You’ve heard of women
who gave up a career to stay
home and raise a family.
Deborah Hard is one of
those women. But she’s also
a woman who, once she
raised her family, then went
on to (with her husband’s
blessing) take over the family
business, Hard Drywall,
Inc. Windsor, Calif., and
grow it into a resounding
success.
Here are some stats: In
1997 annual sales were
$500,000, which doubled
to $1 million in 2002, and
in 2003 will reach $12 million.
Wasn’t there a rumor about
a recession in some parts of
the country? Actually, there
is one in Sonoma County,
where the Hard business is
located. “My suppliers tell
me nobody has very much
work but you,” Hard says.
“But we still turn away nine out of 10
jobs because we’re too busy.”
How Did It All Start?
Deborah’s father was a drywall contractor.
Back in 1972, when she was
dating her future husband, David
Hard, he was then, she says, “thinking
about a profession, a job where be
could wear a three-piece suit. Dressing
in laborer’s clothes didn’t appeal to
him.” But, she adds, she and her father
“converted him.” David went into the
trade and in 1977, at the age of 23, he
got his contractor’s license and started
Hard Drywall. Deborah was 21.
It was a small family business with only
one or two employees, just big enough
to provide a comfortable living.
Deborah did the bookkeeping but basically
stayed home with their two daughters,
Cashanda, now 30 and working for
the company, and Brenda, 27, who
worked for the company for a time, but
then decided to go to law school.
In the early 1990s, when the children
were about grown, Deborah was planning
to pursue a career. She had a college
scholarship. But David suggested
that instead of looking for an opportunity
to work for someone else, she
should consider taking charge of the
family business, and they could work to
grow it together. David, ironically, who
first thought he wanted to go to work in
a suit and tie, found that he was most
comfortable in the field. But David recognized
in his wife the talents, drive and
ambition to really move the company
forward—and had no ego problem in
supporting her and taking the title of
vice president while she assumed the
title of president.
In 1992, the company hired its first new
employee. “I started going out all day
doing job site estimates, and the good
part of being a woman is that if there
were 10 guys bidding, I would be
remembered,” Hard recalls. The first
few years were the hardest. It was not
until about 1999 when the company hit
$2 million, she says, “When we began
to see the light, and I could begin to do
some basic things like hire a receptionist.
What we found out is that you can
get along being very small or being big,
but it’s the in-between part that kills
you. You need a CPA, a lawyer and all
kinds of professional advice, but you
can’t afford it. At one time I had eight
checks I had written to myself in my
purse, which I couldn’t cash because I
didn’t have the money in the bank.”
But Hard has the money in the bank
now. She reports revenues of $1 million
in just the past month, and plans to
soon double her staff of 150 to 300.
Here Is the Secret
What’s the secret of her success in being
able to grow so rapidly, especially in a
down economy?
The hardest thing is consistency,” Hard
replies. “You have to say what you’ll do,
then do what you say. If you say you’ll
be there at 8 a.m., you have to be there.
If, for some reason you’re not-and in
construction that can happen—you call
and let your customer know before he
finds out. I notice that with many of my
competitors: They’ll perform well for a
time then fall back, then regroup and do
better again. But to really succeed, you
have to be at your best every single day.”
Hard says she picks up many accounts
because others don’t have the same standards.
“We recently got a panic call from
a builder with a project of 600 houses,”
she says. “An irate homeowner was
promised someone would come by for
several weeks and stayed home from
work three days, and it didn’t happen.
We’ve ended up driving all over California
doing work for that builder. I told
him, ‘You could have had us at the start,
but you went for the low bid, and now
you’re paying the price.”
Good estimating has been one of Hard’s
top criteria. She builds into the bid what
all the costs will be to do the job right,
including follow-up services She says
about the builder who turned the 600
houses over to her, “I don’t believe he is
even shopping price now. We get much
of our business now by people who are
willing to negotiate rather than have us
go through the bidding process, because
they just want us to do the work.”
The problem with contractors who
pride themselves on quality work who
undergo rapid growth is that the latter
often erodes the former. Hard began
noticing this slippage around the start of
the new century, so she worked quickly
to alleviate it. “We brought in outside
consultants to analyze our business,
which is something I strongly recommend,”
Hard says.
