← Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Building a Third Generation Family Business Through Service and Innovation with Jake Stotter of Fenceworks 5-13-26
00:19:24
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- [00:00]
Grainger Announcer
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner offering the products you need all in one place from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:30]
Jake Stodder
Great companies aren't built on average talent. In private equity backed high growth businesses, the right operator changes everything. Onward headhunting partners with founders, operators and investors to build elite finance strategy and operations teams. From early hires to exit ready leadership, we deliver the talent that drives outcomes. If you are scaling or transacting, go onward visit onward headhunting.com or find us on LinkedIn to learn more.
- [00:57]
Scott Becker
This is Scott Becker with the Becker business in the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today we're thrilled to be visiting with a brilliant leader who's literally third generation of a really well known business in the Chicago area and probably nationally for all that I know. But but I know it for being a paragon of great service and excellence in the greater Chicago area. But we're talking today with Jake Stodder. Jake's at with fenceworks. He's one of the leaders there, literally third generation. We're always known and we see it on the billboards known as the guy on 41. Jake, take a moment and tell us about yourself and about the business.
- [01:39]
Jake Stodder
Yeah, absolutely Scott. Again, thank you for having me today. So Jake's daughter. Yes, third generation here, Fenceworks. We also go by the guy on 41. We used to be on Route 41 in Highland Park, Illinois for God knows at least five decades. Started the business in 1967 by my grandfather Stan Asher and been serving the Chicagoland area, predominantly the north shore suburbs and north part of northern neighborhoods of the city. Started off as strictly a fence company residentially and since the the mid-90s have expanded to basketball hoops, playgrounds and trampolines and full service. So from consultation to sale of the product and also providing the service for the installation all the way through to repairs and anything you need for the lifetime of the product. So yeah, been around for a long time and love what we do and
- [02:39]
Scott Becker
take a second, you're in an area where it seems like again people are staying in their houses for a long time, they're doing things to improve them. What are sort of the things that you're watching? What are the Big trends you're watching in the world and business that you folks are in.
- [02:54]
Jake Stodder
It's a great question. So I would say that consumers have become extremely good at sensing whether a company genuinely cares or whether they're just optimizing for transactions. Local trust truly matters. So I think when families are considering home improvement projects, whether it's the privacy and aesthetic and security and curb appeal with a fence or they have young children and looking to provide some fun in a safe environment for their kids, whether that's with a playground, basketball or trampoline. Now with the Internet and the great impact that has had to local businesses, we, you know, as a local family business really strive to separate ourselves compared to many of the private equity, equity backed companies or franchises and so forth and being that true local options that families can count on and not dealing with a call center. So we have found that families truly enjoy, you know, staying local and not working with, you know, more of the faceless options that may be through that Internet search. So really grateful for that.
- [03:58]
Scott Becker
So Jake, you guys have had this incredible reputation in the area. We used it a long time ago, your company on a fence project. This goes back probably a decade plus. But, but great work, great service, fantastic. Talk about where the growth is today. Where is the growth is fence is still a big part of the business, is it other stuff? How do you break it down into the things that you folks do and where are the growth exciting areas? So they're all, they're all exciting. But, but where is where, where does the business break down?
