Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Dowell.
Megan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born at Sparrow hospital in Lansing, MI on February 1992, so to say I was born and raised here would be the best statement. Although my family moved around quite a bit throughout my life, Lansing kept bringing me back over and over again until I was an adult and could make my own decisions. I spent an accidental year in nursing during my college years, and another accidental year in dentistry in my early twenties, and decided the nomad lifestyle wasn’t for me. Michigan is where my family was from and I always remembered it to be so beautiful. So I stopped moving around and created a permanent place here in Michigan which was, ultimately, the best decision of my life.
I met my husband shortly after moving here permanently. I am so lucky to have met him so quickly after moving here as I then went through the traumatic experience of losing my mom to suicide. As corny as this may sound, I am still under the belief that my husband, Will, was an angel sent from heaven to get me through such a hard time. Suicide is such a hard subject and losing someone as significant as your mom definitely makes it a little uncomfortable to talk about. I also believe, as someone who speaks to the general public somewhat frequently, that it is important to touch on these hard subjects. You never know what another person is going through, and if I can give even one person some semblance of hope or inspiration, then I will continue to push through the hurt and have these hard conversations.
Will comes from a long line of handymen throughout his family’s generations. Our last name “Dowell” comes from 16th century English meaning “Do All”, which we’ve come to find out after tracing back his lineage like ten generations. So, I, quite literally, married into this line of work. I was originally working a customer service job which was doing me no favors and decided to join him to create “Do-Well Remodel”. Did you catch the play on our last name? We’re a small, family-owned remodeling company in the Greater Lansing area that caters to homeowners and renters for their interior remodels and repairs.
We started with a U-Haul rental truck, $60 to our name, a drill, and some drywall tools. I reached out to property management companies, realtors, and this was still when Craigslist was a thing, so I could snag small jobs on there, too. In 2022, I took my builder’s exam through the state and passed this grueling, four hour exam. When I mention “uncomfortable”, having someone kick you from the inside while you’re trying to take a life-changing exam, may be the literal definition. I passed on my birthday while I was 9 months pregnant with my son. This revitalized our business and took everything to the next level. With some tenacity, sleepless nights, 16+ hour days, and a Will to keep going (yes, pun), we’ve been able to grow our small business tenfold within the last 7 years. This has won us some pretty notable awards and garnered some attention from our community.
In addition to our small business, we’ve also created classes to teach our local community to maintain their own homes. We will come to your home, show you how to fix your basic repairs with the tools you currently have, and leave you with a skill set that you didn’t realize you knew. This class has taught over 2,100 people in the Lansing and surrounding area within the last 3 years and allows our community to have a sense of understanding of their own homes. This class has also won some awards and grant funding so we can continue to be a local pillar of our community.
I have two kids, Lizzie who is six, and Alex who is 3. We have 2 cats, and a house that we are also currently remodeling. I love to read and books are my favorite Christmas present. Did you know that you only need one thousand books to be considered a library? I am well on my way to having my own personal library! I wrote a children’s book titled “Lizzie Can’t Sleep”, and she can’t. She’s so rambunctious and has so much energy. I am also in the middle of writing my second book, guiding others through starting their own businesses. I enjoy creating, whether that is through building, painting, books, children, gardening, furniture, or otherwise. I will continue to create things regardless of their significance or consequences.
I think there has been a lot of luck, a lot of love, and a lot of determination to get where I am today. Together with my husband, we have overcome a lot of obstacles and have gone through a lot of tribulations, but we still have each other. I don’t credit him for everything, but a lot of who I am and were I am definitely stems from who he is. We are a team, and we are making strides to be role models for our children. Teaching the next generation, whether in our personal lives, or in our business life, is the most satisfying part of my existence.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has absolutely not been a smooth road. When I say sleepless nights, obstacles, and tribulations, I mean it! From not having enough skilled workers, or clients out to take advantage of you, or fellow trade peers who don’t take you seriously, or worrying about the next stages, in both business and life, it has definitely been a rollercoaster. Working through these obstacles has given us such a sense of purpose, though!
The shortfalls of the trade community are that there are simply not enough of us. Finding anyone who can use a level or tape measure, that hasn’t already gone into business for themselves has been such a task. We are missing like 750,000 people for the next generation of tradespeople. It’s been a subject that has been touched on by many different articles going over the issue. Lack of having skilled tradespeople will result in poor infrastructure and spiral inflation. The previous generation is retiring, but didn’t teach the next generation these skills and now we are seeing a labor shortage in the trades.
