1. Brian Emde shares his experience starting Ozark Deck Company. 2. He highlights the importance of accurate pricing and maintaining a solid sales process. He shares a learning experience from his first year of business where he heavily negotiated the price of a project and ended up making very little profit from it. After this, he reinforced the importance of sticking to his pricing model and providing value to his clients. 3. Brian has managed to sustain his company with little employee turnover, and he views hiring as a serious commitment. 4. While Brian is considering branching out into custom home building and real estate development in the future, he believes there is great value in specializing. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining an online presence, word-of-mouth referrals, and maintaining good relationships with vendors as key marketing strategies. 5. Brian shares his strategy for deciding which jobs to take on, a process that involves discussing expectations and price points with potential clients, and offering a rough estimate based on property imagery and previous jobs. He avoids wasting clients’ time by providing a ballpark figure before visiting their property.