Today we’d like to introduce you to Wade Bailey.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Wade. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in the Klein area and worked at the family owned commercial paving business since I was 13 years old. After graduation from Texas A&M, I continued working within the family business for approximately 15 years, learning all aspects of the paving maintenance business. During this time, I married an amazing woman and had 3 wonderful children. In 2007, I was at a point in my life where I was searching for something different and challenging. Fortunately, an opportunity arose to partner with one of my suppliers, Highway Paint Supply, to open our own asphalt sealcoat manufacturing facility through a technology license agreement with Star Seal.
Over the next 10 months we found a location and started acquiring and building all the pieces of equipment that would be required to get our business underway. Finally, we were able to open for business in October of 2007. Over the past decade we have listened to our exceptional customers and started offering many more products, such as striping paint, crackfill materials, equipment, parking lot signage and numerous other sundry products necessary for the pavement maintenance contractor to complete their projects.
Our team has 30 plus years of extensive knowledge as contractors and now 10 plus years as a supplier in the sealcoating, striping and pavement maintenance industry.
This experience and knowledge accompanied by friendly customer service has allowed us to grow our customer base generating steady growth of the business.
Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth ride, especially the first 2 years. There was difficulty in finding some of the various pieces of used equipment we would need to start the manufacturing part of our endeavor. Luckily, we were able to locate the necessary vessels and along the way some very helpful contractors who helped us fabricate and assemble the pieces of our puzzle.
Once we opened, there was a national shortage in one of our vital raw materials, this resulted in us having to manufacture a less durable product that dampened some of the enthusiasm of newly found customers. Of course, after having invested just about my entire life savings there was disappointment in the slow growth we experienced at first.
Once again, I was blessed to be married to an incredible supportive wife who never gave up on me. Luckily, after about 6 months the shortage came to an end and since then it has been mostly smooth sailing. Although we experience the same difficulties as any other small business.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a supplier to commercial pavement contractors. We manufacture the Star Seal brand of asphalt pavement sealer. We also sell striping paints and many other products that are needed for the contractors to maintain existing parking lots or to put the finishing touches on new parking lots.
We are known for our willingness to share our knowledge with our customers, which is ever growing as we learn new tricks of the trade weekly by just talking and listening to our customers, who in many instances have become friends as we have gotten to know them and their life stories.
Over the last decade I have watched teenagers turn into adults, get married and start families. I have, through many conversations, experienced the heartbreak of these friends as they lose loved ones, go through divorces and many of life’s challenges that we all face.
What sets us apart from other companies would be our willingness to help our customers if at possible, we stay late, we loan tools for repairs, we point out low tires on trailers and offer convenient air hoses to remedy the problem, just to name a few.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel like the Houston area is a great place to start a small business. This community is very diverse and the local entities seem to be pro-business without undue regulations and restrictions. Also, the size of the area lends itself to a multitude of customers. In addition, the population of Houston as a whole, is very kind and friendly making it a great place to interact with people.
Contact Info:
- Address: 14041 Chrisman Road
- Website: www.lonestarsealcoat.com
- Phone: 281-442-0050
- Email: wade@starseal.com
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