Growth and expansion are key goals for most business owners and entrepreneurs. Finding ways to grow in the utilities construction industry can be a challenge — there are only so many services you can offer.
Jordan Graham, owner of Ontario-based Graham Utility, has found a way to keep his company growing. The company, profiled in this issue, was started just two years ago and serves primarily commercial clients.
It’s a competitive market in the Ontario region when it comes to vacuum excavation, but Graham wanted a way for his company to stick out. Looking at what his competitors offered, he found one market that wasn’t being served: residential.
The area the company serves, Belleville, has several farms and rural homes that have wells. In 2017, Graham began offering clean-out services for those wells with his Tornado Global Hydrovacs and Rival Hydrovac hydroexcavation units. His crews will remove the dirt and silt from inside the wells to give the property owners cleaner water.
The service caught on quickly, and toward the end of last year, he was getting one service call a week related to wells. This year, he’s doing more advertising of that service and hoping it will keep the company growing.
Here are other ways you can grow your company:
Sell more
How many services do you sell? Most of you will only say “hydroexcavation,” but you should go beyond that generic answer. When a potential client asks you what you do, tell them that you can locate utilities, dig or even clean out areas using vacuum excavation. If your company is working for a utility pole company, offer your services not only for locating existing utilities but also to dig the holes for the poles. Always look for different ways you can serve one customer. You could locate utilities for a municipality, clean out its sewer system, or dig the trenches for new utilities. Upsell your company!
Go into more territories
You might serve a 50-mile area around your shop, but could you expand that? Find out what type of customers might be beyond the 50 miles (or whatever distance you currently serve) and see if it would be beneficial to serve a 100-, or 150-mile radius.
Target new customer markets
This is what Graham did with his company. While still serving commercial customers, he found untapped potential on the residential side he could take advantage of. When going this route you want to make sure you advertise what markets you offer clearly. Without advertising, no one would’ve known that Graham Utilities was moving into the residential market.
Acquire another business
This can be the fast way to grow and expand, but it can also be one of the riskier ways. Merging with or acquiring another business can double the size of your business overnight, growing your sales and revenue exponentially. Before going this route, do your due diligence: What is the company’s financial condition? The strength and depth of its management team? What is its client base, and what is the soundness of existing contracts?
Graham found his own way to grow by offering more services, but that might not be for you. Talk to other contractors at trade shows who do the same type of work as you, talk to other business owners in general, or look through past Dig Different profiles and get ideas of what you can do.
HEARING FROM YOU
I would like to hear how you grew your company. What worked for you and what didn’t? Email me at editor@digdifferent.com or call 800-257-7222.
Enjoy this issue!
