wooden toolbox with a little wooden handle, and inside was a tool set and a little saw. It’s been part of who I am since I can remember.” That identity continued to develop past adolescence and into adulthood. “I went to college and got a degree in construction management. I started working in commercial construction, but it wasn’t very satisfying.” In an attempt to find his passion, Jay did what many individuals do to discover a sense of purpose. He went home. “I worked here [at Sound Builders] for three years. After that, I transitioned to the office for a couple more. It was loads of fun.” Jay found a workplace he could be proud of and, in the process, discovered he wanted to do that for a lifetime. “My folks were thinking of retiring, so we decided to buy the business in the mid ‘90s. Of course, they had a way they believed the company should be run. Surprisingly enough, with me being a young man, I had my own ideas as well.” In previous articles, we’ve covered the topic of family businesses and how important it is to have a healthy transition between generations. Often, the business doesn’t survive the changing of the guard, but it turns out Jay’s pursuit of his passion was met with a new growth strategy. “One of the challenges of insurance work was that I didn’t find it satisfying because of the trauma associated with a forced restoration. It’s not necessarily about improving. It’s more about getting back to normal as soon as possible. There’s never a good time to have a fire or flood. We’re trying to get them back to where they were. It’s not exciting or fun. There’s a lot of trauma and emotion. You’re putting something back the way it was. It’s not challenging or creative, so we decided to focus on something that could be.”
Pivoting to focus on remodeling was an easy decision for Jay and Debbie. “Almost 90 percent of our business centers on remodeling,” he explains. But for Debbie, whether it’s remodeling or insurance restoration, it’s all numbers. “It’s just a business. The accounting and bookkeeping are the same. In construction, a lot of things are in progress, but for the most part, the office is the same as other businesses.” Every organization can benefit from this pragmatic approach, and Debbie’s analysis of the numbers keeps the business running on track. In 2007, Jay and Debbie noticed that their business was lacking. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking for a change,” Jay says. For years, the business operated well enough, but Jay believed an adjustment needed to be made. “Remodeling is a tough business in that we have a certain way of thinking about things. Certain things I thought to be true weren’t working
well for me. As a member of the Master Builders Association, we saw plenty of other companies that were successful and enjoyed what they were doing.” Modeling is often a way for businesses to incite change. Seeing what you want your company to become is a strong motivator, so when Debbie and Jay looked for a spike in their business, they turned to Sandler. remodelers and mentors — and these associates had basically passed the info along in hope that it would bring Jay and Debbie the shake-up they were looking for. “One the first things we talked about was building a price model around what people will pay rather than being profitable,” Jay says. “That’s really true. In the insurance world, they charge the cost of the service plus a 20 percent markup and overhead. That was a challenging model for us.” They found that they couldn’t dedicate enough time They had heard about Sandler through various contacts — mostly fellow
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