. So, we have plans to do that. Not only imagery,

but also animation for Instagram stories, which is quite popular now, and we

also created by us. 3D Max software also allows to make moving renders, so just

animations, videos where we can see movement activity and it attracts more

attention in some cases than just still images.

Not only still images, but animation is also a product that we can do. Not only

websites also social networks is something that manufacturers use for their

marketing.

Dominic Rubino: You can ... So Nick, you could show the drawers opening, or the cabinet doors

opening and closing? That's what you mean by animation?

Nick Markuta: Exactly. As long as we already created the simple still images we can use same

scene, just make enough frames and record the animation, so we can do that

with 3D Max. So not only will it open and close the cabinet doors, but also we

can make creative stuff like having different materials applied over there or

having various elements of one cabinet fly in and assembled in the air so we can

show the structure and parts. So when someone goes to supermarket, he sees

the furniture element from the outside but we can also show interior parts of

furniture animated.

Dominic Rubino: I could see that being very valuable and especially for a high end furniture

maker or somebody making something like a murphy bed where movement is

needed to understand the use to the product. How does the murphy bed come

down, how does that then impact the room, there's murphy beds now that have

desks built right into them so you can, while the murphy bed is up, the desk

portion can come down, and then you put the desk back up and you pull the

whole murphy bed down. I think for a lot of people that are buying that kind of

product, knowing how that product interacts is really important to making that

sale.

Nick Markuta: Yes, animation shows the value of murphy bed. It saves your square meters of

your apartment and animation can show exactly the right value of that product.

So all these things like animations, very still images, they can be make in 3D Max

so it's one software package so also there is various approach for rendering. We

prefer to render with V-Ray, so with another application for 3D Max. And with

3D Max and V-Ray gives the most realistic result and we can make a video as if

it's a real video captured with a camera.

Dominic Rubino: Oh so you can show me moving, not just the drawers opening, but you can show

me moving as if I was walking through the space?

Nick Markuta: Yes. As long as we create this environment in virtual reality in 3D Max, we can

show as it from the eye view level as if someone is going through and it's

popular for developers and architects to sell the real estate because they try to

attract investment before they even start building a house and this approach is

same for Ukraine, for US, so this is how the market works and this is especially

important to make the right advertising campaign and to show that the building

will be-

Dominic Rubino: Yeah, how it looks and how you, what it'll look like when it's finished. Let me go

back for a second Nick, what's the ... this industry of creating 3D renderings off-

shore in the Ukraine, is it a growing trend? Is it holding flat? Is it declining? Tell

me about the overall, the global perspective on 3D renders as used by mill

workers around the world.

Nick Markuta: Well, I would definitely say that it's a growing trend. So three years ago, we

were a company of 60 people, now we are more than 300 people, we

completed few dozens of different tasks during the last year so I would even say

the market is growing as an extraordinary pace so the more and more

companies come to understand and that it's and opportunity to somehow cut

the cost and cut the marketing budget to be more competitive. And we

significantly improved the communication, we developed the CRM system for

our clients to have feeling as if working at the same desk. So on our experience I

would say we definitely see the growth. Generally, the technology's been

improved and for sure, the future of the next decade will show us more

advanced approach instead of looking for just still images. We will have

headsets and our mobile phones as remote control to-

Dominic Rubino: So like a virtual reality, so this 3D ... you think the future of 3D modeling is to

move to a virtual reality headset?

Nick Markuta: Yeah, the virtual ... so the market of still images will also survive. But because

either way, work pages, social networks, there is demand for still images. And

there is demand for just animation. But there is extremely high potential in

virtual reality and augmented reality demand. So virtual reality demand is

environment where you put on the headset and you walk through the virtual

object as if it's already built. So it's possi- There are companies who give

opportunity to try this experience but still it's not that much realistic yet as still

images. But the technology has been improved and it's going to be more and

more realistic. So it's virtual reality.

Augmented reality is another growing market. Where you can take your cell

phone camera, you can just look at your room through your cell phone and try

on various furniture and-

Dominic Rubino: Wow, really?

Nick Markuta: Yes. And if you go to app store or to [inaudible] market, you will find a dozen of

apps who already offer this kind of approach. It's augmented reality. So you're

thinking, what kind of armchair to buy so you can download augmented reality

app and you can see how this one fits or how that one fits and how do they

actually look. So the only difference its not that much realistic as our still

imagery yet.

