Mills Canvas

Spotlighted: April '09

Location: Minnesota
Website: www.CoverSmart.biz

Contact Kurt at:
Email: millsmfg@arvig.net
Phone: 218-385-2494

Follow him on Twitter @CanvasMan

I have been in the Marine Industry for over 25 years now. I started out doing all the grunt work for my parents in their basement when they first started the idea. We eventually moved to the Fergus Falls area where we raised a family and have worked ever since. My father started Mills Manufacturing in 1997. In 2003, he passed away leaving the business to the family. Being I was the only one familiar with the industry I took over with my wife, Shelly. We have grown and expanded the business with only one thought in mind: giving the consumer truly a quality product. We show our customers respect and friendship and they in return give us continued business. That says a lot about a company in this day and age. When you call, you speak to us. We try to help everyone who takes the time to contact us and will answer whatever questions you may have about the product with honesty and the knowledge we have after years of being involved in the industry. We call ourselves a "Ma & Pop Shop" and always strive for a happy customer. We just want to make sure we take the time to listen to our customers and get them what they want and need with the quality they deserve.

-Kurt Kytonen

In the summer of 2007, Matt Knox (co-founder) was working as an insurance broker for contractors when he began notice a common problem in the construction world. Time after time, Matt found that most of his clients would finish up their jobs and be stuck with excess materials and supplies - which would inevitably fill their garages, sheds, closets (...and lives) because there was no good place to get rid of it.

Matt smiled and said, "I can not only solve your problem, but I can make it FREE!", and he teamed up with his brother, Johnnie Munger (co-founder), to begin work on what would soon be the best online resource for contractors and property owners. For several months, Matt and Johnnie meticulously sketched out the plans for a site that would start as a classifieds for contractors, but that could grow into a full multi-tool web application to suit all the needs of the construction world.

-Johnnie Munger

We stumbled into this business by accident or by fate... It all started when...My husband bought a house for $5000.00 back in 2000. Back then, (before we were married) I was a web developer & he was an apprentice in the Carpenter's Union.

That house was a TOTAL hole. Neither of us had ANY experience in renovating anything. He had just started in the union as he was changing his career from being a mechanic to a carpenter. Every penny that we made & every second of spare time went into turning that property into a home. About half way through the project we tried to sell it for what we had into it because "people don't make money on Real Estate". No one would even get past the driveway so we had no choice but to finish it & move into it.....why not. it was paid for. (and we didn't want to leave the neighborhood looking bad by NOT finishing it).

It was a very small house. only 600 sq. ft and I already had two kids so that wasn't very realistic. We decided to sell the house and we were hoping to be LUCKY and get out of it what we put into it. When we spoke to the Realtor, he told us that we could sell it and actually PROFIT...We were blown away and 3 months later we had a full price offer! We made over $50k on that property!

We started to scratch our heads and "uh, hey...wait a minute!! we just made more money than we make in a year in 3 months!" so....we found another, and another and another....Mark worked full time in bridge construction & I was still a web developer, we didn't want to give up the security of our day jobs. We did these houses in our spare time. Sometimes they took a year to do, other times more. We always made great profits & in 2004 our lives changed completely.

Our first home (that we bought together) burned down. I was 5 months pregnant with our son, Trevor. We were very blessed that no on was hurt & it was that day that we realized what was important to us. After the fire, I quit my job. I decided that I really needed to be home for our kids and I wanted to oversee the repairs on our home since Mark worked 12-16 hour days on the bridges. After fighting the insurance company & getting estimates from 10 different contractors to fix our home we saw the need for quality, HONEST contractors (and insurance claims adjusters, but that is another story). Mark was nearly done with his apprenticeship & decided that we would very soon go ahead and start our own construction company. We decided at first that we would primarily do it for ourselves so that we could legitimately continue to rehab our own properties and sell them.

