When Drew Teaman first started working in concrete, his biggest problem wasn’t the concrete. It was the calendar. He was based in Indiana, where winter shut the work down for months at a time. “It was like five months of nothingness,” Drew remembers. Rather than sit through another season like that, he went looking for a market where he could work all year, and what he found there reshaped his whole business.
Today, Concrete Commander is a family-owned and operated creative concrete studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Drew and his team build fire features, water features, outdoor kitchens, countertops, and vanities for homes and businesses around Jacksonville. Drew trained with The Concrete Countertop Institute in June 2012, and he has come back several times since for alumni events and additional training.
Finding a Market With No Competition
Drew had a lifelong friend in Jacksonville who offered to scout the local home shows and see whether the area could support custom concrete work. What his friend found was an open field, because nobody in the Jacksonville market was doing it. The two of them moved quickly to be first. “We made some sales calls, got some jobs, and I drove down and brought my equipment,” Drew says. He eventually moved to Florida for good and opened his own shop.
Being first to market only matters if you can deliver, and that’s where Drew’s training and years of hands-on work paid off. The early jobs turned into referrals, and the referrals turned into a reputation.
Selling Handmade Work at a Handmade Price
Custom concrete takes a lot of skilled hands-on time, and Drew makes sure his clients understand that before a job starts. He spends real time with each customer explaining how a GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) piece gets made and what goes into it.
“We just walk them through. They’re like ‘okay, I get it,'” Drew explains. “For most people, they understand that custom concrete is an expensive product because it’s handmade.”
That conversation is what allows him to charge what the work is worth instead of competing on price. It’s the same approach Jeff Girard teaches in CCI’s hands-on training, because clients who understand the process are far more likely to value the result.
A Production Line That Evens Out the Seasons
Moving to Florida solved the winter problem, but Drew didn’t stop there. He added a production line alongside his custom work so the shop has steady output no matter what the custom schedule looks like. His catalog includes Zen water bowls, linear fire features in smooth and timber textures, and a custom color palette he calls Commander Colors.
“Putting a fire bowl on a pallet and shipping it to the customer’s door is easy for our business,” Drew says. “For the customer, the production line combines high quality with a great deal of convenience.”
Between the custom projects and the production pieces, Drew grew Concrete Commander from a one-man operation into a crew of seven.
What to Look for in Drew’s Work
Drew’s pieces reward a closer look. On his outdoor kitchens, watch for additional features such as concrete range hoods. On his timber-texture fire features, the grain of the wood is cast right into the surface, so the concrete reads like board-formed timber from a few feet away. And on his poolside water bowls, pictured above, notice how clean and thin the rims are, which is a detail that takes careful forming and a well-designed mix to pull off.
You can see much more of Drew’s work at concretecommander.com.
Build Your Own Creative Concrete Business
Drew’s business started with hands-on training at The Concrete Countertop Institute, and that’s still where CCI’s alumni build their foundation. Creative Concrete Mastery is CCI’s small-group, hands-on workshop, limited to six students and taught by Jeff Girard, so you can learn not just how to make creative concrete, but why each step matters.
Want to see how other alumni have built their businesses? Read more alumni success stories.