Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Babb.
Drew, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
After graduating from UTD with a marketing and communications degree in 2012 I got with a friend, Jon, to rebuild a motorcycle. Jon graduated from ATI in 2007 and began working on cars and motorcycles in a storage unit, Unit F14. The motorcycle was disassembled in that storage unit and we built an oven in Jon’s garage for powder coating. From there, we quickly fell in love with powder coating and found that our skills, experience, and opportunity lined up to start a business. We’ve been in business for five years, we’ve had a storefront for 1 1/2 years, and just signed a lease for a larger building nearby.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
At the end of our second year, we had a complaint about our sandblasting operation. We decided it was time to find a new location and signed a lease for a building in Carrollton. We ran into issues with utilities, fire code, and capital and had to negotiate our way out of the lease. We lost money and shut down operations for almost six months until we decided to invest in a sandblasting cabinet and continue bootstrapping. We continued until we found our current shop space which has allowed us to have a professional setting and space for working on vehicles.
Please tell us about Unit F14 Powder Coating.
We found our niche to be custom colors, small batches, and automotive finishes – particularly wheels and brake calipers. Jon’s background gave us a niche that made us stand out and I built a website and online presence that has resulted in a lot of traffic. These factors combined with our customer-first approach have contributed to our success.
We’ve worked on $100,000+ sports cars, worked with celebrities and sports figures, we’ve been featured in industry magazines, our work has been on T.V., we’ve customized ride-share bikes for a local university, but the greatest accomplishment was powder coating a sign for the University of Texas at Dallas – and getting paid by the very school I attended.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
We would not have tried to grow bigger than we could afford on the books just because we wanted to continue our momentum. When we signed the lease we were driven by passion, not our brains. We did not account for unexpected expenses. We were inexperienced in understanding what the city would require of our industry, underestimated set up costs, and were unprepared to be flexible.
Pricing:
- Wheel Powder Coating Service $500-600 with vehicle drop off, depending on size and color
- Brake Caliper Powder Coating Service $1000-1200 with vehicle drop off
- Wheels and brake calipers starting at $75 each
Contact Info:
- Address: 601 J Pl
Suite 200
Plano, Tx 75074 - Phone: 9728090768
- Email: drew@unitf14.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unitf14/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theunit14
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/unit-f14-powder-coating-plano-3
- Other: www.unitf14.com
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