For Michelle Radley and her clientele, decorative concrete is, first and foremost, art. Both clients and others in the industry have come to expect the unexpected from J&M Lifestyle, a business known for pushing the limits of concrete to see what can be done.
“Our clients look at concrete as art first,” Radley says. “We make statements with our pieces, and I feel lucky we get to do that.
J&M Lifestyle serves both commercial and residential clientele, but what sets them apart from others in decorative concrete is they are more concrete countertop-oriented than anything else.
Radley and her business partner, Jeff, started J&M Lifestyles three years ago, but Jeff brought more than 20 years of experience in the concrete industry with him to the business.
The business partners met while Jeff was a high end contractor who always enjoyed working with concrete because of the many things that can be done with it. When J&M Lifestyle first started, Jeff was setting up a GFRC factory in Thailand.
“They were doing hollow monolithic concrete columns, and that’s what we thought we were going to do,” Radley says. “We have a patent on those, but the market was just more for countertops.”
While they plan to someday move into concrete columns, J&M Lifestyle now focuses on interior concrete designs and will sometimes do exterior work like outside barbeques.
J&M Lifestyle’s decorative concrete is backed by a one-year warranty, but their lifespan can last 15 years or long, typically experiencing only normal wear and tear.
While J&M Lifestyle has worked with countless clients in the past three years, Radley feels as though every new job is the best job she has taken.
“We just finished a really big commercial job for a theater. We put in fiber optic bar tops for the theater,” Radley says. “It was a really big project that had to get done really fast, so that was a feat in itself.”
Despite the fact that running a decorative concrete business is ultimately a lot of hard work, Radley and her team always try to maintain a positive attitude about everything, even through the normal ups and downs businesses experience.
J&M Lifestyle also spends considerable time training their employees and allowing them to work in their own niche. “Each has their own artistic and creative sides they are able to express and to work with,” Radley says. pieces – have their own artistic and creative sides being able to express and work with it.
J&M Lifestyle has cultivated a strong reputation for their unique and innovative work, so much so that others in the industry are always anticipating what they will come up with next.
Despite their strong industry reputation, J&M Lifestyle are still active in reaching new clients. When they just started out, J&M Lifestyle actively networked with many area builders, architects, and designers, which has led to much repeat business. Today, in addition to networking, Radley secures the majority of business from a combination of word of mouth and advertising.
With headquarters in Randolph, New Jersey, J&M Lifestyle serves New Jersey and the metropolitan New York area and will also ship products across the country. Clients and prospective clients are invited to visit J&M Lifestyle’s showroom, which is open during business hours. However, appointments are encouraged to ensure someone is in the office.
To learn more about J&M Lifestyle and to view a gallery of work, please visit www.jmlifestyles.com, email michelle@jmlifestyles.com, or call 973-668-5057.
