Today we’d like to introduce you to Luke Parton.
Hi Luke, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Honestly, I saw an opportunity and ran with it. I grew up in a family full of business in construction, my father is a General Contractor, my grandfather owns a drywall company, and my uncle is a framer, but none of them are in the grading business.
When I was in high school, I originally wanted to do something in the car industry. I even worked at a diesel shop (SMA Diesel Service) through my JR. and Senior year. While my parents always wanted what every parent wants for their kid, to go to college, I knew from a very young age I wasn’t cut out for it. I finally sat them down one night during my senior year and told them I wouldn’t be going. When they asked what I was going to do, I told them I was going to open a business after school. When they asked what line of work I was going to open a business in, the only answer I had for them was “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out.”
Somehow I managed to graduate high school a semester early, at barely even seventeen years old. When I did, I left SMA and went to work with my Father. During this time, while I was working for him, I was spending every dollar I was making buying and flipping classic cars. A short year later, I was sitting in the shop one evening maintenance the skid steer my father had bought for his business while I was still in school. While sitting there, it dawned on me that I could make some extra money with that machine, so I made a Facebook post advertising skid steer work and soon picked up a few cash jobs on the weekends.
The truth was, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had never actually “graded” anything. Honestly, I had never done anything with a piece of machinery short of simply moving it around. In saying that, I started pointlessly grading out our own backyard, just trying to teach myself. I soon found a niche in my line of work – stone driveways. Most guys in my line of work were too busy with bigger jobs and bigger profit margins to go top of a gravel driveway and only make a few hundred dollars once all was said and done. After a few months of doing this, a little bit of clearing, and a few other very limited services, I began to fall in love with it and grew passionate about it. I loved leaving a site looking ten times better than it did when I got there, and knowing that I was the one that made it that way.
About three to four months into doing this on the side, I finally realized that this is what I want to do, this is what I love, and this is my business. This was right at the start of covid, about mid-2020, and I knew that if I could do just one job a week, one day a week, I could make what I was already making in a 40-50 hour week with my father. Once I had enough work on the schedule to do this, I told my dad that I was gonna step away for a few months to try to grow my business. With less than ten thousand dollars to my name, and nothing to lose, I did just that. I would do one job a week and the other four days I would ride around “hotspots” where new residential construction was at an all-time high and stop by each job site I saw asking to do their work. Not even one of them was interested, and I was starting to run out of the work that I had already had scheduled. Finally, I met one residential contractor who changed it all for me – Mark Autorino with Autorino Construction. He took a shot at a young guy who still didn’t know hardly anything, and after proving myself on one of his jobs, he began to work with me, teaching me what I needed to know. We still do some of his work to this day.
After a few weeks, I told myself if I could find one more contractor to work with I would officially open a business. I finally found one, and after the site meeting I had with him, I went straight to my accountant and filed for an LLC, on September 20th, 2020. From that point forward, in just two short years, I have taken my business from a one-man operation to now employing four men on two different crews, working with several high-end residential contractors, a handful of commercial contractors, offering a mile-long list of services, and we just recently moved to a designated office location in the Boiling Springs area. With a 500% annual growth rate, I couldn’t be more blessed. Of course, I can’t take all the credit for our continued success and growth. In the last two years, I have met and surrounded myself with some absolutely incredible people and customers who have helped me tremendously in business and life in general. I also have to give credit to my employees who work just as hard as I do, sometimes harder, to help grow this company and keep us moving forward.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I wouldn’t say it’s been the smoothest road, but it hasn’t been awful. Anyone that owns, operates, or manages a business knows that there will always be challenges and adversity to deal with daily. With that being said, a positive attitude and outlook always helps to make the bad days seem not so bad after all.
I’d say the biggest struggle I had was leaving my father’s company. I was the only employee he had at the time and it killed me to have to leave him by himself, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt, I would never be able to grow my business without being 100% dedicated to it. Fortunately enough, he was very understanding and more than supportive, making it a little easier and leaving me feeling better about the whole situation.
Another huge struggle I’ve had is my age and physical appearance. Various customers have scheduled meetings with me and upon meeting them, they were in disbelief that I looked, and, was so young. It’s not so much of an issue now that I’ve grown a name for our business, but when I first went into business, I had to prove myself several times over to new customers and people that had never seen our work. But nonetheless, I still get asked occasionally if this is really my business, or if I am in business with my dad, etc.
Aside from that, the other struggles that we’ve had to overcome would definitely be Inflation, Material shortages, and Fuel spikes. Inflation and fuel spikes caused us to have to raise our normal rates, and while the majority of our customers were very understanding of the situation, others were not. Of course, due to our relationships with our customers, we managed to work through certain things and find other options. As far as material shortages, it definitely put a strain on our scheduling for a little while. We had to adapt very quickly to multiple-week lead times on various materials to whereas used to, you could pick up the phone that morning and have what you needed by that evening.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about CLP Grading?
CLP Grading is a Grading and Construction business in Spartanburg that specializes in civil services. With years of combined experiences, we have the knowledge and manpower to help anyone with just about anything in our expertise, and chances are if we can’t help you, we know someone reputable who can.
One thing that sets our company apart from others in the area is our ability to provide everyone with the highest quality workmanship possible through solid work ethic and years of experience. Our pride and personal involvement in the work performed always results in superior quality and service to our customers – and If a customer is not happy once we’re through, we will continue to do what it takes until they are happy.
My biggest dream has always been to be known for what I do. I’ve always wanted my company and I to be the people thought of when someone thinks about our trade. Due to this and our pride, me and my team have always gone above and beyond to make sure our work is done correctly, with the utmost quality, in a timely manner, and have always delivered a pleasurable experience.
One thing I value most about CLP Grading is the relationships with our customers. Our relationships are more important to us than anything. We treat every job, no matter how big or small, as if it were our own project, and we work with everyone to the best of our ability.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Probably how dedicated I am to my business. I can’t count the times that I’ve gone and worked on-site for 10-12 hours just to come back to the office and spend several more hours behind the computer going over current jobs, jobs coming up, scheduling, doing research, looking for ways to be more efficient and offer more services, how to offer even more quality than we already do, etc.
This plays a huge role in keeping everything moving smoothly and efficiently and I feel as though if it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clpgradingllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CLPGradingllc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz61dr9_cNrK-NIy0G321mw
Image Credits
Bryson Bishop
