Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Sapp.
Keith, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started painting for my middle brother, who was putting himself through college by painting houses, and later my older brother who is now a general contractor. I opened my business in my 20’s but had to close the doors during the real estate crash. I went back to school to finish my finance degree, but my marriage fell apart and I needed to increase my income. I was on the fence until one night a lifelong friend said to me one night over drinks, “Keith, you need to drop out of college and go back to work for yourself. You can have 10 college degrees, but no one is willing to pay you as much as you are willing to pay yourself.” It was there that I decided to do it again. That was 4 years ago and its one of the best decision I ever made. At the time I did it all; marketing, estimating, painter, helper… I wore all the hats. Today I have built a great core group of employees and a nice customer base. We paint a lot of stores and restaurants inside Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson airport, AATC the airport authority that runs Hartsfield, and many government projects for Fulton and City of Atlanta. We are the preferred vendor for the Forsyth Board of Education and work at every major mall all the way down to stand alone buildings painting retail stores and restaurants. We continue to grow year over year and I am excited at what the future holds for us.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. In the beginning, I had only myself to do it all. In my industry, the pay cycle can run anywhere from 30 to 90 days before you get paid. I had no money to hire employees, much less pay them for 2-3 months before I got paid. I had to build up enough cash before I could hire my first employee as well as enough work to keep him busy full time. I did all this while working a full-time job in the evenings at ExpressJet Airlines. There were many times that I would go several days without sleep in order to complete the project on time and keep my costumers happy, once working 44 straight hours and not sleeping for days. As most self-employed people will know, finding good help is always the hardest. It still is but I have been very fortunate that it’s been a much easier ride this go-around and I am blessed to have a good core group from which to build on.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Southern Exposure of Atlanta – what should we know?
We are a commercial paint contractor who specializes in what I would consider areas of painting that are far more difficult to exist in. We do government projects like the city of Atlanta, Fulton County and Forsyth Co BOE, POS retail stores/restaurants that demand a better product that is front and center for their costumers to see, inside the airport where security is of the utmost important as well as a defense contractor where top secret development of high tech weapons/communications goes on. They demand a company that can be trusted to bring in quality people to complete their projects. We are proud of the product we deliver. It’s a quality product that the end costumer demands and our clients need delivered on time. We work in a deadline based sector of our industry and we deliver.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Determination is #1. Never give up and dig down deep as you have to when the going gets tough. It would have been so easy to give up and life would be easy. The deck is stacked against your success, but you must have the mindset that failure is not an option. It never crossed my mind and that determination has gotten me to where I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.southernexposureatlanta.com
- Phone: 404 234-8455
- Email: keithsapp@southernexposureatlanta.com
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