Husband-and-Wife Team Bring Sheet Metal Firm Into the Modern Age

It was the early 1990s, and Lilly Chang was at a major juncture in her career.

The UC Irvine-trained MBA had spent her entire working life at medium-to-large corporations, but she was looking for something more.

An interesting proposition presented itself when her father-in-law indicated he would be willing to sell her his company, Van Nuys Sheet Metal.

“I thought there was a lot of potential in this company, so I gave up my cushy corporate job,” said Chang, 34, sitting in her office in the pink stucco building that houses Van Nuys Sheet Metal in an out-of-the-way spot on Erwin Street in Van Nuys.

“Call it the Chinese genes in me--wanting to have your own business,” she said. “It was a somewhat difficult decision, but I saw the potential for growth.”

She used her savings to purchase the firm in 1994, and now runs it with her husband, Dan Schlick, 40, who grew up working in the family business.

Ironically, Schlick resisted running the business himself.

“They always wanted me to” take it over, he said. “I had mixed feelings. I like construction, but the father-son thing has a lot of bumps. For example, the guy next to me would do something wrong and my father wouldn’t say anything. Then I’d do it and he’d be all over me.”

But having Chang buy the business and run the company made sense for several reasons, the couple said--including the fact that it enabled the company to qualify for contracts set aside for businesses owned by minorities and women.

Chang also is more experienced in management, while Schlick prefers the technical side of the business.

Much has changed in the five years since they began running the show. The building itself has been expanded twice and a computer now sits on every desktop.

On an operational basis, the company has undergone even bigger changes.

The company specializes in aluminum siding and building products. Residential siding was once the company’s bread and butter, but now only generates about 5% of annual revenues.

Instead, the company now gets most of its revenue from commercial customers, including DreamWorks SKG, Disney and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

In the process of changing its focus, annual revenues have grown from about $600,000 in 1994 to $3 million at present, Chang said.

Chang and Schlick are the driving force behind the change, bringing with them modern business tools and techniques to pave the way for the firm’s growth.

In addition to getting the company certified as a female- and minority-owned business, Chang helped secure a large credit line for the company--a must for big jobs that require large expenditures for materials.

“They were doing everything on a cash basis before,” said Chang. “They didn’t feel like they had to go outside for money. But if you want to get bigger, you have to leverage. Now about 95% of our business is commercial.”

She also saw to it that the company was “bonded”--meaning an outside bonding firm guarantees that jobs will be finished in the event that Van Nuys Sheet Metal cannot complete a job.

The expansion of family firms by younger generations armed with modern business techniques and practices has become relatively common in recent years, said Jim Ellis, director of the family business program at USC’s Marshall School of Business.

“It’s a generational thing, typically,” he said. “What the older generation was exposed to when they were building the business was very different. It was difficult to computerize. But now those businesses are much more sophisticated because of the younger generation coming in. They are much more computer savvy, much more marketing savvy and they have to be because the markets are more competitive.”

Indeed, the new degree of sophistication at Van Nuys Sheet Metal is owed largely to the wider experience of Chang and Schlick.

Chang has a master’s degree in business, and her resume includes stints at Price Waterhouse, investment banking firm Cruttendon & Co., and several years as chief financial officer for Oncotech, an Irvine-based company with about 60 employees.

Her decision to leave Oncotech to buy and run Van Nuys Sheet Metal makes Chang one of a growing number of people with a MBA who are choosing the entrepreneurial route over the more traditional corporate one, Ellis said.

“We’re seeing a lot of that--people wanting to get into smaller business because of the opportunity to get their hands around the business,” he said. “If it’s a family-owned business, even better. They can get the benefits of their work. The control of their destiny is in their own hands, not someone else’s.”

Chang and Schlick both agree the company has come a long way since they took it over. But there’s still a distinct family character about the place, and that’s how they intend to keep it. Schlick’s sister-in-law sits at the firm’s reception desk, and she doubles as contracts administrator and officer manager.

Schlick’s parents still visit the shop occasionally to consult on various questions--or just to say hello. And Bella, the family’s Lhasa apso, is free to run around the office.

Everyone has his or her role, Chang said. “We don’t have any room for fat. We’re too small,” she said. “We don’t carry anyone, not even Bella. If someday she’s not cute and relieving stress, she’s out of here.”

Meanwhile, Schlick and Chang have developed a complementary relationship where Chang oversees administrative and financial matters, while Schlick’s specialization in technical issues is reflected in the large number of architectural plans scattered about his office.

The couple even has some tentative plans for what could someday become the next generation of family business owners.

“We put in some extra soundproofing to the office on the latest remodel,” said Chang. “We plan to have kids, and I plan to bring them in. I like that. Where I was before, I couldn’t have children. They couldn’t replace me temporarily. Here I can work and have babies.”

But Schlick said it will ultimately be up to the next generation to decide if they want to keep Van Nuys Sheet Metal in the family.

“I wouldn’t want them to take over the company if they’re not interested,” he said. “The worst thing you could do is make somebody be in a job they don’t want, so they’d hate it.”