For Rusty and Jenny Shaw, entrepreneurship is taking on a new meaning. After years of building a life and raising their son in Lubbock, the couple is embracing an exciting season of change, with Rusty expanding his established skylight business into Austin and Jenny building her own career in real estate.

For Rusty, the next chapter looks a little different than he once imagined. After planning to sell his business at the beginning of the year and ease into retirement, he found himself doing just the opposite: expanding.

“I think I always knew I wasn’t going to be a corporate guy and wanted to work for myself,” Rusty said. “I worked at a car wash in high school and knew even back then, somehow, some way, I was going to be my own boss.”

As the owner of LBK Skylight Manufacturing, Rusty has spent the past 23 years growing a business specializing in the manufacturing of commercial and residential skylights. Traditionally serving West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, the company is now expanding into Austin, extending its reach into Central and South Texas and Louisiana while maintaining its Lubbock roots.

Their son, Brandon, recently moved to Austin to oversee the new location, making the expansion a family endeavor as well as a business milestone. Much of the company’s production and manufacturing will remain in Lubbock, while the Austin branch will create opportunities to increase production capacity and pursue future growth.

Despite the rewards of running his own company, Rusty knows entrepreneurship comes with demands that often go unseen.

“There is very little, to none, downtime,” he said. “I’m always on the clock. I’m always thinking about work, good and bad, even on weekends and vacation. It’s hard to turn it off and can often lead to sleepless nights.”

The Austin expansion has only added to that constant stream of ideas and responsibilities. Rusty finds himself thinking about the possibilities ahead, from the people the company needs to contact to the supplies required to keep everything moving.

“People generally only see the positive results and the ‘fruits’ of all the labor,” he said. “They don’t see the sleepless nights, the tough seasons, the rude customers or the employee issues. Being self-employed can be very rewarding, but it can also be very challenging and requires a lot of discipline and hard work!”

Over the years, Rusty has learned the importance of living within his means and operating the business within its budget. He has also discovered that success is about more than simply owning a company; it requires taking pride in the work and believing in what the business provides.

“This isn’t necessarily the career I always imagined for myself, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished and the business I’ve built,” he said. “I feel that we do what we do very well and provide our customers with the expertise and an experience that matters.”

The Austin expansion represents more than a new location. It is an opportunity for Rusty to build on 23 years of hard work while bringing the next generation into the business. What began as a plan to step away has become a reason to look ahead, with new challenges, new possibilities and family playing an important role in what comes next.

One of the things Rusty is most excited about is the opportunity for Brandon to become more involved in the company’s future.

“I am excited about creating the opportunity for my own son to work alongside me and learn the business that has provided for our family for the past 23 years,” Rusty said. “I love the fact that he has taken an interest in it and hopefully he will be able to add his own hard work, ideas and enthusiasm to take the business to the next level.”

While Rusty is focused on expanding an established company, Jenny is charting a new course of her own. After spending several years working in social services with Child Protective Services, she transitioned into full-time motherhood, devoting herself to raising Brandon and supporting the family through his many pursuits.

In recent years, Jenny returned to the workforce in a part-time administrative and bookkeeping role for a Houston-based company. More recently, she earned her real estate license and began working as a Realtor in Lubbock, opening the door to a new professional chapter in a community she has always called home.

The two paths may look different, but both reflect a willingness to embrace change and pursue new opportunities. Rusty is building on years of experience, while Jenny is putting her people skills and professional experience to work in a new field. Each is navigating a new season in their own way, with the encouragement and understanding that come from sharing both a home and a life.

The Shaws’ story has always been closely tied to family. High school sweethearts who later attended Texas Tech University, they have built their life together around hard work, shared adventures and supporting one another through life’s twists and turns. From Brandon’s years competing in motocross to his current involvement in the family business, they have embraced the opportunities that come with following a passion.

Outside of work, Rusty and Jenny enjoy spending time with friends, playing tennis and occasionally enjoying a little friendly pickleball. They also love gathering over good food and escaping to Possum Kingdom Lake, their favorite place to unwind. Whether boating, hiking or relaxing on the patio, their time away offers a welcome balance to busy schedules and ambitious plans.

Now, as Rusty takes LBK Skylight Manufacturing into a new market and Jenny grows her real estate career, the couple is discovering that there is no single timeline for success. Sometimes the plan changes. Sometimes retirement turns into expansion. And sometimes a new career begins just when you are ready to try something different.

For these two entrepreneurs, the excitement lies not only in what they are building individually, but also in the opportunity to cheer each other on along the way. With family at the center and new possibilities on the horizon, Rusty and Jenny Shaw are proving that the next chapter can be just as rewarding as everything that came before it.