By Steve Cook :
What’s the number one thing you would like our readers to know about you or your company? That’s the question I put to Keith Smallwood, owner of Smallwood Renovations, headquartered in Ashland.
“We are a good neighbor,” he replied. Good answer! When it comes to investing in home renovations, such as decks, porches, siding or replacement windows and doors, we all want talented professionals who use quality materials, but it’s even better if the work is done by a good neighbor… someone whom you not only trust but perhaps even really like.
Keith explains that being a good neighbor means acquiring and demonstrating key core values, which he lists as honesty, integrity, humility, responsibility, accountability, attention to detail, a commitment to learning, and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Growing up in Bridgewater, Virginia with a father who was committed to meticulously paying attention to detail as a master craftsman certainly gave Keith a good start. Perhaps the time spent working in a Greek restaurant in Northern Virginia, where he had moved to attend George Mason University, helped him to hone such qualities. After all, in those four years, he went from dishwasher to the restaurant’s GM.
When he felt it was time to move on, he chose another career, home renovations, not because it was, at that time, a specific passion, but because he appreciated the character and the work ethic of some young men who were customers in the restaurant. It was only after asking them if they might be hiring that he learned the business that they were in, a business that would shape his future.
