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Charleston Business

#11 - Cantey Foundation Specialists

Nov 01, 2017 12:15PM ● By Emily Stevenson
#11 Cantey Foundation Specialists
Camden, S.C. 
William Cantey, CEO

Cantey Foundation Specialists is a family owned and operated foundation repair company founded in 2011. Headquartered in Camden, Cantey Foundation Specialists provides service throughout most of South Carolina and in parts of Georgia. The company is a member of the Foundation Supportworks, Inc. network and has assisted various organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, Walter M. Crowe Animal Shelter, and Carolina Green Fair, as well as a number of church ministries.

What are the keys to your company’s rapid growth?
Our culture, hiring great people, and consistently investing in them.  

What do you see as your company’s greatest opportunities in the future?
Our ability to grow our people so they can continue to redefine our industry.

What are your biggest challenges and how do you plan to overcome them?
Hiring great people. We are constantly improving our culture and spreading the word on what we are about because we are so much more than just a contractor.

What advice can you offer someone just starting a business?
Have a sales strategy and decide where you are going to be in the market and stick to it. You cannot be the best and the cheapest, and there is nothing wrong with being one or the other because there is a market for both.

What is your strategy for innovation?
We are constantly looking at new services and attending national trade shows to see what is available. We are great at implementing, but I do not have the patience to invent.

Who do you consider to be your mentor/mentors in business?
John Maxwell, Josh Smith, and Nick Rohe.

How many employees do you have and do you plan to add any in the coming year?
75, adding 25.

How is your company legally structured?
S Corp.

What is the hardest thing about being a founder?
Reality versus what you dreamed was going to occur, which I would say was about 11 months in for me. It is also lonely as a founder, even when things are good, but especially when things are bad.

What is the best thing about being a founder?
Freedom.

If you are a founder, at what point did you start paying yourself?
Day one, because I was not going to work that hard for free.