Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Little Rock Home Repair. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Little Rock Home Repair thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
Sooner for sure. Little Rock has been hard work but has brought so much freedom to control my time, finances, quality, and reputation. There is really nothing like working for yourself. But I think it did take the pandemic to shake up my well-worn routine and open my eyes to the idea of change so I’m not sure it would have actually happened sooner.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We are a husband-and-wife team based out of Lakewood, Ohio. I (David) spent my career as a bindery operator in print shops and spent most of my free time either working on cars or improving our home. My wife Caity has a degree in architecture, with her career trajectory taking her into small business operations and marketing.
When the pandemic began affecting local businesses, my work hours were cut and I started doing handyman work on the side. I had a natural knack for working with customers and getting the job done right. Then the schools shut down and we knew we needed more flexibility to handle our three kids (one in remote kindergarten at the time). After lots of talking together and overcoming our fears, I quit my job and we launched Little Rock Home Repair full time in August of 2020. At the time, I was doing any type of handywork but since then we have grown to specialize solely in fences, porches, and decks. We service Lakewood and surrounding suburbs within a 20 minute drive time. We are proudly a small business and I do all of the quoting on the weekends while doing all installs during the week.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
#1 – Being small and family-owned. In the world dominated by Amazon, people really do love to support small, locally-owned businesses. I think it resonates when they see that me, the owner, is the one coming to give them the quote, coordinating the project prep, then on site swinging the hammer during install.
#2 – Being real. I think many have been burned by contractors in the past (or know a family member who has) and come to the experience with a lot of baggage and horror stories. I often joke that my role model is Abraham Lincoln aka “Honest Abe”. I will tell you if your construction project is something I can’t do, is out of my element, or won’t hold up in the long term. You don’t get the runaround from us and people appreciate the transparency.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Oh this is a good one. My cofounder is my wife, Caity. We met on New Year’s Eve 2009 at the Harry Buffalo in Lakewood. Caity is a pretty level-headed, serious person who would rather be doing yoga than at a bar but she happened to be out with friends celebrating that night. She saw me across the bar and decided to walk up to me and ask me if I had seen her lost hair clip. What a great pick up line, right? Caity swears she has never hit on anyone at a bar before but that time it just happened to work and here we are, 15 years and three kids later. With Caity’s intelligence and ability to wrangle my crazy ideas, everything behind the scenes runs smoothly and Little Rock wouldn’t be what it is without her.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.littlerockhomelakewood.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlerock_homerepair/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littlerockhomerepair
- Linkedin: n/a
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: n/a
- Yelp: n/a
- Soundcloud: n/a
- Other: n/a
Image Credits
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