Featured as one of Paul Davis’ “20 Women of 2020”, Kelly Nail is the Production Coordinator at Paul Davis Restoration of Lanier Isles, GA.
When did you start working for Paul Davis?
February 6, 2019
What were you doing before that?
Before working for Paul Davis Restoration, I spent 5 years overseeing the planning, construction, and completion of custom residential homes.
How did you get the job—or what interested you in going for it?
I found out about the position by word of mouth from a family member that worked with our branch for many years as a subcontractor. Having previously worked in commercial development and residential new construction I viewed the opportunity to gain experience in this sector of the construction industry as a great way to expand my knowledge and skill set.
Give us 2-3 paragraphs of your duties and what a day of doing each one of those would look like.
In creating this new role, we intended to provide a point of support for our project managers. They have a very tough role within the company with a lot of moving parts and pressure points that they must constantly juggle. With that in mind, it is my job to help our project managers be more efficient and effective in their roles while increasing the company’s overall return on investment. I do this mainly by assisting them with any upfront prep work they need support on, reviewing each of their open jobs with them throughout the week, tracking the job costs on each job, documenting any supplements that are needed, and outlining individual weekly goals for completing or invoicing jobs.
Over the past year, we have realized that simply having another set of eyes on the smaller details of the jobs can have a major impact on the bottom line. I meet bi-weekly with my direct report to review each job in detail (job status, money, etc.) and set smart goals for the upcoming period. This approach allows us to break down our yearly objectives into achievable short-term goals by projecting out our KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as invoiced sales and closed jobs. I then break these goals down by Project Manager in our weekly job review meetings to ensure our team is consistently moving in a cohesive and focused direction towards our year-end benchmarks.
Family info and how it relates to your job and daily life.
I grew up around the construction industry; most of my extended relatives own a business in one sector or another of the industry and my dad started his own building company when I was 9 years old. Ending up in this field was kind of a natural progression for me; I earned my spending money by sweeping out the houses and cleaning the job sites he was working on whenever I wasn’t at the barn.
It was during that time that I fell in love with the idea that a person’s dream could be built from a raw piece of land and imagination. As I saw that play out repeatedly over the years, I began to develop a genuine interest in learning how the houses were built. It was that passion that eventually led me into a career in the construction industry.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Through many successes and failures, life has taught me that some of the best opportunities can come quite unexpectedly – my current job included. To that end, I like to keep a pretty open mind on where my future will take me. The one thing I do hope to never lose focus of is constant growth – both professionally and personally. In 5 years, I hope to find myself surrounded by an incredible group of people just as I am now, that I am proud of all the challenges I faced and conquered, and that I am excited by all that is to come.
