A & M Stoneworks, Colchester, Vt.

   That came with hew own shop – A & M Stoneworks Inc., in a shop five miles north of Burlington, Vt., dedicated to start-to-finish work, and much of it customized. Still, there’s plenty to remember from her very early days in the trade.
    “My father’s company had a dirt floor—it was a shed, like a tepee,” says Socinski. “There was little insulation and no heat. It was freezing.
   “I worked for my dad since I was a little girl,” she adds. “He had a monument business and I wanted to do countertops and I had something very specific—I had a vision—of having a nice showroom, having nice equipment, and having my own business philosophy, which didn’t quite match my father’s.
   “So I quit my father’s business and it was a little tense,” says Socinski. “I saw a lot of potential and I knew that I knew what I was doing and wanted to go in a certain direction and he wasn’t so sure. He’s from the old school. He didn’t want to invest in equipment; his parents went through the Depression.”
   With no car, no equipment, no jobs and little more than that vision, Socinski set out to create a stone shop, with on the hopes of getting work, some modest equipment and a few business contacts so she could support herself and two boys and satisfy her artistic sense—all at the same time.
   “A friend helped me build a small A-frame building to get started,” she says. “And I went to New York and got some limestone for my first job. At that time, about 15 years ago, the trucks weren’t coming up to Vermont. I had to rent a truck, go pick up 9’ X 5’ slabs and bring them back here. I didn’t know how I would get them off the truck.
   “I stopped at a rest area on the way back from New York, and called a friend at a masonry-supply place; he brought a crane, we unloaded, and then I had to return the truck,” she adds. “But I had a lot of support from friends, business owners, contractors – they surrounded me and helped me with everything I needed to get done.”
   Socinski got her first jobs using some very basic equipment, and scored those first jobs – as fledgling business owners often do – via relationships. “I got a Skil saw and had a friend make me a track; he welded some steel together and made a cradle for the skill saw,” she says.  
   “I bought a few hand tools and was able to template and install my first job,” she adds. “And, as contractors knew I wasn’t at my father’s company any more, they told people I had my own place. It was an extreme situation. I thought that if I started in the spring, by the fall, I could make enough to move into a real building. And I did.”
   Socinski subscribes to an equally modest, yet effective, marketing strategy. By being thorough, dependable and willing to deliver more than her customers expect, jobs keep coming her way.
   “I have what I believe is a bit different philosophy,” she says. “Marketing for A & M Stoneworks is pretty much fueled by my reputation.
   “Our customers are contractors and architects,” she adds. “Architects can spec a job using me, and over the last 15 years, I’ve networked and developed relationships with some very good architects.
   “And I get a lot of referrals from my existing customers,” she says. “But most everyone that comes to A & M Stoneworks does so because of the continuity.
   “I’m not in a hurry; I take a special interest in each project, in each step of the project, and do the best I can. I go the extra mile. If they want me to hook up the sink, I might let them know that it’s not my specialty, but I can do it, and I probably would.”
   That personal, take-it-as-it-comes attitude can have Socinski tackling aspects of a remodel job not necessarily directly related to stone fabrication,
   “A lot of times there’s a remodel where I walk in and the cabinets are falling off the wall,” she says. “Cabinets have to be level; otherwise, they not be able to carry granite. The cabinets didn’t need to be on the same plane when they were built to hold Formica®.
   “This can be tricky because it is extra expense,” she adds, “and calls for an assessment. It’s a discovery process—but because of my reputation, there’s no question that what I’m advising is best.”
   A & M Stoneworks runs with full- and part-time staff, with a shop that maintains versatile product in space considerably more generous than the garage where Socinski did her first job.
   “We work with marble, granite, limestone, a lot of soapstone, and a lot of slate,” she says. “I’ve also done some onyx—just about any kind of natural stone.
   “And we use Park Industries equipment,” she adds. “In my book, they’re the best and made in the USA, which is important to me. We have a Cougar bridge saw and a Pro Edge III, and it’s all stationed in our 3,500 ft² shop within an industrial park, which works out very well for us.
    “We have two full-time employees; one is a bridge saw operator and the other is a finisher/fabricator,” she says. “And we have two apprentices who work around their college and high-school schedules.”
   Socinski may be an artist at heart, but she also keeps a keen eye on A & M Stonework’s bottom line; she maintains definitive plans to expand, particularly to larger-scale production work.
   “I want to get a CNC machine,” she says. “It will allow me to do some fancy cutting. It can just do so much more than a bridge saw, like cutting a radius on a countertop. All of these things—depth cutting, sculpture, drain boards—all done by computer will help us immensely.
   “We can then take on hotel jobs,” she says. “If you have 90 bathroom vanities, it’s good for that.”
   Bidding and getting large-scale production work is a considerable expansion from Socinski’s from-scratch start. And, computerized equipment means longevity in Socinski’s book.
   “At the start I had to take whatever work I could get,” she says. “And that grew into contractors wanting me to do their work, to stay available.
   “All of that is wonderful,” she adds, “but I’m 42 now and I’m starting to feel the joints, and my back, knees and ankles can get stiff.
   “I’m trying to have some foresight; I love the stone, but I can’t do this forever. I think the CNC will make jobs physically easier and allow me to do those hotel jobs. I can do production for 10 years and then perhaps get back to the art part of the business.
   “Women’s bodies aren’t built for this but I love it ….but it does take a toll.”
   In 15 years of stonework, Socinski also notices shifts in the industry, particularly in what customers want and in what the industry provides those customers.
    “Everything used to be very highly polished,” she says “Now, people want that honed looked, a toned-down look. Or they have the antiqued or brushed look, which gives the stone surface texture, which is interesting.
   “I’ve also seen the quality of the stone getting better and better all the time than when I first started,” she adds. “I think that’s because the fabricators – who know stone – want the most-perfect stone available.
   “And, today’s homeowners scrutinize, asking ‘What’s that? A spec or a spot?’ The fabricators give that feedback to the importers and then the importers run to the quarries and ask what they can do about it. It’s a constant problem-solving thing.”
   Problem-solving is something Socinski’s learned to be very good at; she believes in giving back to those who’ve helped her build A & M Stoneworks and she isn’t afraid to step outside of her stone-fabrication skills – all of which, she says, helps to build the business.
   “I give away a lot of stone pieces,” she says. “I like to give back to the community, whatever that might look like. As one example, some lawyers wanted me to restore the floors in their offices, which isn’t stonework, but I know how to do it, so I’m going in and polishing their floors.
   “To me, it’s part of the picture, and it is very rewarding,” she says. “I get a lot out of it and I think that’s why people keep coming to me.”
   Cathie Beck is a freelance writer and author based in Denver.

This article first appeared in the January 2007 print edition of Stone Business. ©2007 Western Business Media