Today we’d like to introduce you to Damian McCoy.
Hi Damian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My father, Jake McCoy, moved to Austin in the early 90’s after owning a cleaning business in Philadelphia, PA. He owned a number of cleaning and estate concierge companies in Austin over the years, including ‘Interior Detailing Service’ and ‘Jake McCoy Property Service’. Growing up, my siblings and I would work on some smaller scale / low stakes jobs once we hit our teenage years. Eventually, my dad started Austin Chandelier Service and has continued on with this line of work since the mid 2000’s
Since then, I have continued to work along side him while also having a typical day job. Once the pandemic hit and I was laid off of my other job, my dad and I entered into a partnership for Austin Chandelier Service. Over the past 5 years, I have taken over the bulk responsibilities of being a business owner while he readied himself for retirement.
While I still lean on him occasionally for advice, I have fully taken on the company and the complexities that come with being an entrepreneur.
Even before taking over the company, I was still being sent out into the field to do solo work, managing projects, completing full restorations on light fixtures, and much more. Nothing ever clicked with me before like chandelier work. I worked several other jobs on the side (restaurants, construction, etc) but I always gravitated back to working on lighting.
We dabbled in the LED world as well; doing work from installing new LED light bulbs / ceiling cans to full color spectrum light shows with logic boards. Unfortunately, most of that work was causing us to break even, but the knowledge we gained has helped us with restoration work, as well as designing chandeliers with better technology than just sticking an incandescent bulb in a socket.
Now that my father is fully retired, I have taken on 100% of the work and do everything in my power to perform the best that I can. He has instilled in me the morals and business practices that separate my business from a large chain that only cares about the bottom line. It’s cliché, but I put the most amount of effort into my work to produce the best results because I care about end result. I love seeing destitute lights come back to life, I love seeing the pleased faces of clients when they see the attention to detail we put into our work. As a people pleaser, I feel like I truly have a specialty that I can use to bring joy to people.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Like for most people, the pandemic was very hard on us. Money was tight for many, and as a luxury service, most could not justify spending money on professional chandelier services.
Finding replacement pieces/parts is another struggle. A lot of restoration work is trying to replace parts that were made in the late 1800’s / early 1900’s. With most things being made as cheap as possible these days, it’s hard to find quality parts that I can comfortably use in repairs and restorations. We regularly see glass pieces that are low quality, seals and gaskets that fall apart right out the packaging, decorative chain that can only hold a small amount of weight, and wire that isn’t easy to work with.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We specialize in all things chandelier, with a strong focus on restoration work. We have seen so many chandeliers come from ‘grandma’s attic’, homes that were hit with natural disasters like floods, homes that had a small scale fire that covered the chandelier in soot – we’ve seen it all. We have a great number of vendors that we trust to give us quality parts and pieces to ensure that our restorations are as accurate and high quality as possible.
There were so many manufacturers of high quality chandeliers that we need to have a great knowledge on how they each approached making lights. Some cared more about the quality of the crystal, while others made intricate frames out of either glass or metal. I love working on a chandelier and seeing the small details some parts have since most were hand made originally. I love getting to see the details that you can only appreciate if you’ve seen hundreds (if not thousands) of chandeliers of varying quality.
On the topic of appraisals – Some chandeliers are just not worth much monetarily, and we often have to be the bearer of bad news when we do appraisals. Someone may ask us to appraise a chandelier that “has been in our family line since the 1700’s” only for us to tell them it came from a department store in the 1980’s.
On the other side of the coin, we often see chandeliers that the owner has no idea what it is worth. We offer a service for $20 called “Trash or Treasure” where if you submit a photo, we tell you if the chandelier is worth more or less than a certain dollar amount. We have received countless requests from someone sitting at a garage sale or an estate sale asking if a chandelier they have their eye on is worth the hassle. More often than not, we’ve seen people purchase chandeliers for pennies on the dollar, have us restore it, and then sell it for a profit.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice to anyone starting out is simply these points:
1) Get your ducks in a row when it comes to the books. Know your tax laws, know what your overhead is, know how much you want to come home with in your pocket. This helps when it comes to keeping the lights on.
2) Be confident in your product/service. Have the confidence to say you and your products are superior if you truly believe they are.
3) Learn from your mistakes, don’t be put down by them. You are going to make mistakes, but you NEED to reflect upon them and always look on the bright side of a bad situation. Never be content, always keep growing, even if it’s just as a business owner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.austinchandelierservice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austin_chandelier_service/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556152264759
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AustinChandelierService
Image Credits
Jake McCoy
