“Custom Design, Streamlined To Create Beautiful & Intimate Bathrooms” w/ Joseph Tsedaka of NOMI

Nathan (1s):
Welcome back Radio Entrepreneurs listeners and fans, I’m producer Nathan Gobes excited to be back with you again, and I’m excited to introduce our next guest, Joseph of NOMI. Welcome Joseph.

Joseph (15s):
Thank you for having me.

Nathan (16s):
So why don’t you start by giving us an overview about Nomi, tell us what it’s all about and then maybe we’ll get into its background and your background.

Joseph (25s):
Yeah, of course. So no meats at the end, we’re a bathroom remodeling company, but not just a regular bathroom remodeling company. We simplified and streamlined the entire bathroom remodeling process. So we consider ourselves kind of a half remodeling company, half technology company, but at the end we just create gorgeous bathroom spaces.

Nathan (54s):
Nice. And how long have you been in business? How long has normally been running?

Joseph (1m 0s):
We’re going to be 10 years. It’s very soon, but as me, we are running for two years. So basically we started our entire company almost 10 years ago and we kind of developed to be what we are today. We didn’t start this way.

Nathan (1m 21s):
Hmm. Interesting. Do you want to get into that a little bit more and maybe if you want to work in anything about your background as well, we always love to hear the background of the guests. What got you into this, that kind of stuff?

Joseph (1m 32s):
Yeah, of course. So the general thing, I used to be a lawyer and accountant before I started my company, but I always wanted to do something else, something different. So in a one day we just quit everything and follow the, our heart and went all the way from Israel to here. That’s a long story, but basically it happened very fast. And when we first started, we started as regular remodeling company that just, you know, grew slowly and slowly.

Joseph (2m 13s):
And we were specializing in very luxury, large projects, but over the years we always kept getting, you know, feedback from our clients. They love everything that we did for them, but the bathroom was something that, you know, really changed their life. So I started to research a little bit more about this, and then I got into my aha moment. So I had a customer that it wasn’t their fifties, Keith just left the house and he told me, you know, what, Joseph’s, I forgot the, what it’s like to be with my wife. You know, I was always around kids and afterschool activities and, you know, we forgot what it’s like to be friends.

Joseph (2m 60s):
So I told him that I think that the bathroom area is the best place to create, you know, new adventures for, for couples. And I really think that the bathroom can make you a better person in the bathroom, can, you know, change your life. So basically what we did, we kind of took their old bathroom. They had the tub and a shower and we converted to double shower, but the entire design was around. We want people to be closer to each other. So we had two shower heads right next to each other. You know, we had the bench for two people, everything was for two people kind of telling them, go there together.

Joseph (3m 48s):
And you know, at the end it’s very intimate place. It’s very, you know, private place to discuss about with clients. But, you know, I got a phone call two or three months after the project was done. And he called me and said, Hey, Joseph, you know, I just wanted to tell you that, you know, that bathroom really change our life. And I’m like, really? How come? Yeah, that’s the only place that we don’t have any cell phones or TVs or something. So that’s forced us to start speaking to each other and talking to each other. And you know, we are back to be, you know, the, those lumper that we used to be in the past, not like, you know, what, awesome, great fast forward.

Joseph (4m 37s):
I wanted to create something that is going to be different. So we were always kind of a top 10 companies over here, but we were never number one. And that drove me crazy. You know, we’re busting our, you know, and at the end, we’re not, we’re not number one yet. So what do we need to do? So I start to think about this and we wanted to, to be the best one in something and that something was bathroom remodeling. So what we bead, we kind of said, you know what, from now on, we’re not accepting any more projects that are not going to be bathroom remodeling.

Joseph (5m 24s):
And we declined 95% of our, of our potential projects. And we do only bathroom remodeling projects. And then over a course of a year, a year and a half, we have developed all kinds of systems and technologies that are strictly to bathroom remodeling. So for example, if you go to a normal company that do kitchen and bathroom and additions, and you’ll ask them then to, you know, remodel your bathroom, they will come to your house. They will spend an hour or two to understand what’s going on.

Joseph (6m 4s):
And then they will go home or to their office and then send you an estimate. And probably after two weeks, I’m pretty normal. You know, you’re waiting. Sometimes it will, they will send you the estimate sometimes they’ll forget about you. But at the end, it takes very long time. So we developed system that allow you to do the same thing in less than 10 minutes. So we can get into the house. And in 10 minutes I can get accurate pricing for a hundred thousand dollars baffled, okay. Or if we need an architect to right now take measurements of the entire space, and that takes an hour to, to, to generate those drawings.

Joseph (6m 47s):
We do this today with our technology in less than one minute. So we scan the entire room and, you know, in one minute I have a full 3d of our bathroom and then the same efficiency go across the entire process. So if in the past we needed to have five different people. One is gonna do the estimate. One is going to do the design ones, go to the sales. One is going to do the actual project management. Now we cut down everything. And one person, typically we use one of our designers, we’ll go to the house and he can price everything in 10 minutes simply because of our technology.

