Consistency key to success
Steve Keares, CEO of Keares Electrical Contracting, Inc., says that the key to continued success is "you have to be consistent."
"My goal is to see Keares Electric become the best electrical business in Chester County," said Steven P. Keares, CEO of Keares Electrical Contracting, Inc. "I think we are half way there, maybe a little bit more than half way."
With his company celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, Steve has worked for over three decades to bring quality service to those who seek the electrical expertise of his company. In the early stages of the business, Steve performed all aspects of the job, including estimating, laying out jobs, working in the field, and handling the paperwork for the business.
"I would do my paper work around seven or eight each night," he said. "If I missed a night during the week then I would have to make up the work during one of the weekend days."
Prior to starting his own business, Steve's journey in the electrical trade began in Athens, Greece, where he went to the Sebastopulios trade school.
"There was a lack of jobs in Greece," said Steve. "Those who were 18 to 20 years old were hanging out in coffee rooms because there weren't enough jobs. My brother, who already lived in America, told me to go to trade school."
The advice from his brother, who lived in Massachusetts, was the driving force behind Steve’s attendance of Sebastopulios trade school. After completing his studies, he began performing electrical work in small factories in his homeland.
"We were doing industrial work," he said. "Small factories for olive oil, and orange juice, those were the two most."
And, six to eight months prior to coming to the U.S.A., Steve was installing the electricity in his own village. "At that time, we didn’t have electric," he said. "We were still using oil lamps."
After the period in which he installed the electricity in his village, Steve made his way to America. But, instead of retaining the role of an electrician here in the States, he had to work as a helper. The reason for this was his lack of certification in his new country.
Steve became depressed because he was not only essentially demoted upon his arrival to America, but he was also struggling with the language barrier. "I knew what I was doing but I wasn't able to communicate," he said. "I learned English when I was in Greece, but the language was different here in America. I could read a paper with instructions on it but I had trouble understanding what people said and trying to say what I thought."
Instead of crumpling under the pressure and the problems that he was facing due to the difference in speech, Steve rose above the difficulties and decided that he would translate the National Electric Code from English into Greek. By translating the code into his mother tongue, he planned on gaining an understanding of the electrical rules and then acquiring his certification as an electrician here in the States.
The process of translating the code into Greek took Steve about six months to complete. He worked as a helper during the day at Reynolds Electric, in Wesley, Mass., and then he stayed up until 11 or 12 o'clock each night in order to spend time on translating the code.
"My boss at Reynolds was an Irish guy named Walter," said Steve. "He helped me a lot in receiving my certification. On our lunch breaks, Walter would ask me questions about the electrical code."
All of the studying paid off for Steve, who went to Boston and took the test and achieved certification as an electrician. "In one day I went from making $1.80 an hour as a helper to $4.50 an hour as an electrician after getting my license," he said. "After getting $4.50 an hour, then I said 'it's time to get married.' So I went back to Greece and got married."
After marrying his bride in Greece, Steve returned to the U.S. and began his own electrical business. The first big job that his company undertook was the new building for Hale Fire Pumps in Conshohocken. This job helped Steve's business to prosper.
"We worked on that building for about five years," he said. "That's the one that kept us going."
Then, from around 1976-1982, the company began performing an abundance of work in the Pickering Creek Industrial Park. Keares Electric completed work on about 12 buildings in the industrial park within the time period. The company also had its office in one of the spaces in the park until 1987, when Keares moved to its current location in Exton.
Around the time of the move to the Exton office, Steve's son, Bob, began spending his summers during high school and college working for his father’s company. "To this day, I wish I was still running pipes with the guys," said Bob, president of Keares Electric. "I really enjoyed that. I’ve always been a hands on person."
Then in 1993, Bob graduated from Drexel University with a degree in business and became an official employee at the family company as an estimator. He soon began running multiple jobs at the same time, and after acquiring and managing a Regal Cinemas job and a Wal-Mart project concurrently, Keares Electric began to boom.
"Ever since then, the company started growing, forcing me to be a manager and not a hands on person," said Bob.
After stepping into a managerial role with Keares Electric, Bob has led the company through an expansion from about eight to 10 employees to the current total of approximately 60 to 70 workers.
said Bob. "He's a person that has given me a lot of trust. When someone trusts you to do something, I’m inspired by that." "My dad has given me the ability and the backing to allow the business to grow and expand,"
Through expansion of the company and the use of technology, Bob plans to enhance the business and lead it to greater heights. "There's still technology out there that I want to bring in that can better our company," said Bob. "My goal is to have a successful company."
While Bob is extremely focused on the financial aspect of the company, he is even more alert to the need for safety among the employees of the business.
"Safety is number one," said Bob. "We need to be safe. We have to be safe. That's part of our daily operations. Being the best electrical company is meaningless if we are not safe."
Financial soundness and the performance of safety practices will lead Keares Electric toward Bob's ultimate goal: to be the best electrical contractor in every area that the company serves. "We perform work all over the tri-state area," said Bob. "My goal is to be the best contractor in every area that we service.”
Bob and his father both want to see the business become the best electrical company in the area and they know that achieving their goal will require continued excellence.
"You have to be consistent," said Steve. "You can't just work hard one week and then relax the next. It doesn't work. Give good service and be honest and people will keep calling you back until you let them down."
Consistency is not the only key to Keares' success, however. The company's ability to meet any schedule and surpass expectations has also helped the business flourish. "We have the manpower to meet any schedule," said Steve. "And we provide quality work to meet our expectations, which sometimes are tougher than the inspectors' expectations."
With an ability to meet deadlines and expectations, a commitment to consistency and safety, the Keares' goal of having their company reign as the best electrical business in the area is definitely achievable.