The Marketing Strategy That Took a Window Company from $750K to $9M

Fred Abascal

Fred Abascal didn't just grow National Window Coverings. He scaled it in three years by investing money where most small businesses won't.

There's a moment in a company's growth when you have to decide whether you're building a lifestyle business or something bigger. Fred Abascal had National Window Coverings doing $750,000 in revenue. That's stable. That's profitable. Most people stop there. Abascal looked at the window coverings market and saw something different. He saw opportunity that required serious capital to capture. Not money for inventory or equipment. Money for marketing.

The numbers tell the story. Abascal took National Window Coverings from $750,000 to $9 million in three years. Consumers Digest named it a "Best Buy." The company expanded from 2,000 square feet to a 10,000 square foot warehouse. And throughout that growth, Abascal was investing $150,000 every month in marketing. That's $1.8 million a year. When you're growing from $750K to $9M, that's not expense. That's how you get there.

The conventional wisdom says you market once you're big enough. Abascal's strategy was the inverse. He marketed to become big. Most small business owners look at their revenue and allocate a percentage to marketing. Usually it's 2-3 percent. Abascal did the opposite math. He decided what he needed to spend to dominate his market, and then he made sure the revenue supported it. That approach requires conviction. It requires believing that if you reach the right people, they'll buy. It means accepting lower margins in year one and year two in exchange for market share and brand recognition.

Abascal had something else: he understood his market. Window coverings isn't some exotic category. It's a category where most homeowners don't have strong preferences. That means the business goes to whoever is top of mind when they need blinds or treatments. If you're everywhere—local advertising, direct mail, sponsorships, visibility—you become top of mind. The $150,000 monthly budget reflected that. Abascal wasn't spreading that money thin across every possible channel. He was using it to dominate the local market. Saturate it.

Three years later, he'd grown the company to $9 million. The Consumers Digest "Best Buy" wasn't a cause of the growth—it was a symptom. When you're reaching the market at that volume and you're delivering quality, third-party validation follows. The award reinforced the marketing message that Abascal was already sending. The real lesson isn't about window coverings. It's about the conviction to invest ahead of results. Most businesses wait for proof before they spend money. Abascal spent the money because he understood the market and he trusted his execution. The proof came after.