Pride in Perfection
From North Carolina to the Philippines, Cashwell Associates, Inc. goes the extra mile
![President Ted Cashwell and Vice President Julia Cashwell of Cashwell Associates, Inc.](storyassets/carolinas/feature_stories/F17-GC-Pride-in-Perfection/F17_NC_FS5_Interior1_530x370.jpg)
President Ted Cashwell and Vice President Julia Cashwell of Cashwell Associates, Inc.
![Shown from left to right are George Harris, Lane Dickens, Ted Cashwell and Pete Combs working on the interior of a shed at Whispering Pines Farm.](storyassets/carolinas/feature_stories/F17-GC-Pride-in-Perfection/F17_NC_FS5_Interior2_530x370.jpg)
Shown from left to right are George Harris, Lane Dickens, Ted Cashwell and Pete Combs working on the interior of a shed at Whispering Pines Farm.
Like a lot of young actors who move to Los Angeles, Ted Cashwell dreamed of finding glitz, glamour and fame in show business.
None of that worked out for him—but he actually found something even better in LA: a deep understanding of how to run a successful business and give back to the community.
Struggling Actor Turns Entrepreneur
As a young man with a theater degree from the University of Alabama, Ted headed straight for the bright lights of Hollywood. He landed roles in a handful of plays and low-budget films, but like most aspiring actors, he struggled to pay rent.
“I met all these talented actors—more talented than I was—who were in their 50s or early 60s and they were still working as waiters and going to auditions. It was a wake-up call,” he says. “I didn’t want to starve for the next 30 or 40 years.”
So, he gave up on becoming the next Jack Nicholson and found jobs around LA in general contracting. Before long, he began working with Matt Segal, a commercial real estate manager who taught Ted important lessons on how to run a business.
“He gave me a little formula he called ‘A.T.D.’: Attention to Detail. Matt said, ‘You have to have a critical eye about everything,’” Ted recalls. “And I always remembered that.”
The two have kept in contact over the decades. “Ted’s one of the top guys—very honest, sincere, personable, reliable and dependable,” Matt says. “If there’s ever an emergency, he’s there.”
Ted moved from California to his native North Carolina in 2006, where he runs Cashwell Associates, Inc., a firm that renovates, repairs and maintains everything from schools to medical offices to funeral homes.
“We really pride ourselves on our attention to detail, which is why our motto is ‘We Make You Look Good,’” says Ted. “Maybe I’m too much of a perfectionist, but I want everything to look good … every last detail is essential.”
But his business roots actually pre-date his California days. Ted, 59, says he learned most of his biggest lessons about business from his late father, Ted Sr., a jack-of-all-trades who worked at various times as a bus driver, landscaper, police officer, insurance salesmen and operator of a truck-stop business.
“More than anything else, he liked being in business for himself,” Ted says. “He always told me, ‘If you’re in business for yourself, you can set your goals to go as high as you want.
A Team-Oriented Leader
He also learned important business tools in the U.S. Army in the mid-1970s, when he served as a combat engineer and a parachutist. He was stationed in Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
“I learned I loved being part of a team, and as a member of the Airborne, it was an elite team,” he says. “They seemed proud of their physical condition, the way they looked, the way they polished their boots. I got my first leadership skills from the company commander. He really took care of his company. He knew and cared about us, and he really loved his men.”
Ted says he tries to take a similar approach with his own employees, a multitalented group that performs a broad range of renovation, maintenance, service and repair jobs.
“A successful company might have a good owner or president, but I’ll tell you, you have to have good employees. That’s what makes our company successful,” he says.
“The employees I have are troopers. They’re so versatile. When you’re working at a school and the principal comes up and hugs your guys and knows their names and says, ‘You do such a good job here,’ that says it all. If our guys weren’t that good, she wouldn’t know who they are,” says Ted.
Another key to running a successful business is keeping things in proportion, he adds.
After moving to North Carolina 11 years ago, he ran Cashwell Associates as a bicoastal business but eventually shut down the Los Angeles operation so he didn’t waste time and energy constantly flying from coast to coast.
Similarly, he’s careful not to take on too many projects simply for the sake of growing the business.
“I’ve learned to say no,” he says. “One of the biggest challenges is to try not to get too big, too soon and overtax the company and our staff. I don’t like debt. I don’t like credit, and I don’t like to be running around instead of giving good service to customers.”
The Important Things in Life
One project he doesn’t mind spending too much time on is his family.
“My biggest accomplishment? Almost getting my family raised,” he says with a laugh. He and his wife, Julia, are the parents of four children, including three who work part time with the company: Katelyn, Joy and Dean, who at 15 is the youngest child. Their eldest son, Karl, lives in Australia.
When it comes to construction, the project Ted gets most excited talking about is the charity work he’s done for Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, N.C., which he attends, and the mission work he’s completed overseas. He recalls a trip to the Philippines last year during which he and Dean helped construct a well to provide fresh water to rural residents.
“It was so exciting to look at these peoples’ happy faces once we got the water pumping and gushing,” Ted says.
“You go to a third world country where they spend much of the day trying to get water and food just to sustain themselves and you realize how much we enjoy as Americans here in the United States,” he says. “It really puts your life into perspective.”