Dominic Rubino: Of course, right.

Nick Markuta: But we already do geometry, and we are already do 3D modeling for such

companies who develop the application.

Dominic Rubino: That is just insane. So some of the people listening right now are doing no 3D

modeling, some of the people listening do 3D modeling in-house or locally. And

then they're not taking advantage of global economies of scale and currencies.

And then the people that are doing 3D modeling might not realize that virtual

reality's coming. And then on top of that, you just said augmented reality is

already here. I gotta catch up man. I'm way behind.

Nick Markuta: So those who are interested can google, so I will not give ... I will not tell any

brands of the application but some of them can be already downloaded and

tried. I hope that they are will be a good start up company who will raise good

funds on their first IPO and they will say, "Hey, guys. We have a lot of furniture

manufacturers working with us, we have a popular app, we need a team who

will do all the 3D modeling." And here we go, we will say, "We can do it for you."

Dominic Rubino: Always the marketer Nick, always the marketer.

Nick Markuta: If someone is going to launch this kind of business so they will know that there

is a team in Ukraine, ArchiCGI, who are willing to do the modeling work ready to

go.

Dominic Rubino: What city are you in there?

Nick Markuta: It's Kiev, capital of Ukraine.

Dominic Rubino: Oh, beautiful. Nice.

Nick Markuta: We have branches in five cities, but Kiev office is the largest. We have like 150

people here.

Dominic Rubino: Where do you clients come from?

Nick Markuta: So I would say majority of our clients are US clients and Canadian clients also.

Dominic Rubino: And do you deal with Australia? Do you deal with the Middle East? Do you deal

with ...

Nick Markuta: Yes, we deal with Australia so ... I would say, Australia is not in most responsive

time zone because we have day shift and evening shift, we try to be close to our

customers and to maintain instant communication. Yes for Australians,

sometimes replies will take few hours but even if we don't think of response

time, Australia is just 18 million market of population. So we do have clients

from there but most of the clients are USA and Canada. Then a significant part

from Europe, Middle East, and from Asia and Australia, minor part of clients.

Dominic Rubino: Wonderful. The scope of this, the size of this thing that you do, I think is blowing

a lot of us away. We didn't know that this existed in the first place. So let's think

for a second, somebody listening to this, who's never used a service like yours

before. What would I need to send you in order to get back 3D rendered

drawings? What do you need from me, the manufacturer?

Nick Markuta: So first of all, I should mention that everything that we do is based on the

accurate size. So if we do 3D rendering, we need to know the dimensions of the

kitchen. At least floor plan, ceiling height, or elevations. So it's like mandatory

information and if we need to model particular cabinetry, then drawings for this

cabinetry. So speaking about the floor plans is preferable to have CAD files but if

it's just a stage drawn by hand, as long as it has measurements, we can take it

and just put in the measurements when do the modeling. It would be enough. I

understand that some clients are always in a rush and they start with giving us

floor plans. We say okay, so what about ceiling height? Should we do it on our

own discretion? Actually no, so the client gives out the ceiling height.

Communication matters and how tight is the approach also matters. We created

our website, Archivizer.com for our clients to have a fill in as if we were on the

same desk. So clients can log in, create an account with project, and see their

team, who is working for them. Actually, for example, my responsibility is to

start new cooperations so I communicate with people on Facebook, on LinkedIn,

so someone can contact me, my name is Nick Markuta. Dependent on the kind

of task, I will advise further. If it's a project for drawing, I will assign the right

project manager to do the drawings. If it's project for 3D visualization interior, I

will assign the project manager who is experienced in interiors. It's design

development, or if it's large, commercial exterior building with streets and cars,

I will assign the right project manager.

So the first step is to communicate with client manager. It's either me or

someone from my colleagues so we have a dozen of people who is responsible

for making clients happy for the first contact. So a person can drop me a file in

LinkedIn, I would advise right away on the missing information and I would say,

please create an account in our CRM. And the right project manager, I already

see which kind of task it had. And the right project manager will be assigned

once you create and account. And the person is in the system then the project

manager starts playing his role and gives advice on the right time frame. I can

make the cost information myself but sometimes clients change their mind, add

additional scope to the project, reduce scope-

Dominic Rubino: That happens in all trades, yeah that always happens.

