Shownotes
Ever feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around? Aaron Mills knows why that happens and how contractors can take back control of their time, money, and sanity.
Aaron knows construction, not just the nuts and bolts of it, but the numbers behind it. As the founder of DAAXIT, he’s spent years helping contractors go from paycheck-to-paycheck operations to thriving businesses with real financial clarity. In this episode, Aaron shares how understanding your money—what you’re earning, where it’s going, and how to use it—can transform not just your bottom line but your entire company culture.
What makes Aaron’s approach different? He doesn’t just focus on dollars and cents; he tackles the hard truths about leadership, delegation, and investing in the future. Whether it’s convincing an owner to step back and let their team thrive or helping them implement systems that reduce stress and boost efficiency, Aaron’s methods get results. We also discuss how his “10-hour challenge” helps owners take a step back and reimagine their role in the business.
And yes, we even talk about peanut butter burgers and his company’s unique origin story tied to his loyal German shepherd, Dax. Stick around to hear how Aaron is helping contractors run smarter businesses and build a legacy that lasts.
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Transcripts
And welcome back to the show. Welcome back everyone. And Brad Herda, how are we doing today?
Brad Herda (:We are fantastic Steve. What show are we on today Steve? You freak.
Steve Doyle (:We are on the Blue Collar BS podcast. It's been a hot minute since I had to do the introduction. we always love that. No, you can't. Absolutely not. It's the struggle bus. The struggle is real. It's Friday afternoon. The struggle is real.
Brad Herda (:Okay, just wanted to make sure.
Aaron (:Thank you.
Brad Herda (:Can't take you anywhere, can we? We can dress you up, but we can't take you anywhere.
Aaron (:And I think that's the most important thing. It's not just the stuff. It's not just the stuff. It's not just the stuff. It's really important. It's really important. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. And I think
Brad Herda (:Friday afternoon, I'm sure it's warm, hot and humid in Detroit today.
Steve Doyle (:Yes, it is nice and nice swampy weather. It's great. Yeah. Yeah, how's that? Yeah. Yeah, that'll be tomorrow. So so Brad, who do we have on the show today?
Brad Herda (:Perfect, good for you. We had that. We had that. It's gone now. It's comfortably cool today.
Aaron (:So, we're going to have a little bit more of a discussion. So, we're going to have a little bit of a discussion. And then we'll bring some of the questions in. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. And then we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll have a little bit of a discussion. So, we'll
Brad Herda (:So we are honored to have Mr. Aaron Mills, who is the founder of Daxic, the contractor's CFO. I met one of his colleagues, Rob, at our Betrayal to Builder Association, and we connected through there. I'm like, he's going to be an awesome guest to have because his background is tremendous in the financial world. He's had oversight of contracting companies with 90 million in annual revenue and more. He's been part of Chicago's business Fast 50.
Aaron (:I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going to be able to do that. I'm going
Brad Herda (:He's been in Inc's 5 ,000 fastest growing private companies. This one was, I don't know what this one is, but Engineering News Records, top 600 specialty contractors. Interesting. Are there more than 600 specialty contractors in the Engineering News Record book? I don't know. But ultimately he's here in today's world with Actic, who's a four year old company to help contractors.
Steve Doyle (:Thank you.
Brad Herda (:Understand their dollars and cents so they can be successful so they can hire those gen Z's know when to hire those gen Z's and gen X's and When to fly all the little things so we're very excited to have you Aaron. Thanks for being here today
Aaron (:Thank you, Brad. Thank you, Steve. Happy Friday.
Steve Doyle (:happy friday so before i forget and mess this up since it's been a hot minute which generation do you best fit in with
Brad Herda (:Happy Friday.
Aaron (:I'm glad you guys let me Google that. Generation X.
Steve Doyle (:Alright, alright, awesome. So tell us tell us a little bit about the story and how you got started with DACA DACAX. Yeah, DACAX. Yes.
Brad Herda (:That's it.
