Twenty-one years ago, in 2003, Joshua Brown began installing garage doors. He had a dream of starting a small business.
Based in town as a Buford High School graduate of 1998, Brown placed advertisements in the Yellow Pages and a directory for Cumming and Alpharetta. He didn’t expect too much of it.
“I was hoping for a couple of service calls and a door-a-day,” Brown said. “I would be happy (with that). That would’ve been enough to take care of my family.”
As years went on, the unimaginable happened. What has become Elite Overhead Garage Doors has grown across the Southeast. The headquarters remain in small-town Buford, but the company serves all of the Metro Atlanta area, the Savannah-Hilton Head region, the Greenville-Spartanburg area and has established growth into Birmingham, Ala.
Elite Overhead Garage Doors continues to expand through 2024. The company is building a larger headquarters building and showroom, to be located on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. The new development will allow for the company to become a supplier and sell parts to companies and individuals while continuing its installation service.
“The Lord really blessed us as we continued to grow the company,” Brown said. “It is well beyond anything I thought would’ve happened.”
In the midst of a growing business, Brown and his wife, Melynda Brown, have built philanthropic efforts into the core of their company. The Christian-based business routinely attends the local Buford Church of God. Brown recently embarked on a mission trip to Romania to support orphanages in the nation along with nearby Ukraine in the midst of the war.
Habitat For Humanity also became an effort Elite Overhead Garage Doors involved itself in over previous years.
The Browns have provided support to women’s shelters to assist women and children as victims of abuse. They also sponsor numerous Buford athletic programs and the students of Buford High School. Melynda did not graduate from Buford, but their two children, Lilly and Joshua Jr. are Buford Middle School students.
“We were able to take Christmas to these kids and love on them,” Joshua Brown said of the European mission trip. “It really gave us a different perspective on things, and we’ve been able to become even more in-tune with being able to work with and support people along with (the business).”
Elite Overhead Garage Doors plans to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony within the next year on its new land development. Each day, plenty of excitement and prayer goes into the assembling land on the outskirts of Buford. As construction began, the pastor from the Buford Church of God traveled to bless the land.
The new development doesn’t show a need for expanding growth, but instead enhancing areas where Elite Overhead Garage Doors already serves.
“We want to do everything we can to be a better service provider in those areas,” Brown said.
