Gibson Fence and Deck: an $1,800 pickup truck to $1.5M a year, with the owner working three days a week
Damon Gibson quit strawberry and apple farming with a 1993 Ford Ranger, a cheap tool canopy and a couple thousand dollars of tools. For years the business barely paid his bills. Today Gibson Fence and Deck does $1.5 million a year in Seattle, spends nothing on online ads, has no office staff, and he works half of every week because he is a single dad the other half.
Overview
Gibson Fence and Deck builds high-end fences and decks around Seattle. It does three things: fence construction, deck construction, and outdoor wood restoration and staining. Its signature job is a mahogany deck with cable railing, built from wood the company imports almost directly from Southeast Asia.
At the time of the interview the company did $1.5 million in sales a year, booked about six jobs a week at an average of $15,000 to $25,000 each, and had 10 people on the crew, heading to about 14. Damon runs the whole thing with no office staff. Leads come in through a web form, quotes come out of a pricing calculator he built, and the job tracking runs on Jobber.
The part that makes people stop: he works three days one week and four the next. "I'm on daddy duty exactly half the time, and then I'm on work duty exactly half the time."
Before the fence business
Contracting ran in his mother's side of the family. His grandfather was a contractor and Damon worked for him as a kid. What he took from it was simple: owning a business was normal. "It just kind of made it normal and demystified knowing that running a business, owning a business was something that wasn't a pie in the sky plan but was available at any moment."
After high school he worked on a framing crew, decided college was not for him, and went into farming: strawberries and apples. He started building field fences on the farm as a side project. That turned into privacy fences for homeowners. Then he took a job at a high-end fence and deck company in Seattle, and that job showed him the top of the market. He went out on his own after that. Compared to farming, he says, it was an easy switch. "Farming is a lot harder."
The $5,000 start
He started with almost nothing. A 1993 Ford Ranger for about $1,800. A tool canopy on top for $300 or $400. A pile of cheap tools for a couple thousand dollars. That was the whole company.
His rule for anyone starting the same way: have about $5,000 all in, including a little cushion. A credit card is fine. "If you don't have enough capital to do that, you're gonna run into trouble on the first job you lose money on, you're gonna go outta business." If you can't put that together, keep your job a little longer.
He still runs the same way. The company has eight work vehicles that together cost less than half of one new Sprinter van. His buying rule: Craigslist, Chevy or Japanese, never Ford. Astro vans run forever. Chevy box trucks are great. And the best work van in the world, in his opinion, is a Toyota Sienna minivan with the back seats pulled out. The trucks get small vinyl logos, not full wraps. The money saved goes into paying the crew more.
The slow years
This is not an overnight story. It took two years before the business comfortably paid his bills, and he was still farming at the time, which he says held him back. The first year was around $60,000. The next couple of years went nowhere: $66,000, maybe $70,000. He and his son moved to Seattle and he was running it with one employee working about 25 hours a week.
Half a million a year only came after he started hiring, and that took more than five years. He warns about the dip: "When you first start hiring employees, you're gonna make less." Usually it takes more than one hire before the numbers turn. Last year he ran three crews of two people. This year the crews are faster and the company is booking about six jobs a week, booked far into the future.
How he gets work
Gibson spends zero on online ads. He does spend on marketing: flyers and door hangers. Here is how the work comes in.
Knocking on doors. When you are starting out, he says, you can't wait for Google to find you. Print a simple flyer. Walk neighborhoods. Look for a fence that is falling down, knock, and if nobody answers, leave the flyer. His numbers: knock on the door of a house with a bad fence and you have about a 25% chance of building it. Bid a little lower when you are new, and you can get "a fence on every fourth house that answers the door you knock on." He says pay-per-click ads are a mistake for a beginner on a budget.
A form instead of a phone. About 90% of his leads now fill out a request form on the website. An automated email goes out right away to start scheduling a site visit. Only about 10% phone in, and he gets back to those the same day. He thinks answering instantly would be even better, and his advice if the phone is your main channel: pick up before it goes to voicemail. In Seattle, people prefer the form. "The personal stuff happens at the site visit."
Reviews and referrals. Referrals are the best source for any business. A five-star Google review is a referral that works on everyone who searches for you, forever. More and more clients tell him they picked Gibson because of the reviews.
The follow-up. This is the one he calls the cheapest, most effective marketing in the world. After you send a quote, check in with the client. He did not use to do it. When he started, his acceptance rate doubled. "That's free and it will double your acceptance rate and that'll change your business right there."
