Question : 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.
Reggie and Lea Heinrichs are not new to the businesses that they run! Reggie has been a painter for over 35 years, and Lea has been the cleaning business for over 27 years. They have been together for over 13 years and decided in 2006 to combine both their talents into one business, Last Touch Painting and Cleaning.
Ans : About 9 years ago we decided to add the Benjamin Moore Paint store to the area. 4 years ago we were offered an opportunity to purchase another Benjamin Moore Paint Store in Fairmont, MN.
It has been an amazing business quest to have a residential and commercial painting and cleaning business along with 2 full retail paint stores. To top it off, we also bought out a local Vacuum Riccar dealer fall of 2019. So we also service and sell vacuums along with bags, belts, and filters!
We were able to purchase our own building in summer of 2019 and are now located in the old Story Kenworthy building located at 1612 Jackson Ave. (Behind Northwest Bank or next to the VWF) and over a year a go we were able to purchase the old Doug’s Sports Center in Fairmont and make our new home for the 2nd Benjamin Moore store. 927 E 10th St, Fairmont, MN
Question : 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 : Reggie and Lea Heinrichs reside on a little ranch in Jackson, MN. There they like to raise Texas longhorns and horses (in their spare time!). We have 2 adult kids with 3 grandkids, and we also have 2 younger kids. I am sure if you have stopped in one of our stores you might have seen these boys running around! (AJ and Teddy)
In all We have Last Touch Painting and Cleaning. We offer full service of residential and commercial cleaning and painting, We have 2 Benjamin Moore paint stores, one in Spirit Lake, IA and one in Fairmont, MN. We also have 2 Vacuum Sales and repair stores. Lea has her own Digital Marketing Company Called Over The Top Marketing and we just started a new adventure of Animal House Pet Shop in Spirit Lake.
Question : 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 : Since Reggie was in the painting business for many years and Lea was in the cleaning business we decided to combine the 2 into one business. Later on we added the Benjamin Moore stores. Owning your own business is a lot of work but we enjoy taking the time with clients to make their house a home .
Question : What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
Ans : Work hard for you what you want. Never Give up. Set Goals and communicate.
Question : What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
Ans : Motivation, Grit, abliltiy to push though the grind to get where you need to to have success.
Question : How many hours do you work a day on average?
Ans : Honeslty A LOT! I probably work in my business 7-8 hours and day and then on my business 20+ hours a week.
Question : To what do you most attribute your success?
Ans : NEVER give up.
Question : How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Ans : Social Media, daily 6 days a week for all 6 businesses. Videos of what we do and how we do it. Radio, I use my voice so people associate me with our business.
Question : 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 : When we first started I took an overnight job over the weekends to have extra money. Many years we made it by lots of hard work and not paying ourselves much. Over time we built up our credit to be able to get lines of credit to purchase larger items.
Question : What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
Ans : Be consistent, have a plant and implement it. Work hard, don’t give up.
Question : Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
Ans : I hope to open another Benjamin Moore store, maybe sell part of the business. Have my employees purchase the business and have us retire.
Question : Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
Ans : Self make ones. Seeing people start a business totally from scratch and go all the way with it. Especially woman owned businesses as I know, I have been there!