Betts and partner Mel Rosenblatt formed eight-employee Deck America in 1982 as a subcontracting company that provided outdoor decks to dealers. Then, in 1987, the company was sold to AMRE Corp., only to be repurchased by Betts and Rosenblatt in 1989. Today, Deck America has over 200 employees.

In 1994, Betts realized that in order to survive and thrive, Deck America would need to become a direct-sales company. At this point, 80 percent of Deck America's business was done through dealers, but sales were falling. That's when Betts began to plan and implement systems for sales and marketing, design and production, and installation.

The revitalized company designs, builds and installs decks and "SunClosures" -- sunporches -- for homeowners from Richmond to Baltimore. Deck America usually installs the units, but it offers consumers a lower-cost partial-installation option.

"We sell our decks three ways," says Betts. "We target a neighborhood, going door-to-door and leaving door hanger brochures; we knock on doors in neighborhoods where we are working; and we do 'warm calls.' By this I mean we telephone people in neighborhoods we are working in." Interested prospects are invited to take a look at the decks being built, and they are given a "deck sampler pack," which includes a color catalog and an informational video done in documentary style.

"We just want to whet their appetite," he says. Using this soft-sell approach, Deck America's sales switched to 80 percent direct sales, 20 percent dealer sales within a year. "We also get a lot of referrals from our customers, and we are currently developing our "golden heart referral program" to systematize and increase our referrals."

Betts is a W. Edwards Deming total quality management fan who says that having systems in place is vitally important to his business. His goal is to efficiently design, build and install high-quality products. To do this, decks are built in the manufacturing plant and then shipped to and installed at the site. The production facility is set up for efficiency, with automatic stops in place on machines to prevent cutting and measuring mistakes. Once the sections are complete, the installation team takes over. "We install it in one day and our customers can enjoy it that night," he says.

"Deck America's 1998 sales were $10.2 million, and we are projecting $13.5 million for 1999," says Betts. The company will also open a distribution outlet in Richmond and move into its own 41,000-square-foot Woodbridge manufacturing facility in June 1999. It's expecting to hire 25 new employees when it moves and approximately 65 more before the end of the year.

"We feel that once we hit $20 million in annual revenues, our growth will be limited to about 5 to 7 percent a year in this region -- the Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore corridor," says Betts. Consequently, the company is researching new markets, focusing on the Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and the upper Midwest area. "The houses there are very conducive to adding decks because of the way they are built," he says. "Southern homes often don't have basements, so homeowners usually build patios instead of decks."

Deck America will soon introduce a new product, the Designer Deck 2000, which is a light-weight, structurally sound deck system that will be sold through the large home centers. "The do-it-yourselfers represent about half the market for decks," says Betts, and his company currently has no competitors for its niche product. "Innovation and systems ... that's why Deck America is so successful."