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Columbia Business Monthly

2019 SC 25 Fastest Growing Companies: No. 15 Cantey Foundation Specialists

LEADERSHIP William Cantey | Owner

INDUSTRY Foundation, Crawl Space & Concrete Repair

LOCATION Camden

FOUNDED 2011

If someone were to make a movie about your company, what would be the story you'd want to tell?  

This unusual company where people were allowed to do their job without micromanagement as long as the goals were achieved, underperformers are encouraged to seek excellence elsewhere, and having fun is more important than external perceptions.

What is the one thing that you would want others to know about your company? 

Our team is awesome and is the reason for all of our accomplishments.

How do you manage fast growth? What advice would you give to a company in growth mode?

We manage our growth by planning for it the year before. We have a team that understands being profitable is more important than growth, so we try not to overwhelm ourselves and attempt to set goals that we can achieve without burning out our team members. My advice to companies trying to scale is always be profitable.

What lessons did you learn the hard way? If you could go back five or 10 years what advice would you tell yourself? 

My biggest failure is what got us where we are today, so always get back up and never quit.  The advice I would give myself 10 years ago is find mentors through books and never stop reading.

Do you have a mentor or life coach? What books would you recommend reading? Is being involved in your community important and why? 

I have three different coaches currently and have several of our leadership team using professional coaches as well. 

Any book that is nonfiction that keeps your interest. "The Power of Ted," "Whale Done" and one book a quarter is required reading if you work with us. 

Being a part of our community and giving back locally is a large part of why I am in business.  For me, it is important to give back because there are lots of people that cannot take care of themselves, and to some extent I feel like those of us who are fortunate should look out for those who are not.

What is the secret to your success? 

A great team that is passionate about self-improvement, hard work and achieving our goals for no other reason than because we said we could.