Joseph (7m 31s):
So we simplified and streamlined the entire,

Nathan (7m 36s):
That’s fascinating, really interesting. And there’s a few different pieces that I I’d love to dive a little deeper on. I think my first question is when you, when you decided to make the shift coming from Israel, from your previous business into remodeling, did you have any remodeling experience? Did you team up with somebody who did, and, and you’re more on the business side, how did that transition occur?

Joseph (8m 2s):
But that, that’s a great question. So first of all, I have a partner, Barry Kaufman is my partner. I couldn’t do anything without him. So thank you very, and when we first started, we had some background, you know, from our previous life in Israel, but it’s not a background that enough for you in order to start a construction company. So before we start to take any project, we spend about a year, year and a half on buying houses and renovate them ourself, not for the profit more to learn and understand how construction is work over here in the United States.

Joseph (8m 48s):
Yeah. So in the first year we only be demo and build it and demo and build up. And then one bill until we, we really felt comfortable that we know what we’re talking about only then we started with the really small project, no neighbors start to ask, oh, who did this for you? Who did that for you? And we kind of, you know, told them that’s our company that did all those things. So, you know, we learn a little bit, you know, how to do things and, you know, an undergo, we try to focus on our project. The thing that we, you know, if something goes wrong, it’s going to be our houses, not someone else.

Joseph (9m 31s):
So we buy the house we renovated. And then after we doubled this twice and we renovated twice, then we sold it and then we bought another one. But the whole idea was really to learn with our own hands. We never had the intention to do it with our own hands, but we wanted to make sure that we understand everything about the construction. It takes time, we’re still learning every day. But I think the biggest shift was by hiring the best construction people in our area. So I, if someone will ask me, I’m not a contractor, you know, I’m running a company that do construction, but I just have the best people.

Nathan (10m 16s):
Yeah. I think that’s a great story because I’m sure there’s a lot of our viewers and listeners out there that are interested in starting their own business. They say they want to get into X or Y, but you know, they don’t have the experience. And so to hear your story of how you, you know, just got your hands dirty and started learning really, really shines well, and then to, to jump forward in, in the timeline of what you were talking about, where you, you know, found your niche of bathrooms, but you also developed some technology. I’m curious. Do you have the, any expertise in the technology that you developed? Did you bring on somebody on board who focused on that? Or how did that come about if it’s possible without spoiling too much of the secret sauce?

Joseph (10m 58s):
Yeah, no problem. So I believe that at the end you can hire great people, but if you have a vision for something, you have to be in the bits and bites of everything at the beginning, at least. So what they did, they just, you know, when everyone goes sleep, I learned how to code. And I learned how to do all kinds of things that allow us to develop those systems. When I really understood what’s going on and how to do this, then I hired people, engineers to help us, you know, to build those engineers, coding programmers, to help us to build those things.

Joseph (11m 44s):
But I had enough knowledge to tell them that’s not working well, let’s change it. I didn’t know how to do everything a hundred, but I know when something is wrong or I know if something can be better. Cause that makes sense.

Nathan (11m 59s):
Yeah. That makes sense. And definitely, you know, an important skill that, you know, not having to know everything, but knowing enough to, to be dangerous, so to speak. And I know when something’s not working and needs fixing.

Joseph (12m 12s):
Yeah.

Nathan (12m 13s):
I’m curious. What, what areas do you operate in? I know that you’re, am I right? That you’re based out of the Texas area, is that correct?

Joseph (12m 21s):
Right. So at the moment we serve the DFW metroplex, Dallas Fort worth area, and we are working on our Austin office at this moment. So very soon we’re going to be able to help, you know, new customers from the Austin area. But as for now, we are the go-to company in the Dallas metroplex.

Nathan (12m 50s):
Very nice. Well, we, up here in the Northeast, hope that maybe someday you’ll, you’ll reach out to this area, but until then, if any of our viewers or listeners want to get in touch with you, find out how Nomi can help them redesign their bathroom, what’s the best way to do so.

Joseph (13m 10s):
The best way is to go to our website, me bath.com and just, you know, see all those gorgeous places that we created for our customers. We’d like to create more of a upscales bathroom that feels like spa, a place that you want to run away into while you’re after you complete your long day at work. So you go to our website and you’ll have started my project, but then just click over there. You’ll have all the information on how to get in touch with us.

Nathan (13m 46s):
Great. Well, I want to thank you for joining us today. Joseph hope, maybe you’ll come back in the future to give us updates on the business progress. Really appreciate it.

Joseph (13m 56s):
Of course. Thank you for having me.

Nathan (13m 58s):
Thanks and remind everyone. This is Radio Entrepreneurs. You can find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube, of course, as well as our website, Radio Entrepreneurs dot com. We’ll be back with more stories after this.