This year, Frederick Fence celebrates its 35th year as a small business, which is no small achievement for most businesses operating in the virtual/digital age. Founded in 1982 by Charlie Powers, the company grew from a start-up with a truck and a man with a plan to being one of the region’s most respected vendors in the fencing/home improvement industry.
Frederick Fence’s customers are loyal ones—a significant amount of the fences they sell today are to either customers who purchased a fence for one home that have moved to a new one or they’re the friends, family and neighbors of these customers. Likewise, commercial vendors and country governments often make repeat use of the company’s fence solutions.
When you look at the employees who work at Frederick Fence now, you’ll find that some of them have been on board almost all their adult careers, a rare achievement in today’s business world.
How did this happen?
What makes Frederick Fence such a special company among its customers, vendor partners, and staff? Why do people stay here for years and years? Why do customers keep coming back time and again for a fence? How has this one fencing company weathered so many storms? Whether it was the dot-com bubble burst, the crowded expansion of the home improvement and fencing industry, the collapse of the real estate market or the global financial crisis, or the advent of the digital age, Frederick Fence continues to survive and now thrive as its founder begins the next chapter in his life.
We think there’s a story worth telling.
For the next several months, we plan to devote some of our blog entries to telling the Frederick Fence story. From our humble beginnings in 1982 to our large showroom and supply yard—still headquartered in Frederick, Maryland from the day we opened for business. We’ll share how we got to where we are today and where we think we’re headed with the next generation of Frederick Fence leadership.
You’ll hear a lot from Charlie Powers, our founder, as well as from some of Charlie’s personal mentors, our devoted staff, some of our business partners and our most loyal customers.
And we’d like your help!
If you’ve been a past customer of Frederick Fence and have a special anecdote or experience you’d like to share with us as part or story, please reach out to Jim Jenkins, our official historian and blogger. You can reach him by leaving a message for him using our online chat feature or leave a message for him through our contact page. The deadline for an upcoming piece on Frederick Fence from our Customer’s Point of View is April 15, 2017.
Look for Chapter One: Humble Beginnings to appear online soon!
