PB4L

Personal Business For Life

Interview with Entrepreneur Brian Deleeuw

Owner of Deleeuw Contracting

By, Mary Ellen Matsui

ADM 3391

Professor Bruce Firestone
PB4L: Deleeuw Contracting

Brian Deleeuw of Deleeuw Contracting:

The youngest of five children Brian Deleeuw, grew up in Chatham Ontario playing with Lego which he says “should have been a sign” of his future career as a contractor. Brian came from modest beginnings, completed high school and began working as a gun smith before he moved to London to attend Fanshawe College. At Fanshawe College while taking the construction technician program Brian met his wife Annette. After finishing his diploma Brian worked for two years for two different contracting companies before he started Deleeuw Contracting in 1992. Since then Deleeuw Contracting’s clean and sophisticated look has helped build a large client base. Brian’s customer base is made up of the upper middle class in London who share his vision for design. Currently Deleeuw Contracting is booking jobs over a year in advance. The growth of Deleeuw Contracting is attributed to the quality work they leave behind.

What did you do before you started Deleeuw Contracting?

I went to Fanshawe College in London and then started working with a plumbing contractor and then for a renovations contractor. During the summers I worked as a carpenter at Christian Camps, they would buy a house for a dollar and then I would go in and fix it up so it was functional for them.

What was your initial motivation?

After graduating from school I knew that I’d eventually go into business for myself but it took awhile for me to get started. After school I started working for a plumber, Slavco. He started me a $7 an hour and said he’d move me up as he saw fit. Within a year he had me working at $12 or $13. After a few months I asked for a raise to $15 and he fired me. I was disappointed and went to talk to him and told him to forget about the raise. He told me he didn’t fire me because of the raise he fired me because I was ready to go into business for myself. That was a good motivator but I still didn’t feel quite ready and I went to work for Murray a local contractor. Murray was terrible. He never had enough money to carry the job, he’d run out of gas once a week and we’d have to push the truck to a gas station. That was when I went into business for myself because I knew I could do it better. What Slavco did was important for me, it was his way of giving back to the community and I’ve tried to do the same thing in my business. My other big motivator is my wife, Annette. They say that 85%-95% of your happiness is attributed to your spouse or partner, in a healthy relationship your partner helps build your self-esteem and helps to motivate you to achieve your goals.

How did you fund your initial start up?

When I was let go by Slavco, I worked odd jobs and after awhile I had about $3500 saved up. Money wasn’t the issue really in starting up, I never take a job I can’t carry. You grow your client base as you grow, it takes a long time. With my clients even now I meet with them and tweak the contract to fit their budget until they are satisfied. I don’t take money up front because my business is about trust and I want them to know that they are getting something for their money. I get paid on milestones. I’ve done that the whole way through my business, some people take 50% upfront but I want the client to feel comfortable that progress is being made.

How have you progressed from there?

Every year you are always critiquing yourself, building, asking how I can make it better? Even though I’m self employed I can’t call all the shots, I do the work that comes to me. In the beginning especially you aren’t turning any work down, but now I’m more established I can be choosier. I always price everything, every call I get because most of my work comes from referrals by my other clients. Referrals are how I’ve grown building on the right clients. Being in the position where you are not working to find work takes a long time to do. Now I work at creating a strong base of clients and do what it takes to keep my clients happy. Many contractors do the job and after it is done it is done, but you can’t really keep clients and get recommendations from those clients if that’s the way you think of it. If I put up crown molding and the client doesn’t like it them I’ll take it down. It is about keeping them happy. We live in a small community, people talk, I want them to say the right things.

What were the biggest risks you took as an entrepreneur?

I’ve always been fairly conservative in this area. There is always the risk of growth, risk of yourself. I can do eight things at a time but it needs to be realistic. I need to see an advantage to do something or I won’t do it. I know people who are putting money into flipping houses but that’s not something I would do, I wouldn’t flip houses. In this area I’m probably my own worst enemy. I like to grow and improve, I do subtrade and I see that as riskier.

How have you improved?

I tried to grow my business a lot last year, I had about 20 people working for me at a time, but employees are a risk. I hired co-op students, they go to class and learn things there but they really have no idea what they are doing, they are really clueless sometimes, commonsense is a rarity. My nephew was working for me and he was great, he’ll be back this summer to work for me again. I had always worked five days a week, nine to five before last year and trying to do more really didn’t work out. People want their homes to themselves when they come home, they don’t want you there. A lot of guys burn themselves out working all the time and risk loosing their relationships with their families. Having time to regenerate is important, I’ve decided to go back to doing things simply, right now I am my only employee and I’m only taking two or three jobs at a time, that way we can work quicker and do it right. Over the years I’ve gotten choosier in which jobs I do. I price everything that comes my way and sometimes people get put off if I don’t take the job. Sometimes I don’t take a job because I think they are too big of a risk or for example just the other day I turned down a big job. It was a 30 minute drive each way but the job would have lasted two or three months which is a big job but then I can’t work on other jobs at the same time. I like to be around in case I need to go home, but it worked out because the next day I landed an almost equally big job in the city. The people were disappointed, especially because in the place I’m at now, because I rely on recommendations so much, often I’m the only one bidding on the job.

How have you grown your business?

In the beginning I advertised in the Penny Saver and took whatever came along. I still put a sign out on the lawn where we are doing a job, but I’ve only ever got four maybe five calls from that and they never pan out. I don’t advertise anymore. A lot of times people tell me “I can’t even find you in the phone book” but right now being booked a year in advance it’s ok if I’m harder to find. The people who want to find me will that’s how I know I’m growing my customer base in the right way. Being harder to find also alludes to the quality of work I do and what kind of commitment I want from our clients. I depend totally on word of mouth, which is perfect in this business because people have to trust you. Other than that I do show two or three kitchens every year in “Kitchens on Parade.” The work we leave behind is the best advertising. On every job I do my best, I like to think of it as the first job I’ve ever done and the last job I’ll ever do.

How do you manage growth in your business?

The last year I grew a lot and it kind of backfired. I was trying to do eight to 12 jobs at a time, but now I’ve gone back to 2-3 at a time. It is not necessarily about more jobs it is about aligning myself with the right jobs, the right people. It is really hard for me to say no, that’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn.

What is your formula for selling yourself?

Honesty. That is the number one thing. Not just because it is the right thing to do, and it is, but then you will never forget what you’ve told them and you can’t get caught in a lie. It is so important because people have to trust you, we are asking them to pay a lot of money, and they need to trust you will do a good job.

I try to be myself all the time, as approachable as possible. Communication is important if my cell phone rings I pick it up- people want you to be accessible, what is important to the should be important to me. I try to make courtesy calls and follow up calls on all the jobs. Customer care is important to me. With every job I try to do one thing extra, one little thing that doesn’t mean a lot to me but it means a lot to the client- a black splash or something like that is a nice touch. We also send flowers at the end of every job, it is a nice touch and people appreciate it. It is a crazy business because people have to trust you so much and word of mouth is very important in this business. If I do the extra things on the job then selling a job becomes so much easier.

One of the most important things I’ve learned in my business, and I’d say one of the most important things in any business, is being able to read people in the first five to 10 seconds you meet them. This is important to me in selling I need to read the people and talk to them on their level. When you can do that you can help them understand intimately what you have planned for them, when they understand the reasons why the things you think are important are important and believe it themselves then things go smoothly. People are willing to pay as long as they understand what they are paying for.

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