Get Dwell founder Darryl Rose was featured in a June edition of The North Shore Weekend!
Article by David Sweet
Sunday Breakfast — Business is smelling like a Rose
Off of Gage Street in Winnetka, just east of Green Bay Road, an alley features a handful of stores. In the site of a former barber shop sits Darryl Rose, founder of Get Dwell, which provides remodeling, repair and handyman services.
He quickly stands up and moves to the other room of the two-room office, where a huppa — slated to be used during a wedding at The Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest — is being constructed by an associate, who also plans to create a bunk bed for three boys.
“This is the fun room, where all the work gets done,” says Rose.
Dressed in blue jeans, the fifty-something Wilmette resident yearns to build like he used to (“I love to build stuff”) but realizes it’s more important to be attached to a laptop computer and provide strategy for the business.
“I miss it — I wanted to build the huppa with my son (Sam),” he says. “Then I realized, ‘What am I doing?’ “
What he’s doing is putting Get Dwell in the best shape of its nine years. The business — which does everything from replacing doors to cleaning attics — set a revenue record of $600,000 in 2012 and $750,000-$850,00 is expected this year, thanks in part to 25 ice-dam projects during the usually slow winter. Last month, Rose graced the cover on Remodeling magazine, a national trade publication, and was named a winner of the publication’s Big50 award, which honors those who “have set exceptionally high standards for professionalism and integrity.”
Rose credits the 10,000 Small Businesses program run by Goldman Sachs, which he was accepted into with a few dozen others in the Chicago area last year, for propelling his firm to new heights.
“It’s a laser-focused entrepreneurial program. You dissect your company,” says Rose, who notes none of the participants possessed an MBA. “We don’t offer all the products we used to because of what I learned. We’re more efficient. Now that I understand accounting reports better, I can make better decisions.”
A native of Rhode Island, Rose became interested in handyman work and its business potential when he’d visit his mother during breaks from Lake Forest College.
“I’d do stuff around the house, and I’d know I’d have to keep the house running until I got back there to help again six months later,” he says. “I thought, ‘Doesn’t everyone want this?’ You get home, and everything’s working.”
His first carpentry job involved working at Ragdale, Howard Van Doren Shaw’s house in Lake Forest.
“It was awesome, Everything was so cool,” he says as the Grateful Dead song “Cassidy” sung by Suzanne Vega plays in the background. “Howard Van Doren Shaw created those stone mansions where the carriages would come around the front like Downton Abbey.”
But then Rose ended up spending 20 years in sales and marketing before launching Get Dwell in 2005. Unlike most in his profession, he has always given a client a contract up front about why they are meeting and what the expectations are. That way, the initial meeting goes smoothly.
“The CEO guys want to say yes or no and not have their time wasted in a meeting,” he explains. “That’s where a lot of contractors fall down. They’re not good communicators.”
He credits the “Mom network” through schools for much of his business; nine out of 10 clients are female homeowners. Get Dwell has also partnered with hardware stores — such as John Millen Hardware in Wilmette — where its promotional materials rest at cash registers. Rose hopes to open a Get Dwell in Chicago before eventually launching stores in other parts of the country.
A fan of eating Sunday breakfast at home, Rose often makes eggs over easy (“there’s a little bit of an art to that”) along with granola, yogurt and coffee. He counts Frank Lloyd Wright as one of his mentors.
“His architecture is a celebration of life,” Rose notes. “If you want to live in a series of boxes instead, fine.”
As was Wright of his creations, Rose is proud of his work. As an example, he recalls a gathering at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette.
“I’m talking with a member of the school board and the head of the PTA , who are both clients. Another client is coming down the hallway toward us. I thought, ‘If we didn’t do really good work, I’d be really nervous right now.’ “
Read the article, “Sunday Breakfast — Business is smelling like a Rose” here.