Henrico Small Business Spotlight: C. P. Dean

Ask Sarah Ball about her goal for C.P. Dean, and she answers right on cue: “To limit the barriers to having fun in the home.”

Her company does just that, with a long history of happy customers to back it up.

With about 14,000 square feet of retail space in its Henrico showroom, C.P. Dean has a lot to offer – especially if you check out the store, in person. 

“Our website is one tiny portion of what our retail store looks like,” said Ball, C.P. Dean’s president. “And we'd love for anyone to stop by.”

The company specializes in selling, installing and maintaining game room items. Think darts, ping pong, air hockey, foosball, poker and other technology-free games, with billiards as the company’s centerpiece.

“Anywhere that you've seen a pool table in the Henrico area, it's highly likely that we have touched it in some way to make sure it's ready to be played on,” Ball said.

But C.P. Dean also has expanded into the world of electronic games. The company offers 60-in-one upright arcades, skee-ball machines and pinball.

“We just became the local Stern Pinball dealers,” the 26-year-old from Mechanicsville said. “The next nearest Stern dealer is in Maryland and North Carolina. . . So, I hope that we're able to provide a service of pinball to Henrico that was not necessarily here before.”

Custom awards and keepsakes are also an offering at C.P. Dean. So, whether you’re needing a plaque for a corporate award, medals for your child’s soccer team or an engraved picture frame for a special memory, C.P. Dean has you covered.

“We recently put a lot of investment into two new laser machines last year,” Ball said. “And we have a whole team where we're custom crafting awards all the time.”

Prioritizing customer service has been a key element for Ball and her team.

“The way we breathe and want to continue is to care about the peoples’ homes and the joy they're creating in their houses,” Ball said. “The whole goal of this is to have fun. And if you're not getting to work with somebody who's making that experience fun and pleasant, then we're not doing our job right.”

C.P. Dean has been a pillar of Metro Richmond's local business scene for decades. It was founded by well-known Richmond wood craftsman Charles Preston Dean in 1886 and initially specialized in bank fixtures as well as club and saloon furniture like bars, ice boxes and – of course – pool tables.

After Dean died of a heart attack in 1903, the company went to William Selden III, who preserved the company’s name – and its reputation for quality. The company then was passed down to the next two generations of Selden men before Ball and her parents acquired it from William Selden, V in 2021. 

“We did not want to see a business with such historical connection not continue in Richmond,” Ball said. “C.P. Dean is much of a staple for many people, there's no other billiard store here within a 30 mile area.”

Ball was just 22 when she and her parents – the business owners behind nearby Ball Office Products – bought C.P. Dean and she became president of the company. 

“I was in political fundraising before, and I was kind of tired of politics and drama, and pool tables looking intriguing,” Ball said. “It definitely was a big change and a shift, and there were people who did not think we would succeed because I knew nothing about a pool table.

“The extent of my knowledge was the extent of what a typical citizen knows.”

But Ball was no stranger to the realities of running a small business. From the ripe age of 8, she was helping her mom with bank reconciliation. She called it “the matching game.”

“I would match the numbers between her notebook and the bank account, or I would match the numbers between the credit card notes and the credit card statements,” Ball explained. “I think reconciliation is not something that most 8-year-olds find to be a normal thing, but I find it to be a normal thing. 

“There are other things that people my age might totally understand and know that I have no clue, but small business is very much something I was born into.” 

Determined to succeed, Ball immediately began pouring herself into the company and learning as much as she could. She also worked very hard to earn the respect of her employees – some of whom had been working at C.P. Dean since the 1970s and ’80s.

“Looking at a problem or a situation and figuring it out is not foreign to me,” Ball said. “You just have to take on a situation like you deserve to be there. . . ou're not going to be able to take on the challenge if you don't tell yourself you're qualified to do it.”

C.P. Dean has grown significantly since Ball stepped in as president. The company acquired West End Trophies, Bowling & Billiards in August 2022 and opened a second location in the Tidewater area in February 2024. 

As for future developments, expanding the company’s online presence and adding more to the Henrico showroom – including a rug section and a space for customers to pay to play pool by the hour – are some of Ball’s latest priorities.

“I've had a lot of requests for a place to play pool with high quality, well-maintained pool tables without vaping, cigarettes, alcohol and loud music,” Ball said. “They're not looking to go into a bar and hang out. They want to practice their pool game on a commercial, competitive table. . . so I’ve just seen a need.”

Locals can visit C.P. Dean at their 2044 Westmoreland Street location in Henrico, check out the company’s website, engage with the C.P. Dean Facebook page or follow @cpdeancompany on Instagram, X or TikTok to see its updates from this historical small business.

Nominate a Henrico small business to be featured in the Henrico Small Business Spotlight by e-mailing us here.