Aaron (:That's it. That's it. Well, so I've been in the construction, DAX it. Been in the construction industry for over 20 years. And really, the construction industry is, you know, brought up from the middle class, you know, a lot of people, you know, had some boots and had some tools, and all of a sudden, they started their business and, and they've been successful.
Steve Doyle (:He he.
Aaron (:But a lot of these successful business owners pay themselves last and are still stuck in the middle class that the US economy claims how great it is.
Brad Herda (:So just so you know, we're going to be very clear it's not a political show, but I appreciate how you danced around that. I appreciate that.
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Aaron (:Is he dead now?
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, that happens. We just nod. So Carrie, Brad cut out about three minutes and 25 seconds.
Brad Herda (:Okay.
Steve Doyle (:you
Aaron (:I'm sorry.
Brad Herda (:Perfect. Awesome. This is wonderful. Happy Friday.
Steve Doyle (:Yep. Yep.
So what was your question, Brad?
Brad Herda (:I said my statement was, thank you for tap dancing around the topic because it's not really a political show. so we have an opportunity, but you said that very, very politically correct as to the middle -class scenario. So thank you for that.
Aaron (:Yeah, well, well, I don't know if you guys know this, but the US economy, 78 % of the population live paycheck to paycheck.
Brad Herda (:I, that does not surprise me.
Steve Doyle (:No, it does not surprise me, but it's a very interesting stat. So thank you for sharing that.
Aaron (:Yeah, these construction business owners run their business the same way.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Correct. And so let me ask you, when you go into a contracting firm, construction firm, do you see them either, do you see them with a ton of cash, but they just don't know how to use it properly? Or are you seeing them truly operating the business as well from job to job, check to check?
Aaron (:So short answer is job to job, check to check. You know, when you get, sometimes when your business does grow, you do have banks more involved, but really a business owner, the first thing that he thinks is, I got to get a job. And then the second thing he thinks or she is I got to get the job done. And then the last thing that they think is, did I make any money on the job? And.
That is the status of so many contractor businesses that once you start, I call it financial clarity, once you start understanding the money of what it takes to get a job done and paying yourself, then things start changing within your business.
Brad Herda (:And there's been a lot of opportunity for the post COVID for those mid millennials to leave larger organizations and go start out their own companies and do their things. And they think I can do it better. I can do better than the old man did. I can do it better than this. And it's super easy. All that fun stuff. How are you seeing?
within your client base, the relationship with money across the generations. What's that relationship like? What do you see from fears, from excitement, from risk profile?
Aaron (:I would say one of the, and I find this kind of interesting, one of the things that I realize and everybody's starting to say is, hey, the younger generation doesn't work. They don't want to work. And maybe that is a problem that kind of stemmed from Generation X or from a prior generation because prior generations are workaholics.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:So all of a sudden they see that their family has worked their whole life and didn't get to enjoy life. And I think that's a switch in the society that I think some people are not actually understanding why the new generation doesn't wanna work 60 hours or 80 hours a week.
Brad Herda (:Correct. my youngest son, I just talked to him over father's day weekend. He had to work over the weekend and he's like, man, I, I got another seven hours of overtime in this weekend, like seven hours in a two week period. I'm like, good for you. I mean, it's not, but he, he wants to work, go into work, work the 40 and we're done. And he understands he's going in to get the job done. but it's not like he's going to sit there at his desk just to clock hours. like we used to, and let's,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:let's make sure we get everything done and buttoned up, even though it didn't matter. So we're months ahead of, of workload when you didn't need to be, you know.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
So Aaron, walk us through a little bit when you just talked about how business owners, so, you know, some of the contractors are doing job to job, check to check, and you brought up three key points, right? They get the job, they do the job, and did they make any money? So as we're walking through that scenario, what are some of those financial triggers that we need to be paying attention to as business owners that helps us get out of that?
Aaron (:Sure. Well, you know, business owners don't go to college and get an accounting and finance degree to run a business, right? No. So the first thing is...
Steve Doyle (:secular rut, if you will.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Nope. Nope, they don't.