Staying in touch. Check in while the job is running. Ask if anything could be better. Check in again a couple of weeks after it is done. It keeps the referrals coming.
How he prices
Pricing is where Damon changed the most, and it is the center of his advice.
A pricing calculator, the same for everyone. He used to guess. "I wonder how much these people would be willing to pay. Oh, that seems too high, let's go down a little bit." Now he runs what he calls quoting algorithms. For a deck, every factor gets a price: is there a railing, what type, is it ground level, are there stairs and how many. The categories add up to the quote. It is the same for every client "no matter how wealthy or poor they look." He can quote a complex project in about 15 minutes, and he is turning the calculator into a tool clients can use on the website themselves.
One number, never a breakdown. The most common mistake he sees: a quote that splits materials and labor. It invites the client to argue with your labor cost. If you charge by the hour, fine. If you quote by the project, give one price. When someone asks for a breakdown, he says the company bids by the project and that is their guaranteed price. He very rarely loses a job over it.
Give the ballpark on the phone. When someone calls wanting a rough price, tell them. "They're giving you a gift, which is saving you a trip out there." If the ballpark fits their budget, the chance they say yes goes from about 10% to about 50%. You spend your site visits on people who can pay.
Labor should be the biggest number. If materials are the biggest part of your quote, you are charging too little, or you are paying your crew too little. "You should barely notice the cost of materials."
Shop your suppliers. Prices for the same lumber vary a lot between suppliers. He built relationships with several during the material shortages. His mahogany comes from an importer who sources it in Borneo, Malaysia and the Philippines, which lets him build a mahogany deck for about the price of a composite one.
Charge what you are worth. His advice to his younger self: "Don't subsidize wealthy people. You're worth a lot more than you think you are." He says it started in his head. He used to feel guilty asking wealthy clients for real money.
Job cost tracking
For years he ran on gut feeling. He tracked job costs, but only to within 10% to 25%, which is useless when your margin is about the same size. Now every crew lead enters expenses and time sheets for each job in Jobber, and the quotes go through Jobber too. For every job he can see the total price, the labor, the materials, and what the company made per hour per employee.
What it showed him was not what he expected. Some of the biggest jobs had margins so thin they could lose money. The highest margin of all was on economy fences. Now each finished job feeds back into the calculator. If a job type made less than planned, its price goes up. If it is very profitable, he goes after more of it.
He also leans on what he knows best. Fences bid with his own numbers never lose money. Simple decks, like a big rectangle with two sets of stairs and a cable railing, are the most lucrative because he knows exactly how long they take.
How he runs it in three days a week
The days he works are long. He puts in 45 to 55 hours in a three or four day week. What makes it fit is cutting waste.
Templates for repeated emails. Business owners write the same email 15 or 20 times a day. He switched to templates and says it saves him about an hour a day. Phone calls that run an hour get cut to the few minutes they need.
One day a week for quoting. All the quotes and office work go into a single day.
Systems first. His biggest regret is not doing this earlier. "Put the 10 hours into something that might only take one to only have to do it one time." When he feels resistance to a task, he treats it as the signal that it is exactly what he needs to do next.
Letting go. The trait he had to drop to pass $1 million was micromanaging. He hired good people and found they could do as much as he could.
His order for anyone who wants a shorter week: first, believe you are worth more money and charge it. Second, set up your efficiencies. Working fewer days forces you to be efficient.
The team
He has 10 people, hiring toward about 14. The pay ladder is fixed and public inside the company:
| Level | Hourly pay |
|---|---|
| No experience, trained from zero (rarely hired) | $25 |
| Experienced, ready to contribute | $30 |
| Knows all the systems, quick, runs projects under a crew lead | $35 |
| Crew lead | $40 |
| Crew lead on complex projects | $45 |
| Manages multiple crews | $50 |
His hiring rules: hire before you need people. The busy season is summer, so he hires in winter when more good people are available. Interview a lot of people and try a lot of them out. And remember you are hiring your company culture. Recently he let go of a couple of people who did great work and made the company money but were bad for morale. A hard call, and he says it transformed the company.
The company kept growing. By August 2024 it announced a location in Seattle's Capitol Hill, after offices in West Seattle and Burien, and it now lists pergolas and hardscaping alongside fences, decks and staining.