“One of the main things we found is
how to concentrate our resources where
we could do our best work yet also get
the most profit,” she says. Analyzed were
the different segments of the work,
repair, remodeling, single family residential,
multifamily residential, and
commercial. “We looked at how much
manpower was related to return-on-investment,” she says. “We moved
toward what I call the Wal-Mart way of
looking at profitability. Getting 200 percent
mark-up on nothing is still nothing,
but 5 percent of $1 million means
something.
We found we were putting $100,000 in
on repairs and getting $300,000 back,
but we could do better by putting that
$100,000 in multifamily and getting
$500,000 back. The smart person learns
he can’t be everything to everybody; find
out what he is good at and can make the
most profit at, and stick to that.”
The result was a dropping of some areas,
diminishing repair and remodeling, and
focusing on multifamily residential and
the fledging commercial side.
“We are now the largest residential contractor
north of San Francisco as well as
in the top 3 percent in size of all drywall
contractors in California, and we don’t
go into San Francisco,” Hard says. “We
do 80 percent of the residential work in
Sonoma and Napa Counties.”
The Right People
Although this is a labor-intensive industry
in which it is difficult to find and
keep good labor, Hard has never had a
problem. “We take people and train
them,” she says. “We’ve found this is
better than having people who have
experience but who we have to re-train.
We tell them that there is the right way,
the wrong way and the Hard way.”
The company has always been open to
people from every ethnic or social-economic
background. “We take people
who have a future of $10 an hour, and
in a few years they are making $25 an
hour, and they tell their family and
friends. People learn this is a good company to work for,” she
explains.
Much of the training comes from a company culture in which
employees are encouraged to teach others what they know. “In this
industry there is the tendency to say, ‘If I teach you what I know,
I’ll have to break your legs because then you’ll take my job away,”
Hard says. “We think this is wrong. We tell’ people, ‘Your job is
secure, but to make this company grow, teach what you know, and
there will be room for you to move up in the company.”’
Caring for the employees; recognizing an Employee of the
Month; giving superintendents a budget to give out little rewards
for work well done; cards and gifts for employee yearly anniversaries;
a strong safety program that has the obvious financial benefits
of the costs saved from avoiding accidents but also conveys
the message that the company does not want the employees to
rush or take risks—all add up to loyal, hard-working employees,
and no shortage of those who are eager to fill out applications.
The same thoughtfulness extends to the superintendents the
company works for, who get small gifts of appreciation for their
stressful jobs, and professionalism and consideration for others
who, in turn, often recommend Hard Drywall for jobs.
Drumming Up Business
The Hards are active in the community supporting various projects
from softball teams to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.
“We’re very active in branding our name,” Hard says, “everything
from our trucks to uniforms to signs on the site to gifts.
We may give of wine glasses with our logo on it to community
event sponsorship. We promote our name on a two-tier basis:
one to the construction trade, and the other to consumers who
are going to ask, “Did Hard do this drywall?”
Hard constantly reevaluates. “There was a time when our
superintendents would say, ‘This is not in our scope of work.’
I sat them all down and we talked about that,” Hard says. “It
might be cleaning windows, doing a walk-through, leaving scaffolding
on site for the next trade to use. Our attitude now is,
“Let’s talk about it. What do you want?’ Many times people are
willing to pay extra just to get something done and not have
to hire someone else to do it. It’s another way we can make a
customer like our service.”
Hard concentrates on buying well. She estimates that by buying
truckloads that that in itself pays the facility rental, and by
paying for everything not only on time but taking all discounts,
she estimates she saves about $100,000 a year.
One of the main lessons Hard says she and her husband had to
learn was “how to get away. In the early years we would work
80 to 90 hours a week, but after a while, it pulls you down along
with those who are working with you. So we’ve learned to delegate.
Nobody is going to put 100 percent into your business,
but if you treat them right, they can get pretty close. Now when
David and I take time off to do what we want to do, we come
back rejuvenated, see what can be improved, and what we can
do to motivate our employees. Our motto is that we do dry-wall,
but our business is people.”
