Dealer questions, answered straight

The dealer program is for working contractors and outdoor-living businesses: remodelers, deck builders, pool contractors, general contractors, and specialty retailers who already own customer relationships and already run crews. If your customers ask how to shade a patio, a pergola, or a sun-blasted window wall — and you currently have nothing premium to offer them — you are who we built this for.

You do not need to be an awning company, and you do not need prior shade experience. You need a real business, a real service area, and pride in finished work. The training covers the products; your business covers everything else.

You buy manufacturer-direct and wholesale — no importer, distributor, or rep layers. You sell and install the line in your agreed territory: motorized power screens and retractable awnings (full-cassette and open-roll), plus wind sensors, LED lighting, smart-home controls, and the fabric library. Patio covers are not part of the dealer lineup.

We train your crew, support your jobs with real technical help, prioritize your parts and warranty claims, and route consumer inquiries from your territory to you. Dealers sell AJ Shades products nationwide — product-only and wholesale, fulfilled by trusted local contractors. AJ Shades itself installs only in Southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties); we never promise installation outside that footprint, and we never ask our dealers to name contractors on our behalf.

The application is a conversation, not an exam. When we review an inquiry, we are asking three questions: is this a real operating business with real customers, does the service area have room for a premium shade line, and does the crew take pride in finished work. Everything else — product knowledge, measuring standards, automation fluency — is what training is for.

The strongest applications tell us specifics: the trades you work in, the markets you serve, the kind of projects you run, and why shade fits your next chapter. A deck builder who keeps hearing “how do we shade this?” from clients is a better fit than a generalist who wants another line on a website. We would rather hear the real story than a polished one.

What disqualifies an applicant is rare but worth naming: no real business behind the inquiry, a service area with an existing partner and no adjacent room, or an approach to customers that does not match ours — pressure tactics, bait pricing, or disappearing after the check clears. The network's reputation is shared, so we protect it at the door. Honest operators need not worry; this bar is exactly where you already stand.