Aaron (:Give yourself a break, business owner, right? I mean, you're the visionary. You're the one that's gonna put in all the hours to make sure that whatever needs to get done gets done. Right now, we have so many people out there that are experts that are in the field that when you don't know something, don't be afraid to go ask questions and ask for help.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Yeah. So many, so many business owners that are in this field are so proud of what they built. They're too afraid to ask for that help because they're too afraid to admit that, Hey, there is something ugly in my business that I don't know anything about.
Aaron (:Right. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:But that's where we have to come alongside them, say, hey, great, you've done a fantastic job doing this. You're great at doing this. There's a lot of people out here like Aaron that can help support you in these other things.
Aaron (:Right. Right. And it's really awesome what happens when they start, when these lights click on because, you know, you know, these business owners are people too. So if the business is actually making more money, what do they do? They pay their employees more. They do holiday parties. You know, they do profit sharing. And it's not all a money thing, but what about safety? Now they're starting to invest in tools.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:And, you know, what if you can do a job more efficient and, you know, then now you're not risking, you know, injuries on the job. So once a business owner is actually more profitable, they actually reinvest in the company and, and the company actually transforms itself just for money.
Brad Herda (:Right. Yeah, that landscaping company buys the, you know, the air hand, the, the air machine to lift, to lift brick instead of having three guys bust their back every day for, you know, eight months out of the year. and now all of a sudden everybody's happier to go to work. And when your employees are happier to go to work, they will work better for you and they'll make you more money because they're happy to be there.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah. So, so tell us a little bit more when you, when we talk about that younger generation component and as Brad just brought up, you know, the investment into the business, what have you seen as business owners are able to invest in their business? How has that helped the younger generations, you know, apply themselves more?
Aaron (:Sure, just as kind of Brad mentioned, like, you know, picking up a ton of bricks with your back is not the best practice. You know, everybody's talking about AI. You know, there's a lot of technology in the construction industry that is coming through where, you know, projects are done a lot more simple. So now you can even hire people that have even a college degree or any kind of experience that is more technical.
come into the construction industry and apply whatever they know.
Brad Herda (:How'd you get started in construction, Aaron?
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Aaron (:It's funny, funny thing. So prior, so I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I went from an fortune 500 company to a startup company in the Purdue research park. And our population was over 50 % PhD in the company, but they didn't know anything about finance and how it grow, how to scale business.
I thought it was like, my gosh, you know, all these PhD people don't know how to grow and scale business. And I found my foot into the construction business and I realized they were exact same people as the PhD people. There's really no difference. But, you know, the blue collar.
you know, mentality though, it's a different type of environment. And it's just somehow I connected to them because I never thought I was smart enough, good enough, you know, because that's kind of just, you know, even construction people kind of think of that and be like, I didn't go to college, you know, I'm not really that smart. But, but really these construction people have a very unique skill set that, that they are super smart and, and they are entrepreneurs.
And to be honest, I talk about entrepreneurship. Our construction industry is one of the last entrepreneurship industry in the US right now. You think about it, everything else is getting taken over by the big companies. And I'm afraid that that's actually going to occur in the construction industry. But if you look at it, many construction companies are family -owned businesses.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:You're starting to see that in some of the specific trades where you've got conglomerates buying up roofing companies to nationalize or the plumbing companies to nationalize or to vertically integrate into HVAC electrical and plumbing where it becomes very corporate versus that entrepreneurial opportunity.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:How have you seen on that side of, I would say, the mergers and acquisitions, how have you seen that change in the last, since COVID, and in terms of the construction industry?
Aaron (:Honestly, I believe COVID kind of scared some construction business owners and it's probably not more so COVID, but it's probably more so what's changed is that, you know, a lot of these construction businesses are second generation, third generation. And now this generation really doesn't want to get into that construction business, which is probably what you guys are alluding to is,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:driving into how do I exit my business and you have these other companies that want to grow, there's a great opportunity for them to sell to these venture capitalists or whoever wants to create these multiple billion dollar companies.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:And so how do you, how do you help your clients prepare for that opportunity when they're ready? Because as you know, right, when you go to sell a business, three out of 10 might make the cut, you know, so seven, seven out of 10 just need to shut down the doors, pull out whatever cash, fire sale, whatever that might look like. How do you help them be prepared for opportunity?