The numbers
| Figure | Number |
|---|---|
| Starting truck | 1993 Ford Ranger, about $1,800 |
| Total starting kit | Under $5,000 (truck, canopy, tools) |
| Year one revenue | About $60,000 |
| Next years | About $66,000 to $70,000 (plateau) |
| Time to $500,000 a year | More than five years, after hiring |
| Annual revenue | $1.5 million (gross) |
| Net profit | About $120,000 (about 8%) |
| What he paid himself | About $50 an hour |
| Jobs booked | About 6 a week |
| Average job | $15,000 to $25,000 |
| Crew | 10 people, heading to about 14 |
| Online ad spend | $0 |
| Leads by web form | About 90% |
| Door knock close rate (new, bidding low) | About 1 in 4 doors that open |
| Effect of following up after a quote | Acceptance rate doubled |
| Time to quote a complex job | About 15 minutes |
| Owner's work week | 3 to 4 days, 45 to 55 hours |
Do what he did: step by step
1. Pick one outdoor trade you can learn on the job.
Do this: fences, decks, staining, pressure washing, gutters, hardscaping. Damon learned on a framing crew and at a high-end fence company. If you have no skills yet, work a season for the best company in your area first. You get paid to learn their pricing and their standards.
2. Start with under $5,000.
Do this: a used truck or minivan from Craigslist (Chevy or Japanese), a canopy or roof rack, and the core tools. Keep a cushion for the first job that goes wrong. Skip the wrap, the logo shirts and the new van.
3. Set up the free trust signals in one afternoon.
Do this: a one-page website with a request form, and a Google Business Profile. Ask every client for a Google review the day the job is finished.
4. Walk neighborhoods with a flyer.
Do this: look for fences that are leaning, rotting or falling down. Knock. If nobody answers, leave the flyer. Bid a little low on the first jobs to build reviews and photos.
The door script, word for word:
"Hi, I'm [name], I build fences here in the neighborhood. I noticed the fence along your side yard is leaning. I'm putting together quotes on this street this week. Would you like me to take a quick look and send you a price? It's free and takes ten minutes."
The flyer, word for word:
"Your fence caught my eye. I'm [name], a local fence and deck builder working on your street this week. One fixed price, no surprises, a free quote within 48 hours. Text or call [number], or fill in the form at [website]."
5. Build your pricing calculator before your tenth quote.
Do this: a spreadsheet with a price for every factor: length, height, material, gates, posts, slope, removal of the old fence, stairs, railings. Add the categories up and that is the quote. Use it for every client, whoever they are. Labor should be the largest part of the price.
6. Quote one number.
Do this: never split labor and materials on a project quote. If someone asks, say: "We bid by the project, and that's your guaranteed price. It won't change once we start."
7. Give a ballpark on the first call.
The phone script: "Most fences like the one you're describing land between [low] and [high]. Does that fit what you had in mind? If it does, I'll come out and give you an exact price." If they say no, you saved a trip. If they say yes, your odds roughly go from 1 in 10 to 1 in 2.
8. Follow up on every quote.
Do this: two or three days after sending a quote, send a short check-in. This is the step that doubled his acceptance rate.
The follow-up email, word for word:
"Hi [name], just checking in on the fence quote I sent on [day]. Happy to answer any questions or adjust anything. We're booking jobs for [month] now, so if you'd like to hold a spot, just reply here and I'll get you on the calendar."
9. Track the cost of every job.
Do this: use Jobber or a simple sheet. Record hours, materials and extras per job. Every month, look at which job types made the most per crew hour, raise prices on the weak ones, and go after more of the strong ones.
10. Hire in the slow season, and expect to earn less for a while.
Do this: hire in winter, try several people, and use a clear pay ladder like his. Plan for your own income to drop when the first hires come on. That dip is how a one-person business becomes a $1 million one.
11. Template everything you repeat.
Do this: write templates for the emails you send every week: the scheduling reply, the quote, the follow-up, the job start notice, the review request. Put all the office work into one day.
Want 50 more breakdowns like this?
Real businesses with their revenue, tools, costs and how they grew, plus step-by-step guides to start your own. Free.
Get free accessMore breakdowns
Sources
- UpFlip, "Side-Hustle Turned $1.5M/Year Fencing Business!", interview with Damon Gibson (2024)
- "Gibson Fence and Deck Expands to Capitol Hill," company press release (August 2024)
- Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, member listing for Gibson Fence and Deck
