Armstrong Steel Awarded by Denver Business Journal for Being One of Denver's Fastest Growing Private Companies
Denver, CO (PRWEB) October 18, 2013 -- For Ethan Chumley to build Armstrong Steel into the finely tuned, fast-growing company it is today, he first learned how not to do it.
About 10 years ago, he answered a newspaper ad for a position as a building consultant at a Colorado firm that made pre-engineered metal buildings.
“I was so intrigued by the products and services the company offered, I took the job,” Chumley said.
He particularly liked that customers were able to save so much money over traditional construction methods — up to 40 percent. “It was heartwarming and phenomenal. I loved that I was helping builders.”
But Chumley noticed a crack in the foundation when he began getting calls from clients saying the building they’d ordered hadn’t arrived and that their calls were going unreturned.
Chumley started researching on the Internet and learned the company had several unresolved complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
“I knew I couldn’t keep working there in good conscience,” he said.
In 2005, he took a job with a similar company, but this one had scruples. “I felt right at home. That’s where I learned the ins and outs of the industry firsthand.”
And all the while, Chumley couldn’t quit thinking about starting his own company – one that made service after the sale a standard operating procedure.
“I’ve always been accustomed to going the extra mile for my clients. I’m always available to customers after the sale, a credo many salespeople refuse to live by. I treat the folks I do business with like close friends and family. It’s about attention to detail, onsite assistance, satisfaction and reliability.”
In 2006, he took that attitude with him to launch Armstrong Steel.
Chumley likens Armstrong’s early years to a David and Goliath story.
“We began as a very small company with only a few employees and regularly took on bigger players,” he said. “We’d resolved early on to disrupt and change the industry for the better, and the competition, the good ol’ boys, didn’t like it one bit. We offered better prices, a superior product and top-notch customer support after the sale - and that was a real threat.”
Before things got better, they got worse.
“They [the competition] started slinging mud. They called us scam artists working out of a strip mall,” Chumley said. “But as time went on, the stories grew stale. We came through in a pinch and delivered time and again for the do-it-yourselfers and contractors; word-of-mouth is a powerful thing.”
The company’s growth, Chumley said, is due to that customer service, but also “an insistence on low prices and excellent quality. All of that catapulted us into national prominence and let us expand into new markets.”
Today Chumley said Armstrong Steel is debt-free with clients around the globe and in every state.
“For us, there’s only one path and it leads to greater sustainability, increased market share, growth and prosperity,” he said.
source: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/print-edition/2013/10/18/early-lessons-have-strengthened.html
Ethan Chumley, Armstrong Steel, http://www.armstrongsteelbuilding.com, 800.345.4610, [email protected]
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