“It’s tight out there. A lot of the bigger
companies are bidding on smaller jobs.
It's challenging,” Clayton said. Before the
downturn, large general contractors typi-
cally would not bid on anything under $10
million. CSC, being a medium-sized com-
pany, didn’t have to compete with these
industry giants, but times have become so
tough that everyone is competing for even
the smallest of jobs.
“What’s happened is that the market
share has gotten smaller and because of
the commodity pricing, they [large general
contractors] are forced out of that indus-
try,” Sue said.
Consequently, everyone is diversifying,
but the brunt of the burden falls on smaller
enterprises. Larger companies have the
resources to allow for a smaller profit mar-
gin, which means that they can price bet-
ter. But sometimes, reputation can stretch
farther than resources; it is one of the
things that is helping CSC persist.
“Because it’s become so competitive,
these general contractors want people
that they can rely on. Margins do not al-
low for a lot of error or time restrictions or
delays. All of that is really costly. If you can
prove yourself to be reliable and do quality
workmanship, they want you to keep com-
ing,” Sue said.
The company’s future success and contin-
ued growth is also dependent on diversi-
fication and accordingly, the Scotts have
adapted the company’s business model to
reincorporate the residential and commer-
cial departments that had once played an
essential role in CSC’s growth.
“The first time we went into mining, we let
our commercial work go. We just stopped
doing it. That’s something I’m not going
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