Hardrives Construction, Inc.

From the Western Business News (picture courtesy of Larry Mayer with the Billings Gazette)

HARDRIVES CONSTRUCTION WINS NATIONAL AWARD

October 2001 --"Watching heat waves shimmer above the highway near his fruit stand, young peach vendor Jim Bailey could not imagine he'd someday own a successful business repairing such roads.

Today reality has surpassed imagination as Bailey, majority owner of Hardrives Construction, Inc., of Billings, is recipient of the Small Business Administration's Minority Small Business Person of the Year award for not only Montana, but the nation too.

Hardrives Construction, Inc. was part of a three-way tie for the top national honor, along with Analytical Services, Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., and Innovative Technical Solutions Inc. of Walnut Creek, Calif.

Bailey received the award in Washington, D.C., Sept. 23 to mark the beginning of Minority Enterprise Development Week, designated to celebrate minority business owners whose participation in federal contracting has contributed significantly to the nation's economy.

Said acting Region VIII administrator Stan Nakano, "Mr. Bailey has built Hardrives Construction, Inc., into an industry leader in Montana.  His business success is an inspiration to all entrepreneurs throughout the Rocky Mountain area."

The asphalt paving, excavating, concrete and maintenance company began in 1989 with Bailey, his wife Stephanie, a pickup, and a couple of shovels.  Hardrives has grown to employ up to 60 people during peak times and land more than $1 million worth of federal contracts.  Bailey credits the rapid expansion to the company's acceptance into the SBA's 8(a) program, which helps minority-owned small businesses qualify for federal contracts.

"We started with SBA four or five years ago as a disadvantaged business enterprise to partner in federally funded projects in the state," Bailey said.  "We decided to go for the national level.  We've been in the program for less than a year, and we are in the process of landing our sixth contract under the 8(a) program.  It takes one to three years for many small businesses to even get their first contract."

Government agencies are required to devote a certain amount of their budgets to work with 8(a) companies, said Bailey. "We're a small business competing against huge companies.  8(a) gets our toe in the door for contracts with government agencies.  The idea is in nine  or ten years, when we graduate from the program and get kicked out of the nest, hopefully we'll have developed and grown to compete on our own with the bigger companies," Bailey said.

Bailey is confident the company will grow to meet the challenge of larger, more complex and far-flung projects.  A good attitude, honesty, and integrity always pay off, says Bailey, who learned these qualities through his family's agricultural work.  Bailey's grandfather, a full-blooded Filipino, immigrated to the U.S. in the 1940's and started as a migrant worker on beet farms in the Billings area, then became caretaker of a peach farm in California.  "While other kids swam, me and my brothers tended a fruit stand on the highway," said Bailey.

Good employees with a firm work ethic have enabled Hardrives to successfully complete jobs for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Postal Service, Federal Aviation Administration and several Montana counties, Bailey said.  "My outlook is we'll do anything, go anywhere.  We're not afraid of hard work and we'll adapt," he said.  Adaptability was essential when the FAA asked Hardrives to do a mice abatement program at the airport in Glasgow.  "We got the suits and respirators and went up there, tore down walls and cleaned it up," Bailey said.  "That job turned into a contract to do concrete pads at FAA radar sites."

To keep employees busy in winter, Bailey equipped the company's pickups with snow blades and trucks with sanders for snowy road maintenance.

Hardrives created JB Industrial to stock paving, sealcoating and crack-sealing equipment and materials.  JB Industrial also locally produces its own asphalt-based emulsion sealcoat."