Making a Switch for Success

“I think I know what the market is, and I know what my bottom-dollar line is,” he says. “I also know how much physical work I can do, and where I can cut a few corners.”

Evans sees, as a positive, that the shops he’s known and grown up with are still staying busy, even if they’re not quite as busy as they were a few years ago.

Click photo to enlargeAnd, where some shops have failed, he’s well-enough known in the industry that he’s been able to pick up customers from the closed shops by referral from suppliers he’s known for more than a decade.

Those closed shops also provide a source of skilled employees that Evans has been happy to add to his payroll.

“We’ve gotten some great fabricators and great installers at a great price,” he says. “We’re hoping the economy turns around soon and we can put things back to what some of these guys are used to getting, but they understand I’m just starting out and they’re helping me keep my payroll down.”

Many of the employees are also family members, including three Evans sons and a nephew. The newest addition is Evans’ wife, Debbie, who is helping with bookkeeping and scheduling.

“I’ve got two full install crews of two men each, plus two subs and a templater,” he explains. “Then, I’ve got five guys in the shop besides myself. We’re pretty much keepings things going on a 40-hour work week right now, but we can move quite a bit through the shop.”

Having experienced people on hand has also meant that Evans hasn’t had to get heavily into automation – yet. Other than bringing in a new bridge saw when he took ownership of the shop, the work these days is being done with hand tools.

“That’s really the same way I started off helping other shops,” he says. “You start with the basics and work your way up in the hope that you can add automated tooling after a few years. When the economy comes back and we’re able to afford it, that’s what we’ll go for, but right now we’re a custom fabrication shop with a bridge saw.”

Evans sees an additional advantage in that approach: besides not having a lot of overhead, he’s sticking with jobs where the custom skills are an advantage.

“Cutting $2,000 and $3,000 kitchens doesn’t pay for a CNC,” he says.

And, while Absolute is putting out work on some commercial jobs, its mainstay right now is residential projects. Fortunately, Evans says homebuilding seems to be picking up in the area, and the company runs a mix of jobs for developers and for individual homeowners.

“We get quite a few homeowners calling us direct,” he says. “We get a lot of interest off the Internet, and then we get a lot of word-of-mouth, too. I had a call recently from somebody I knew from a job my dad and I did 12 years ago.”

One thing that Evans believes sets him apart is his ability to be sensitive to what each customer wants. With multiple stone suppliers in the St. Louis area, he knows not to refer the person looking for a good price to the same supplier as the client who’s looking for a unique stone.

“You have to know what the customer wants,” he says. “We also keep about 10 different colors out in our lot, and a lot of times customers are willing to walk out back and go with something we show them.”