At this same time we were getting a lot of phone calls from people who owned houses in the neighborhood that we had been rehabbing, asking us to look at their properties & how much to fix them. Of course, since Mark wasn't licensed, he couldn't rehab those properties. In 2005 he suffered a knee injury & was off of work for 6 months. During that six months we planned and watched every penny & he went ahead and got his builder's license. Still wanting the security of benefits, pension, etc, he was out of bridge construction and working for a commercial service contractor. That service contractor's business started to fail when the economy started showing signs of recession back in January of 2008. Mark had already been building a client base when he wasnt at his full time job, doing side jobs. With Mark unemployed and fully equipped with his license & insurance, the calls kept coming in and we jumped of that bridge together. 100% of our clients are from out of state. They are second/vacation home owners.

People had said "You guys are CRAZY! Starting off on your own in a RECESSION! You are going to FAIL!" We didn't have anything to lose. Remember, what is most important to us is our family. You can't lose your family if your business fails so...Here we are nearly three years later doing EXCELLENT! Each house of our own that we rehab is a business card for what Mark can do to a house! On a tight budget! When you can show literally THOUSANDS of people what kind of skills you have, they will call.

Please see the website for the portfolio before and after shots of the
latest one, Superior st. located at
http://www.lakemichiganbeachbuilders.com/portfolio.html

- Jenny Fardello

Sal's Heating and Cooling

Spotlighted: August '09

Location: Ohio

www.salsheatandcool.com

Contact them:
sal@salsheatandcool.com
Toll Free 1-877-440-HVAC (4822)

11701 Royalton Road
North Royalton, OH 44133
Fax: 440-582-4899

I graduated from high school in 1960.  I held various jobs such as Republic Steel, Burrow books, Lawson’s Dairy stores and TRW as a machinist where I was a Union steward.  Then I volunteered for the U.S. ARMY when I was finished in the service, I went back to TRW I enrolled for HVAC at the Westside institute for 2 years while I was working and taking care of my family.

I also drove a zone cab part time to help pay for my education. I worked both jobs along with going to school.  When I graduated I then was laid off from TRW and at that time decided factory work was not for me.I set out to find a job and finally found one making $3.00 per hour at a HVAC company.   I also took a pay cut from $7.00 to do what I now love and continue to do. It was the best decision of my life.  I learned from a man named Jack Jordan I credit him with most of my knowledge.

I then spread my wings and went to work for many other HVAC contractors and I came to find that I just did not like the way they operated.   I had 50 dollars and a dream. I went out doing service out of the back of a 1966 convertible Pontiac.  I worked in areas no one would go in, so I could feed my family. I felt that you should be fair and honest and not sell the customer something they did not need just to make a sale.

-Sal Sidoti Jr.

Art Deck-O

Spotlighted: September '09

Location: Dallas, TX

http://www.artdeck-o.com/

Contact them:
woodcat@suddenlink.net
214-435-9574

I started working with my father when I was 12 years old. He was Vice President of Piggly Wiggly’s western division and a stickler for things done the right way. My work ethic comes from him and is very old school.

When I started this business, my goal was to bring artistry back into the field of deckbuilding. The first step was to be the first to fully skirt all my decks with fence pickets for a more finished look. This along with tossing in a few artistic touches on each job [at no extra charge of course] and being very easy to work with has helped to make our company the hands down favorite of our clients.

We certainly don’t fit the usual model of carpenters. We show up on time each day, keep the site clean during the project and every staff member is an excellent communicator and can discuss any phase of the project with the homeowner. We pick out all our materials by hand and deliver them to the jobsite personally each day.

All projects are treated as if they were in our yard. Special thought is put into every detail at every phase of the project. Changes during the build are always welcome and do not incur a change order fee. For most projects, our estimates are guaranteed at the amount I quote. This means no surprises at the end of the build when you normally hear “well, we didn’t think it would take us so long to get this done” or “we didn’t know we’d run into that”.

Aside from decks and fences we build pergolas, carports, garages, room additions….just about any project you might have, we can tackle it for you. We carry a lifetime warranty on all our work….and that too is in writing before we start the project. We are absolutely the best value in professional carpentry!

-Kelly Hanna