LLSA Chamber Small Business of the Year Awards: Edgewater Contractors Inc.

Jay Anderson learned the construction business from his father, Walter Anderson, who owned a Kansas City, Mo., construction company. Beginning at age 19, he sweated through the summers hauling 80-pound concrete forms off trucks.

“He tried to work me to death so that I wouldn’t go into the construction business,” Anderson jokes.

But the younger Anderson didn’t take that lesson to heart. He earned a bachelor’s degree in construction.
About 10 years ago, he moved to Florida and almost immediately went to work for a Longboat Key contractor. Then, after more than six years with that company, Anderson founded Edgewater Contractors Inc., a full-service general contractor/construction management company. But Anderson did learn one lesson from his father that he has carried with him in the business.

“He taught me to be honest with everybody, whether it’s good or bad,” Anderson says.

Anderson admits that mid-2008 wasn’t the easiest time to start a business. His company focuses almost exclusively on Longboat Key and also does work on Lido, St. Armands and Bird keys, an area that he said has become more crowded with contractors in recent years.

Anderson has also focused on keeping overhead low, something that he has been in a good position to do by working out of his home and having just two employees. He also uses the same subcontractors for projects that, after evaluating them, he found to offer the best value. And he has distinguished himself by laying out expectations with clients, focusing on the preconstruction process as well as the construction itself.

“You don’t look very good when you tell someone you can do something and you can’t see it through,” he says.

Throughout projects, he keeps clients up-to-date even when they’re thousands of miles away by e-mailing progress photos so they can keep tabs on construction. The end result? Well, just look at this testimony from a couple who were in Connecticut while their Longboat Key home was renovated.

“Thank you for approaching this project as if it were your home,” they wrote. “You have helped us make this house our home.”

BUSINESS BASICS

Location: Home-based Bradenton office, but the business serves primarily Longboat and its surrounding keys.

Start date: May 2008

Number of employees when started: Two

Number of employees today: Two

Advice: Treat every project as though it was your own.

Biggest challenge: Putting the details of a project together and staying in communication with homeowners who are usually out of town.

Where do you see your business one year from now? Continuing to grow on Longboat Key and become the premier contractor on Longboat Key.