Chris Becker: Elevating Architectural Concrete

Chris Becker, owner of Becker Architectural Concrete in St. Paul, Minn., says he once vowed never to be a contractor. Someone's surely getting the last laugh, as Becker is now both immersed and ensconced in the world of decorative concrete on a daily basis.

"My first experience in the concrete industry was performing concrete restoration work in high school and college," he explains. "At that time, it was just a way to help pay for school, and move towards a career far away from troweling repair mortars."

A degree from the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism held the promise of a career far from concrete, however, an unknown force would bring him back. "The economy was sluggish at that time [the late 80s], so I took a job in sales with Cemstone, a ready mix company in Minn.," Becker explains. After five years there, Becker was their director of marketing.

"I got to know companies on the forefront of decorative concrete in the area, and eventually I went to work for a local Bomanite franchise as their vice president of sales and marketing," Becker says of his next move. "That job evolved into selling and installing and managing crews, and I found myself performing work on a lot of the jobs I was selling, however this work was the discovery of a passion I had no awareness of. Without realizing it, I was full of ideas of the possibility of what could be created with concrete."

That accumulation is what Becker says led to his wanting to pursue his own business, which he started in the fall of 2002. "We've experienced a lot of growth since then," he notes. "I had two employees in the beginning and a small office, and now I have 16 employees and a 4,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse facility."

This large investment in a state-of-the art facility and diverse staff has allowed Becker to change some of the norms of how business is done. He adds, "We almost always require that our prospective clients first visit our showroom, prior to us going on site to develop an estimate. This allows us to be more focused on the really interested clients, and spend less time chasing people looking for free ideas and bids. Once the prospective client comes to our facility, they are toured through the various full-scale displays, and guided through the firm's digital library of projects, which helps clients appreciate the level of detail and complexity that some applications involve."

From this stage a bid and preliminary design are created...and if all goes well another project is in the works. Becker says he then assigns a foreman and an internal coordinator to see the entire project through from start to finish. This ensures that clients are offered a well-rounded source of resources throughout the duration of their project.

Becker is also quick to point out that he would be nowhere without his team."I surround myself with good people," he comments. "We have a dynamic group of employees, all of whom have distinct roles in the company. I have an interior designer on staff, as well as a graphic designer, and two foremen capable of CAD, design and one-on-one work with clients." Becker adds that developing this formula, and finding these highly-skilled and motivated people has been an ongoing task since day one.

"But by far the biggest change for me has been the transformation from artisan to business person, and I focus most of my time on operations now," he notes, because, he says, "Every day my company is bigger than the day before."

Becker adds that another key factor in his continued success is his "unofficial advisory board" comprised of people that take an interest in the financial well-being of his company, one of whom is the firm's banker, who reviews the financial performance of the company and helps develop strategies to facilitate the firm's ongoing growth and profit goals.

"The industry is just now realizing this—how to actually make money at this—and this is what I spend most of my time on," Becker says. "It's an ongoing process and I'm interested in learning more."

"I'm always fine-tuning things, because it's great to have a plan, but it's better to also have a plan B, C, and D," he adds. "I also spend a little bit of time each day looking at one, two and three months out to help set up for events down the road."

Becker says he's also involved in networking, and he recently joined an Alternative Board, a group of business owners (from all different kinds of businesses) who gather to discuss business issues. "I see value in talking to other industries—I see it as a starting point to develop something similar within our industry. My goal is to develop an executive board of architectural concrete contractors (in non-competing marketplaces) and get into the nitty-gritty of our businesses," explains Becker.

As for the future, Becker says he sees the value in choosing early on what the firm's niche would be. "As more and more people get into the decorative concrete business, we find that instead of more competition, there are more opportunities," Becker observes, adding that "several of our good customers are actually concrete contractors themselves, who would rather focus on what they do best, and hire us for the more detailed, complicated specialty projects."

The result of this focus has come through an impressive list of industry awards, including Best Bathroom Countertop, presented by Fu-Tung Cheng at the 2006 World of Concrete in Las Vegas. Becker notes that these awards reinforce a strong sense of pride his employees take in their company.

And from this Becker aspires to change the public's regard for the concrete professional. "We make a concerted effort to bring the reputation of our industry up to that of other professions," he concludes. "It's my passion to elevate the regard and stature of concrete contractors, because we are designers that work with concrete."

http://www.beckerconcrete.com

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