This article was originally published in the Burlington Free Press on Monday, April 25th, 2005.
Contractor finds her niche
By Eve Thorsen | CorrespondentOriginally published Monday, April 25, 2005
Building trades have been booming in Vermont for several years, but that doesn't mean it's easy for everyone in the business. There's still stiff competition among smaller contractors for residential business.
That's what April Villemaire discovered when she started her own remodeling business -- April's Home Improvement Inc. in Milton -- a year ago. Her solution was to find a niche for herself in the home renovation arena.
"After a few months I saw there was a big need for disability modification for homeowners," Villemaire said. "So I changed my focus."
Since last fall Villemaire has concentrated on a variety of remodeling projects for homeowners with disabilities, such as widening doors, building access ramps for wheelchairs, and reconfiguring cupboards and shelves to make them easier to reach. She still does regular remodeling work but, she said, she has a passionate interest in trying to help people with disabilities.
"My father lost a leg in World War II," Villemaire said. "My father was the kind of man who didn't feel there should be restrictions on what a person should do because of gender or disabilities and that's where I got started. I watched him overcome obstacles all his life."
Making Contacts This personal experience helped Villemaire figure out her market, said Tracey Schoonmaker of the Housing Division of the City of Burlington Community and Economic Development Office. "She's very resourceful and also on the lookout to help elderly disabled folks," said Schoonmaker. "She's a perennial student; she knows the American with Disabilities Act specifications."
It was this outlook and her understanding of her potential clients that introduced Villemaire to Schoonmaker. Villemaire knew of a disabled man who had not been able to leave his home for nine months because he couldn't get his wheelchair across the door's threshold and down the four steps to ground level. Villemaire knew that CEDO had a small amount of grant funding available to help people with disabilities make access modifications and helped her client apply for money.
With the funding, Villemaire was able to build the access ramp that he needed.
Since then Villemaire has connected with the Vermont Center for Independent Living to reach those who could use her services, while also keeping her eyes open for different grant funding opportunities to help them pay for the work. Special knowledge Villemaire backs up her knowledge of her market with solid construction skills. She was just 16 years old when she did her first renovation work: Under her father's supervision she remodeled the basement in the family home.
From that start Villemaire went on to work in the construction industry for most of her life, leaving it only in the late 1990s for a job at IBM. But Villemaire realized that working inside in a clean room suit wasn't what she really wanted to do. So after almost five years at Big Blue, she decided to start her own business in the field she loved the most and where she was clearly talented.
"She is very well qualified for it," said Larry Piano, a volunteer with the Small Business Administration's volunteer mentoring program, Service Corps of Retired Executives, known as SCORE.
Piano helped Villemaire put together her business plan. He worked in the building industry for more than two decades and is familiar with the rigorous requirements of working to American with Disabilities Act standards. He said builders need a good level of specialist knowledge such as the rises and runs of wheelchair ramps and what changes are needed to make a kitchen wheelchair accessible.
"This isn't a field where you pick up a newspaper and grab a carpenter," he said. "When you're doing work for ADA it has to be very good and very strong, and she exceeds that standard. You can't have someone in a wheelchair grab a handrail and have it come off in his hand."
Piano said carpenters with Villemaire's level of ADA knowledge are hard to find so he sees her prospects in the market as very good.
"She has a very extensive construction background and is a very good carpenter," he said. "She can make a very good living out of this market. She's performing a service and there are not many people in this state that could do the work she does. So she is very much in demand."
The ramp ahead Villemaire is aware that although there might be plenty of work around in her particular field, many of her potential clients aren't earning much money because of their disabilities and so money might be an issue.
The tack she has taken to deal with this is to work with as many different community agencies as she can to find available funding opportunities. She has also found partnerships with two local construction material suppliers, Gregory Supplies and Rice Lumber. They allow her to get the materials she needs for projects and pay for them when her client has paid for the project. This has helped eliminate a large up-front cost for the business and means she doesn't have to tie up thousands of dollars in materials while she's waiting for payments to come through.
"She tries to see the big picture to help the person in need," Schoonmaker said. "She'll try to recycle something that she's come across that somebody wants to get rid of or she'll try and help people to leverage their Medicaid waivers and use other agencies that help the handicapped."
"She's very conscientious."