After six years of working for J R Flynn Window Company in San Carlos, Ca I started Advanced Window Systems in 1989 at 23 years of age. Starting a business at 23 was difficult as many people don't trust a 23 year old kid who looked more like 20 working on their home. I lost quite a few jobs until I had enough references to insure my potential customers that I did quality work. At the point I had 100 customers I would hand my customers a spread sheet indexed by city and have them pick 3 references of their choice. I had one customer that did just that and said if he had not picked the references himself he would have thought they were family. Today we have very few new customers ask us for references. In 1995 I purchased J.R. Flynn Company and manufactured high end baked enamel aluminum Windows until 2007. After 24 years of sales and installations under my belt I have become one of the best known installers in the bay area. I have done multiple installations for local building inspectors and the people in their offices that they have referred.