How Barrett Pribyl Built Denver Fence Guys from the Ground Up | F&D Mastery Podcast #67

Barrett Pribyl fell into fencing in his late 20s after leaving the mortgage business in 2006-07, building his own backyard fence with an experienced friend, and the sense of accomplishment plus the seasonal schedule that lined up with hunting season pulled him into the trade full time.

His guiding philosophy is 'walk before you run': he grew Denver Fence Guys with zero debt, never stressed about making payroll, and added just a guy or two each year rather than blasting into marketing and getting financially overextended like many fast-growing competitors.

The hardest part of scaling from one crew to ten is transferring 'care' to everyone else; because Barrett has done every job himself, he leads by noticing details, correcting issues in a caring (not head-ripping) way, and hiring honest, good-hearted people whose roles he shapes around their strengths.

Two pivotal milestones were giving up his personal phone in October 2018 (an answering service and sales manager took over lead intake and distribution, freeing him to manage relationships) and buying bulk wholesale lumber instead of packs, along with getting his first real shop.

The company runs on documented processes stored in Google Drive plus a big physical whiteboard, reinforced at Tuesday sales meetings (with breakfast and reading the week's reviews) and Wednesday/Thursday operations meetings that triple-check every job's materials before build.

Reviews are hard-won (three or four a week despite ~15 happy jobs), and windstorms can spike Denver call volume from 30 to 150 in a single day, so preparation and process are what protect reputation when a competitor got 'smoked' on Google after a tornado overwhelmed them.

Barrett warns that a second crew often doesn't mean double the money once commercial insurance, workers' comp (hundreds of thousands last year), audits, and management overhead hit; he laments private equity buying up trades and rolling companies thin, arguing communities need more owner-led, high-care fence companies.