Sure, why not? How long have they been in business? Can they give you a customer list for you to call? Any complaints at the BBB?

New businesses would never get off the ground if no one patronized them.

I never judge a company by the size, I judge by the people and reputation.
you can have a small company that try to make living with good 2 people, that take care of everything, better that a company with 1000 people and the one that cut your countertop is just doing his job waiting 5pm to go home.

just read the contract and check the previous jobs.

Personally, I would rather give the small cntrepreneur my business in a heartbeat if the references are good. I'm buying my soapstone from a one-man shop and just hired a contractor who is a small guy. Ordered my cabinets from a two-man shop. There is no substitute for the personal touch,IMO.

like others, i'd just want to know they have a track record. as i'm looking around at granite places, i'm finding mu=yself wanting to go with the smaller, family businesses.

All this sounds reasonable - the only difference with some of the cases is that this is a manufactured product that these guys produce themselves, so it's not like they're buying soapstone or granite from someone in another country who's taken it out of the ground and will sell it them or a larger shop, and you know you're getting the same material as everyone else. (Ditto for cabinets made of wood.) This is a material that they manufacture themselves from their own unique "recipe"). Does that make a difference to people's attitudes?

Wouldn't bother me as long as the references are okay and I like their "recipe". I'm happy to support a small business and I'd be thrilled to have something so unique!

Ok, I'll try not to be scared. Thanks!

Google was started by two people.....they did ok..... :)

My husband's company was started by 3 people. They did 20 mill or so last year...

Sure there are lean years and fat years, but no client could say that they sufered during the lean years.

I was once a commercial lender....let me tell you about the failures :) They were often small and under capatilized. They were often families, but often not :) What they had in common was a lack of experience. So, how long have these guys been in business? If it's less than a year, and you aren't installing the same day you cut a check, you are taking a bigger risk than perhaps many would. But, if they've been around a few years, and you are cutting a check close to install time, you probably are going to be ok.

I sometimes wonder about my counters. I paid for them about a year and a half ago. I know it's a small business (two brothers and one of the daughters run it) but I'm willing to take the risk. I know they run lean, they've called and asked me to pay for stuff before it's due a couple of times (I'm purchasing quite a bit from them) but then again, they should have asked for the cash when I ordered the products. My worst case scenario is they go belly up and I lose ten grand...but I paid by credit card so I really wouldn't even lose that :) so I feel "ok" about supporting this small business, and I expect to purchase from them again next year....and see them grow. Maybe some day they'll be as big as my husband's business :)

And if it helps you...I have seen many many a ten million dollar, multi employee company fold over night. It's hard to win sometimes :)

I bought my entire kitchen from a 2 person company. They had done several kitchens for people I work with and I am very happy to support this talented young guy just learning to run his own business, and I know his mother who I work with and trust. Many fabricators are small businesses of only a few people. But you do have some risk if they are not selling products backed by another manufacturers warantee. On the other hand, how many people actually succeed in getting any counter top company to replace a top under warantee after all the "exclusions".

Sue

Thanks for all this feedback. Just to make clear: I'm not opposed to small businesses - the concern was really because these guys aren't installing or fabricating someone else's stuff whose warranty I'd have - they're manufacturing their own product on their own equipment, and my concern was with whether factory manufacturing is reliable on that scale or not. But at any rate I suspect I'm likely to go for it.

Just don't think of it as a factory- you're getting a counter made by a small terrazzo craftsman. See, doesn't that sound so much better? :-)

Just thought I'd give an update on this - the samples finally arrived today. They look lovely, but have a fair number of surface irregularities (little holes in the surface presumably from air bubbles during manufacturing) that look like they'd make the counter really difficult to clean. So it looks like we'll probably use one of the other products out there that's set in cement rather than resin - we'll need to seal it, which doesn't seem as nice to me, but at least it'll be flat.

The real question is, if you have a problem down the road, will the company be there to take care of it? A warranty is only worth what the people behind it are worth. So many of these new "green" products are unproven, expensive and most will not survive 5 years. Go with your gut. Good Luck

Before I would EVER go with a small company again, I would check your county records and surrounding counties for any lawsuits, civil and criminal, that these people have been in personally as well as professionally. Had I done this, I would have found a half-dozen SCREAMING reasons to not hire the shyster I hired. (I chose to use the same small company that my sister used to do her lovely kitchen.)

I would also check with your state's licensing portal to see how many business names they operate under, as well as, see if they have any tax liens or any other kind of lien. You would be so surprised to learn that many businesses have multiple names they operate under from the same location. (i.e. Trucking companies are notorious so they can compete for contracts.) Most of this research can be done online. Here in Florida, I use www.sunbiz.org, which is different from the state's business licensing site.

I would also check to see if they have had ANY violations to their state license, if they have one for their profession. Here in Florida the site is: http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/. You'd think that any business doing work that cost over a certain dollar amount should be REQUIRED to be licensed by the state. It should be a CRIMINAL OFFENSE for these "professional cabinet companies" to rip off the public when you are paying close to 5 ~10% of your home's value for your kitchen cabinets.

I am the VICTIM of a shyster. CabFiascoGuy screwed us big time. I am STILL doing my kitchen over two years later and over $38,000 nightmare. CabFiascoGuy was incorporated and changed his business name so I got nothing from my court debut.

I cannot afford to do business with anyone that cannot afford to fix problems. Due diligence is the only security you have. Contracts are nothing if you're dealing with a shyster. You could 'win' like I did, but still end up with nothing but headaches to fix their mistakes. And trust me, NO ONE wants to come in and fix another company's mistakes. Everyone wants to start over so 'you' will be happy.

We are physically doing our own cabinet repainting and it's been a nightmare.

Yes, most definitely. In fact, the guys doing my cabinet is a 2 person company. When I had to change my design, no problem and no extra fees. In fact, he now needs to spend time in the granite yard with me again. When I saw him at his store yesterday, he showed me a cabinet door he didn't like and was going to bring it back.
I am getting billed for the cabinets and granite at the contractor prices and not retail. He said if there are any more changes, let him know.
When he did the demolition, I didn't like the look of the walls after the backspalsh was taken out. He went to Home Depot, bought sheetrock and joint compound. No extra fee and not in the contract.