We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Willie Kalousdian a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Willie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I truly believe that our legacy is determined by the magnitude of positive influence we leave behind. Each of us has the chance to make a difference in the lives of those we encounter – whether they’re family, friends, colleagues, or even strangers we meet in our daily interactions. I am committed to fostering positivity in my life and making meaningful contributions to those around me, offering support wherever possible.
For me, founding my business wasn’t solely about making money. It runs much deeper than that. My aspiration is for our business to leave a lasting impact as well: to empower our team members to enhance their lives significantly, to delight our customers to the point where they become advocates for our products and services, and to facilitate personal growth by providing comprehensive training, opportunities, and support both within and beyond the workplace.
Willie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As it stands today, I am a Husband, Dad and Entrepreneur, in that order. For a little background: I graduated with a BS in Construction management in 2014 after attending college for 7 years. It took me a bit longer because the first 5 years of college i was struggling with opioid addiction. I failed many times trying to just stop on my own but after going to inpatient treatment and moving into a sober living house I finally got into recovery on 9/30/2012 and my life has been changing for the better since then.
I started KJK Builders and Detroit Decks in 2015 as a side business while I was managing construction project at another company. I got my degree in that field because I thought wanted it to be my lifetime career. I worked there for half a decade and was trying to picture a future doing that for 20+ years and the thought of that just made me feel empty. I felt like there had to be more out there that would leave me feeling more fulfilled and allow me to help others and use the skills that I have to have a much greater impact. In 2019 I took the leap into full self employment and haven’t looked back since. What started as a side business, working every weekend and most nights trying to make extra money to pay off student loans and other debts, was now something I could focus all of my time and energy on. It has been challenging growing a business, but nothing worth doing comes easily.
At KJK Builders we specialize in Kitchen remodeling, Bathroom Remodeling and Basement finishing. Detroit Decks provides fully custom wood and composite decks and backyard living spaces. Our goal is to take the customers vision and make it a reality for them. We take immense pride in the quality of our workmanship. Every project undertaken by Detroit Decks and KJK Builders is executed with precision and attention to detail, resulting in superior finished products that exceed expectations. Customer satisfaction is our top priority. We prioritize open communication, actively listening to our clients’ desires and concerns to ensure that their vision is realized. Our dedication to exceptional service sets us apart and fosters long-lasting relationships with our clients. We build everything above and beyond the minimum requirements and build things to last generations to come. We also back all of our project with a lifetime guarantee. If anything ever fails as a result of our workmanship we will come back and fix it no questions asked.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
The side hustle started because I had carpentry skills and was able to do most renovations by myself. I started it mostly to pay off student loans, and pay for a wedding and never thought it would be full time. I used friends/family referrals for the first few projects and slowly increased my capacity and skillset for larger and more intricate jobs. For almost 4 years the side hustle took up nearly every night and every free weekend while we grew a reputation for quality work and had built up a referral base for new projects. We also built relationships at our suppliers i.e. lumber yards, cabinet suppliers etc so they could refer customers our way. It slowly grew to the point where i had more leads coming in than I could handle on nights and weekends and I either needed to start turning away jobs or transition to full time. When I finally made the transition I had built up roughly 90 days of work and had contracts signed for those jobs so I knew i had a little runway to make things work. The first year i hired a couple people to help build the projects but i still was doing everything needed to keep the business running and worked 12 hour days for months on end. There were some slower times but we always stayed busy and made sure our team members had full time work.
From there we continued to add key team members and trained them to deliver the quality our customers have come accustomed to. COVID hit and we had to shut down for a couple months but there was such a construction boom after the world opened back up that we grew 50% that year. We have grown roughly 20% year over year and continue to add more team members and refine our processes so we can still deliver the same quality our customers expect.
The first key hires were definitely milestones on the journey, and from there it has been slowly taking all of the tasks that I had on a daily basis and creating processes to delegate those to the proper team members. It took about 2 full years until i was able to not have to build every project, and has been about 1 full year that I haven’t had to put the tools on and build a project myself at all; that was another major milestone although I really miss creating things with my hands.
Hiring office personnel and a sales staff has been another milestone in our growth that happened within the past year.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Cash management and budgeting has been a key all through our business growth. With proper planning you can make it through a lot of different highs and lows. I am diligent on tracking cash flows and making sure we are not over leveraged at any point. I was able to save the start up funding through the side hustle. Each job I would save as much of the profits as i could and live well below what we were bringing in so we had cash in the bank for a rainy day. We would buy tools needed slowly over time and pay cash for trailers/large tools as we saved up for them. We make sure the business runs without leveraging excess debt other than some large vehicle purchases. Early on we paid cash for used vehicles in order to keep things growing. My hope with this method is to show entrepreneurs that you don’t need to go out and secure VC funds or excess capital to get things started. If you manage your personal finances well and ensure you live well below your means you can use the profits from the business to reinvest and grow organically. It is a little slower but requires a lot less risk.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kjkbuilders.com www.detroitdecks.net
- Instagram: KJKBuilders Detroit_Decks
- Facebook: KJK Builders Detroit Decks