Iris Harrell began Harrell Remodeling in 1985 and retired in 2014. She is a Fred Case Award winner and admired by the JLC and RM staff for her 10 Business Commandments, which she lives by and models so well for others.
The annual Big50 gala dinner at the Remodeling Leadership Conference is always a special event. This year's was even more special, however, as it marked the introduction of a new honor in the industry: The Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Iris Harrell was starting to see a common thread in the referrals she was gettingfor her business. Customers were coming to her after positive recommendationsfor her company, Harrell Remodeling in Mountain View, Calif., appearedon Angie's List (www.angieslist.com), an Internet-based business referralservice where clients grade companies based on performance.
Just after Sept. 11, when everyone everywhere seemed to be nervous, one of Iris Harrell's soon-to-be clients was followed by a stranger and it scared her. When Harrell Remodeling, Mountain View, Calif., was about to begin the remodel, the client wanted to know how she would be able to identify the nearly 100 tradespeople and Harrell Remodeling staff who would be coming and going from her house.
One-third of the biggest Standard & Poor's companies are family businesses, and on four economic indicators they outperform the other two-thirds. This is according to studies by Temple and American Universities, detailed in a November 2003 BusinessWeek article, that say one of the biggest strategic advantages a company has is bloodlines.