- [04:28]
Jake Stodder
Sure. You know, I would say fence has been steady but still growing since 1967. It's definitely been, been steady and I think now families, you know, with the access to social media and other forms of marketing. When we were on Route 41, you know, we were had a lot of traffic. Now we're in Northbrook in a bit of an industrial park. So relying on, you know, not just our accounts and referrals and reputation, but the other new means of advertising, especially with social media and Google, you know, that has not only stayed steady but growing as families. Once they find out a company is whether it's private equity backed or it's just some guy working out of his garage, not insured, having someone with the reputation we do has keeping us or keeping our business in the fence side, not only steady, but growing as family, more families locally find out about us. But I would say, you know, from a growth perspective, I'm really excited. I spearhead our playground basketball hoops and trampoline departments. And I will say, right, if you have young kids, there's a high probability that you'll want one of three or possibly all three during the lifespan, you know, or the childhood of their, their children. So families now being able to come into a showroom in Northbrook and you know, dealing with, you know, when you come in, you're not dealing with some random sales rep, you're dealing with myself here and having that personality behind it and, and not dealing with a call center. There's been a lot of growth with that and families are struggling with, you know, tons of research and online and with AI, you know, you can get really hung up on a deep rabbit hole of searching. So what our family does is we take that all out. So we do all the research and every year evaluate our suppliers to make sure we have the best in class for all three of our basketball hoops, playgrounds and trampolines in a wide range of budgets and features and different sizes so that no matter the size of your backyard your kids needs or space, you really have, you know, everything at your fingertips and let us do all that groundwork for you. So been a lot of growth. You know, products have evolved. There's from no maintenance vinyl playgrounds that require no maintenance or upkeep to, you know, in ground basketball hoops that are adjustable so even the youngest kids can start playing faster. And even trampolines have come a long way since, you know, when I was a kid, I'm 30 now. You know, trampolines have become much safer as well, but still providing that fun in the backyard. So a lot of growth and really excited for the future and bringing this not just for the last 60 years, but 60 more years ahead or more. So really excited for that.
- [06:59]
Scott Becker
Really amazing. And what is, you've studied business, you're doing a ton to help maintain the strength and grow the brand of the guy on 41 fenceworks. Remarkable. Talk a little bit about, I mean this must have been talked a lot about in your family over the years. There's a couple fantastic consumer oriented business yours, another one I think of regularly that have done this incredible job over generations of maintaining that quality, really taking care of customers. What is the, the. The. The strategy or the. Or the, or the to make it work over three generations of a family. It's so often that that happens to particularly in today's fast moving world. What are some of the, the concepts that you think about that have made this work so well over such a prolonged period of time?
- [07:46]
Jake Stodder
Sure, yeah, I would say showing up, right. And service. The end of the day, you are, your reputation carries. Right. And people talk, especially in the Chicagoland area. You know, we. We're not a national company. We focus on that Chicagoland area exclusively. So with that being said, you know, treating everyone like family, right? Everyone in our family business, whether it's my dad, my uncle, my grandfather, my grandmother, myself, you know, everyone in our family at some point has been through fenceworks, but that is now who is currently on staff here. But I would just say, you know, consistency and transparency and the ability to. To show up.
- [08:23]
Scott Becker
Right.
- [08:23]
Jake Stodder
A lot of companies out there, whether you're, you know, on the online space at least, you're dealing with call centers, you're dealing with just being a number in the system. So just consistently showing up, following up and living through the work that you're promising and knowing that we're not going anywhere, right. If you need something, you text me, you call me right down the street, right in your backyard. So at the end of the day, it just comes down to consistency and following through on what you're promising and families. That gets around, right. And that's what builds a reputation, I feel like, over the years, is consistent service, showing up and following through on
- [08:57]
Scott Becker
what you promise and showing up really is the start of all of it. What was the dinner table like in a family that's in the third generation of a business, a great business, was there a lot of family conversation about, we don't take it for granted, we work at it every day, you know, it. How did that, how did that go? And how did those values get instilled in the second generation, the third generation, to keep on doing remarkable work and remarkable service?
