Wes Laney stands near the corner of a fenced-in backyard in Kentwood, Michigan, on a hot day in the middle of June.
He’s surrounded by tools, tables, and sawhorses for him and his three employees to use with the piles of wood and siding and roofing to build another shed.
His eyes survey the completed floor, contemplating the next step in the construction process.
The sweat shows through the light blue shirt, which bears the company’s logo: Effortless Shed.
Looking at Wes and his crew, this shed is anything but effortless.
That’s because he named the company for his customers.
“We want people to understand that when they pick up the phone and call us, everything’s included and that’s how we quote stuff and how we run the business,” Wes points out.
“People are shocked usually because they don’t have to do anything to their site. They leave, and it looks like they weren’t even here because we pick everything up. We’re not a typical contractor that just gets in and gets out. We really try to make the whole experience super easy for the customer when we’re done.
“It’s like move-in ready. That’s all they have to do.”
STUMBLING INTO SHED BUILDING
Becoming a shed builder was almost effortless for Wes—because he didn’t plan on it.
“My kids used to race go-karts and quarter midgets all around the country, and they decided they didn’t want to spend all their weekends at a racetrack anymore,” he shares.
“That was a huge time commitment, and with us not doing that anymore, I wasn’t really sure what to do with all that extra time.
“So, I kind of just stumbled into shed building about four years ago.”
Wes found a shed-building mentor and started building sheds on the weekend while working full-time.
“My dad would build with me, and then it just got to be so much demand that I’m like, ‘Why don’t I just build sheds all the time?’ and so we went full time,” he says.
“It was just my dad and I, and we were doing like two a week. He’s around 70 now. We did two a month, just one every other weekend, to start out. Then, when we started up full time, it was two a week.”
Effortless Shed, which is based in Wyoming, Michigan, operated in that manner for a little over a year. Two years ago, Wes began to hire help. His dad is retired, but it’s still a family business.
On the day we visited the Kentwood site build, Wes’s 16-year-old son, Marek, was helping with the build.
“It’s really fast-moving,” Marek says. “We’re doing a lot of sheds. I’m glad I have (my dad) here to help.”
Marek and his brother Mikiah, 13, work on the job sites during the summer, splitting days.
Their 12-year-old brother Maksim occasionally helps with hanging door hangers and as a runner during trade shows.
Wife and mom Leslie is a full-time marketing professional who also pitches in.
“I direct the marketing and creative direction of the business in my spare time,” she says. “I’m also here to help with light administrative and personnel duties that may come up.”
THE EFFORTLESS PROCESS
Wes has built his sheds on site since assembling the first structure.
“That’s just how we’ve always done it,” he says. “It seems to make sense, and we’re not directly competing against the typical shed builders because a customer like this can’t have someone come out here and deliver a shed unless he does some surgery on things.
“Yesterday, we did a 10 by 10 demolition in the same spot. We started doing foundations this year because one of our guys is experienced in concrete.”
Effortless Shed’s basic site prep includes blocks, but some customers prefer stone, and some prefer a pad.
“And then some city requirements say you have to have a cement pad, or whatever, so we felt like we were losing some business there,” he says. “So, we added a stone pad and then a concrete pad to the portfolio this summer over the winter.”
While he “stumbled” into the business, Wes has experienced his share of growing pains since starting Effortless Shed.
“I only had a single-car garage, so I rented a space,” he says. “I got enough bruises there that I said I need to get something bigger. We were doing barely any sheds at that time anyway, so it was more of a test than anything.
“So, my wife and I just decided to find a property with a pole barn and after a third attempt to get one, we finally got one. We have a nice little setup there, and we have a couple of enclosed trailers.
“And when we’re fully staffed, we have one person prepping full-time there, and they’re getting the trailer ready for the next day or whenever the next build is.”
Wes says that it’s a struggle to keep people showing up to work these days, so he’s “all over the place.”
Wes keeps his lineup of shed styles as “effortless” as he can.
“We started out with just gable-style sheds, which is what this one will be, and then we added lean-tos,” he shares. “We also added a gambrel style, which is quite a bit more difficult to build, especially on-site, but the majority of what we build is a gable shed.
“If people ask, we’ll put a porch on or whatever but, we typically try to stay with what we do every day. We’re just much more efficient when it’s more predictable for us with those styles, and then there are about 20 sizes with them.”
Wes keeps the options for customers simple as well. Roofing is mainly architectural shingles, and siding is Smartside.
“Customers ask for vinyl or lap siding occasionally, but that stuff slows us way down,” Wes points out. “It kind of worked out good when my dad worked with us because I would just leave the siding for him and go on to the next job.
“It’s kind of crew-dependent, too. If I had a guy who was really good at siding, I’d do the same thing. I don’t have any siding people right now.”
Planning, prepping, and scheduling are becoming more important for Effortless Shed. Wes says he hasn’t booked builds this tightly before, with three to five sheds a week this year.
“Usually, we’re on schedule,” he says. “Before when we did two a week, if something happened there was a lot of flexibility. We’re on pace to do 130 sheds this year.”
The increase in work is because of a combination of being in business longer and a strong Google presence, according to Wes.
“All of our reviews are five stars,” he shares. “We have almost 20 of them now, and if you type in ‘shed builder’ pretty much anywhere in the Grand Rapids Metro area, we’re going to show up right at the top.
“We’ve done a good job with our marketing efforts to make sure that we’re in front of people.”
Wes uses pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) to enhance his marketing efforts.
“We do some Facebook advertising, but then we’ll do the simple stuff, too,” he points out. “We’ll leave a sign at all of our builds. I have a bunch of mailers that are pre-printed.
“The idea is for the kids on their day off to just go to the job site take them out with an address label on it with where we’re building. We haven’t done that yet, though. I think it’ll be a pretty effective way to do it. A couple weeks after a build we’ll get a sale from the same neighborhood.”
Effortless Shed operates from March through mid-December.
“It sounds like that would be sketchy, but we found that, generally, we can make it work because we can do anything no matter what the weather is like except put the roof on if it’s raining,” Wes shares.
“So, as long as we’re flexible enough, and let’s say a downpour starts. Maybe we’ll just go back to the barn and all of us will prep for the next couple of jobs, and that way we can go back to the field of work for several days in a row before we have to prep again.”
EFFORTLESS FUTURE
Where does Wes see Effortless Shed in the future?
“Our biggest priority right now is to try to buy a business that will allow us to retain our employees in the winter,” he shares.
“One example that we keep repeating is a flooring business. In the winter, we could in-source that work and then have everybody that’s here do that work.”
Wes adds that the future includes making better use of the pole barn.
“We actually haven’t had that pole barn for very long,” he points out. “There’s a vision and several projects between now and that vision being complete.
“One example is we bought a really big commercial-grade dust collector, and we only have one tool attached to it right now. We know it’s going to be a game changer as far as air quality, but we just haven’t really had the time to do it. Over the winter, it will get done.
“There is a possibility to do inventory and stuff like that, but some of that’s speculation. And then some of it’s also just the concern over that stuff damaging or warping over time.”
Wes adds that the pole barn doesn’t add a tremendous amount of space, so there’s only so much they can do in stock.
But he and his family and employees are willing to put in that work, like in the backyard in Kentwood, so that customers have an easy time getting a shed.
Besides, that’s what the business is all about—Effortless Shed.
