Meet Annette Mathis of Contractors Are Us in East Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette Mathis.

Annette, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Contractors Are Us opened our doors on January 1st, 2014. I was a duct cleaning contractor. I have run a couple of other companies in the last 18 years so I had a large list of contractors. Customers had started coming to me and asking for help locating reliable, responsible contractors. I found there was a real need for this service.

Finding dependable contractors proved to be a hard thing to do. I have spent that last couple of years fine tuning how we should operate. Who we should use and who we should not. I think we have a pretty good system in place now.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’m sure for all new business owners there are obstacles that stand in the way.

– Money to support and grow the activity

– Money to survive

But I think that one of the biggest obstacles would be how to find reliable responsible contractors to work with. I have gone through an enormous number of contractors. But I have learned to keep an eye out for red flags.

Some big red flags would be:

– A contractor who is unwilling to communicate regarding a job

– If a contractor has had multiple businesses and changed the contractor’s license over to another name more than once. You need to look at the old license, old name. Do an online search to see why they changed names.

– ANY mark on their license. You cannot have a mark on your license and be one of our contractors.

Another obstacle was overcoming the bad taste contractors and customers alike had in their mouth for companies similar to mine. I have personally had the experience on the contractor’s side.

Companies would send out a job to a large number of contractors and expect to be paid for the lead. On the contractor’s side, they would pay for the lead and have to rush to call the job because it was possible a large number of other people would be calling as well. On the customers side they would receive a good amount of calls. The contractors may have been vetted originally to verify they are licensed insured contractors but there was no one to make sure the contractor has actually done what they said they would do.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Contractors Are Us is a contractor Liaison Service, which means we are the middle guys to make sure everything goes well from the quoting of the job to the completion of it.

We have just about any type of service you are looking for. From a Plumber to a General to a Duct Cleaner, Heating/Air Conditioning, Landscaping, and Restoration…… the list could go on. If more than one quote for a service is needed we do have multiple contractors for the same service. A customer can request up to 3 quotes. We work with every type of industry from Residential to Commercial to Industrial.

I like to think of us as a community of ethical contractors that a customer and a contractor alike can feel safe working with.

We consider ourselves a one stop service company. If a contractor cannot do the full service we have someone else who can step in to help with projects. A customer is never left to try and figure out what to do on a project. As an example, we have an HVAC company who called to say that they had found asbestos on a job. We had an asbestos company come out to deal with the issue and someone take care of the repairs after the work had been completed. The customer was kept informed the entire way through and was never just left to figure out what to do next. These types of situations can be scary and it’s nice to have someone you can depend on to help you through it.

We have a section on our website where we ask our contractors to tell us something about their company that sets them apart from other contractors similar to theirs. I invite you to have a look. There are some great responses.

We started here in the LA area. We now cover a good majority of Southern California and are expanding in Northern California. We have had requests for our services in other states but we are not quite ready for this as of yet. But hopefully soon!

Jeff Mathis is the Northern California Branch Manager

Mark Hernandez is the Southern California Branch Manager

And I am in charge of Customer/ Contractor Relations

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I definitely consider LA a good place to start a business. Laws are strict. But if you work within the legal limits of the law, offer a phenomenal product and operate in a good ethical manner there is enough work out there for everyone.

My favorite section of my website is what sets us apart. I ask all of my contractors this. What would make someone want to use you? Why are you different from all of the other businesses who do the same service as you do? I don’t want to work with some company who does not value what they have to offer. This helps them to have a hard look at who they are as a company.

Contact Info:

• Address: Los Angeles CA 90063
• Website: contractorsareus.org
• Phone: 323-282-0537 / 323-915-0430
• Email: contractorsareus.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contractorsareus/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/contractors-are-us-los-angeles
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annette-mathis-5200b591

Image Credit:
A&J Duct Cleaning, Affinity Painting, Rooter & Plumbing Master, SWL Construction, West Coast Chief Repair & Mercer Commercial Cleaning.