Part One of a 20-Year Story
In February 2005, I started Factory Direct Patio Covers with approximately $200 and a prayer.
That’s a simple sentence, but February 2005 was anything but a simple month.
The company began during one of the most difficult periods of my life. For roughly two years, I had been helping care for my sister after she suffered a devastating stroke. Her recovery required relearning things most of us take for granted, including how to speak. At the same time, I was trying to work and help keep her family together.
Eventually, circumstances within her household resulted in her children being removed from the home. They ended up at Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange, California.
That changed everything.
“What Do You Know How to Do?”
Financially, I wasn’t in much of a position to rescue anybody.
I had moved into a friend’s house and rented a room, helping with chores around the property to offset some of my living expenses. I had also tried working in the home-loan business.
It wasn’t for me.
I was uncomfortable with some of the sales and documentation practices I encountered during that period, and I wasn’t willing to participate in things simply because other people considered them normal business.
One day my friend asked me a question:
“What do you know how to do?”
I thought about it.
Patio covers.
I knew patio covers.
I had worked in the industry for years and sold for other companies. I understood the products, installation and sales process. More importantly, I had seen enough to know there was a better way to sell them.
I had watched essentially comparable patio-cover projects be presented to homeowners at dramatically different prices. I had worked appointments where I might drive a hundred miles, present an estimate and then be expected to create enough urgency to close the sale before leaving the house.
“If you buy today, I may be able to reduce the price.”
That approach never sat comfortably with me.
If I could sell something for a fair price today, why couldn’t I offer the same fair price tomorrow?
That simple question would eventually become part of the philosophy behind Factory Direct Patio Covers.
A Suzuki, a Radio and a Little Peace
During the years I was caring for my sister, I drove a Suzuki Vitara SUV that I had purchased through Ugly Duckling because my credit wasn’t very good. I remember making payments of approximately $300 a week.
The Suzuki wasn’t much to look at, but it ran. It got me where I needed to go.
Sometimes it also gave me a quiet place to sit.
I would listen to Christian radio—107.9, as I remember it—and during that difficult period I found considerable comfort there. Sometimes what I heard seemed remarkably close to what I happened to be experiencing in my own life.
Then a neighbor invited me to Calvary.
In February 2005, I began attending church in person. That neighbor eventually moved away, and I never saw him again. I’ve occasionally wondered about the timing of that encounter.
I don’t need to make more of it than what happened.
But the timing has always stayed with me.
Three Things Happened at Once
February 2005 became a dividing line in my life.
I started Factory Direct Patio Covers.
I took responsibility for my sister’s children and began creating a stable home for them.
And I started attending church.
Family, faith and business arrived at the same intersection.
I rented a home in Aliso Viejo and did what I could to give the children stability—clean bedrooms, new beds and a place they could call home.
Meanwhile, I had to make a company work.
There wasn’t an office full of employees. There wasn’t a large investment behind me. I answered the telephone, scheduled appointments, met customers and handled the responsibilities of running the business while taking care of children at home.
Interestingly, more than 20 years later, some days don’t look all that different.
The Internet Changed Everything
Early in the company’s life, I created an online presence around Alumawood Factory Direct Patio Covers.
But I didn’t want the website to be nothing more than an advertisement saying, “Call me for a patio cover.”
I started writing.
I wrote about patio-cover products, materials and construction. I wrote about things homeowners should know before buying. I discussed differences between products and explained practices I had encountered during my years in the industry.
Something unexpected happened.
People outside my Southern California service area started finding the information.
A homeowner hundreds or thousands of miles away could read something I had written and become a more informed consumer—even though there was virtually no possibility I would ever sell that person a patio cover.
That didn’t bother me.
If somebody was going to spend thousands of dollars on a structure attached to their home, I thought they deserved enough information to ask intelligent questions before buying it.
That philosophy became increasingly important to the company.
When Information Becomes Competition
There was another side to putting that much information online.
Consumers weren’t the only people reading it.
Manufacturers, dealers, salespeople and competitors could read it too.
Over time, I discovered that explaining an industry from the inside doesn’t always make everyone inside that industry comfortable.
I experienced criticism and resistance. There were disagreements about products, sales practices, pricing and what consumers should—or shouldn’t—be told.
But I continued writing.
I wasn’t trying to tell homeowners who they had to buy from.
I wanted them to understand what they were buying.
There is an important difference.
Twenty Years Later
I couldn’t have known in February 2005 what the next two decades would bring.
Manufacturers would change. Companies would be bought and sold. Competitors would come and go. The Internet would completely transform how homeowners researched contractors and products.
Eventually, an industry acquisition would place a supplier my company had depended upon under ownership associated with a competing product organization.
For a small independent company that had spent two decades educating consumers about this industry, that created an entirely new challenge.
And once again I found myself asking essentially the same question my friend had asked me in 2005:
What do you know how to do?
I know patio covers.
I know the products.
I know the industry.
And after more than 20 years, I still believe the consumer deserves the truth about what they’re buying.
The company that started with $200 and a prayer survived its beginning.
The next part of this story is about what happened when, 20 years later, it had to learn how to survive again.
— Troy Eckstein Founder & President Factory Direct Patio Covers Inc. Established February 2005
Next: Part Two — When the Industry Changed Around Us