In 2014, Ethan Halpern moved from the music classroom as a teacher to the shop floor as president and owner of American Awning & Blind Co. in North Hollywood, Calif. A family friend owned the business and offered Halpern the opportunity to buy it. U.S.-based and financially strong with a customized product, it made business sense to Halpern. He closed the deal and generally hasn’t missed the classroom.
American Awning’s work includes both stationary and retractable awnings in residential and small business markets, shade sails, and cabanas. The company works with general contractors, design firms and businesses in the hospitality industry.
Growing up in California building skateboard jumps formed his “build anything” mindset early. “As a kid, I was always building something,” he says. “I like the feeling of satisfaction from seeing a completed project out in the world.”
Innovate and grow
Since taking over, Halpern has expanded American Awning’s clientele. The company is on pace now to show growth of seven times from where the company was in 2014, he says. In 2014, 99% of its business was direct to homeowners. His strategy added another client group: professionals such as architects, general contractors and business ownership groups. Today, approximately 30% of the company’s business is direct to homeowners and 70% is with other professionals.
“I believe it’s important to innovate and grow all the time,” says Halpern. “A big learning curve for us has been around commercial business development.”
In the beginning, that shift felt risky because he and his team hadn’t done it before and didn’t know exactly how to go about it. To Halpern, an avid mountain biker, it felt a little like a new trail to master. His company had to figure out where and how to find bid opportunities. The scale and scope of commercial projects and large-project management were new to American Awning. “We have a great team here, and together we figured it out,” he says.
Outreach is key to American Awning’s success. To cultivate that communication, Halpern has contacted architects, engineers and general contractors in person. His personal touch has been effective, even if he wasn’t always sure of the best way to go about it. “I liken it to walking in a dark hallway, feeling your way through it,” he says. “Then you start finding light switches and can begin to see the best path.”
Halpern wishes he had known the path from the beginning, which would have helped the company get where it is now, sooner; today, he’d like to know if this path will still be effective in five years. To continue to expand its pipeline of potential commercial clients, American Awning is now more active on LinkedIn. That, along with joining trade groups in industries and markets where it wants to grow, has helped the company identify ownership groups, general contractors and architects who specialize in this space. To help produce digital marketing copy, the company has begun to use artificial intelligence, which Halpern expects will continue.
Being a better partner
Halpern leads with his strong ethos of valuing people and relationships, in and outside of the company. “We want to create long-term relationships with our clients,” he says. “It’s also important to me that both our clients and employees feel comfortable, that their needs are met and that we have an enjoyable place to work.”
His business philosophy revolves around customer service. As the company collaborates with other professionals, Halpern wants to be a better partner to them. “It’s about how we can make our client look like a hero to their clients,” he says.
For example, knowledge of fabric requirements and restrictions in particular locations helps clients avoid project delays. If a customer wants to use awning frames made elsewhere, even another country, designing a solution the structural engineer can sign off on delivers customer satisfaction. Rather than burden clients, American Awning works to ensure that those details do not keep their clients awake at night or hinder their clients’ work.
Once Halpern’s team identifies how to successfully navigate any pitfalls, the team presents its solutions to clients. “We keep our client-facing process as simple as possible,” he says. “We work behind the scenes to narrow design choices down to just one or two that we present.”
That approach reflects Halpern’s desire to give his customers a positive experience. He wants to leave his customers feeling that American Awning made the experience easy and achieved their desired outcome.
Connecting and delivering value-add
To engage with diversified clientele, American Awning varies its marketing strategies. “To market directly to consumers, we use social media, like Facebook and Instagram,” Halpern says. “Yelp has been a pretty good source of leads for us.” American Awning also works to engage with past clients.
The marketing approach with other professionals is primarily through Halpern’s active outreach. “Presentations, like lunch and learns, are a great way to get your foot in the door,” he says. It’s important, he adds, to show decision-makers what kind of value his company can bring.
He says Advanced Textiles Association membership benefits help as well, such as the PowerPoint “Creative and Functional Applications.”
“When a group needs continuing-education credits, I use the ATA/AIA [American Institute of Architects] accredited PowerPoints. They save me time, meet a need of these potential clients and show the value-add American Awning can bring.”
He is persistent in looking for ways American Awning can better serve its customers by continuously making incremental improvements, such as systematizing every step in its processes, overhauling production paperwork and increasing use of technology such as QuickBooks® to capture job-costing data. “I probably drive my staff wild at times with all my new initiatives,” Halpern says. “We’ve had some hard lessons and great lessons as well along the way. Constantly upping our game the way we continue to do brings reward personally and for our company.”
He is proud of their business development process. “As we work with more professionals, we have validation that what we’re doing is working, and that feels good,” he says.
A board member of ATA’s Professional Awning Manufacturers Association, Halpern says, “I absolutely want to take the chances I see to get to know others.” If other business owners are ever in the Los Angeles area, he invites them to connect. And if they’re into biking, he’d love to take them for a spin.
Linda McDonald is a freelance writer based in Minneapolis, Minn.
Photography by © Mark Skalny Photography
After years of renting a tent every winter to keep rain out of the ninth-floor Harriet’s bar, leaders at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood approached American Awning for a permanent solution. Together with the engineering and architectural firm that originally designed the space, American Awning’s engineering team designed a retractable roof system.
“To execute the project, we brought in outside vendors who scanned the concrete, craned the materials up to the bar, fabricated and installed the steelwork, and added fire sprinklers to the bar,” says owner Ethan Halpern.
They installed a Corradi USA retractable awning and fabricated and installed stationary panels along the sides, which were made of Serge Ferrari Soltis Proof 502 fabric.
“Now, with the push of a button, our client can open and close the awning that covers 1,500 square feet of space.”
Q&A: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Build a network of other business leaders, inside and outside of this industry, to talk with and exchange lessons learned. I’ve used both organic and formal approaches, which led me to mentors and others to learn from. Discussion with those thought leaders helped expand my knowledge and my business. They helped me add to my tool belt, grow my expertise and expand my capabilities. For a couple years, I was part of the Vistage Network, where I connected to six or seven others, and I am still in contact with them today. As one person told me, “With each step, you learn a few tricks that work and apply them to the next round.”
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