Lee of Ace High Concrete Supply on Content, Customer Service and Growing Slow and Steady

When Lee opened Ace High Concrete Supply, someone told him to start an Instagram account. He had never been big on social media. He gave it a try anyway, and then he saw the reach.

“I realized the reach that you could potentially have to hundreds, if not thousands, if not potentially tens of thousands of people that don’t necessarily know who you are,” he says.

Today Ace High is on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Threads, and Lee is the face of all of it. He posts from job sites. He posts from the store. He posts with his sons and his wife.

“I want the public and potential customers and current customers or anybody looking for [a] distributor to know exactly who I am,” he says. “We’re a culture. We’re a brand.”

A sales guy who fell for the industry

Lee did not start out knowing anything about concrete. He got his start in the industry at another distributor, where he worked for years before going out on his own.

His first big win from those years still sticks with him. A customer in Montana bought a large order of grinders and vacuums from him.

“I was just like, this is insane,” he says. “That was my first big win. And then from there it just kind of snowballed into something bigger and bigger every year.”

He threw himself into the work. He spent time on job sites with customers, behind grinders, at demos and trainings, and learning from the manufacturer reps. Customer service became his mission.

“I really became a part of the industry and I felt like I belong,” he says. “I do feel like I belong in this industry.”

That time on job sites also gave him deep respect for the people doing the installs. “They have the hardest job out of everybody,” he says. “Everything I do is for them. I want to make their life as easy as I possibly can.”

Going all in

Ace High Concrete Supply opened on June 2, 2023. Lee did not ease into it.

“When I started Ace High, I was like multiple locations, all the products, gotta have this, gotta have that, boom, boom, boom,” he says. “Because I’m a sales guy, right?”

Ace High now has stores in Rancho Cordova and Santa Clara, and Lee calls it a concrete supply and surface prep house for Northern California. Still being here, and still growing, is the win he is proudest of.

But he is honest that the first three years have not been smooth.

“There’s been a lot of L’s, but the L’s are not losses, they’re lessons learned,” he says. “It’s been a roller coaster, but it’s been a fun roller coaster. It’s been an emotional roller coaster.”

“

“The L’s are not losses, they’re lessons learned.”

The advice he did not follow

Asked for the best advice anyone in the trade ever gave him, Lee paused, then answered with a confession.

“Slow and steady, which is what I didn’t do,” he says. Looking back, he wishes he had grown Ace High that way.

He is following it now. “I am now backtracking and I am regrouping. I’m redoing some things. I’m going at a slower pace,” he says. “Handle what you can handle. Take control of what you have control over. Let go of the things that you don’t have control over.”

He has started thinking about the business like a baseball season instead of a single game. “Base hits, bunts,” he says. “Just focus on the little wins every day.”

Systems before growth

The most valuable lesson of his own journey is about systems.

On day one, Ace High was just Lee and his bookkeeper. Then came new locations, more inventory and more employees, before the processes behind them were ready. He names inventory and accounting systems, hiring decisions, and the hard question of which customers should get net terms.

“Do I want to chase the big sale or do I pull back on the big sale, not realizing at the time that if I don’t get paid, I can’t pay my vendors,” he says. “I was growing too fast. And looking back, that was a huge mistake and that’s what I’m climbing out of right now.”

He also wishes he had had a right hand person to talk decisions through. Now he is bringing the right people in and putting the right systems in place.

Advice for new installers

Lee’s advice for anyone getting into decorative concrete coatings matches his own lesson: go slow.

“Take your time, learn the industry. Make sure it’s something you want to do,” he says. “Do not tackle a project you cannot handle. Start small, have good people in your circle, network with guys that actually want to see you succeed.”

He is specific about equipment. Before making a $30,000 or $40,000 investment, rent equipment or work with a friend who already has it, and learn the trade first. He gives three reasons: your own stress level, the credibility of the industry and putting out the floors your customers expect.

Advice for homeowners

Lee compares choosing a floor installer to choosing a barber. “You can tell a really good barber from a bad barber,” he says. In the same way, he says, “You can tell who knows how to do cove, who knows how to do urethane cement, who knows how to do the metallic floor just right.”

He would like to see the industry tighten its standards, the way concrete polishing has, so more installers are held to the basics: proper prep and moisture testing before a floor goes down.

Why recognition matters

Lee sells to installers rather than installing himself, and he is a strong supporter of the Golden Pour Awards for that reason. He sees it as a way to bring the industry together and to give credit to the people doing the hardest work.

“I have a lot of respect for the installers that go out and put their name and their company on the line when it comes to putting down floors,” he says. “I’m all for it.”

What’s next

Lee has watched the supply side change fast. He remembers being one of the only guys in town. Now, he says, there are five or six suppliers in Northern California alone.

He uses that as fuel. It is part of why he is so active on social media, and why he has blocked out the noise.

“Don’t focus on what other people are doing, only focus on what you’re doing,” he says. “Do what you do, be unique. That’s what’s gonna set you apart, just being yourself.”

“

“Don’t be in competition with anybody but yourself and that’s what breeds the healthy competition.”