I started my construction company back in 1988. Fresh out of college and my first year job in 'my area of expertise', I was frustrated, selling air freight space on airplanes going to the Far East. I'd work all day, sell some cargo space, but have nothing to really stand back and admire at the end of the day. Plus, I had to wear a tie everyday, something I would not wish on anyone. So I quit and went to work as a carpenter for a local company who did Williamsburg reproduction homes. I learned a trade and the right way to build from the ground up. Three years later, I started my remodeling company by working with Pella, completing window and door installations that I sold. Moving on from window and door replacements to additions was great. Now I could apply creative direction to construction, drawing small additions and remodels for clients. Five years after starting, I hired Buck Chestnut as my first real carpenter. He and I worked side by side for the next three years. Referrals started coming in, and I was frazzled trying to do estimates at night, sales on weekends, and producing during the day. I finally hired an office manager, and then started working behind a desk, retiring my nail apron. I was learning how to run my company by trial and error (mostly error) and joined the Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM) to gain more knowledge (from others' mistakes this time) from some of Maryland's best builders and remodelers. Industry education became a hot button for me, and I eventually ran the Remodelers Council at the Homebuilders Association of Maryland for three years. I also served on the Board of Directors at HBAM for five years, and helped start the Certified Master Builder-Remodeler program. I also became a Certified Graduate Remodeler through NAHB.
I then joined Business Networks (BN), a peer review group for remodelers. My membership and time with BN became a Master's degree of sorts in running a financially successful remodeling company. My BN membership lasted for five years before I moved to Remodelers Advantage Roundtables, another peer review group. Now we are learning (and competing a little) over financial benchmarks and other key items that keep our companies profitable and stocked with happy clients. Today, we are developing a mix of design-build additions, designing in-house with Chief Architect, an awesome rendering program we have been using for almost 10 years. This allows us to quickly draw additions for clients to show them what it is going to look like before we start. It is powerful stuff. This year we are expanding our design capacity by adding a full time designer who will be working on all of our projects full time, and helping clients make selections and changes. I'm proud of the awards that we have won from the Home Builders Association of Maryland, the Remodelers Council, the Town of Bel Air, the town of Havre de Grace, Chrysalis and the Southern Builders Show. It is gratifying to be known not just for quality construction, but now design
We operate the company with three lead carpenters. Each lead carpenter manages and produces the project they work on, coordinating subcontractors, vendors and keeping clients informed of how we are progressing on the project. We have three lead carpenters so that we can keep three jobs moving quickly through all stages of the project. Most of the projects we are running now are additions and whole house remodels. These kinds of projects need attention and a higher level of management that we provide to our clients. In the last five years, we have developed a portion of our volume that is commercially oriented. After building our office building (5,500 square feet with four tenants) in 2002, we found another opportunity to develop another parcel in Bel Air, Maryland for commercial office space rental. This has led to other jobs in town where we have built additions for other commercial tenants, and now we are adding on to a bank in Bel Air. These large scale projects, and our detailed additions, make for exciting work!
No longer a carpenter, I am the General Manager of the company. I complete sales with projects and am active in design and design development. Doug Abney is the Administration Manager, and works with me on sales for projects. Doug has projects he is responsible for and he completes all estimates for projects. Doug works with Linda Ey, who handles all of our accounting and property management. Renee Callaghan is our office secretary. Buck Chestnut manages all of our production in the field, oversees the leads, and coordinates with subs and vendors. Jamie Roark, Mel Howell, and Bob Betz make up our lead carpentry team. Scott Hiatt is a trim carpenter. As I mentioned earlier, we are bringing on a design associate this summer to complete drawings and help with client selections.
"Every hire is an upgrade" is the mantra here. It is becoming harder and harder to find employees, especially carpenters, who have a love for the trade and the ability to work well with others. We ask a lot of our employees and offer competitive benefits. Each employee has a background check completed on them prior to starting with us-we are guests in our clients' homes and do not want any surprises. We have an education requirement for everyone at Van Deusen-twenty hours a year. This can be going to the Remodelers Show, attending vendor events, or taking classes. We also have made a commitment to continuous training in construction techniques and customer service. This training will be 36 hours each year in addition to the other 20 that are required of each employee. We also have a tuition re-imbursement policy ($1,000.00) where I will pay for any class that has any relation with the job that they do here. Excel, Word, ACT training, and Maryland Department of Planning software are some of the classes that we have paid for recently. Additionally, I meet four times per year with two peer groups who teach and critique my 'baby' for improvement in customer service and the bottom line. We are also creating Key Accountabilities for each position in the company. These KA's spell out for each employee what it takes to be successful in that position, and how success is measured. It is great stuff.