Birthdays and Anniversaries matter. Life moves fast so these are good times to take a little stock. We've had a couple at PAVERART recently: Brian's Milestone Birthday + 6 years of my wife and I owning PAVERART.
A dear friend of mine has a great quip about parenting and time moving fast:
"Nobody ever said it went too slow!"
Isn't that the truth?
When I look at Facebook memories of my son Dominic I'm floored by the progression over his 5-6 years working at PAVERART. He started as a middle school child and dare I say he's knocking on the door of a young man?
Dominic has been working in some form or fashion since 7th grade. Other parents give an odd combination of amazement and more often "puzzled judgement" when observing him, his summer focus and future entrepreneurial (vs. college) plans.....but that's a topic for another day!
This past August marked the 6th year anniversary of my wife and I owning PAVERART. But PAVERART is in decade #3. I'm convinced that are best days lie ahead of us, not in the rearview mirror.
Mike had a milestone birthday a couple of years ago, earning him a banner: King of Pavers.
This week Brian, our plant manager and lead designer had his own milestone birthday, so now HIS banner graces the wall: Guardian of the Plant: Unstoppable.
I admire Mike & Brian. They kept the wheels on the bus for a long time, figured things out, stayed focused and survived when most would have folded. That's unstoppable.
I've always loved the human aspect of growing a business. It can get messy, uncomfortable and stressful. But in my heart of hearts, I do believe that you are either growing or dying.
For 15 years of PAVERART's existence, our defining term was "survival mode." Making this week's payroll was a success, as it is for many small businesses. And PAVERART never missed one. Sounds simple, but living to see another day matters. If you can't stay in the game, the possibility of a brighter future is zero.
But SURVIVAL is very different than THRIVING (creating something meaningfully durable). At 6 years and decade #3 of PAVERART, we've made some progress. A checklist if you will for small businesses moving closer to the thriving stage.
When a short-term "disruption" to the business (equipment breakdown, employee departure/illness, bad stretch of sales) does not kill you.
When your critical relationships (customers, suppliers, employees) are strong enough to be there for each other when each needs the other.
When a "shock" (pandemic, recession/turn-down) does not put you out of business, you're one of the remaining few in your space.
When you push the envelope, evolve, invest, and those investments add new life, possibilities to your future.
When those people you hold nearest and dearest GROW.
We aren't perfect. The outside world and "investor types" love to use big fancy words describing us as "not scaleable." Too niche. Too hard. I smile and wear that as a badge of honor.
Here's a Photo Capturing Summer The Bull's/Harrelson's and their growing family's on vacation, standing of course by Uncle Bill's Pancake House PAVERART.
The team closing in on a combination engraving/Paver Logo project for the University of South Florida
Nick Jr., one of the world's cutest babies admiring himself pictured in black granite, part of a developing new business Dominic has been focused on.
A couple of great customer installs
Part of moving from Survival Mode to a business that can thrive is figuring out to say YES to the truly difficult project. Solvin problems. Sepping outside of comfort zones.
This summer, we managed to create what we believe may be a one-of-a-kind design in the USA: The University of South Florida Paver Logo/Engraving design. Combines 2+ decades of our know-how.
School paver logos, custom colors
Perfect radial cut bands
Custom Engraving of famous quotes, all combined into one cohesive design.
Here's the video.
When we look at the USF project, it is not much different than another special project we did for Joe, a Veteran of the US Coast Guard and proud to call him a friend. Yes, 4' is very different than 20'. 80" of engraving is different than 1000x.
Part of embracing the small, custom, hard assignments is the confidence it gives you to go bigger.
Custom has always been part of our DNA at PAVERART.
We've also been ENGRAVING for decades.
But truth be told, we haven't realized the power of BOTH of these businesses working together. We needed to isolate these businesses into different facilities (across the street from the other) to realize how powerful they can work together for our clients.
A business moving towards thriving stage has a whole new set of challenges, many of which are not obvious, but keep me jazzed on 4am walks to solve and get to the shop each day.
Thanks for following our journey!
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