Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Liguras.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
After 12 years in concrete restoration, I was able to team up with a long time friend and colleague to start Concrete Restoration Solutions Inc. (from now on referred to as CRS). We began in 2012 with big dreams of starting something with no specific direction in mind, just big dreams. I personally have had a lot of experience and know how to get the work done, while my business partner Mike Cassidy had a long-standing business. He is an ophthalmologist with his own small office in Homewood, IL. He used his business acumen and financial backing to get CRS started.
We started with a minimal website and a lot of Google Adwords. Our first small break was a 25 story tall building in the heart of the city. Their building engineer liked our approach to quality first. Our business motto is “A Quality Company” after all. So it gives us something to live up to. I remember being in a position in my former company where quality took a back seat to making a profit. It didn’t start out that way, of course, I was told to build relationships and find a way to return to the same property every year.
As my old company became more and more profitable as it grew, that mentality to retain clients diminished. I wanted to get back to that mentality. Our first job at that building was a wash. We didn’t make any money on it, but we did get our foot in the door. They liked us. We’ve been back to that building every year since and have finally made our biggest profit on a project as of this year on that building.
Ironically, the project we performed this year was not only with a different owner of that building but with a different management firm as well. As the building has gone through different ownership and management, we’ve been retained to work on that property. We’ve also been invited to bid and work on projects with the people that were in that building initially for their new/different properties.
Our big break came in the middle of 2016. We were invited specifically to look at and bid a project that was half of a million dollars. We were way out of our league financially to think to tackle something like that. Being asked to specifically consider it, however, we did. We ended up winning that project. We’ve since been retained to look at and work on many of their buildings in their vast complex.
We have yet to make a real profit over the entire year, this year might be our first year of reaching that goal. In my eyes, it is still early to think that we might actually profit. My main goal at this point is to achieve what we have already. Create and maintain consistent long-standing relationships built on trust and quality work. To date, we have that with more than a few properties and managers.
It has been a bumpy road. The more success we have, the more the relationship between myself and my business partner has become stressed. Which seems ironic, but is true. We still get along well, but it seemed to be easier and more amicable when we were struggling and losing more money early on. I wonder if that’s the case in anybody else’s situation like ours. Either way, we’re still thriving and I hope to achieve even more this next spring. We have possible work at that same property we had our big break at. We have many interested clients that seem to want us to keep coming back. I’m very pleased with where we’re at, not out of the woods, but heading in the right direction for once.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The most recent “larger” struggle would have been the non-payment of a larger dollar amount project that we finished before April of this year. We were counting on that revenue to help us with cash flow for the beginning (if not rest) of this season. When that happened, it put us in critical thinking mode for how to accomplish the rest of our projects. We were able to somehow string along enough small projects and their prompt payments to get to our biggest profitable project in the summer.
That was a disagreement between my business partner and myself, to even attempt to do this larger summer project. He was worried that if they paid late, coupled with the larger amount of revenue needed to get the project started, we could be facing a critical point in our finances. I was worried as well, he made great points. I considered our long history with this specific building, it was our first client in the city and they’ve kept us coming back every year since. I thought it would worth the risk to get the project started.
The owner of the building called me himself to ensure we would be bidding it. So I ended up winning that disagreement and it turned into our most profitable project for the year. It may be the only reason we’ll end up with extra money at the end of this year. Considering of course that we weren’t paid a cent to date for that first project.
Please tell us about Concrete Restoration Solutions.
We are a concrete restoration company. Our niche includes most everything to do with concrete restoration. Which includes but isn’t limited to:
Saw cutting and patching concrete. (i.e. Parking Garages, Sidewalks, Columns, Warehouse Floors, etc.)
Pouring new concrete
Tuckpointing
Waterproof Membranes
Sealers
Caulking
Pressure Washing
Concrete Stamping
What sets us apart in my head, is our approach to our clients. We see them as an opportunity to form a long relationship in lieu of a dollar sign, and treat them as such. It’s rare that we talk about money while we discuss their concerns.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t know what I would do differently if I had the chance. I try my best to do the “right” thing as much as possible. Hindsight being 20/20, it would be easy to say that we would like to skip the project that decided not to pay us a large sum of money and is now in litigation. That made our year this year very difficult regarding cash flow.
Their reasoning to not pay us was very hard to accept. They had very legitimate concerns to discuss with their dissatisfaction with the final product they received. It didn’t warrant non-payment of anything. Still, I would have handled everything the exact same way if put in that place again. Without knowing it would have led to them not paying anything, I would have performed the same work and the like.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18646 Dixie Highway
Homewood, IL. 60430 - Website: CRSrestoration.com
- Phone: 312-685-2770
- Email: Nick@CRSrestoration.com
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