Boyd Excavating – Taking the extra step

Boyd Excavating – located in Moosomin and Regina, Saskatchewan – prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for all construction needs. Whether someone is looking for basement excavation, sewer and water services, demolition, environmental excavation or oil and gas construction, President Tyler Boyd says his company has the skills to solve any problem.

Boyd Excavating was founded in 2007, and Boyd – who is 24 years old – says they have been growing steadily ever since. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he says.  “I started by myself, one hoe, taking on everything that I could.” In the spring of 2009, Boyd Excavating earned a job digging a hotel basement. That job lasted close to a year, and got the fledging company off the ground. When they started that project in March, they had two employees.  Within a month, they had 25.

“That was kind of the turning point for us,” Boyd says. A year later, in the spring of 2010, Boyd Excavating turned another corner when they expanded even more, purchasing another company in Regina. Today, their business is 40 per cent residential, 40 per cent industrial, and 20 per cent oilfield. Their residential work has grown since establishing themselves in Regina, where those types of jobs are their focus.

When it comes to setting themselves apart, Boyd says they have a number of points of difference. Firstly, they make sure to only operate new, top-of-the-line equipment. They recently acquired Stone Slinger trucks, for example – machines which can place material precisely, safely, and quickly, with no losses.

Secondly, Boyd cites his own hands-on managerial style. Today, their employee count is close to 60, and Boyd is consistently working alongside them. “I was out on the end of a shovel this morning,” he recalls.

Third, Boyd Excavating goes out of its way to take the extra steps other companies might not. Their ultimate goal is ensuring they do not receive any call-backs. “We just make it a little easier for the guy after us,” Boyd says. “That’s our focus. We don’t ever want to have to go back to a job because it wasn’t done properly. And to avoid that you make sure you send out the right guy to begin with.”

When it comes to finding those “right” people for their staff, Boyd says the company is very particular. “We don’t send out just anybody and everybody,” he explains. “We’re pretty picky. In the end it’s our client who has to deal with them if they’re no good.”

When evaluating a potential employee, Boyd says he looks for experience, but that’s not all. “In guys I look for honesty,” he says. “You can teach somebody how to move dirt, or how to do things the way you want. But you can’t teach them to be honest, nor can you teach them to be loyal. It’s just in them or it’s not.”

The Vice President of Boyd Excavating – who is also the superintendent in Moosomin – is a good example of such an employee. He started at the company as a truck driver with no real experience in the business. Boyd says he saw potential in him, however – he was honest, forward thinking, innovative, and recognised his role was to help the business make money. As a result, he was promoted from a truck driver to Boyd’s right hand man over a year ago.

The employee-company relationship at Boyd Excavating is as strong as the company’s integrity. Boyd says he spends a fair amount of time with his people, working with them every day and often playing hockey or snowboarding with them in the off-hours. His crew is relatively young, so he can relate well. “I’m a younger guy, so sometimes I have to go the extra mile to earn their respect, and I feel I do that,” he says. “Today I was driving a truck, and an hour later I was shovelling. I do whatever needs doing.”

Receiving prompt payment is the main industry challenge posed to Boyd Excavating, and to combat this they choose carefully who to work with. They also offer discounts – when bidding for a job, they will submit a price, but also offer a reduced rate if clients can pay within a certain timeframe. “A lot of people go for that,” Boyd explains.

Those types of incentives help the company earn clients, as well as forge lasting relationships, but Boyd says the work ultimately has to back it up. “At the end of the day it’s quality,” he says. “You have to have a good crew and a good name.”

Boyd Excavating’s excellence right out of the gate has not gone unnoticed within the region. In their relatively short corporate life, the company has been nominated for a handful of industry awards, and been finalists for many of them. They were finalists for a provincial APEX Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year, for example, as well as finalists for a regional Paragon Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Regina – a city they had only been operating in for 16 months. Federally, they were also nominated for Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

“That kind of let us know we’re on the right track,” Boyd says. “It’s very nice to be recognised. I think it’s great for the employees, to work for an award winning company. It creates a bit of pride, and pride is good when you’re focused on quality. You want people to have pride, and take pride in their equipment and their work.”

For the foreseeable future, Boyd says the company will go where their clients take them. “Right now we’re just keeping on keeping on,” he says. “We like where we’re at, we like the customers that we have.” One sector Boyd would like to expand in is sand and gravel, but overall their growth will depend on their customers. “If they pay well, we’ll expand to do more services for that client,” he says. ”We’ll expand our services to look after the clients who have looked after us in the past.”