ALBERTA VENTURE

January/February 2004

Two Steps At A Time

By Elaine Davidson

The saying “I did it my way” sums up best how Kevin Halliday built his thriving spindle, stairs and railings business. Halliday left a family business to strike out on his own because of a burning desire to try new things, take the business in a new direction, and do it on his own terms.

Halliday had been in the railing business since he was seven, learning along the way from his parents. The story of his own company began in early 1999 when he cajoled his parents into letting him set up a Calgary sales office for their Edmonton-based railing company.

“I moved to Calgary, set up an office in my house and worked my heart out making one sale after another. The relationship with Edmonton began to break down. I had ideas for the company to go in a different direction and decided to try going out on my own. At the time, I had a young family and was determined to get my ideas out there and make my business succeed.”

Since the Calgary company’s incorporation in May 1999, Spindle, Stairs & Railings Ltd. (#11) has shown an average increase of about 80% each year in revenue, without a significant increase in operating costs, and has become one of the top interior railing companies in Calgary. Halliday, company owner, attributes the rapid growth to his early industry exposure combined with a young perspective that encourages him to challenge the status quo.

Who needs startup capital or product? Armed only with a business plan, a truck, a shed and a cell phone, Halliday started his business on a Friday and made his first sale that same day for delivery on Sunday.

“I dropped my business card at a home being built on an acreage. The owner called me back, I did the measurements and told him I’d have the product on time.

“I didn’t have any product but my supplier, A.B. Cushing Mills Ltd., opened up their shop on the Sunday so I could get what I needed,” he says. “I looked through what they had on hand and they actually made some of the product right there and then. And I made enough money ($1,800) on the first sale to buy my business licence. I met the customer in the parking lot of Home Depot to deliver the goods.”

His wife, Kim, ran the daily business of the company and set up a bank line of credit as the operation grew from their home office. “She stood behind me 1,000% and made sure that we got started right,” says Halliday. Today Kim continues to work from home, raising their two children and acting as the company’s controller.

Those hectic early days often meant driving up to houses under renovation or new homes being built and making sales one client at a time. “It didn’t matter if they needed one foot of railing or 100 feet. If I only sold one foot of railing, they would still tell three other people (about me) and that meant seven more jobs.”

Halliday says he’d park his truck in front of these partly constructed homes and staple his business card right to the plywood stairs he hoped to finish. “Then I would take the address and name and search for a phone number and follow up with a phone call right from my truck by cell phone, all while I was sitting in front of the house. If I got a go-ahead, I’d go back in, take the measurements and call the client back with a quote all in 10 minutes.

“The clients knew I was determined and knew I wanted that sale. I closed about 90% of the deals that way.”

Halliday says he still uses this sales technique with great success today.

In five years Halliday’s home-based business, where spindle sorting was often done in the dining room, evolved into a 15000 square-foot manufacturing facility with five full-time employees. He added a second location in March of this year and six full-time staff bringing the total employees to 25, including subcontractors. Today the company has two showrooms/sales centres, a manufacturing plant and a new division that is devoted to an innovative line of circular stairs – a line the company researched and developed itself.

Calgary’s booming new house and renovation market is helping the company’s growth climb as are new product lines such as wrought iron railings and more economical circular stairs.

“The old boys in the industry are sitting back and making tons of money with no new ideas,” Halliday says. “We are finding new ways to manufacture spindle and railings that are more cost effective and more price effective for our customers.”