Raising the bar boosts Ascent’s fortunes

Broomfield – In general, businesses that made it through the recent recession are the ones that could scramble fast and make sure their sweet spot was appealing to the right market – clients who wanted their services and who could pay for them.

“There was a point in time when we’d go after everything out there to earn business,” said Jason Brown, president of Ascent Builders Inc.

When the time was right, however, Ascent retargeted what it was doing and who it was doing it for. The company’s primary focus shifted from small residential remodel projects to higher-end projects. The intention was to use resources more effectively and efficiently with better returns.

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The result is that Ascent Builders has increased its revenue 229.684 percent, from $1.233 million in 2011 to $4.065 million in 2013. The increase places the company fifth on the BizWest Mercury 100 list of fastest-growing companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties for companies reporting more than $2 million in annual revenue.

Ascent Builders currently builds its business around three divisions. The first is devoted to residential clients for high-end kitchen and whole-house remodels, the second focuses on custom homes and new construction, and the third focuses on commercial contracting.

“We’re a turn-key general contractor,” Brown said. “All our trade work is subcontracted out and we’re project manager, client interface and sales and marketing.

“Most of our current revenue growth is from new construction, but all three of the divisions are showing growth,” he added.

“The economic meltdown caused a lot of folks to get by on little overhead to survive and that’s what we did too. We used the time to refine our service and target so that when the market turned around we could go after business in a hard way.

“A lot of companies didn’t make it, and that made for less competition. So when the economy turned around there were a lot more people we could tell our story to.”

The economic blight affected Ascent Builders for about two years, Brown said. “We had enough clients and business to barely make payroll, and we really didn’t expect more than that.”

To use the downtime best, the company created and followed a strategic plan that pulled it out when the time was right.

“We went from average projects that were $30,000 to $40,000 back then to projects that were $100,000 to $150,000, and we made sure we diversified.”

Moving forward, Brown expects to bring in $8 million this year – doubling last year’s revenue.  “The new construction space has certainly taken off,” he said, “and that certainly is helping.”