Q 1. Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include
what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you
have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
Ans: Broussard Appliance Service is a family run company located in New Orleans,
Louisiana. We repair residential kitchen and laundry appliance in the Metro
New Orleans area, Houma/ Thibodaux área and the Northshore of New Orleans.
Q 2. Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your
brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major
achievements).
Ans: Allyson’s father Peter Broussard started the company in Houma, Louisiana
and in 1999. It was acquired by his daughter and son in law Al and Allyson
Frederiksen. Al and Allyson met in Lafayette Louisiana while Al was
studying business at the University of Louisiana and Allyson was pursuing a
career in retail.
Q 3. What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant
changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come
about?
Ans: In a smaller market like Houma you have to provide excellent service in
order to be successful. You run into your customers every time you go to
the grocery store, bank, post office and restaurants. We decided to bring
that small town service experience to the larger market of New Orleans and
have built a successful company on that principle.
Q 4. What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans: 1. Treat every customer like you would like to be treated.
2. Join an industry association
3. Partner with good vendors
Q 5. How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans: Be ready for long hours and make sure to make time for yourself. I tell
people that I basically work 24 hours a day. I’m in the office from around
6:30-4:00 but I am thinking about taking care of my customers all the time.
Q 6. To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans: Hands down our employees. We
have a great staff that works to get the job down.
Q 7. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most
successful form of marketing?
Ans: We have tried TV, radio, billboards, yellow pages and even newspaper ads.
Our logos on the side of our service vehicles are our most successful form
of marketing. They are like free rolling billboards.
Q 8. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go
about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
Ans: We applied for some business loans with local and national banks when we
planned to expand. They all turned us down saying it was to risky. We
dipped into our savings to fund the expansion. Now we have banks constantly
looking to lend us money.
Q 9.What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans: Avoid negativity.
Q 10. Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans: A little closer to retirement and doing a little more fishing.
Q 11. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans: I have to say that Uber amazes me. They have taken what seems like a simple
idea and helped people have flexible schedules and earn some extra money. I
just read an article that many people are calling an Uber instead of an
ambulance to take the to the emergency rooms. Ambulance $1,000. Uber $20.
Q 12.How important have good employees been to your success?
Ans: Our employees are the face of our business. They are the first face to face
contact a customer. Our employees are working inside the customers house.
So protect the customer we have all of our technicians drug tested and we
have a background check done on them.
Q 13. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
Ans: It depends on the results. You can’t have a set time frame for all ideas.
We’ve given up on some ideas after a week others a few months.
Q 14. What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Ans: I enjoy fishing the saltwater marsh of south Louisiana. We mostly catch
specked trout and redfish. I also enjoy road cycling along the Mississippi
River bike path. The bike path sits atop the levees that protect us from
the rising river waters.
Q 15. What makes you happy?
Ans: Being with family and friends.
Company Detail:
Company : Broussard Appliance Service
Contact : Alfred Frederiksen
Address : 5003 River Road
City : New Orleans
State : LA
Zip : 70123
Phone : 504-736-9595
Email : al@togetitdone.com