Rob Mathews, CGR, and Robin Burrill, CAPS, Allied ASID Curb Appeal Renovations, Keller, Texas

Design/build remodeling
12 years in business
2006 volume: $1.1 million
Staff: 1 office, 3 field

A Marine, paramedic, and neonatal nurse before he became a remodeler full-time, Rob Mathews chalks up much of his company's success to his previous careers' exacting standards. “Systems are huge” at Curb Appeal Renovations, he says. “In the medical field, we called them algorithms,” and in medicine and the military, “there's often one way to do things. If you deviate left or right, someone is going to die.”

Mathews acknowledges that the stakes aren't as high in remodeling, yet he still obsesses with “the smallest details.” For instance, he and co-owner Robin Burrill, who is also his wife, created Premier Custom Cabinetry in response to problems with the quality and delivery times of subcontracted cabinetry. Designed using 3-D software, cabinets are customized to the inch and handmade using only solid wood and quality hardware.

“We educate our clients,” Mathews says. “We tell them right off the bat, ‘If you want something done inexpensively, using shortcuts, we're not the ones.'” A deliberate effort to increase job size has transformed Curb Appeal Renovations' revenue stream, from 265 smaller jobs in 2002 to 24 much bigger projects in 2006. This is helped by highly systematized marketing, including an 8,000-name database, drawn in part from public records, that fosters targeted marketing and careful screening using factors such as home values and location. L.T.

Mike Spreckelmeier, Progressive Builders, Fort Myers, Fla.

Full-service remodeling
17 years in business
2006 volume: $2.9 million
Staff: 3 office, 7 field

A licensed building inspector and member of several industry organizations, Michael Spreckelmeier's (front row, center) affiliations require that he get a dozen or so continuing education credits every two years. How many does the president of Progressive Builders actually get? “About 100 hours a year,” he says. “It's not required, but I really enjoy it.”

It's no surprise, then, that education for the rest of his staff is also a priority. In 2006, more than three-quarters of Progressive Builders' employees traveled out-of-state for educational events. Often, expenses such as airfare, hotel, and event registration can cost more than $1,000 per attendee.

What makes it worthwhile? “Employees have to come back and teach the rest of us about what they learned,” Spreckelmeier says. “That helps attendees absorb the education they receive while they're on the road. They pay closer attention and really look for the ways different business solutions or production techniques apply to our company.”

In addition to off-site education, Progressive Builders has invested in computer training to get the staff up to speed on the laptop computers recently purchased for superintendents. “There's a spread of computer knowledge here,” Spreckelmeier says. “The youngest employee had a computer in his kindergarten classroom, while some of the older employees just started using computers 10 years ago. Now all our timesheets and change orders are filed electronically and we keep daily jobsite logs. This lets our company run much more efficiently.” —L.H.