Nick Markuta: So once the project is already started, the project manager is responsible for

extra scope, for revisions, for making changes and so ...

Dominic Rubino: Yeah. So it sounds like you guys have figured out a system. That you have a

project man- for every job or for every account, there's a project manager. And

then do you keep the same people on? Let's say it's my woodwork shop. I don't

have a woodwork shop but let's say it is my shop. Do I always get the same

account manager?

Nick Markuta: Well it's my responsibility to assign the right project manager. So I deal with

many clients and I try to send the same people for the work to be done

consistently. And we manage tasks so there is a lot of work coming and

sometimes clients may have a project once in a year or once in few months, it's

okay. And someone can write me on LinkedIn or Facebook or give me a call or

write in WhatsApp, "Hey Nick, I have another project, is Dima available?" I

would say, "Actually, Dima is busy with something else but we have another

guy, Vlad. And I will assign him but I will make sure it will be consistent

approach and if the previous image and the current image are showed on one

webpage, they will look consistently with same light."

Dominic Rubino: So you get the same output of imagery that we would expect from the last time

we did the job?

Nick Markuta: Yes. Since you're working with one company, Archivizer, we have our client's

profiles and the new team assigned, I will put a note that this client already

worked with us, so he's just new for this new team. And they will se the history

of previous tasks and logically, they will understand that the images should be

consistent.

Dominic Rubino: So let me, you made me think of something, and we'll start to wind down here

now, but one of the questions I have is, we've got a client. And we show them

their kitchen. And I'm supplying the cabinetry and maybe I've got ... the

countertops are another part but we're looking at other countertop options for

coloring. Or flooring. And I'm not supplying flooring. Can you change out the

color of the countertops? And even if I'm going from marble to quartz to

silestone, and the same with flooring? Can you guys swap those out easily or is

that difficult.

Nick Markuta: Well this is exactly what we are requested to do and what we do. So the

advantage of CGI if we compare it to photography, it's adjustability. And we can

adjust different textures and the materials and make a batch of images with all

the possible variance for the end customer to make the choice.

Dominic Rubino: Neat.

Nick Markuta: So the process is to create the 3D model and then to assign textures, to make

realistic lighting, to render, to give images animation, whatever it is, and then if

we need additional textures and materials, we don't need to do it once again.

We just need to remove the previous material from the countertop and to apply

a new one.

Dominic Rubino: So it's like a skin? You just change the color and okay.

Nick Markuta: Yeah. Sometimes we need to draw in Photoshop, sometimes maybe an hour of

work needed or a few hours of work needed. The materials and the resolution

of the image. So we understand the larger print size, the higher resolution

needed. So if it's something that should be on a large board and people should

come close and look into the quality of marble, we need to make 20,000

resolution, making texture for this resolution does take time. We do not need to

have it pixelated and ... but either way, making new textures is not complicated

approach. So as long as geometry is right it, so it's a matter of just rendering of

new image style work for the texture.

Dominic Rubino: Now Nick, some people might not be familiar with the technical side of ... I think

you said if I send you plans, you're going to send me this file back. But this is a

video file. How big is thing, computer-wise? Will I be able to play it on my

phone, will I be able to play it off my computer? And is it going to take a huge

chunk of memory off my webpage? How big are these files?

Nick Markuta: They're not big. So it's just regular images. So we can adjust the size of the

actual image. If the purpose is just to show it on the webpage so absolutely no

problem, the images can go through emails just few megabytes, is okay.

Dominic Rubino: Okay. So it's not going to be a difficult, I'm not getting a huge movie file that's

gonna slow down my computer?

Nick Markuta: No. For sure, no. If it's not a computer from the '90s.

Dominic Rubino: It might be, you never know.

Nick Markuta: First MacBook, you know.

Dominic Rubino: The first MacBook, when they were white and weighed 25 pounds. Nick, this is

just amazing to me. Some of the things I learned just today and in our previous

conversation blows me away. Because I knew that this existed as an industry,

using off shore contractors, really skilled people all around the world, to reduce

our costs and free up our teams so that they can do what they do and then we

have other teams working in parallel. It just blows me away, so thanks very

much for sharing this with us today. The people listening might want to get in

touch with you and find out more about how this works, how do they do that?

