Business View Magazine | July 2022

53 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 “My dad was originally a framer – he was framing houses and he was tired of trying to work in the snow all winter long, which in Canada seems to be nine months of the year,” Jonathan recalls. “In Calgary, we had heard some ads that Vegas was booming and looking for qualified tradesmen. At that point in time, it was the fastest growing city in the United States. So, he loaded up a weeks worth of clothes and came down to see if he could find work, and sure enough he found it. Then he drove back, loaded us all in the car, and we moved from Calgary to Las Vegas.” Jonathan’s father framed for a few years and eventually landed a job with a company called Titan Stairs, installing handrails. “From the time I was 10 years old on, I’ve been exposed to the stair industry,” Jonathan says. “My brothers and I would be out on weekends and evenings helping my dad do stairs.” It became a true family affair, with four out of five brothers, Jonathan’s mother, and his father all working at Titan. Jonathan learned a lot during that time and, together with one of his brothers, decided to take that knowledge one step further and open their own company. The family still works together today, with four of Jonathan’s brothers and his mother all employed at JD Stairs. Though it began as a builder of wood stairs and rails, JD Stairs has progressed significantly since its inception. “A major evolution of the company came when we decided we were going to learn how to weld,” Jonathan says. “Shortly after we started our own gig, there were lots of people calling and asking us to do welding. We had never welded before, but it seemed like a lot of handrails were going in that direction, so in true entrepreneurship format, we accepted a welding job even though we had no idea what we were doing.” They went out and bought welding equipment and learned the skill through trial and error. “We put a lot of time and effort into figuring out how to do it, and from that point on, welding has been a huge part of our business,” JD STA I RS