In the six years since co-founding BleekerVigesaa General Contractors in Brighton, CO, James Vigesaa has learned a lot about the industry and how to best place his business for success within it.
This lifelong contractor worked with his uncle, and then defected from his original engineering major in college to study construction management before starting his own company.
"For the first few years, we believed that word of mouth/referral type of marketing from existing clients was all we needed," Vigesaa explained. "After attending a few large seminars on the construction business, I realized that you really have to spend money to make money, and we started investing a large sum of money in business development."
That business development led into many different avenues, from commercial spaces to historic building renovations to specialty projects like a local water slide.
The growth wasn't without bumps in the road and difficult decisions along the way.
"[We decided] to stop traveling and building nationally for a major client and focus on building our business in our home market, Vigesaa said. "That was a difficult decision because the major client was ‘all cost plus a lucrative fee' type of work."
That decision paid off of Vigesaa in the long run, allowing him to build closer relationships with local clients and giving them a stronger presence to compete for larger jobs. The company's growth in size and capacity has been made largely possible by keeping up with changing technology.
"We typically communicate with twenty e-mails for each phone conversation we have now," said Vigesaa. "We take a lot of pictures of job conditions and attach it to an e-mail to the architect or owner and get quick responses. Smartphones that enable superintendents in the field to get e-mail and communicate in real time on a continuous basis has been a tremendous productivity boost on the jobsite."
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