Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Wagar.
Hi Amanda, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My husband moved from California in 2014 to be closer to his family. He got into the stonework at that time working for another company. I am a Florida native and met James in 2017 at a recovery meeting and married in 2019. We started really getting serious about our own stone company in 2020 and my goal was to do one job per month under Stone Expressions, LLC while he was still working with this other employer.
Fast forward to March 2020, Covid hit and our business exploded. Everyone was working from home and had extra stimulus money and were investing in their homes. I was working as a Parent Partner for Healthy Start at the time and left my job there in September 2020 to work full time with my husband: Managing the company and installing stone as well. My goal of 12 jobs in 2020 was quickly passed in the first couple of months and we completed over 40 jobs.
Our business has been very successful. My husband taught me everything he knows about stone installation and I continue to run the backend side of the business as well. We decided to hire a part-time employee in late 2021 to make our business more efficient.
We continue working as a small business working on residential homes and local builders in Volusia, Flagler, Seminole, Orange, and Brevard counties.
I started out by marketing our business on Facebook and posting before and after pictures of every job we did and then sharing them on the local group pages I was a part of. We got a positive response from this approach. From there, we received a lot of referrals from satisfied customers who told their friends, family, and neighbors about our work. We provide free estimates and quality work.
I think having a woman and mother as part of the team sets us apart from other companies because I pay close attention to details and treat every home like it was my own. If I wouldn’t be happy with it in my house, I wouldn’t put it on someone else’s. We are managing well with where our business currently operates but are definitely looking to expand in the future.
We have 3 wonderful kids who get really excited when seeing our work and everything we do is to provide them with a better life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Covid was a big struggle in our journey. The delays on material went from a week or 2 to several months.
I found it very difficult to book jobs out months in advance or found that people just didn’t want to wait that long to have the project completed. We looked around and found other suppliers in the area with quality stones that were maintaining shorter lead times in spite of the pandemic.
The decision to switch the majority of our orders from a company that we had been dedicated to for years to another was extremely difficult but I know it ended up saving our business.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We specialize in the installation of stone veneer, natural stone, thin brick, and precast. We install mostly on residential homes and we’ve done some business locations as well. We work with individual homeowners and local builders as well.
We mostly do exterior work on homes but do a lot of fireplaces, summer kitchens, and accent walls as well. Our attention to detail really sets us apart from other companies.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We love when our happy customers refer us to their friends, family, and neighbors. Sharing our posts on Facebook is very helpful as well. We have a lot of other companies who we refer, who refer us as well such as landscapers, stucco, painters, realtors, etc. We all support each other.
Contact Info:
- Email: Jamesstoneexpressionsllc@gmail.com
- Facebook: Stone Expressions, LLC
- Instagram: @stoneexpressionsllc
Image Credits
James Wagar, Amanda Wagar, Ethan Wagar, Anna Wagar, and Reagan Wagar
