It's been a great year here at Contractor Nation!

For those of you who don’t know, my business is called Contractor Nation, and it is composed of 2300 employees and many business entities in 35 states.

We have had a great year here.  It was a year of growth and stability.  We built another building on our campus and acquired another one. 

We started a new business – M. C. Fence Company, as a franchisor.

All our businesses grew – all 36 of them.  

But what I am most proud of is the rock-solid foundation we are on.  We have employees who are experienced, engaged, and happy.  A high percentage of them stay year after year.  We have a great culture and there are a lot of smiling faces around here.  People comment on it when they come into our buildings.

I recently took the Ferry boat across Long Island Sound on a Friday night to our company there – Healthy Basement Systems, for their Christmas Party.  It is led by Marc Tannenbaum, who worked in our office, heading up our Dr. Energy Saver division for years.

I saw the same thing there – great culture and happy turned-on people.

Marc was calling people up and giving awards.  The last one was for the woman who had been there the longest – Denise, who is the office manager.  Denise came up and told a little story.  She said one day long ago, she was in Connecticut and was talking to my right-hand man here – Mark Daconto.  They were heading out to lunch, and I jumped in and joined them.  During lunch, in the conversation, I apparently said that I was all in and here for the long run.  She said, “That was over twenty years ago, and he’s still here.”

I hoped nobody could see it, but I welled up a little.  That’s right.  I’m still here.  I’m the no-quit guy.  I am honored to not only be the leader of my team, but the steward of it.  I will see that nothing bad happens to our team.  I will see to it that all parties win.

Thank you for the story Denise!  And YOU are still here too!  Love ya!

The best is yet to come!