"We were looking for an economical choice as opposed to hiring somebody full-time as well as trying to find somebody who had already been vetted. That was a big thing for me. I've been in the hiring process before and it is hard to find good people, so I didn't want to spend my time trying to find those people when I was trying to get the business up and going."
— Luke Canup, President
The Challenge
Luke Canup is the president of Covered and Clad, a Christian-based commercial flooring and wall finishes company based northeast of Atlanta. Though the business was less than a year old, Luke came to it with deep industry experience — and a clear-eyed view of what it would take to build a company from scratch.
His biggest concern wasn't the work itself. It was the people. Luke needed reliable, capable support without the time and expense of a full-time hire, and he needed people who had already been proven.
"I've been in the hiring process before and it is hard to find good people, so I didn't want to spend my time trying to find those people when I was trying to get the business up and going."
Luke also recognized gaps in his own day-to-day expertise. While he understood the business at a high level, he had never been deeply involved in the accounting side — and with a new company to launch, he couldn't afford to let the back office fall behind while he figured it out.
The Solution
BELAY matched Luke with two specialists ideally suited to his needs: Virtual Assistant Caroline Bennett and Bookkeeper Misty Arrington. Together, they gave Luke both the financial infrastructure and the administrative bandwidth to move fast.
Misty's bookkeeping expertise provided immediate relief in an area Luke openly admitted was unfamiliar territory.
"I have not been involved in the accounting side before, other than from a high level. And so I've not been in the weeds with it, and having somebody that already had that expertise was huge."
Caroline integrated seamlessly into the Covered and Clad operation from day one. Early tasks included creating letterhead, filling out vendor documents, setting up vendor processes and automations, and handling data entry. Over time, she gained access to Luke's email and calendar and was given a Covered and Clad email address — communicating directly with customers and vendors as a true extension of the business.
"She's emailing customers and emailing vendors from our company, so it doesn't look like she's just some random person emailing."
"We started getting some good-looking [financial] reports [about] six months in. I didn't expect to be able to have that. I thought all that was going to rely on me, and if it's relying on me, I wouldn't get around to it."
— Luke Canup, PresidentThe Impact
With both BELAY contractors in place, Luke was able to get Covered and Clad off the ground faster — and with more financial visibility — than he had anticipated. The results came quickly and meaningfully.
"We started getting some good-looking [financial] reports [about] six months in. I didn't expect to be able to have that."
For Luke, that outcome carried real weight. He knew from experience that without dedicated support, the financial reporting simply would not have happened on its own.
"I thought all that was going to rely on me, and if it's relying on me, I wouldn't get around to it. And so having that, that quickly has been helpful."
By partnering with BELAY, Luke found exactly what he was looking for: an economical, already-vetted team that let him stay focused on building Covered and Clad while the details were handled by experts he could trust.