228: From Teacher to Contractor to Manufacturer of Innovative Outdoor Living Products… Scott Selzer of StruXure

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Background on Scott Selzer of StruXure:

Scott Selzer is the Founder and CEO of StruXure Outdoor, Inc. formerly Arcadia Building Products. As a school teacher with a part-time remodeling company, Scott specialized in building decks and pergolas, refinishing basements and tackling other home improvements projects for his clients. When his students encouraged him to follow his dream to become a full-time entrepreneur, Scott started Adjustable Patio Covers, a company focused on improving outdoor spaces.

Scott’s Company was one of the first to bring an adjustable louvered system to the East Coast. As its popularity grew, Scott quickly found ways to re-design, innovate and patent a higher quality version that he sold to his local customers. And that was just the beginning.

Engineered and designed to withstand all types of weather conditions, the StruXure Pivot was the new company’s first offering in 2011. Since then, StruXure has become one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. This growth led them to move into a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters in Dahlonega, GA, which is located just north of Atlanta, GA. In the summer of 2017, StruXure opened a much larger West Coast manufacturing facility located outside of Las Vegas, NV. With Arcadia dealers from Canada to the Caribbean, they are poised and ready to lead the way to more innovative outdoor living across North America.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • [1:41] Scott explains what StruXure is all about.
  • [2:36] This year, StruXure is expected to do about $50 million and they have been in the INC 5,000 for 7 years.
  • [4:53] StruXure brings in technology and automation to their products.
  • [7:11] Timber X is another innovative product that they are launching soon.
  • [10:24] Scott shares his childhood life, his family, and where he grew up.
  • [16:51] In 2001, Scott and his wife became a teacher and they moved to Atlanta.
  • [21:39] While he was still teaching sixth graders, Scott started a construction company.
  • [23:20] In 2008, Scott decided to quit his teaching job and focus on his construction business.
  • [24:33] One of his clients gave him the idea of louvered pergolas. This was the light-bulb moment for Scott.
  • [29:30] Having that engineering mindset, he joined with other engineers and designers and started Arcadia, which eventually became StruXure.
  • [33:11] When he was just starting his adjustable patio system, they didn’t have enough money and he took the risk of taking their life savings and putting it into the business.
  • [34:07] By taking half down payment or deposit, this type of model worked effectively for Scott and their cash flow.
  • [40:32] Getting a full utility patent was a game-changer for Scott and his company.
  • [41:53] Scott talks about his transition into manufacturing.
  • [48:31] For the first 4 or 5 years of Arcadia, Scott was just breaking even or a little under in revenue.
  • [51:58] Through networking and meeting other people, Scott was able to gain more connections that took his business to the next level.
  • [53:07] Buying a very important machine for his business, Scott forgot that there was nobody who would run it. Episode 195 – Howard Gottlieb Interview, also has a similar and interesting story on how he was able to find somebody to run his machine or equipment.
  • [59:39] Scott talks about his personal life and the sacrifices he made throughout his entrepreneurial career.
  • [1:02:43] In 2017, they took an SBA loan, which Scott highly recommends to other small business owners.
  • [1:06:15] In the middle of 2017, they moved to Las Vegas and Scott hired his second most important leadership team, whom he called Attila.
  • [1:12:20] Scott believes that if you think this employee is not going to work out, you should fire him or her right now.
  • [1:15:09] There’s still a lot of potential growth in the residential space, according to Scott. He also talks about their opportunities in the commercial and industrial space.
  • [1:19:04] Last words of wisdom and another interesting story from Scott.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

  1. 📖📚 Favorite Books? Good to Great by Jim Collins, The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone, Think Big, Act Bigger by Jeffrey Hayzlett, The Great Game of Business by Bo Burlingham, Scaling Up by Verne Harnish, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
  2. 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Jura Coffee Machine
  3. 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Believing in myself and finding really good people to enjoy the ride with
  4. 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Supply chain, People, and Space

Key Point from the Interview:

  • “As I was starting to grow the manufacturing side of the company, I knew the only way for us to quickly grow was to fire myself from as many jobs as possible that I was not the best at, right? So, it’s about bringing better people than myself and firing myself, letting them go and getting out of their way. We’ve been able to do that, we have 160 people now and we’re rockin and rollin.”

Resources Mentioned:

 

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