Being brothers, Andrew and Josh LaMay don’t see eye-to-eye on everything. One thing they do agree upon is that much of the success they enjoy as business partners traces its foundations to what they learned as homeschooled students.

Josh and Andrew launched their general contracting business in 2018. Every year since then, the scope of their work has expanded, to the point where they now employ five additional people. And they just wrapped up their biggest project yet: a million-dollar home renovation.

But their experience in the workforce, and as managers and self-starters, began well before the formal start of their company—even to before they finished high school.

A Mind for Business

“In middle school I realized I was interested in entrepreneurship,” said Andrew, who is 13 months older than his brother. He enjoyed reading about self-made businessmen such as Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.

Not until he was 15 did he start earning a regular wage at a local ice cream shop. (He obtained special permission from his parents to work at that age.) By 16 he had earned a promotion and was managing workers older than him, including some attending college. He repeated this accomplishment in a subsequent job at a pizza restaurant.

Andrew said his early work experience taught him two basic principles of business: the importance of providing good customer service and being attentive to details. Concentrating on the latter can help ensure you achieve the former.

As he explained: “You can document a process in such a detailed way that you can make even high school students really efficient at something.”

Josh’s initial work experience focused on the building trades. While still a teen he entered a construction program at tech school. At age 16 he was hired to work on-site for a high-end building contractor.

"I did a lot of grunt work," he recalled.

It All Starts at Home

The key force that drove them both toward employment and a passion for success was homeschooling. The flexibility of home education not only allowed them to explore what really interested them, it afforded the extra time to really work at these interests.

Thanks to being homeschooled, said Andrew, “we have twice the amount of work experience as other people our age.”

Homeschooling also empowered their parents to teach certain ideals the brothers say have made them better businessmen. In addition to imparting their Christian faith, said Andrew and Josh, their mom and dad taught them to adhere to higher standards in their dealings with everyone—co-workers and clients alike.

Of course, their parents provided hands-on help, too. The brothers recalled how, while laboring on one of their first jobs together rebuilding a garage for a friend, they had to ask their dad for rides to the worksite because neither was old enough for a driver’s license.

From the Ground Up

Andrew graduated high school in 2017, and Josh in 2018. Both took some college courses while still in high school, but after graduation determined they would rather go directly into business. As Andrew explained, he sometimes felt the effort he put into academics and the reward that effort delivered was too abstract.

“In the workplace, there is a direct correlation between working hard and getting ahead,” said Andrew. “I really appreciate that.”

The brothers agreed to pool the $10,000 each had received as a gift from their grandfather and launch their business.

“I thought: ‘It’s not going to get us far, but we can start,’ ” Andrew recalled.

The first challenge was simply landing clients. The brothers joined several business groups to promote their business, but relied principally on word-of-mouth among family and friends.

“It was mostly Andrew networking with people,” said Josh.

And they were grateful for every job they landed.

“The first couple of years our projects weren’t all that glamorous,” Andrew noted.

One of the first contracts they fulfilled together involved building a shed in the middle of winter. One brother held parts while the other assembled them. They traded off tasks periodically so each would have the chance to warm up a little. In another messy job, they dug a six-foot pit and lined it with bricks to make a space for the main water meter at a Pittsburgh-area seminary.

Looking Ahead

As their portfolio expanded, so did their clientele. The brothers noticed that their growth also seemed driven by the values they applied to the way they do business.

Yes, said Andrew, their company is small, nimble, and offers competitive pricing. He added that they place importance on the service side of their work, not just in how they present themselves, but in how they operate on-site.

“We come from the standpoint of seeking to honor God through our business,” Josh explained.

Andrew concurred. “We’re a couple of young guys who work hard and are honest,” he said, adding that these traits, along with being organized and professional, go a long way toward winning over clients.

Now that the business has grown to the point where they have a small staff, Andrew and Josh have begun taking on different roles. Andrew now focuses more on sales and development. And Josh hopes to transition further into management and working in their shop.

“Though I definitely like being on-site,” Josh admitted.

They also make sure to carve out time for family. Over Christmas, for example, everyone in the company took two weeks of paid vacation to recharge and ponder the future.

As a matter of fact, said Josh, there’s one conversation he’s already had with his wife. He told her: “I hope that we have kids and that we will homeschool them.”