Two floors completed without Drake on site. More room for the craft he wanted to keep.

Drake brought the design ideas, installation experience and relationships behind Onyx's custom floors. Metallic work was something he wanted to keep doing himself.

When we started working together around May 2024, he already had help with parts of the business and was looking for affordable preparation support. Sharing responsibilities was a conversation we kept returning to as the business developed.

Which parts of a job needed his skill? Which could a crew handle? Who would look after customers while he was installing? Those were different responsibilities, and each needed a workable answer.

Through 2025 and into 2026, Drake developed subcontractor and crew relationships. We worked through role expectations, job pricing and the sales responsibilities around that work.

The transition took time. In April 2026, Drake said training labor was initially making his days longer because the crew worked more slowly. By June, he reported having two crews running.

Drake recruited and trained his people. I helped him work through the responsibilities and costs around the work, and supported the sales process as those roles developed.

On our August 31 call, Drake explained that preparation, base work and flake floors no longer required him to be on site for every step. He still wanted to handle specialist metallic application and finishing work.

His clearest example was the two flake floors completed the previous month. He said he had not visited either job from start to finish, and the homeowners had told him they were happy with the work.

This was Drake's account of a specific change in his working role. It showed that some completed jobs could depend on the crew's work rather than his presence at every stage.

Production and customer follow-up are separate responsibilities. As Drake developed the crews, we continued working with him on who would handle incoming inquiries, appointments and sales.

An earlier temporary admin arrangement led back to Drake covering the role himself. By October 2026, he had named another team member to handle incoming leads and appointment setting, with us supporting onboarding and the sales-system setup.

That person was doing real customer work. In an October 18 call, he discussed a homeowner's garage-floor project and agreed a time for Drake to visit.

We are continuing to work through coverage, workload and follow-through with the team. The next step is making that handoff more consistent, alongside the production responsibilities Drake has already described sharing.