Underground Construction - June 2019 - 31

2019 HDD Roundtable
more of our business. That can be dictated
by the client itself to ensure that they have
a long-term successful contractor that's got
a background that can bring in projects on
time, doing it the right way, following the
safety mandates.
Kottelenberg: On our end that's often
the biggest push. We do a lot of work for
Bell Canada up our way. They're one of the
main, original telco companies, and we
often have done the same thing. They're
constantly pushing us to take on more.
But we're also trying to communicate with
them quite frequently to explain to them
where our limitations are, so we can set
their expectations. Because for us, it's, "Do
what you say you're going to do."
Baker: To your point, if the company's
not growing, employees don't have a
place to grow, and the best way to grow is
organically. If you're growing organically
and people have a place to move up and
better themselves inside the company,
they don't really have a reason to go to
another company.

UC: From your decades of success in
this business, what advice would you
offer younger contractors who want to
grow their own companies?

Kottelenberg: We're a family orientated
and run company in that midsize range,
with a little under 200 employees, and for
us it always comes back to staying true to
your roots. Focus on what you're good at.
Add to that. Do what you say you're going
to do, and don't disappoint the clients.
Because, at the end of the day, often that
project is lucrative or has some opportunity, but falling short on that opportunity is
going to be way more detrimental to you in
the long term than whatever you can get in
the short term on it.
Ultimately, when it comes to delivering
on our promises, we're only as good as the
employees we have. They're truly our best
asset. No part of the business can function
without everybody working together.
Baker: Growth is a blessing and it's a
curse. We've experienced extreme growth
in the last four years, and we owe our

success to just putting strategies together
and sticking to them. You must be
thinking six months to a year ahead-
where you're going to be and how you're
going to handle being there. It looks good
from the outside, but on the inside it's
very chaotic if you don't have a plan in
place to handle your growth.
The biggest thing is planning-preplanning-just like if you're doing a bore. Look
at the growth of your company as you would
in setting up to do a drill and going through
these steps of preplanning-doing your drill
plan, doing your inadvertent returns plan.
Do the same thing for the company: How
are you going to expand? How many more
rigs do you need, and how are you going to
purchase them? How are you going to keep
from being in too much debt, and how do
you handle waiting for the revenue to come
in? How you're going to staff these rigs and
have that all in place before you jump out
there too far? Because the most important
thing is not getting yourself in a bind during
the growth period. *

UConOnline.com | JUNE 2019

31
http://www.wyoben.com http://www.UConOnline.com
Underground Construction - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - June 2019
