Business View Magazine | April 2019

51 pensive and don’t hold pressure. I started out just making those, even though it wasn’t easy the first few years. The company I left thought I was crazy to go that route, but I loved every minute of it. In the morning I’d do my sales, and in the afternoon I’d get dirty making heads in the shop. “I was pretty much a one-man band with a part-time helper. That’s not the way I envi- sioned it when I started – I thought it would be a lot more glamorous. But with my dad’s experience in the business, he was very helpful scouting my first location and helping me get started. The first place I rented was only a 30 x 30 ft. space, which was not ideal, because I had to store all my steel outside, but it was all I could afford. I figured it would take three years to make a profit; it actually took about five. But I was able to hang in there. In the fourth year, we turned the corner and I was able to hire my first full-time person, Jay Adams. Jay and I worked together in the shop for a year or so, and then I hired another guy and finally got myself out of the shop. After that, I was able to do more travelling, see more clients, get more business, and Shamrock Steel really took off. “I had moved out of my first place into another rental and ended up renting more and more of that building, until I finally bought the prop- erty about three years ago. Today, we operate from that 40,000- sq.-ft. location in Birming- ham. It came with a large office that was much bigger than I needed, so I’m renting out that space and another part of the building, which OUTSOURCED LASER, PLASMA, AND WATERJET CUTTING CALL OR EMAIL FOR A QUOTE TODAY 205-322-2021 | info@dswcutting.com www.dswcutting.com We strive to provide the highest value, reliability, and flexibility by combining the newest technologies with speedy service