Meet Kyle Doman | Small Business Owner and Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kyle Doman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyle, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I had graduated from college in 2009 with a degree in Architecture. That field was hit really hard after the 2008 decline so I deferred my acceptance to grad school and ended up going on a trip around the world with my now wife and we had decided that upon our return I would either go to grad school for Architecture to continue my degree, go to med school or start my own business. I decided I wanted to start my own business to see how it went and here we are almost 10 years later and what a ride it has been. We’ve been a part of a lot of really amazing projects over the years and have met some really great people along the way.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I’m so proud of how the business was started and where it has grown to today. I made a rule early on that I wouldn’t say no to any project that someone inquired about whether I knew how to do it or not. I learned a lot of lessons this way but also learned a lot of skills and fine tuned the business doing the things that I liked and not doing the things that I didn’t like.

I started the business in my tiny home garage and have slowly grown the business over the years to a 6,250sf shop that we work out of today.

A lot of hard work and a little luck have got us to where we are today. Nothing was easy and everything had to be earned but I’ve always enjoyed the process which has made the work feel a lot less like work.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My wife and I are huge outdoor enthusiasts and we would take them on a big camping trip to one of our favorite spots or a tour of a few spots in the state if we could. Part of our business is building custom vans and we’d take them on a trip in our van to some of the most beautiful places in the state. The location would depend on the season but we love Crested Butte, Telluride, Salida, Steamboat or Durango to name a few. We really love big mountain riding, both mountain bikes and dirt bikes, and would love to be able to show them some of the sites you can see with a little effort on two wheels.

For the food, we’d make great homemade meals, as we love to cook, or we’d visit some of our favorite places in the areas that we’ve been to frequently over the years in our in state travels. Who doesn’t love a good local burger and fries after a long day out on the trails?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife has always been my biggest supporter from the very beginning. She has been so supportive of me chasing this small business dream over the last 9 1/2 years. You can tell she’s proud of what I’ve done with the business when you hear her telling someone all about what we do at the shop and all of her favorite projects we’ve done over the years. I also could not have done a lot of what we’ve done or been able to grow the business like we have over the years without our employees. Some have come and gone and others have had shorter or longer tenures than others but it’s a team effort and I’m not sure where the business would be without them. My brother has worked for us off and on over the years and he’s really grown into a great shop manager and employee and it’s been fun to watch his skills and team leading characteristics grow over the years.

Website: https://www.40northdesigns.com

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