Although Jeremy Hiltz started his own company in 1996, his roots in construction go much deeper. When he was just five years old he would get up early, creep downstairs, grab his lunch pail and wait for his dad by the door, hoping to get a ride to the jobsite.
“I was pretty low maintenance,” Hiltz says, “just happy to go.” By the time he was 11, Hiltz was running a wheel loader for his dad and working every hour that school didn’t claim for the family excavation and site work business.
When Hiltz ventured out on his own in 1996, all he owned was a pickup truck. He got one job, demo’ed three different excavators to complete the job and used the money he earned as a down payment on the one he liked the best. Hiltz and his small crew worked 20 hour days to build up enough cash to purchase additional equipment and by the end of his first year he’d banked $500,000 in sales. The second year, he doubled that and it was off to the races.
Today more than 20 people from his dad’s old company work with Jeremy including office manager Karen Nichols, who has worked with Jeremy since he was 17. “We call them the alumni,” says Hiltz. “We’re like a family here. There is no pecking order; everybody is the same, laborer or engineer. Each is equally important and we all wear many hats,” he says.
The recession hit Hiltz Excavating just like every construction company. Although his margins shrank, the business was solid enough to continue to grow and Hiltz didn’t have to lay anybody off.
“It was tough,” Hiltz admits. “We were lucky to get some school work. We went into that sector hard and were lucky to stay busy.”