We have aimed directly at solving this issue in our community. We have touched on how we created classes for homeowners, but in addition we are doing so much more than this. We have worked directly with Capital Area Michigan Works on apprenticeships and teaching others how to do these trades. I have taught and spoken to our local girl scouts, schools, and colleges, worked with teenagers at our local youth hub, and have worked directly with state advisors on the condition and rules for local contractors so this community will have a better understanding of their homes and the trades.
Working with the community has a whole separate set of rules and is a completely different beast. I can go into a house and know exactly what it needs and what I would consider to look nice, but my client or the homeowner may think something entirely contrasting. This usually works itself out and the client is ultimately happy. There are some clients you simply can’t please or some who can be out to actively take advantage of you. It can be hard to know the different and understand your client right off the bat. This is definitely a challenge.
Speaking of challenges, as one of the only woman-owned construction companies in Lansing in 2017, it was a struggle to earn the respect of others in this industry. I was what one might consider “green” or new, and I was not taken seriously as a woman. Even after being offered a position as a city building inspector, I am still criticized on my knowledge and comprehension with residential building code with my fellow male peers. I put so much effort into learning the correct terms, reading residential building code and working directly with real estate agents and lawmakers to become one of the highest recommended remodeling companies in the area.
However, I don’t think anyone gets to go through life with it being a smooth road. Even those who have a silver spoon also have speed bumps. We have to learn to work with what we have and move on, regardless of the cards we’re given. This has allowed us to move forward in spite of everything we’ve had thrown our way.
As you know, we’re big fans of Do-Well Remodel. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are Megan and William Dowell, a husband and wife duo who started Do-Well Remodel in 2016 after realizing we both share some amazing skills and a passion for making homes beautiful. This is truly a family business and our family is growing as we grow our remodeling company.
Once you contact us at Do-Well Remodel, your project will be taken on and completely customized to your satisfaction. We specialize in drywall, painting, flooring, and basement remodels. As a family-owned, Lansing-based business, we strive to tailor your experience as personal as possible. We will give you a customized estimate based on your project, schedule you within a time frame that works for you, and complete your remodel or repair quickly. You will know you’re in good hands!
We solely exist to offer our services to other local families. Our values are based on responsibility and trustworthiness as we take the remodeling process off of your shoulders. We specialize in basements, kitchens, bathrooms, decks, and other miscellaneous interior remodeling. We started with a paintbrush and a knowledge with drywall and we’ve kept growing since then.
We are known for being one of the area’s most dependable and trustworthy remodeling company. We work directly with homeowners, but primarily single women feel more comfortable reaching out to us as we are led by a woman licensed builder. Our clients appreciate the communication, availability, and respect they receive when they contact us, which sets us apart from many remodeling businesses in the area.
We also offer in-home classes which a lot of our other peers do not offer. When you reach out to us, we teach you the skills that we have learned over 20 years of practicing and doing that you would not get from a simple YouTube video, (although we also offer tons of knowledge on our YouTube as well)! Together with our stellar communication, you are welcoming one of the most requested remodeling companies into your home.
Our services are tailored to you. We will work directly with you to ensure your satisfaction in your home, regardless of what services you are asking for. We understand that your home is likely the biggest investment you will make within your lifetime and we hope to care for it as much as you do.
I am most proud of how far we have come in such a short time frame. We have gone from being unable to afford our one bedroom apartment, to hiring on 5+ employees, purchasing our own home, and creating trust within our community in under ten years. I am so excited to see where we go from here and how much we can pour back into our neighborhoods and collectively further the next generation.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I think it’s hard to place success and failures on good and bad luck. Good and bad luck seem to come in phases and all throughout our lives we will experience both. I think when we fall on bad times or bad luck that it’s essential to rely on each other and our loved ones. When Will and I experience hardships we try to talk them out with each other and hold onto one another until the hard times pass.
I recently spoke at Michigan State University for The United Way. My speech was primarily about being uncomfortable and how it will always come back. You will continue to be uncomfortable, because without it, you will not have growth. Hard times will continue to come. What you choose to do with yourself during them is what will ultimately make you, you.
On the other hand, I do believe that we have been incredibly blessed throughout our lives. Will and I both come from what others might consider traumatic and abusive childhoods, so if you base our “luck” solely on that, then yes, we would seem unlucky. But if you take a step back and look at the whole picture, we have each other, we have our loved ones, we have two beautiful children, we have a thriving business, and a house that we can call home. These are incredible blessings that I am grateful for daily. Whether you call them luck, blessings, hard work, karma, etc., I am just thankful that they exist.
Pricing:
- Basements
- Kitchens
- Bathrooms
- Decks
- Whole House Painting
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dowellremodel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dowellremodel/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/dowellremodel
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dowellremodel/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dowellremodel
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@dowellremodel
