One tip often given for developing a successful business is to find what you love, then do it. Mike Gilmore was one of those lucky ones who discovered his passion early in life and enjoys a thriving business in the post-frame industry. Now 38, he started DIY Pole Barns & Supplies, Arcanum, Ohio in 2004 at the age of 31.
“My first taste of the lumber and construction industry was at the age of 19 working for a lumberyard on the yard crew and as a delivery driver,” Gilmore recalls. “I fell in love with the smell of lumber and it draws me like a moth to a flame.”
He went on to work in sales in many non-lumber industries, but that flame of passion was missing. “When I found an opportunity to jump back into lumber, I jumped!” he says. “I began selling cedar siding and pine boards to Ohio lumberyards and eventually went to work for one of them as a contractor salesman.”
Another rule of business is to find a niche that isn’t being filled and fill it. Gilmore was making sales calls across the country selling DIY pole barn kits for another company when he began noticing some empty niches. “It intrigued me that this company was selling quite a few building packages but did not have their own lumberyard,” he says. “They were simply piecemealing from different material suppliers. I liked his ‘mouse trap’, but thought I could improve on it. We tinkered with the business plan, and once we started we had nearly immediate success.”
DIY Pole Barns opened as strictly a material supplier, providing customers with all the components to construct the buildings themselves, including blueprints and phone support. They utilized third-party suppliers for all materials. It opened amidst tremendous turmoil in the steel industry, which helped to spur its rapid success.
Unfortunately, heartbreak soon followed. In the fall and winter of 2008 Gilmore says the company nearly lost everything when the economy took a nosedive. “Like many others during that time, we took a new inventory of ourselves and decided the important things in life,” he says. “We rebuilt our company with a stronger vision and a focus on a better customer experience.
“Since then we have totally revamped our website and added the industry’s most robust instant quoting tool,” he adds. “We have also retooled our supply chain for more consistency and cost effectiveness.”
Graber Post is now its sole supplier. This collaboration helps DIY to currently offer over 425 sizes of barns, available online through an instant custom-quote system. Barns from 50 to 70 foot are soon to be added, for a total of some 600 barns.
Added as well was a Preferred Builder Network for customers who opt to have a prescreened contractor erect their building. “These moves have allowed us to grow over 25 percent each year for the last three years,” Gilmore says. “Amazing! Add all that up and you get a customer satisfaction rating at an all time high. This must mean we are doing something right.”
As with many owners of homegrown businesses, for Gilmore the ultimate fulfillment is not about money. “There is something about fulfilling a family’s dream and knowing that what you have provided will outlast them and the generation to come,” he says.
His sense of purpose, however, goes even deeper. “First, and most important, I feel like I am where God wants me to be,” he says. “It is heartening to know that I work every day for the Great Carpenter.”
Not surprisingly, Gilmore’s employees are his contemporaries. “Our whole team is an early-40 and down bunch,” he says. He believes younger workers bring an important element to his business: flexibility. “We are not stuck in the mindset of how the pole barn business must be done,” he explains. “We are stretching to new heights, utilizing new marketing ideas and staying in a simple, straightforward path to success. The younger generation seems to enjoy breaking stereotypes and achieving success in new and innovative ways.”
Even the Preferred Builders Network is rife with younger workers. “They keep them motivated by paying them well, being open to their scheduling needs, and allowing them to feel like they are members of a winning team. Each of these are vital for their younger workers,” he adds.
Gilmore sings the praises of his own workforce as well. “I work with the best team in the industry,” he claims. “From my loyal staff to our suppliers, I can only smile every day due to their hard work, loyalty and the amazing friendships I have made with each of them. It is literally a dream come true.”
His key advice to anyone trying to make it in today’s economy is “to be true to who they are and to be distinctly different from everyone else. As difficult as it is to be distinctly unique in the post-frame industry, it is vital that you find a way to be remarkably different. If no one has any reason to talk about you, they won’t.”
As for his own family, Gilmore doesn’t know what the future will bring. He has four young daughters, all 14 years of age and younger, and it’s difficult to know if any of them will fall in love with the smell of lumber. At this point, “One wants to be a singer, the other a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, another a cowgirl and the youngest a princess,” Gilmore says, adding, “I am teaching them honesty, hard work and love for your career. We will have to wait and see if they ever see themselves selling barns.” - by Sharon Thatcher, RB
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