UP AND RUNNING

While the matter of money was not easily resolved, Akscyn found she had a backer in a former client. The CFO of a local family bank, she had become friends with the man when Blume’s redid his kitchen. “When I began to ding around the idea of opening my own company, I asked his thoughts on it,” she says. “I’m not rich and I was unemployed, but this man said it didn’t matter. He knew what I was capable of and got us a loan for a new forklift, our Park Industries Yukon II bridge saw and a gently-used box truck.” However, the matter of money was a very real one. Phoenix Granite Fabrication started with no working capital. A loan from her parents was collateralized and held by the back to secure the loan for the equipment. Akscyn also had another ace-in-the hole: her husband Mark. Initially introduced by her daughter in 2010, she explains his background is in hotel management, but his education is in statistical analysis. “He was always saying, ‘You’re so smart; you can do this,’” she says. “He’s the math person and the CFO. He’s always done the accounting here, and we work together 24/7” And Akscyn was fortunate to find an initial location that had been previously occupied by other fabrication shops. “Our start-up work for the building was minimal,” she says. “The trenches, pit for water and all of the air/water lines were in place. We just had to bring our equipment in and start fabricating.” Then, in October 2019, the company was told its lease wouldn’t be renewed. A friend of Akscyn’s who’s a real estate agent found the business a new location. In a further bit of great good luck, the new shop shares space with a concrete company. “We have similar requirements when it comes to water, safety, weights, moving things, etc.,” Akscyn says. “It works great for us.” As Phoenix Granite Fabrication prepared to move last spring, COVID-19 made its first appearance. Akscyn had delayed the move when the company was ordered to shut down in March. During those weeks, she says the company continued to quote jobs via Facebook and through personal contacts. Finally, the operation reopened at the new location at the end of May. “We scheduled the move and, with the help of a lot of friends with trailers and some horse-trading with a few neighboring companies with large flatbed trucks, we began moving slabs daily,” she says. “Our saw moved to the new location May 29 and we were up and running June 1.” Although the new location is rural – some 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh and about five minutes from Leechburg -- Akscyn says it provides everything she could ask for in a spot for her business, despite dating back almost a century where it spent time first as a feed mill and later a gas pump and general store. “The Bazella Group has been fantastic,” she says. “They’re a large commercial concrete company based out of Allentown and they use this mainly for storage. Because we’re a related industry, they were willing to prepare it for us and put the trenches in and a pit. They have just one person here, in an office.” Phoenix Granite Fabrication has its own offices in the same building, but the heart of the operation is the old general-store building, with a 3,500 ft2 shop space and a similar-sized basement that Akscyn hopes to turn into a showroom. She also hopes to purchase the third building on the property – a 6,000 ft2 warehouse – sometime early this year. “Before we moved, I carried about 40-60 colors in stock on consignment mostly,” she says. “Right now, the stone is outside. The third building has cranes and heated floors and LED lighting, but until I get that everything’s outside and I have maybe a dozen colors.” Quartz and remnants are stored in the shop, but she’d like to boost her inventory because the closest supplier is about an hour’s drive time.