Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben White.
Hi Ben, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Going through pilot training, I noticed that my flight instructors would often have large gaps in their day. I tend to make trouble for myself if I’m bored and recognized that if I were to be a flight instructor on my path to being an airline pilot, I would need to be able to fill those gaps in my day with something productive.
The weather could be bad for an afternoon or a week, a student could cancel, and I would need to do some kind of work to do. Throughout my life, I have always been a networker. I thought that maybe I could combine the two into some kind of low-key service that could kind of trickle along. I could tap into my network of people and get them to do bits and pieces of work.
After an injury gave me lots of time to think about what I wanted with my life, I decided that being valued for my ability to run through checklists would be a waste of time. My ability to connect the right people together is a far more valuable skill to so many more people, and I was doing it anyways. I decided to start charging for it, and that’s at the very, very core of the concierge. I know lots of people, so I charge for it and ensure that they do a good job doing the work they provide.
Today, I am doing about $5500 MRR, which is thrilling considering I started the business 14 months ago and launched my website on August 10th, 2021. I have just over 100 clients who have bought at least a ski tune from me in the past year. Revenue is steadily increasing and more customers are reaching out.
Repeat customers are also understanding what they can ask of the concierge, and it’s beautiful to be able to punch in a client’s garage code, take 10 pairs of their skis out for a tune and take their car for routine maintenance while they are on vacation in Costa Rica. Another beautiful thing to behold is that my buying power as well as the empowerment of my vendors allows me to do things that standard customers cannot get.
Because I am my vendor’s top customer, sometimes they’ll stay open late for me, or slide things ahead of the queue for next-day service, or other perks. To be able to truly put more time into people’s lives to go skiing (or biking or basket weaving or piano playing) is a truly thrilling experience to have and it’s even better building a system that does it.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Overall it has been pretty smooth.
Things haven’t worked out always, as I’m still building the concierge and the network. Oftentimes, I feel like having a slick app would make things so, so much easier, and then I realize that even just building my own website was plenty of work and that app development will be a huge (but necessary headache).
Some of the current struggles I have now are smoothly scheduling such a varied amount of tasks for one household, but that’s part of the job. As my network grows stronger and deeper, it gets easier.
As you know, we’re big fans of White Cloud Concierge. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
You should know that I want to have a presence in every mountain/ beach town and every metropolitan area. Concierge services often seem to target vacationers renting vacation homes that don’t have a hotel front desk service to meet their needs, but I want to make it so that residents can have this service in their primary homes.
Pickup and delivery ski tuning in Salt Lake City is popular. I love skiing more than anything else, and it’s great fun to connect with customers over their ski experience. I have a strong desire to build solid relationships with my customers. Having their garage door codes is so powerful in creating a magic service.
What company do you know of that you would give unfettered access to your home in order to get lots of things done while you’re out for work, a bike ride, or on vacation? For Valentine’s Day, I even snuck some flowers into a customer’s house while he and his wife were out. I’m proud of how the brand is perceived. A lot of thought went into the logo, font, and overall appearance to make it feel like things are just right, cared for, solidly backing service, and trustworthy. People pick that up immediately.
I would love for readers to know a few things. Primarily, none of this is an emergency. Coming from aviation, where emergencies happen fast and have real consequences, it’s going to be hard to get me excited about your house cleaner needing to reschedule. Yes, your house needs to be cleaned, but no, I’m not going to light my hair on fire about it. It might happen a couple of days later than was initially planned. Sure, you can have a discount, or it can even be free depending on the circumstances.
I would also love for them to know that I am not an Airbnb management company. I have the infrastructure in place to do it, but unless I get the feedback of “thank you so much for taking care of all of this, I was able to spend extra time skiing with my kids”, I don’t want to do it. Because short-term rentals are lucrative and a monetary rather than a temporal return, my rates for making things right at an STR are double. I want part of the monetary return too.
If it’s a primary residence and the owner would rather go on a ski trip over a weekend rather than change the sheets and run the vacuum around for a new guest, that’s a different story. The point is to put more time into people’s lives so they can go do their favorite thing, not to maintain an investment property for them.
Most importantly, I want your readers to know that I take joy in trying to do difficult things. I won’t procure things that are illegal, like cocaine and hookers. What’s far more interesting is crafting an engagement photoshoot surprise, bringing steak and lobster into a backcountry hut, or figuring out the best way to just plain get something done.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love the access that Salt Lake City provides to world-class skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing, paragliding, and general outdoor recreation. I like least that it has terrible air quality.
Pricing:
- House cleaning: $35/ person/ hour
- Car detailing is $200 for the first 3 hours, $50/ hour for every hour after that
- Ski tuning: $30 for the house call, $50-100 for service per pair
- Other requests are on a case by case basis
Contact Info:
- Email: ben@whitecloudconcierge.com
- Website: www.whitecloudconcierge.com
- Instagram: @whitecloudconcierge
- Facebook: facebook.com/whitecloudconcierge
Image Credits
Mallory Millington and Ben White
