Meet Dylan Shaffer

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

Hi Dylan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Truthfully, it was a bit of an accident. I certainly didn’t set out to start a business originally. In 2015, I was fresh out of seminary and working part-time as a pastor. I had previous experience in the trades, so I filled the rest of my schedule by working for a handyman and light remodeling service. We did decent work, but we constantly missed timelines and regularly increased prices on clients mid-project. Over the course of the next year, I found myself thinking, “we could do this a better way.” When the owner was not receptive to the changes I proposed, I decided to set out on my own and have not looked back since.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our identity as a business has certainly evolved over time, but there have been a few guiding principles that have directed that development. When I started Shafe’s Home Improvements back in 2016, I hadn’t planned on it blossoming into a full fledged business. At the time, I was working part-time as a pastor and needed to fill the rest of my schedule. After working for a handyman service that I thought could be better executed, I started my business. However, it became quickly apparent that the market was craving a service like ours- a reliable, honest, communicative tradesman who followed through on pricing and didn’t cut corners.

As my client base grew, as the calls started rolling in, I realized that I had accidentally stumbled upon something that had great potential. I spent the next two years taking this business from a small side hustle to a full-fledged business. Then, in 2018, my business partner, Dylan Morrow, joined the venture and we became D&D Remodeling. Throughout that time, our shared faith has guided all of our important decisions as business owners. As followers of Jesus, we wanted to ensure we ran our business with the utmost integrity. We wanted to honor our clients, our employees, and the very work that we were doing.

To that end, we developed systems for best practices. Behind the scenes with our employees, we had formal values and phrases we talked about regularly, but these slowly developed into organic language. One expression that developed in our early days and has been repeated countless times since is, “there’s always enough time to do it right.” In our line of work, our efficiency is directly correlated to our profitability, so it is important not to take too long on a project. But, we knew the temptation that would come with this fixed-price model. It is tempting to cut corners to complete the work faster, thus creating more profit. Therefore, we had to set our firm standards in place to make sure this didn’t happen.

It is now ingrained in our DNA that there is always enough time to do it right. Every employee has heard this phrase countless times. What is amazing to see (and answers part of your lessons question above) is that our employees will preach these rules to each other. These are no longer just mine or my business partner’s values; they are our team values. One of the things I am most proud of is our company culture, and part of that is finding people who come in and adopt the company values. This is not because they have to, but because they themselves want to be people of integrity, people of high standards and excellent craftsmanship. As a business owner, when you start to see your employees preaching the values of the company to their coworkers, you know you are on the right track.

Briefly, another example of this organic language that communicates our values is “Final 5.” As many people have experienced, there are many contractors who will do 95% of the work, but it is almost impossible to get them to finish the details. They move on to other jobs or just don’t want to do the tiny details. Throughout our projects, you’ll hear our people talk about the Final 5. It’s a loaded phrase that communicates everything a team member needs to know in the moment. When someone is wanting to cut a corner or call something “good enough,” our value of Final 5 comes into play because our values are to do everything to the utmost of our ability. Our values dictate that we honor our clients and give them our very best, so the Final 5 is one of the major elements that sets us apart from the competition.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If they’ve never been to Denver, I always want them to experience the mountains. We like to take people to Red Rocks amphitheater and hike around. We usually take a day or two to go up to Frisco, Breckenridge, or other mountain towns. We are personally huge fans of the Melting Pot (downtown Littleton location), as well as nice steakhouses like Guard & Grace downtown. I live in Highlands Ranch, and one of our favorite local restaurants is Old Blinking Light.

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 business partner, Dylan Morrow, and I would certainly want to dedicate this to our wives: Megan Shaffer and Alyssa Morrow. They have been by our sides throughout this entire process. They’ve given us room to dream while also challenging us to think concretely. They’ve picked us up when we are down, and they’ve ensured we stay humble. This business would not exist without them.

We’d love to thank our tremendous employees who give their 110% everyday to the meaningful work we do: to build lasting beauty and function for our clients.

For both Dylan Morrow and myself, we feel extraordinarily blessed in our lives and business. We do feel as though we are standing on the shoulders of giants and cannot even list the number of people who have contributed to our story in a positive way. Certainly, we both have to thank our parents for the example they set in different ways. Morrow’s dad was a custom home builder, which gave him a tremendous amount of skill and context for running a custom home remodeling business. Both of my parents were business owners, particularly my dad who built a business over 20 years. We thank all of them for the leading the way.

Website: DaDRemodeling.com

Instagram: @dadremodeling

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dadremodeling/

Other: https://www.homeadvisor.com/rated.DDRemodeling.57964244.html 

Image Credits
Jeffrey Grounds Photography