This award will recognize the organization(s) that have been in business for at least five years. The award will feature businesses that have exhibited outstanding initiative, leadership, and organizational skills which produce significant results that benefit the community. Such benefits may include excellence in customer service, conservation/energy-smart practices, a track record of growth including local investment and support of community organizations. To receive the award, the business must be an Elk River Area Chamber member in good standing.
Nominator Statement:
“They are very passionate, family and community oriented, and constantly learning.” — Cecilee Watland
“Northface Construction is built to serve our clients’ needs and to attain a higher level of satisfaction than any other company on the market today. From day one, we’ve worked towards becoming a credible team of home renovators with a proven reputation.”
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I (Josh Swisher) started Northface Construction in Elk River in 2010 when I was 18 years old. We celebrated our ten year anniversary on the 10th of January this year.
I started the business because I used to work for an entrepreneur, roofing at a young age. I always knew I wanted that life of excitement and control of my future. I didn’t know I would follow in his path of roofing and exterior remodeling at that time. As things progressed through my college career, I kept doing side projects for people and plowing driveways. By the time I graduated with my BS in Entrepreneurship from St Cloud State my business had grown to a point I could rely on it for my main income. Once things got serious it brought the opportunity to rethink and utilize the strategic principles I learned in college and apply them to my business.
Our customers are homeowners, business owners, and building owners who are in need of exterior remodeling. They need a reliable, honest, and relationship-based contractor that takes pride in the experience the customer has. Our customer resonates with our core values of being family and community oriented, constantly learning, and passionate. Our customers are as excited about the projects and quality as we are!
Last year I might not have had a great answer to this, but, this year I do. We started doing videography with our business. We established different series to create. One of which was “Welcome to the Herd” which is a video series that focused on Elk River and the local community. We had the opportunity to interview Debbi with the Chamber and spotlight other unique features of Elk River. It is a way to show our pride in our area and share that with potential customers.
I started the business after my first “Intro to Business” evening class at Anoka Ramsey Community College when I learned what an LLC was. In the first year in business, I did $6,000 and some change in revenue.
We are excited to announce that we have been able to add on more benefits for our employees! In our industry, unless union, a lot of construction employees go without competitive benefits packages. We were able to add on long-term, short-term, and life insurance packages on top of our retirement and healthcare benefits! We believe investing and retaining employees is very important especially in modern times.
Honestly not as involved as I hoped to be in the last few years. With the size of our business, I am constantly running and having schedule changes so my attendance to Chamber Connections is rare.
We take strong pride in our city and we take the opportunity to showcase our hometown in a positive light through marketing, videography, and overall recommendations to our customers. Keeping money and customers local is very important to us.
On behalf of all of us at ERACC, congratulations to Josh Swisher and the Northface Construction team on its nomination for Business of the Year!