Nick Markuta: So thank you for this interview, I enjoy doing that. I would say so it's not difficult

to outsource. It's quite easy approach. Some people think that the

communication would be a problem, actually it wouldn't, so it's been improved

with us and with any competitors on this market. So we try to get this orders

and we do the right communication in WhatsApp, in Skype, in social networks,

so this is exactly what we do. I think there is no difficulty, if the end result

matters, it makes no difficulty whether the person is in Canada or in Ukraine.

Dominic Rubino: Yeah, right. Well we've got technology to use now. Do you use Slack, Skype,

what are the tools you use to talk back and forth with clients? Email I guess is a

given.

Nick Markuta: The main tool is our system, Archivizer.com because we created it, and we have

our IT guys who do the system improvement. The advantage is having libraries.

Because when client is trying to visualize something and when it's for example,

interior designer, he knows the furniture items he'd like to have and he can just

go to our library and select the right furniture and décor to put into his scene

and to have his rendering. Same about textures, same about for example,

environment for exteriors. You can see our other exteriors and put in the right

fences and trees.

It's more for ... Most of our clients, it's more convenient to work through

Archivizer.com. But some huge companies just got used to work in Slack, we

have no problem working in Slack so our project managers just duplicate the

information from Slack to our compiler for us to have our internal records so

clients can get back to us in few years and we know where everything is saved.

Dominic Rubino: [crosstalk] Skype-

Nick Markuta: Skype is good for instant communications. And especially for client managers.

So guys like myself communicate in Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, so

whenever there is something urgent and something needs to be arranged,

maybe another project manager added or maybe more artists from different

teams, something extraordinary, so clients can contact me on Skype, LinkedIn,

Facebook and I can organize. So as long as the work is going according to the

plan so clients deal with project managers in Archivizer or project managers to

go their Slacks, Asanas, or other CRM.

Dominic Rubino: Asana. Yeah, that's the one I forgot about. Yeah, I don't use Asana.

Nick Markuta: Asana, yeah it's popular. But again, Asana is almost same as Archivizer but

Archivizer has these things-

Dominic Rubino: It has the libraries in it. I guess what I'm hearing from you is that you have

multiple ways to communicate to clients, which is great. Let me, let's draw this

to a close now. How do people get in touch with you from here now if they have

questions about what you do there?

Nick Markuta: Okay. So I will be happy to answer any questions. It's my job and it's something

that I definitely enjoy doing. So whatever is more convenient. My LinkedIn page

"Nick Markuta" and they can find me in the list of your friends.

Dominic Rubino: That's right.

Nick Markuta: On Facebook, I'm "Nick Markuta" as well. My email is

n.markuta@archivizer.com. It's complicated to spell email so social networks-

Dominic Rubino: That's okay, I've got your email address here on WhatsApp because you and I

are organizing appointments and stuff, we've been doing it for days. So what I'll

do Nick, is of course as you said, if people are already linked to me, most

listeners are linked to me already, so if you look for Nick Markuta, his last name

is spelled M-A-R-K-U-T-A, then you'll see that we're all linked and that's the right

Nick Markuta. Apologies to any other Nick Markuta in the world but this is the

one we're talking to.

And then, on the website which is cabinetmakerprofitsystems.com, if you look

under the podcast, you'll see show notes for this episode. And if you're into

that, you'll see links to Nick's email address and anything relevant from our talk,

including an entire transcript of this conversation which is great, people like

that. Just one more time though, let me read out the email address for people

who are waiting with pen in hand or waiting to type it in, it's Nick Markuta, he

can be reached at n.markuta@archivizer.com. Here's the spelling. "N dot M-A-R-

K-U-T-A at A-R-C-H-I-V-I-Z-E-R dot com". So that's how to get in touch with Nick

and if you get stuck, shoot me a note and I'll put you guys in touch and you can

run off your merry way, do whatever you need to do.

Nick, thanks to you and your team for all your patience. This is our second

interview and I appreciate you rescheduling with me.

Nick Markuta: Yeah, I enjoy doing that. I enjoy answering questions. So whoever has any

questions to me, I will be glad to advise for them.

