Builder Stories

From $50K to $30M and Counting | Fares Elsabbagh of Canadian General Contractors

Oct 15, 2025
Fares Elsabbagh, founder of Canadian General Contractors, transformed a $50K startup into a $30M construction empire. He dives into lessons from rapid growth, including dealing with theft and operational chaos. Discover how he established effective systems to boost client satisfaction and the five key priorities homeowners care about. Fares also shares his journey into the business, hiring strategies that prioritize attitude, and insights on acquiring design-build companies to scale further. Tune in for a masterclass on building a successful construction company!
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ANECDOTE

Built Business From Digital Marketing

  • Fares started in renovations by using digital marketing and SEO, not by trade work.
  • His brother ranked their site #1 and their first lead proved the approach worked quickly.
INSIGHT

Happy Stakeholders Are Interdependent

  • Sales came easily but operations broke under rapid scale.
  • Happy clients, vendors, and staff are interdependent and must be managed together.
ANECDOTE

Rapid Expansion Before Mastering Ops

  • They expanded to four cities in three years and learned operations mattered.
  • Fares once didn't know gypsum board meant drywall, showing early industry inexperience.
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