Signature Success

Michael O'Connor was convinced a simmering dispute with a partner would destroy his kitchen and bathroom remodeling business.

Sales in the second half of 2009, at the height of the clash, dwindled to $300,000 — an all-time low. The customer base began to evaporate. Says O'Connor: “The company was almost left for dead.”

The gist of the disagreement, says O'Connor, was he wanted to grow, hire and expand during the recession, while his business partner was more cautious. The ultimate result was by fall 2010 O'Connor had bought out his partner. He and his wife, Nichole O'Connor, took full ownership of the business, Sarasota-based My Signature Living. “We started to rebuild the company,” says O'Connor.

That rebuilding process has had remarkable success. The company had $1.4 million in sales in 2011, says O'Connor, and he projects at least $2.4 million in 2012. My Signature Living now has 23 employees, up from four in 2009. “Things really accelerated,” says Nichole O'Connor, who handles accounting and other financial duties. “We knew the plan we had to take, we just had to do it.”

The company is growing in other ways, too. It bought a three-employee granite business in Sarasota earlier this year, and it also recently signed a lease for a 15,540-square-foot office. The new space will be for sales and a corporate headquarters.

The O'Connors, moreover, have looked for more showrooms to grow past the current one, on U.S. 41 and Stickney Point, near Siesta Key. They are looking in downtown Sarasota and east Manatee County.

Michael O'Connor also says he'd like to begin a franchise program, where new owners invest capital to control a location, much like the proprietorship formula restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse uses. A My Signature Living proprietorship, says O'Connor, might start at around $100,000. The proprietor would then get a share in the profits of his or her location.

A Long Island, N.Y., native, O'Connor was in the cabinet business for 10 years before he got into bathroom and kitchen remodeling in 2005. He says the strategy behind My Signature Living is to provide a one-stop remodeling source for clients, where they get everything from design to installation to warranties. That means price usually isn't a competitive advantage.

“We're not always going to be the least expensive,” says O'Connor. “If you go into a Home Depot and buy all the stuff and do it yourself, you will save money.”

To combat higher prices O'Connor says the company takes the somewhat unusual step of making price guarantees, through a written contract, before a job. Many remodeling contractors avoid locking in prices, in case unexpected changes come up during the work.

“We are not a company of change orders,” says O'Connor. “We are a company that will think of everything we need to do up front.”

One challenge, says O'Connor, is educating clients about that difference. Another challenge is navigating the permitting process in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Most of the firm's projects take about four weeks. But O'Connor says a standard bathroom job could probably be done in two weeks, save for all the time it takes to get government approval.

O'Connor says two other challenges are to grow at the right pace and to not get overleveraged — two issues many contractors struggled with during the downturn.

“We want to have controlled growth as much as possible,” O'Connor says. “We want to be debt free every day. That has been a key to our success.”

Video: Amanda Heisey