BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH RENOVATIONS BY: KALI NEWLEN-BURDEN | PHOTOS BY: J. SINCLAIR
BUILDING THE BUSINESS ICON Custom Builders transforms homes and leads by example – focusing on superior quality and creating positive working relationships that have turned into friendships with clients, subcontractors and trade partners. Owner and President Chuck Hicks shared how ICON got its name: “What it says is what we wanted to be: an icon in the industry.” Prior to launching the business in 2005, Chuck and his wife, Shawn Bowman-Hicks, were flipping their own houses. Every few years, they would relocate for his job with Sara Lee (now Hanes). They were both drawn to older homes so they would buy, renovate, move, repeat. After Chuck left the textile business years later, Shawn encouraged him to get a general contractors license and pursue home renovation full-time. Shawn remembered saying, “What’s the worst that could happen? That we’d start this company and it would fail, and that would be okay.”
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Chuck recalled, “When you start a business like this, who’s going to hire you? Who’s going to take that risk?” They had to begin somewhere, so they purchased a house to renovate and flip. Chuck selfperformed many aspects of the renovation over a five-month period, working day and night. It took about three months for him to physically recover. With only $10k in profit, he laughed and said, “that was my income for the first year.” Nevertheless, he and Shawn remained dedicated to the dream. The husband and wife team got more involved with the community and the Homebuilders Association, connected with realtors and participated in open houses and showcases. After buying and renovating several homes with an expanding team, they began the transition to exclusively client-driven projects. People started to take notice. “Our business grew every year because we were doing a great job renovating, and people kept hiring us,” Chuck recalled. “We kept building our business.” Chuck credits ICON’s success to his incredible employees, subcontractors
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and trade partners. “To have the right people on the team has been a real focus,” he said. From master carpenter Don Guilbault’s custom pieces to project manager Doug Johnson’s problem-solving skills, every team
member provides a valuable perspective to each project. Over the last 16 years, ICON’s workload has increased and the team has expanded, but the emphasis on relationships has remained the same.