Aaron (:Well, I tell them to start early because it does happen overnight. A lot of these construction businesses are what I call owner operator. So, if you take the business owner out of the business, what is the value of the business? And a lot of these construction industries, it's really, it's not a business without the business owner. So you can't get much of a value for that company when...
you're doing everything. So to answer your question, I help them work on the business versus in the business. And I help them not to be the most important person in the business. So as they develop team around them that can function, you know, the business can run by itself. And, you know, I got one business owner is kind of funny. He, you know, he's like, I want to retire and get out of this business.
And we've worked on it to a place where now he's working a lot less hours and he's like, well, maybe I don't have to sell the business.
Steve Doyle (:Hehehehehe
Brad Herda (:Right. Yeah. Cause I'm able to get my cash and still have my life and not do all these things. so we'll, we'll protect the innocent, right? So let's just use that gentleman as an example or lady. you've gotten to a point where they're able to build a team. What are some of the things that, that, that owners facing to?
Aaron (:Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Let go or transition activity and work to either a younger generation if they're a boomer X and they're hiring a millennial or Gen Z or if it happens to be a millennial owner who's trying to let that boomer or Gen X person take the reins. How do you see what's the dynamics you're helping them overcome? I guess psychologically or financial tools you might be providing to say it's OK to let go.
Aaron (:Yeah, to let go. Yeah, I think I, you know, this, this is one of my business owners and he actually does let go quite a bit, but he says, I'm a really great truck driver, but it doesn't mean I'm driving the truck for my company. You know, you know, one of the tools not to go into details, I call it the 10 hour challenge. So it's how do you take 10 hours off your plate a week?
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Aaron (:And you think of things that, hey, I hate doing this. Hey, if this frees up my time, I can do something that's more valuable. So I try to get the business owner to think out of the box where like, hey, if you did have more time, what would you do? And even if it's working in the business, so I can just give myself an example. We hired, you know,
internal CFOs for our company. Now I'm not doing all the CFO work. I could go out and get more business and the company grows. But on the flip side, I also said I want to have a couple more hours of free time during the week to exercise or go play golf. So now my company doubled in size and now I get to do these extracurricular activities. So I kind of...
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:Get my ice cream and eat the pie at the same time.
Steve Doyle (:Mm hmm. Absolutely. That's awesome.
Brad Herda (:So, so this is going to be way off topic, but I see you are a Purdue guy. So what's your what was your favorite meal at Triple X?
Aaron (:boy, the burger with the peanut butter sandwich. Peanut butter on a burger.
Steve Doyle (:Wow. All right.
Brad Herda (:All right, that's good. It is good. I've had it there. It was really good. I added bacon to mine. It was delicious.
Aaron (:It's actually pretty good.
Steve Doyle (:Hahaha!
That's awesome. That's awesome. So tell us about this engineering news records top 600 specialty contractors. I'm actually dying to know what that is.
Aaron (:Sure. So, specialty contractors, so like there's different skills, skilled trades in the construction industry. You know, there's millwrights, there's electricians, there's plumbers, and the company that I worked for kind of is pretty interesting story. So they were an electrical company and the business owner,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:I coming in was like almost the last piece for the business owner kind of just kind of move out of the business. So the last three years, the business was running around $30 million. And when the business owner actually stepped out and gave it what we call to the C suite, which was the CFO CEO, the COO, the three of us had it kind of like a different vision.
or where we can take the business. And all of a sudden, we tripled in size in four years and made the ENR one of the fastest growing electrical companies in the US.
Steve Doyle (:Nice. That's awesome.
Brad Herda (:That's spectacular. Isn't it amazing when the owner who's usually the op store gets out of the way as to what can happen?
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:Yeah, yeah, I see that when I take a week off of work and I be like, all that got done.
Brad Herda (:Pretty spectacular.
