Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Armstrong.
Seth, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up as a son of an electrician, and the grandson of an electrician. So I guess you could say the odds were in my favor to be an electrician. But to me that didn’t excite me. I did however follow them in something else both my father and grandfather did. They both built their own houses. I have always loved designing and building. From redesigning the layout of a busted up house, to reconfiguring the layout of a kitchen, or designing a whole house. I grew up being very creative. When I was in high school I almost took every art class that was available. So for me building, and designing feeds that creative part in my soul. I got my start in the trades early, when I was 16 I started working for my cousin who owned a concrete company. But I fell in love with construction when I was 20 when I apprenticed under a master carpenter. Now I am 41 and I feel like I can build anything out of wood. I tell my customers, show me a picture of what you want it to look like and we can make it happen. But I definitely didn’t get there over night. I realize there is a few ways to learn things. One way is by making mistakes, and as my wife likes to say, we are just paying for our education. Another way to learn is by watching the mistakes others make and learning from them. This is much less painful. I started Armstrong Quality Construction ten years ago, and over the course of ten years, we have learned a lot of lessons. I think it’s important to anyone to not be afraid of making mistakes. I personally believe that wisdom comes from a marriage of knowledge and understanding. There’s a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge, but there’s not a lot of people with wisdom. Unfortunately understanding comes from making mistakes and learning from them and trying again. So don’t be afraid of making mistakes, it’s a beautiful thing about life. I think a lot of people don’t try, because they are afraid they will fail. But that’s all just a part of life. We get stronger, wiser, and better as we mature through making mistakes. You find anyone who is successful and ask them about their mistakes, and they will give you a blue print of how they got to where they are today. Obviously the more risk the higher the reward, but even if you loose everything, you can still gain it all back. Life is a crazy journey, and you can have high highs and low lows. But I love the old proverb. The bitter makes the sweet that much sweeter. All the failures and mistakes we make, make the wins that much sweeter. So if I could give you one piece of advice don’t be afraid of making mistakes, or trying new things. Find what feeds your soul and be passionate about what you do.
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?
Smooth, no it has not really been smooth. I have been in business for 10 years now, and I am constantly overcoming new obstacles. I would say at times it is smooth, but mostly it is an uphill climb.
One of the mistakes I made was not valuing my time. When I started out I would figure in materials, and labor and I didn’t want to charge people too much. So I would undercut myself and I would do some jobs for free. And sometimes I would loose money on a job. You definitely need to understand your own value. If you are going to build a deck for yourself you usually don’t figure your time will cost you anything. But as a business owner you realize that your time is very valuable. Time is something in life you can’t buy more of. You have a limited amount of time on this earth, so you better use it wisely and not undervalue it. No one starts a business and says I hope this business doesn’t make money. Everyone goes into business to try to have a means to provide for them selves and their family. As a business grows you have many families you are providing for. But a business can’t grow if you can’t provide for your self first.
Another lesson I learned is to be careful when it comes to doing jobs for friends. People are always looking for a bargain, but you can’t undercut yourself to give your friends a deal. That’s like them asking you to give them $500 because you’re friends. A few years ago I did a job for someone I considered a friend. When you are working for a friend you can tend to be more relaxed on your normal processes. Like drawing up a contract, and making change orders. With this job we were doing a cost plus remodel. Which means you are invoicing for the cost of labor plus materials. On this job we got to about 90% completion, and my friend came to me and said he wasn’t going to pay me another cent. At this point I had just invoiced him for two weeks of work with myself and a few guys, plus the cost of materials. He also expected me to finish the rest of the work at my expense, because we were friends. Things really escalated quickly. One day we are hanging out after work watching the sun set and enjoying each other’s company. The next day he wants to sue me to finish his house. Anytime you do work for a friend their is a lot more emotions involved. There is also an unspoken expectation. They expect you to bend over backwards to help them, and you expect them to not screw you over. It’s not like you work at a burger joint and can hook your friends up with free food.
Looking back in hindsight I realized I could have communicated with him better. I should have made sure his budget was within what he was wanting us to do. I made the mistake of assuming. As a business owner you are not a mind reader. And it is very dangerous to assume. Talk to your customers up front about their budget and make sure you get everything in writing before you start. When this happened I was in a very bad situation. I have a wife and kids to provide for, plus the guys working for me I needed to pay. Jobs like this make you question your decision to be in business and your faith in humanity.
Ultimately you as the business owner you will have to pay for the decisions you make. One of the most important things is to not allow a root of bitterness to start growing in your heart. People can be selfish and lash out at you to try to protect themselves. So ultimately you have to be able to forgive people, no matter how badly they hurt you. You also need to be able to forgive yourself. No one is perfect, if you can’t forgive, then a root of bitterness can cause you to hold onto hate and resentment and it will slowly start to ruin every relationship in your life. I truly believe that bitterness can become a cancer that kills you from within. So let it go. Holding onto it will not help you, but it will hurt you.
It was my failure to make sure we were on the same page, that’s what got us into this debacle. You never know how someone is going to react. What seems like not a big deal to you can be a catastrophe for someone else. Make sure you draw boundaries with your customers to protect both parties. Ultimately a business can only survive if the relationship between customer and business is beneficial to both parties. I believe that if you take care of your customers the will take care of you, but you still need to safeguard yourself.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What I do is create. I create spaces that are designed to make life more beautiful and functional. Over the last 20 years of my life I have done a lot of Remodeling. The thing I like about remodeling is you get to take something that is broken and ugly, and fix it and make it beautiful again. If you can make someone’s house go from crack house to pent house, it gives them hope. I love to bring hope and life into peoples lives by the work we can do. Seeing the excitement on my customers faces when they see a project taking shape right before their eyes, fills me with joy. When you are able to wow your customers that’s what I really enjoy.
I love to design the projects that we do. Whether it’s redesigning a kitchen or bathroom layout, or designing a custom home. I love the ability to design something and then build it. I am very lucky to be able to do both aspects of this building process. I guess that’s also what sets me apart from other builders. Most companies don’t have the person who designs the project doing the work also. But both jobs bring me so much satisfaction, I love doing both.
If I had to say what I was most proud of I would probably say, raising my children to learn how to be creative and helping me on projects. I have three beautiful children two boys and a girl and we are expecting our fourth child next year, a baby girl. Being a father is the thing I am most proud of. Being able to watch them grow brings me more joy than anything else on this planet.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I guess I would say my ability to sing. I have been told by many people that they were surprised to find out I can sing. I am a singer songwriter, and have been in bands most of my adult life. Music is just another outlet for me to be creative and express myself artistically. Music has always been a part of my life. Even now we play music everyday while we are on the job site, and I can sing all day long.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Aqctx.org
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/armstrongqualityconstruction/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@aqc.remodeling?si=vyrPZpfiyGPruWCM
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/P3HJnCQuVVMRMrgCAw
Image Credits
Seth Armstrong
Sebastian Armstrong
Juan Camilo Cadavid
