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Sebastien Desmarais: Hollywood Woodwork

“We're an architectural woodwork company, founded in 1968 by my grandfather at the time we were a small two-person shop and we started doing different things, and we grew up and eventually we focused on commercial architectural woodworking, and by 1999 we've grown to maybe a 20-million a year company.

And we started heading down a path of employee ownership. So, we're an ESOP, we're partially employee-owned, and since then, just been growing the business and now we're diversified a little bit. We do woodworking, we do metalwork, and we're also into residential as well.”

 - Sebastien Desmarais

Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Sebastien Desmarais from Hollywood Woodwork.

Sebastien's grandfather established Hollywood Woodwork in 1968, specializing in architectural woodwork. At the time, they had a small, two-person staff. By 1999, they had developed into a 20 million-dollar firm as a result of their focus on commercial architectural woodworking. The business then began to move in the direction of employee ownership. They are an ESOP member, which means they are partially employee-owned. Sebastien has been expanding the company and recently began to diversify. They work with metal, wood, and even residential clients.

In this episode, Sebastien shares where most of their assignments come from, who their biggest client is, and how he keeps in touch and maintains a good relationship with them long after the project has concluded.

Keeping up excellent client relations after the project is finished can be difficult. Nonetheless, Sebastien said it's as easy as picking up the phone when people call, completing the task, and handling the issues.

"The individual who dives deeply into problems and seeks out solutions."

That, in his opinion, is what keeps their customers coming back.

Listen now and get the whole story!

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