Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Randall and Tre Green.
Ted and Tre, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My wife and I (Ted) bought a new home that needed a complete remodel. We unknowingly hired an unscrupulous contractor who stole 10’s of thousands of dollars from us. We ended up in litigation and settling out of court, but it was a nightmare. Many sleepless nights. It was actually not our first unpleasant experience with general contractors, but we hired another contractor through a recommendation from a close friend to finish the project. He turned out to be a very nice and honest person, but still went over budget!
At the time, I was growing tired of working as a portfolio manager at a mutual fund and not sure what I wanted to do next, but I knew I didn’t want to continue what I was doing. So, I quit my job of 16 years and started working on the house with our new contractor. Tre was one of the employees of the contractor and the two of us became friends. I really enjoyed the work and seeing a finished product rather than data, returns and bank statements.
I don’t remember how it came up, but one day Tre mentioned that he didn’t want to work for someone else for the rest of his career. He had over 16 years’ experience in construction and said he wanted to become a general contractor and give it a go on his own. While I didn’t have any construction experience per se, I did have and undergraduate and master’s degree in business, so in theory I should be able to run a successful business! I did know that both of us were committed to being honest and providing good customer service. I suggested we team up and give it a try, so we founded Pro-Value Construction Services.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh no. It’s been tough. Starting a business has been difficult. First off, it took a while to get a contractor’s license. I love California, but they don’t make it too easy, despite Tre passing his exams on the first try. The initial hurdle was getting past employers to sign off on Tre’s work experience. They have no incentive to fill out the paperwork, so it takes a bit of begging! After that it was a lot of trial and error. Afraid of losing jobs, be definitely under bid quite a few and took our lumps, but always stayed committed to providing a quality product and customer experience- even if we were losing money on a job. We are still learning everyday about estimation and walking the line between giving our customers a good price and running a competitive and profitable business.
Pro-Value Construction Services – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are licensed general contractors. We specialize in home remodeling and repairs. We are most proud of our honesty. There are many behind the scenes ways that contractors make extra money. We try to be honest and transparent with everything we do. Because of the work experience requirement for a contractor’s license, contractors begin as tradespeople who may be skilled in whatever trades they have learned. However, many struggles to complete a project in the promised timeline and for the quoted price. General contracting requires trade knowledge as well as project management and business experience. Our combined backgrounds offer our customers a quality construction project on time and on budget.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We look for the smile on a client’s face when they see the end product. As previously stated, we’ve definitely had jobs where we didn’t make as much as we thought we would, but we still didn’t cut corners. We keep trying to make people happy. Maybe they’ll call us again for another project or refer us to someone. Of course, we need to pay our bills, but the company is definitely more than that…
Contact Info:
- Address: 46-E Peninsula Center Dr #538
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274 - Website: www.provalueconstruction.com
- Phone: 310-415-9420
- Email: info@provalueconstruction.com
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pro-value-construction-services-rolling-hills-estates
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Farzana Noorzay
June 13, 2017 at 05:05
Beautiful work! Great attention to detail.