- [09:25]
Jake Stodder
Sure. So funny enough, now I'm 30, but once I, since I graduated from Miami University, Farmer School of Business, I. I wanted to not go into the family business right away. Right. So I started out actually in consulting in the digital product space, mobile apps, websites. And that really gave me a foundation of. From the digital side of things. And as a longstanding family business, I didn't want to come in here and, you know, change everything. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it is the saying that was constantly reminded to me. But ultimately, if it can be improved, right. There are certain expectations, you know, internally, operations wise, but also customer expectations, how quotes are delivered, communication style. You know, people aren't emailing as much. They prefer text. It's a bit more convenient. So ultimately, now this is my third year, third year in the family business, and ultimately Trying. There's a lot of low hanging fruit and things that can be, from a process perspective, improved just to keep up with the times and meet customer expectations. And again, being a family business, we don't want to lose our ethos or the narrative that, you know, we could implement AI and chatbots and all those things, but maybe make us more efficient. But ultimately we don't want to sacrifice the level of care and personality that brings. And that starts with when you call on, you're talking to me or my grandma or someone else in the family all the way to installation and knowing actually who's showing up to your house. It's not some random third party national installation service. So from start to finish, we want to provide that, that family value. But at the table, I think the hardest thing, especially in a family business is, you know, separating what the term is church and state, you know, so during the business hours of nine to five, it's my boss and then outside of nine to five, it's, it's my grandfather or my father or my uncle or my grandma. Right. So really it's important in a family business, especially in multi generations, to separate those lines and ensure that, you know, nothing bleeds out, you know, outside the confines of the office. But it's hard, especially in a family business. We love what we do, so I can't tell you that we're perfect or that not every dinner table conversation doesn't talk about business. It's, it's part of our lives. It doesn't feel like work. Even though my prior experience was in consulting on digital products, now I'm consulting families. And it feels very natural and organic for me because I got to grow up with all the products that we have. And now being able to help other families bring those memories to their yard or space is really special. So very natural for us.
- [11:56]
Scott Becker
Fantastic. And talk for a second about the digital strategy. The whole world has moved so much to digital. Plus, you're a very in person, reputation, place from the area. How do you inject the next level of technology? Digital marketing, digital touch, and how do you look at ROI in those things? Any thoughts or pieces of advice for people?
- [12:19]
Jake Stodder
Sure, yeah, I would say social media, you know, that's kind of especially Instagram in particular has been my favorite. I feel like there's a way to very organically reach a lot of people that are interested. And of course there's ads that you can target based on Persona or interests and age demographics and so forth to really, really ensure the right people are seeing your Your stuff. But my favorite stuff is I'll be at a site visit. I'll be in Highland park or Deerfield or, or Glenview or may have you Glencoe. And I'll be at someone's house and I'll be measuring the backyard to figure out what playground makes the most sense for them. And just bringing people into that experience and showing some, some personality and, and so forth really I feel like lets people feel, hey, that's Jake. You know, I, I talked to him last week and now he's in someone's yard. Like that seems like me, right? Very relatable. So I find Instagram nowadays, it's free, right? To turn the camera around and show what you're working on. So I think there's a lot of organic and low cost or to no cost ways to reach a lot of people and get the word out there and show them the great work you're doing. But of course there are other types of digital advertisements. And the one thing that we try to really, you know, go away from is I would say from an advertising perspective, a lot of companies, the big box stores and the franchises will, you know, do big crossouts like, you know, this used to be $10,000 and now it's five. And reality is, you know, consumers are smarter these days. So we really try to strike, stray away from the big box mentalities of trying to, you know, entice individuals to say that, you know, certain products used to be way more expensive than they were. But at the end they, a lot of consumers like to feel like they're in a deal or a sale. And what we do here is we say, look, we work very hard to, you know, work with our suppliers and and so forth to come up with the, you know, fair cost and value of our services. And so that they can feel that anytime they call they're getting, you know, the best price. And it's reflected not only in the quality of the product, but the service we provide from start to start to finish. Now on the fence side, I would say there are a lot of companies and I'll go back to the private equity backed or the franchise models where you know, it's, it's quantity over quality, right? And you know, a lot of companies may say, oh yeah, how much linear footage do you have on your, your fence project? And based on just a number or a satellite image, they'll be able to give them a price. And what we found that to do in our history is, you know, since 1967, we have never given ballparks or, you know, quotes over the phone, we require a site visit. So we go to every home that we provide quotes to and analyze the property foot by foot to really analyze the terrain and the different, maybe possible barriers that are in play. And that's not only to provide the ultimate best price, but to ensure that the project is going to have minimal to no hiccups. So, again, to give prices over the phone or try to just get quantity over quality not only hurts the consumer, but hurts us as a business and ultimately, when we want to find and provide the best and most accurate service. So the moral of our entire rant there was not only quality over quantity, but ensuring that sometimes going the extra mile and not cutting corners will provide the best outcome for our customers and our families that we work with.
