From Failures Costing Profit to Finding Freedom and Playing Tennis at Noon. 

How One ParTner Learned to “let gO” and found the alair community to living better.

We sat down with Andrew Black, Partner of the Alair Homes Forest Hill and Markham to learn more offices about his journey to find freedom in running a business and living his best life.

PAINTING A DREAM

Andrew Black’s infatuation for business started at a young age. His Dad was a painting contractor, and he grew up watching him work long hours just to come home to work on pricing and accounting. The only real chance Andrew could spend time with him, was joining his Dad in his office pretending he was working with him. These were the days of the past generation slugging through the daily grind without any technology, struggling through low points of the economy. “I wanted to help him, to allow him the chance to breathe and get balanced—he wouldn’t let go,” said Andrew on his efforts to support and relieve some pressure off of his Dad.

It was this determination that led him to blaze his own path and start his own company.

 At 18-years-old, Andrew started “Two Coat Paintings,” which didn’t take long to take off and meant Andrew had to borrow his Dad’s employees to assist with the steady influx of jobs. “I was asked to do home repairs, maintenance and then full home remodels–let’s just say I was in way over my head,” said Andrew.

He called upon a childhood friend, Dave for relief, and together, secured a project in Toronto’s elite neighbourhood of Hoggs Hollow working on a 12 million dollar home’s 500 thousand addition. “There we were, just two people that had no idea what we were doing–we just had to make it work; we had no choice, but to figure it out,” said Andrew.

How could two people with no direct experience, work on constructing a 500 thousand dollar addition? Andrew shared, “We did every job ourselves, until we couldn’t–then we’d hire someone to help and, in some cases, didn’t even realize there was a trade for certain things.

“We didn’t know how much we were making, or how much was in the bank because 90 per cent was the customer money and we had difficulty differentiating what was pure revenue for our business. Although my Dad would often ask me ‘but, are you making any money?’ All I knew is we were tired.”

 The partners invested in a business coach and continued on the path of learning through failure. “We would try and then we would fail, and then we would implement a process so we wouldn’t fail at the same thing twice, but all the first fails cost us profit. We knew something needed to change.”

It was the business coach that introduced Alair Homes’ concept and successful construction management platform to Andrew and Dave. They learned more about the founding team and met Joel McDaniel to learn more about Alair’s mission, approach to service and the Alair culture. “I was intrigued, but it took about a year for me to fully be open to it,” said Andrew. “Perhaps it was my pride in us carrying my name in our brand and being stuck on that image.” It was a difficult choice for the two of them to agree on; Dave was all about the big ideas and planning whereas Andrew was more focused on creating beautiful things. A year later Andrew said, “Yes, what can I lose?”

INTRODUCING ALAIR

Andrew and Dave bought into the scalable model where they didn’t have to fail every time – through business mentorship and adopting the Alair model, they’d quickly grown their ability to educate themselves on what was needed to succeed. “Right away, we had a more professional offering and service model for our customers–we had a much better base and a formulized approach,” said Andrew. It didn’t take the pair long to access Alair’s resources for anything they could ever need to understand the business. “We developed understanding in our processes of a proper pipeline, cash flow, what ‘cash on hand’ meant, utilized charts, spreadsheets, and learned about the mantra, ‘only spend profit’ we didn’t even know how to calculate this.” The pair found power in actually being held accountable. “Alair was the missing tool to safely scale our business into a profitable model with unlimited growth opportunities, and limited liability.”

They found the key without being stuck in the day-to-day weeds. “The extra time I found from leveraging the tools allowed me the opportunity to focus on the business from the outside in, and this feeling was unbelievable. I was putting in half the effort as I was in the 60-70-hour work weeks and quadrupling our profit and sales” said Andrew.

FINDING FREEDOM

Alair Forest Hill and Markham offices have less than half of the employees that Andrew and Dave had in their former business. Alair’s Corporate Office handles administration for Partners based upon their needs and business levels. Andrew shares his experience on building teams of experts that hold their same values. “We staff according to the leadership needed on each project and by increasing our pay scale and hiring quality talent, our margins have increased by 100 per cent,” said Andrew.

The benefits being a part of one of the world’s largest construction companies are endless.

“There is so much power yet serenity that comes with having the ability to call upon any one of our Partners across North America and connect on similar situations that we literally ‘plug and go’ – the answer is always there. We have the support to save us time, and money from unnecessary failure. It doesn’t sound real, but it is. 3 million to 10 million in less than five years is a fact.”

Our Partners have opportunity in sailing on their revenue year over year or expanding and adding more offices with limitless return.

“We lead our business, we’re not in our business. With this, we have financial freedom and earned time. This positioning allows us to build trust with staff and clients.”

We started with 20 projects per year:
First Year: 215K profit
Second Year: 338K
Third Year: 500K
Fourth Year: 691K
Fifth Year: 1M+

Like many entrepreneurs often experience, Andrew shares that there were some dark moments in their growth and the Alair team helped them find the light. “The confidence that came in knowing we could pick up the phone and ask how they’ve done this, how they got through this is priceless. We’re a shared community.”

LIVING BETTER

Before Alair, Andrew shares he hit the glass ceiling. “I built the confidence to learn to let go. Today, I am not an owner/operator, I am a true business owner with an incredible Partner, Evelynn Ratcliff that joined our team in 2016.”

Andrew and Dave had known Evelynn for quite some time, and the addition of her 20 plus years of marketing experience in the real estate development world, has been a perfect synergy. The ability to scale from one office location to two in 2020 and the outlook to open four more in the next five years has been extremely positive. Today, Dave and Andrew share in their partnership while they split ownership with Evelynn. “Her expertise has allowed me to focus on the production side of the business and training our Project Managers, while she focuses on the operations and building brand awareness,” said Andrew.

Andrew remembers the anxiety that came with going on his first week vacation back in 2007 whilst at his old company. “I had no ‘real coverage’ my company would stop.

“In 2019, I took a week off each month. I went to Mexico four times and could actually be present and connect with my family.”

FUTURE PLANS

Andrew praises his joy for his work and his ability to see past the weeds and strategically consult his business. “I am grateful to be part of Alair, as the trusted platform has granted me the free time to constantly improve and grow multiple equitable businesses and have the balance to be there for my family and find some time for myself –I can play tennis at noon!”

“Alair also gives me hope for the future of our industry that the passionate tradesmen just like my Father was can now see a future. Their hard work and efforts will be recognized, and the industry can sustain itself without burnout.”

 Andrew is proud to share his story as many of our Partners agree that you don’t know the power of having the answers in your hands unless you’ve lived through failure. He has a solid 10-year plan in his hands and approaches each and every day with a new grit. “I am transparent in my keys to success because Alair has allowed me to show up in every aspect of how I operate and lead, there is no hiding, so here I am, waving–if you’re looking for a sign to unlock your freedom, living better starts here.”