When it comes to dealers in the door and window industry, a great many are family-owned businesses. Those tight-knit connections can help companies experience the kind of rapid growth that DWM recognizes each year in our Fastest-Growing Dealers feature, which will appear in the upcoming June-July issue.

The Woodshed of Colorado Springs epitomizes those deep family connections. Founder Todd Mitchell, a Colorado native, grew up working for his family construction company, and after finishing college with a degree in education, he returned to the residential building industry. In 1986, he decided to launch a new family business, The Woodshed, and he’s been busy ever since. The company, which is a Marvin Elite dealer, grew to the point that it had to move into a new 35,000-square-foot headquarters building a couple of years ago.

“We are still going strong because of our continued effort to provide our customers with high quality products at competitive prices,” Todd Mitchell says.

Todd says he learned at an early age that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the customers and in turn, they will both take care of you. Those core principles have been the foundations of this successful family business, which carries an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

“We are a family-owned business so we have the flexibility to adapt to challenges in our market without having to answer to a corporate structure,” says Jerad Mitchell. “We work with a lot of local builders in our market that we partner well with and have worked with for almost 30 years.  We don’t advertise. We rely on our business reputation and word of mouth from our contractors.”

The Woodshed has found success by staying close to its roots. How about your company? If you’d like to be part of our Fast-Growing Dealers feature, e-mail me at tbarrineau@glass.com and tell me about your company.