Starting a Business on a Bet

Release Date: July 22, 2025

Host: Toby Lyles

Guest: Tom Taylor

Welcome to Episode 15 of Voices on the Wind with host Toby Lyles, sponsored by Denise Patton from Art at the Hynds. Toby is joined today by Tom Taylor owner of Service First.

Tom went from a military career to flipping a business to building his own carpet cleaning company. Willingness to learn and humility to take advice were keys to his success. Listen in on this fun interview and don’t forget to check out Tom’s podcast “Son of a Poor Man”.

“I didn't know about customer service. I just knew about the right thing. And, you know, do the right thing and treat your customers well, retrain your people, treat them well. And I did a bunch of things that were unproven, they just sounded good in my noggin.” – Tom Taylor

“...what's important to me or what's valuable to me has nothing to do with what's valuable to you or your family or things like that. It's interesting that when I changed that philosophy and I realized I'm here to help people with their problem and not to assume I know what their problem is…” - Tom Taylor