Beyond the white picket fence

Not everyone speaks “fence” like we do so I wanted to start a blog to educate people and hopefully make it fun at the same time. It’s not an easy industry to grasp and even I’m still learning, especially after a nine-year hiatus from the trade. For my first post, I’ll give you a little background about the business and myself.

My dad, Don Mafera, started this branch of American Fences in 1969 here in Hooksett. He grew up in the fence business, just as I did, with his father, Gutz. The original store was in Boston and was established in 1892 by my great-grandfather, Guy. Guy held one of the original patents for weaving chain link fence. (You can read more about our history here.) We are the last remaining family-owned store and it’s now run by my sister, Aimee Mafera.

I came back to American Fences and my New England roots in December of last year after living in the south for 8 years and working in news media. I honestly wasn’t sure how I would feel returning to my family business after immersing myself in a completely different profession, but I knew it was time for a change in my life and I had a perfect opportunity. I was ready to take on a new challenge in a business I knew well and held close to my heart. And this time around I was coming back with new eyes and a new set of skills.

After my first few weeks back on the job, I was pleasantly surprised I still held most of the fence knowledge gained during my on-again off-again working stints here. It was neatly tucked away in a drawer in my brain just waiting to be dusted off and opened up. It was like riding a bike.

We generally stop installing fences when there is more than 10” of frost in the ground, so naturally in the winter I have a lot more time on my hands. My first order of business was to redesign and launch our website and fill it with lots of new content. If you’re reading this blog, you’re seeing the new and improved americanfences.net. It’s an ever-evolving project and my hope is to make it the best local resource for fencing. Much of our customer base is the do-it-yourselfer, so I plan to create instructional (and fun) fence installation videos. With my photography background, I’ve also been updating the site with fresh photos from our recent installations.

Also in the off season, I got the company up and running on all the important social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, which I maintain and update frequently. Having a strong online presence, making sure we have good SEO, etc. etc. is also a big part of my job to keep our business current and IN business. I want to make sure we’re around for another 122 years. Not many businesses today can say they were established the same year that Lord Stanley presented the Stanley Cup, the typewriter was patented and the first basketball game was played. “And American Fences was there.”

I’ll leave you with one last note. I wouldn’t be a good marketer if I didn’t add a little shameless self-promotion so if you haven’t already, head on over to our Facebook page and give us a “like” and a “follow” on our Twitter and Instagram pages.

If you’ve spent any time interacting with us, please feel free to take a moment and review us on Angie’s List here.

Happy Fencing!