In early 1992, after listening to a weatherman say that there were possible light showers in the late afternoon north and 75 miles away, Ralston poured four driveways in a subdivision only to get hammered by driving rains shortly after 10:30 A.M. "We shortly thereafter became experts in polymer overlays." Ralston says with a grin, "and even pulled in a bit of profit on the job."
When you're working with as fickle a medium as concrete, you always have to prepare for the unexpected, he says, especially when you consider the variables of inaccurate concrete batches, admixtures, acid stains that don't promote a good color, or concrete color batches from a ready mix plant that vary from one batch to the next. So how does a contractor minimize these issues?
Take notes while on the job, he says, so that when problems arise there's a database of information that can be referenced. He is a strong advocate of keeping an eye on details, holding weekly meetings with his lead employees.
He also sends his lead workers to outside seminars as often as possible. Ralston himself has been teaching at decorative concrete training seminars for nearly 10 years. He speaks at industry conferences for the Decorative Concrete Council (and serves on the board) and spoke this year at the World of Concrete on concrete countertops and acid staining. He has recently teamed up with countertop manufacturer Buddy Rhodes of San Francisco to do training seminars for concrete countertops.
Managing 52 employees in various divisions provides a unique challenge, he says. To have a successful team, you must have people who can bring both talent and work ethic to the job. "Without work ethic, they aren't going to bring the project to the level we expect," he says. "Without talent or experience, they can't pull it off because .they aren't at that level yet."
Over the last fifteen years, he has seen lots of turnover because employees just didn't fit into the company culture. "They either didn't have the work ethic, talent, or the temperament, so they didn't last here. We try to promote our culture as being cooperative and respectful, but we drive hard too. It's the nature of the beast, and concrete doesn't wait for anyone."
Positive values, friendly service and quality work are the cornerstones of the company.
"It is so easy to make an ordinary job extraordinary," Ralston says. "Just add some decorative deep joints or round a step ... there are hundreds of things you can do for little or no extra cost and clients will love you for it."
But operating a decorative concrete company and trying to be on the cutting edge is tricky, he says. "Our ultimate goal is to put a smile on our clients' face, but we have had to learn the hard way that the flip side of this goal is to be profitable at the same time. So many decorative projects can easily run over budget. There are a lot of starving artists out there - and we really don't want to be one of them."
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