John Gwaltney is a co-owner of Outback Deck Inc., a leader among outdoor living contractors in the North Atlanta suburbs since 2010.
Outback Deck helps homeowners in Georgia’s Cobb, Cherokee and North Fulton counties make the most of their outdoor spaces.
It provides custom designs, top-of-the-line materials and expert installation for composite decking, motorized louvered pergolas, and custom porches by design. Outback Deck's mission is to bring inspiration to outdoor living spaces.
With more than 15 years of work experience running and owning a successful home exterior organization, John oversees Outback Deck's operations and financial management.
Outback Deck employs 25 people, including eight contracted teams. They primarily serve the North Atlanta area, completing roughly 200 projects annually and generating $10 million in revenue this year.
Outback Deck worked with BELAY for five years, contracting and buying out two Bookkeepers and one Virtual Assistant before John decided to work with a Virtual Assistant as well.
“[With BELAY, there was] alignment of who we are and what we do, and there’s a faith component there — and that was important to us,” John says.
“[For] bookkeeping, I wanted a credible company that I felt like had my back. And when I interviewed with BELAY, it was probably the thing that stood out the most.
“The qualifications of the people that they brought to me were really high. I was super surprised. Most people had advanced degrees. From a qualification standpoint, I cannot recommend BELAY enough.”
When John decided to hire a Virtual Assistant through BELAY, he was initially matched with somebody who was a great fit but the engagement lasted only a few months before she became sick and needed to take a step back.
And his CSC was there to help with the transition.
“They connected me pretty quickly with Jenn and really took care of [my first VA during] the changeover,” John remembers. “Jenn has been with me since then.”
And that's how John found BELAY Virtual Assistant Jenn Albrecht.
Jenn started by helping John tackle his “messy” email and calendar.
“I've got a messy email, I've got a messy calendar,” John admits. “I have a pretty decent amount of people that report to me. I need to be able to manage that.
“And in a pretty short amount of time, [Jenn] got that moving right. And she handles almost all my emails now. She manages probably 80% of my calendar and then she does project stuff for me that, from an administrative standpoint, just takes it off my plate and gives me time back.”
John has also been able to use Jenn’s assistance by letting her help him with personal tasks — including date nights with his wife, dinner reservations, and travel plans. He even has reworked his week so that he has Fridays off and those extra eight hours now belong to Jenn.
“In the beginning, the fear tends to be, 'Can I really use someone for 15 to 20 hours a week?'" John says. “You have to create some value for yourself and be able to say, 'Hey, I do $300 an hour work, or I do $500 an hour work,' whatever that is for you. Even if it's $25 an hour of work, there's some version of something that you do that's less valuable that you could then open up another opportunity for you to bring that value back.
“If you do that, the ROI comes really quickly, super quick because you're like, ‘Wow, I made one more deal. I sold one more job. We managed one more project this month.'
“For me, it's spending time with my leaders. I've got a leadership team, I need to spend time with them, and it gives me another 10 hours a week that I can invest.”
“I've gotten space, time [and an] ability to remove some stuff from my plate, which has given me greater ability to make better high-level decisions,” John says. “The simple example is I get to stay at 3000 feet rather than dropping down to ground level, which is really where I am in the company. So that's helpful.
“And honestly, I walked into a Monday today, and my week was already set. I know what's going to happen. I've got a plan for it, it's going to get executed, and I'm going to end my day on Thursday and feel pretty good about it.”
As for what’s next, John and Outback Deck are in growth mode. And BELAY is going to be right beside them to help.
“Notwithstanding something dramatic happening, we would hope to double the size of our business in the next 36 months,” John says. “For me, it's to keep doing what I'm doing, but for our company, we have some leaders who are going to need some support. So we're thinking about adding VAs for them.
“We're growing our accounting department, so I've talked with BELAY about their Controllers. I heard BELAY is going to start having Marketing Assistants. I've got a marketing manager who might benefit.
“So I [can] stay at a thousand feet, [and] we get more brain power from the people that we have.”
And why does John trust BELAY to be his partner in growth? We’ll let him explain.
JENN ALBRECHT
Virtual Assistant