- [15:47]
Scott Becker
I love that. And take a second. What are you most focused on and excited about as we go toward the second half of 2026? What are you most focused and excited about?
- [16:00]
Jake Stodder
Sure, you know, it's tough to pick, you know, one thing, but ultimately, you know, our. Our business being, you know, products are going outside. It's. There's some seasonality to it, right? So I would say, you know, March through end of May is our busiest time. And if you think about it right, you know, if you're getting a playset, for example, you get it in the start of March, you get all of spring, all of summer, and the fall, and then come winter, even though the products are meant to be and allowed to be used in the winter months, people are traveling, people want to be inside a bit more. So there is definitely some seasonality to our business. There's no question about that. But ultimately, I mean, each day I come into work, Scott, it doesn't feel like work, but ultimately, I'm very grateful for the foundation that my grandfather, my uncle, my family has built, you know, since 1967. And every day is a new challenge. There's no day that's ever the same. But, you know, every day there's something that I feel like we could do better or improve on or scale, but. And again, there's been opportunities to add more products or services to our offerings. And, you know, never say never, but we're not trying to become a large sporting goods store or outdoor product space. We want to be very specialized in what we do. So each day, what I'm excited about and what I'm looking forward to the rest of the year is, you know, taking back the learnings we've had from the projects, from just not just this Year, but the three years I've been involved with and just find ways to improve, you know, processes and, and I think there are some technologies that I'm interested in leveraging, you know, in the AI space a bit. But ultimately I don't want to lose our touch. So I think that's the toughest challenge is leveraging the technologies and so forth that are available, available to us today but not losing our, I said it again, our ethos and the narrative that we've created that, you know, we're not cutting corners, we are just going to leverage, you know, what we can but not lose, you know, the essence of what we do, which is very personalized and customized. But there are some cool things I'm exploring. But the short answer is, you know, tomorrow's another day and I'm sure I'll find something new each day to get better at and in scale.
- [18:11]
Scott Becker
It's fantastic. And you're really in that beautiful business that's a mix of sort of technology, sure that everything online and AI, but also really hands on, tangible business where people love what they really get from you. You could see it, you could feel it, you could use it. And it's not perfect sweet spot because you can't do anything but AI. You really still need people to do this stuff and to work through it and to figure out what you want to do and everything else. Is that a fair statement?
- [18:38]
Jake Stodder
Very fair. You know, I think one example is from designing a place that for a customer I do have a 3D, you know, rendering per se software that would allow me to give a very close to depiction of what that actual set may look like in their respective yards. Right. So that is something that, you know, a call center or some of our competitors per se don't have the, the bandwidth nor the capabilities or desire to do so. You know, families thinking they have to fit inside a box or a system that you know, is built to be mass produced. That's something we're really against. So that's back to a great example of leveraging technology but not losing sight of the customization and personalization that we can offer. So yeah, with all that said, there are some technologies and so forth that we can, can utilize, but it's not a discount per se to, you know, the personalization that we want to offer in the standard that we, that we have.
- [19:35]
Scott Becker
What a Jake, what a fantastic pleasure to visit with you. We've been long term fans. I've never had a chance to interview somebody from fenceworks from the starter group or your family or what a great pleasure and remarkable what you're doing. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business podcast. Just fantastic. Thank you very much.
- [19:57]
Jake Stodder
Thank you for having me, Scott. Really appreciate it.
- [20:02]
Grainger Announcer
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from hvac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-granger. Visit granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.