Much like Hewlett Packard, my husband and I started our business in our garage. (Although I don't think HP had the police called on them for using power tools at night!) We started quietly in 1999 working the job "that paid the bills" by day and worked on learning our trade and building our business one kitchen, vanity top and shower wall set at a time by night and weekends. In 2005 we decided to take a leap of faith. Ken quit his job in the semiconductor industry, (I had left several years prior), and we decided to give it a go. it was sink or swim time!
Having both come from the semiconductor industry where quality is everything and zero defects is the standard for which you strive, we based our business principles on the things that were important to us; offering fair pricing, quality products, attention to details, and outstanding customer care. (I intentionally do not call it "customer service". Service is something I "seek"; but "care" is something I provide.)
Over time we have slowly built our business. When other companies we knew were becoming larger and hiring more and more people, we intentionally stayed small. Growing too big, too fast wasn't where we were looking to go. Not to say there weren't times we wished we had more employees, but we wanted to be the "mom & pop" shop that our parents grew up with. The sort of business where you knew your customers by name, face, and sometimes even by voice. We wanted people to feel they were dealing with "friends", not some slick sales person who blew in, and offered a "great deal and 10% off if you sign up tonight". We worked hard to take care of our customers. When other shops were going for quantity, we stayed focused on quality. And when the economy took a turn for the worst and every trade magazine recommended companies to rethink their business strategy and focus back on customers, Ken and I just smirked. That was always our goal and we never strayed far from it.
Being a mom & pop shop has its advantages as well as disadvantages. The biggest advantage customers like is knowing who they are dealing with and the one-on-one service. I answer the phone, the e-mail, meet customers at the shop, help with designs when asked, handle the office and work on the bids. Ken is involved in every tear out, most of the templates and most installations. We now have guys to help with the fabrication process so Ken can work on tear outs, installs and meet with contractors, but its not uncommon to find him at the shop evenings and weekends working on a customer job.
And when we say a family owned business, we aren't kidding! Beside Ken and myself, its not uncommom to find our son working (when not in class at SJSU), or our nephew when he is on break from college as well. Have a large project or in need of a serious designer or project manager, let me introduce you to my
sister-in-law!
The down side of staying small is that I don't turn jobs in 2 days. My emphasis is on quality, not quantity. I am always honest with my customers. If I can't meet their expected time table I tell them up front. As I tell people, you may not like my answer, but I will always tell you the truth. I hate when people make a commitment to get a job knowing darn well that can't meet the deadline and then have all sorts of excuses of why they can't meet what they already committed to. I give my customers fair and honest answers. That isn't to say we haven't on occasion run into problems with a job and had to push out the install by a day, but I can also say we do our best to meet our commitments. You can ask the customer we commited to that we would have her kitchen countetops and full height backsplash in by Thanksgiving because everyone was coming to her house. She was slightly skeptical, but I assured her we would commit to it if we didn't feel we could meet our commitment.At 10:00PM the night before Thanksgiving Ken was there finishing the final silicone. And on Thanksgiving day, her kitchen looked amazing! As I said, we do our best to meet our commitments and please our customers.
Please also note that if the most important thing to you is the bottom $$$ cost, I am not the shop for you. My prices are fair and competitive, and my quality unmatched. I can fabricate any size or shape that you want to throw at me, but I do not give my work away. Quality takes a bit of time to get everything right. If you have to have it tomorrow and you want to nickel and dime me to death but still want 110% quality, I cannot help you. (The nice thing about our parents generation is that they appreciate quality workmanship and don't mind paying for it).
Although I never claim to be an expert about everything having to do with surfaces, I think I have worked with products enough over the years to be pretty knowledgable. The goal of my blog is to present information that I think is helpful. I may discuss different materials, care and maintainance of stone versus acrylic, (think Corian), how we template for a surface, or why you can mix different materials in the same room. Suggestion for topics or questions would be greatly appreciated!! http://www.monarch-designs.com/
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