JRE IN THE NEWS

Teamwork a key part of growing business

Monday, April  9, 2007




Michael Chaney, founder Of James River Exteriors, and stepsons Shane Burnette (left) and Brian Burnette (right) are athletes and businessmen. They say sports have become an avenue for recruiting employees at the company, located at 7811 Iron Bridge Road in Chesterfield. Team work a key part of growing business

BY AARON KREMER

If success on the athletic field translates to success in business, then James River Exteriors is in for a good year. The Chesterfield-based company, which installs stone and stucco siding, sponsors employee basketball and flag football teams. The evening and weekend games are a perk of working for the company, but also a chance to show case the competitiveness that has helped the business grow to 55 full-time employees. The flag football team won a Chesterfield league championship and will compete in a national tournament later in the year. The basketball team plays in several leagues and has also won a championship. “When I was starting the company, I was just a weekend warrior athlete, playing men’s basket-ball all over the place,” said founder Michael Chaney. That was in 1992. Now, as the company continues to grow, sports have become an avenue for recruiting employees. Shane Burnette, Chaney’s oldest stepson and vice president, said he knows business books advise against hiring friends or family. But he’s found that friends and former teammates fit best. Burnette, 27, played basketball at Bridgewater College and his younger brother, Brian, played football at University of Richmond. Brian also works for the company. Former college teammates make great employees, Shane Burnette said. “With the friends we’ve hired, we know they’re respectful and know they work hard. We knew they were never going to be a problem or lay down on the job,” he said. Jon Antonelli has worked as project estimator at James River Exteriors for about a year. He joined the company’s basketball team through a friend who worked at the company. And after proving himself valuable on the court, Burnette tried to sign him to the company’s roll. “When Shane asked me, I thought he was joking at first,” Antonelli said. “In sports you generally show personality traits that crossover to the business world. Most of the time guys have a good team because everyone plays apart. That’s how it is with our company. Everyone has their part to play and when everybody plays,[the company]is more successful.” Clay Butner worked summers at the company while he was in high school and college. Now he’s a full-time project manager, as well as a member of the football team. “I’ve worked at other companies before and felt like a pawn in a chess set,” Butner said. “What’s great with this company, I’m friends with these guys first. There’s no more work talk when we hangout.” That importance of teamwork isn’t lost on clients. Dean Van Arsdale, a partner with Richmond-based RVA Construction, said he tries to work with James River Exteriors when ever he has a project that needs an on brick surface. “We make it a good team effort to work together as much as we can,” Arsdale said. He praised James River’s versatility. “There are not a lot of people in this business who do good quality work with a variety of materials. They run the whole gamut of exterior systems most people don’t do,” Arsdale said. The company wasn’t always so diverse. Nor was it called James River Exteriors. That name was added in2005.Chaneystarted James River Stucco in1992 after working for eighty ears in the insulation and siding business. He expanded in 2001 because Shane Burnette wanted to work for the company. He also said customers were asking him to branch out, and it made sense to let Shane run there pair division. Despite a slow down in construction, the company grew at 5 percent or 10 percent last year, Burnette said. The company works within a 75-mile radius of Chesterfield. And as the business grows, so do the athletic endeavors. The company might start a soccer team and will sponsor its first softball team this spring. For James River Exteriors, that success is also evident in sports

THE RÉSUMÉ Name: Michael B. Chaney Position: founder James River Exteriors Education: L. C. Bird High School, Virginia Tech (degree in finance) Work history: from1985to1992, various insulation and siding companies.In1992 started James River Stucco. Changed company name to James River Exteriorsin2005.Family: wife Sherry; stepsons Shane Burnette, 27, and Brian Burnette,24; daughters Erin,16, and Kelley,14.