Meet Gideon Osei of Kingdom Countertops and Cabinetry-KCC in Highlands Ranch

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gideon Osei.

Gideon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came to the States in the year 2000 right after college from Ghana and after staying with my old college buddies for a couple of months in the Bronx I took the Greyhound to Denver. One of my older brothers’ friends lived here and said it was warmer than New York despite the weather reports of the Mountain areas we saw on TV all the time. I did a couple of jobs at DIA and finally I was invited to a Business meeting for a Financial services by a church member. Before that, I had a noticed this gorgeous woman at church leading praise and worship- so when I went to that business meeting and I saw that same beautiful woman at this place,  I couldn’t get her off my mind.(Needless to say, that she became my wife a couple of years later). After doing some Security work, my  lovely wife Vanessa and I agreed that Sales could be a good fit for me, so I landed at a big tile store as a sales and design representative. I ended up staying there for almost 15 years. I was able to build a huge customer, contractor, builder, and designer base from Bennett to Colorado Springs and all the towns and cities in between.

I discovered that most of my customers had a consistent and persistent problem. They didn’t like the idea of going from store to store to store to store, to pick up materials for their home remodeling project. They also were very disappointed with customer service expertise at the big depots and the limited options at the smaller shops.  That’s where the idea of Kingdom Countertops and Cabinetry (KCC) was hatched. Our goal was to provide a One Stop Showroom, where a motivated and trained design team can help customers to adorn their ‘kingdom’ from start to finish. As a result, we decided to include an installation department since I have worked with the best installers in the industry for at least 15 years and people really want a trusted source in construction. I can give that peace of mind to my customers that need installation too. So after five years of planning and modifications, KCC was officially opened last year July from my home. I selected Highlands Ranch for the location of the showroom because I have spent over a decade here helping customers. We design and sell cabinetry, countertops, tile, hardwood, luxury vinyl, sinks & other specialties for remodeling projects. We do Residential & Commercial renovations for kitchens, bathrooms, bars and any remodeling project you can think of!  No job is too small or too big for us. We have a great design and construction team and are blessed to be a blessing to people everyday.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh, boy- where do I start? There have been obstacles every step of the way. Let me start with a couple of them and I will leave the rest for our book lol. Before we started, we applied for a business loan application with a local bank for an SBA and for almost a year, they strung us along and made us believe that we were getting approved. Right in the middle of the process, all the reps we had been working with quit or got fired and the new people that got our file told us that even with all our collateral we will not even get half of what we were asking for. It was such a major set back, but we persisted and used our own resources and connections to keep moving forward.

Then the permits and the build-out obstacles for the storefront challenged us for six months. We ended up having to do a soft opening to serve our customers, but the build out wasn’t even done yet. We built walls in the showroom that had to be teared down because of inaccurate information from the space planning company that we had to use. This added a lot of things to the build out that cost us a lot of money but in the end, it wasn’t even necessary and the county didn’t need them. We couldn’t switch on our open sign because we didn’t have the Occupancy permit. There are constant fires to put out as business owners but we keep believing that the rewards will out weigh the obstacles and the challenges we are facing are here to make us stronger and better!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Kingdom Countertops and Cabinetry-KCC story. Tell us more about the business.
Kingdom Countertops and Cabinetry is a One Stop Shop Home Remodel, Materials and Labor Company. We specialize in Bathrooms, Kitchen, Bar, Fireplace & Basement Remodels. We can do new build homes in terms of supplying materials and labor for the final materials. We have about ten different Cabinetry lines we can order from from super affordable to custom high end. We carry Granite, Quartz and Quartzite slab materials at competitive prices and our turn around time for slabs and install is second to none. Our experienced installers take care of our customer’s homes like a Kingdom and any concerns we get from our customers are resolved promptly. All of our work has received excellent reviews from our customers. No job is too small or too big for us.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m Irish- I make my own luck…. just kidding!  In my life I can trace a lot of instances where divine grace stepped in and helped me out in my mistakes. I can say that about my business experience as well. From where I come, how far God’s brought me and how hard I’ve worked- I am confident “luck” has little to do with anything in my life.