The Barstool Fund - Broads Management
Up next: Broads Management (Jersey City, NJ)
Broads Management is a female-run construction company in Jersey City, New Jersey. This company specializes in construction management, interior renovations and real estate development.
Reader Email
Here's my story: I'm a 47 year old, independent, single Mom who owns a small, Female run, Construction Company in Jersey City, NJ called BROADS MANAGEMENT. 7 years ago I became a Real Estate Agent and built my RE group from the ground up, on my own. During that time I sold lots of old homes here in JC that needed tons of work and would refer General Contractors to my Buyers. 90% of the time the contractors would do crappy work, not finish the jobs or rip my clients/me off. So 3 years ago, while putting my kid through private high school and national hockey and working full time as an RE Agent, I also got my GC's license, started BROADS MANAGEMENT LLC, and decided I would do these renovations myself for my clients. To date, I am the only Female Construction business in Jersey City and offer females trades-workers/minorities the opportunity to work in an accepting environment.
Since then, I have successfully renovated or built over 35 homes/condos, increased my business by 25% yearly, employed 4 full timers, 7 laborers and own all my own equipment and truck. I have done this and built this business without ANY debt/loans/investors/partners to date, using ALL of my own RE commissions to sustain Broads, working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day.
We were doing great until the virus hit and since then more than 75% of our projects had been put on hold do the various City shut-downs, financial issues the clients have or just plain fear from our clients of having my workers in contact with them.
I had to lay off my laborers in October (many who have families and are not be able to claim unemployment due to their "status") and I can no longer pay my full time folks. We recently had our health insurance cancelled and my business insurance is next (in construction that's a death toll-idiots sue GCs a lot and we need our coverage). Right after that will be my work trucks insurance…and rent is due in 2 days.
I have worked tirelessly to raise my credit in the last 2 years and was there, only to have it plummet these last 4 months. So now I can not qualify for the SBA loans offered because I do not have enough/good credit at this point. I have sustained these last 2 years with only 3 credit cards and less than $3k in debt and now I'm getting screwed because I DON'T owe tons of money to creditors. The system is ass-backwards.
I was FINALLY living my American Dream after 20 years as a single mom, 2 jobs, building my businesses from the ground up on my own to leave some kind of legacy for my son and females in general…I was almost there-and had done it all on my own. And then COVID hit.
We will be able to start up again once the clients feel safe-and the City Departments allow us to work- if we can make it there. We just need a bridge to pay our overhead- and insure my crew and their kids do not starve. Thanksgiving and Christmas were really awful for most of us but I did provide meals and a toy per kid for my workers' families.
When I saw you started this fund I posted it on my LinkIn page-its been the most viewed article on my page to date. Like I say, if you want something done, do it yourself- and you are bringing life saving help to so many small businesses like mine. Literally life saving.