Steve Doyle (:Brad Herda (21:37.678)
Right, right. So, so, so with your right. So you've lived it, you've been through it, you've been on both sides of it. You now work your clients through it and and you're living on your own with your own business. How are you supporting your your customers to to be able to get them out of the way and just your 10 hour challenge is awesome to be able to help facilitate that. But are you do you get sometimes just very pragmatic and say just stop doing it and go give it to George?
Get we're done. We're not messing around with this anymore. You're you're not signing invoices. You're not doing a par work. You're not making collection calls to go. That's why you have people get the hell out of the way. Do you get that argumentative sometimes with your clients at all or not?
Aaron (:man, I don't get argumentative. So I'm just persistent to be honest. So, yeah, you know, I'm just, I am persistent. So, you know, in our meetings, so we meet routinely and if they don't get over their hurdle, we just kind of rehash that hurdle.
Brad Herda (:A drop of water every day.
Steve Doyle (:You
Aaron (:And then sometimes they'll just spark another light flash bulb will go off. And here I'll just give another quick example is I have a contractor where one person does the bidding and does majority of their work in their 60s and they're going to retire in five years. And I'm like, so you got this one person that's doing everything.
And if they're going to retire in five years, you got nothing. And they were like, yeah, well, we got five years to figure this out. So.
Brad Herda (:No, you have, you have potentially tomorrow to figure it out because if his spouse or significant other or whomever gets sick and he's able to be done, he's done.
Aaron (:Right. Exactly.
Brad Herda (:I mean, you have tomorrow to figure it out, particularly for a role estimating right? Anybody listening that has kids or.
Aaron (:Right. Right. So, you know, so we, I ding dong, I call, I ding dong them. And, you know, one time he was like, my gosh, we've got $3 million in this equipment. I go, well, what are you going to do with it? If this guy's not here.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Right.
Aaron (:you know, and then, then, also, so what we did is I was like, all right, so let's just take this off table and let's just have one strategic meeting about this topic and nothing else. And, and that's what we're going to do is we're going to talk about how, how do, how do we create that five year, 10 year plan? today.
Brad Herda (:Cool. So Aaron, how do people find you? How do they get a hold of you? How do they get your services or a consult or where do they go get you from?
Aaron (:Yeah, so just like everybody, we got a website www .daaxit .com.
Brad Herda (:Okay. And how the name come about? I just need to know how the name came about for this for Daxing. How did you come up with the name?
Aaron (:Fair. You know, as anybody probably starting a company, they like, their, their name's got to be special. we're probably maybe a couple months into it, trying to figure out a name and, we have a family dog that's a German shepherd and, and she is very, you know, kind of like the breed. She is smart. She's loyal. She's a family dog, protective.
And we thought, well, what if we named it after the dog and her name was Dax? And I was like, well, that kind of sounds weird, like name it Dax. And then we were, what about Dax it? I was like, that's it.
Steve Doyle (:You
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome.
Aaron (:That's where the name came from.
Steve Doyle (:Hehehehehe
Brad Herda (:There's always good origin stories to names every once in a while, right? It's always good. So we're glad that the dog will live forever in the name of the company. You know, that's a good legacy piece as well. So congratulations on that. So yeah, so thank you very much for being here. You got big plans for the weekend? Going golfing? Are you going golfing or not?
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Aaron (:Thank you.
Aaron (:I am going golfing, going golfing in a golf league. And then I'm sure we're going to spend some time out on the lake.
Brad Herda (:That's fantastic Michigan I'm assuming.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, that's all I was talking about.
Aaron (:Lake Elizabeth, right off of a lake in Wisconsin.
Brad Herda (:Okay, cool. Awesome. Thank you, Aaron, for taking time out of your busy Friday afternoon to be here when it's such a gorgeous day and we have very few of them. So we're gonna let you get out of here so you can go enjoy the beautiful weather here in June in Wisconsin. So thank you very much for being here today.
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Aaron (:All right, thank you guys. Have a great weekend.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, thanks.
Brad Herda (:Thanks.