Dominic Rubino: Alright. Well thank you Nick, have a great day. And thanks everybody for

listening to cabinetmakerprofitsystems.com podcast and also, it increasingly,

thanks to all of you who are referring your friends from outside cabinet making

people listen to this because it's about business. So thanks everybody, have a

great day. We'll talk to you all in the next episode. See you Nick.

Nick Markuta: Yeah, see you.

Dominic Rubino: Well that was a very interesting interview with Nick Markuta of ArchiCGI, from

the Ukraine. You probably didn't think I was going to bring you something so

exotic today but. There's a trend that we've been talking about here on the

channel for a long time, here on the podcast, of outsourcing. And some of you

have taken it up and some of you might not have yet, but outsourcing exists in

so many ways and it being used by other people in your industry. By your

competitors. I hate to say it. The ideas coming from well, people like me. The

idea's been around a long time. But the reason that people are moving towards

it is because its a really smart way to reduce labor costs, get things done faster,

you don't have to put additional work on the shoulders of your people if you can

outsource it and ship it off. Especially when those guys quite often are working

around the clock when you're asleep so the cycle times, the turn around times

are just fantastic.

Nick is a pretty energetic guy. He's, as I said before, he's got an accent but it's

not that bad and you can see that communicating with his company is

something he takes very, very seriously. And to be honest, deal with Nick or

somebody like him but this is a trend that's happening in the industry. And he

did a good job of telling us what else is coming next. Everything from virtual

reality to augmented reality coming on its heels. And you need to be taking

advantage of that.

So while we wrap this up, I want to send out a thank you. I've had couple of

general contractors who've been listening to the podcast that have very kindly,

generously, or just smart I guess, passed this on to other trades that they're

working with. It's called Cabinet Maker Profit System for a reason and those of

you who've been listening for a long time know that I don't just work with

cabinet makers, but I like working with tradespeople. So I started the podcast to

serve this market.

But these GCs have passed on this podcast, there's two specifically that I know,

have passed this podcast on to some other trades. Roofers, HVAC, H-Vac, it's

called, and electricians specifically. And so suddenly I've got this really big uptick

in business owners who are also tradespeople like us. But they're from not the

cabinet making industry. So that's kind of interesting, I'm going to have to take

that into account as we look as our guests and our topics and the flow and some

of the coaching materials that I provide. There's tons of free stuff on the website

if you go to cabinetmakerprofitsystems.com. I know a lot of you have

downloaded the finance and forecast meeting. That's the one that comes with

the agenda for the meeting as well as the script that you could use as a business

owner to run that meeting. And of course the profit leaks download there that

gives you a primer on how to get started and finding and fixing the profit leaks

in your business. More to come on that, by the way.

I've hired a business coach. I'm so busy that I'm finding that my time is not being

used wisely or properly. So I've got a business coach working with me. Perhaps

we'll have him on the podcast one day to talk about what he works with me on

so you'll probably hear about him one day. Anyway, so thank you so much for

checking in and getting your dose of business energy and adrenaline here today.

Learning something new about the global commerce world and how it's

impacting the drawer faces you and your team are putting on today in

somebody's home or office. But it truly is coming to bear.

For those of you that are going to be at AWI in New Orleans at the very end of

March, beginning of April, I'll be the closing keynote speaker there. So I'm

looking forward to meeting you and shaking your hand and maybe having a

coffee. Or some other beverage. So if you are there and we haven't had a

chance to meet face to face, make sure you track me down and say hi and let

me know that you listen to the podcast. It'd be very nice to put a face to the

name. And I'm also be speaking at Canada Woodwork West coming up in a very

short time here as well. So look forward to seeing you all out there in the field. If

you have nay questions, please get in touch with me.

There's a ton of links on the website. People have been booking the free 20

minute phone call which is great. Gives me a chance to meet some of you, hear

your thoughts, your concerns, your questions. Had a neat one the other day

about a family business going through transition. That was in a, I think that was

a phone that was appreciated by the people on the other end of the line 'cause

there's some stress going on right now. So hope I helped you guys, you know

who you are. Thanks for reaching out and get back to me if I can help any more.

And I think that's it for now. Thanks everybody, have a great day. And we'll talk

to you on the next episode.

This episode is brought to you by Kitply.ca. If I say "managed inventory", do you

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