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Ebony Construction – Still Going and Still Growing By Jordan Taylor
Amy Hall, president of Ebony Construction Company, Inc.
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my Hall, president of Ebony Construction, attributes her early success with the company to three things: 1) Trusting her gut instincts; 2) Commitment to the company from its longtime employees; and 3) Wanting no regrets – because sometimes you don’t get do-overs. “I didn’t want to live with the woulda, coulda, shoulda,” she said. Sixteen years ago, Hall was living in Atlanta, Georgia, (newly married, with two children and a third child on the way) when her father, president of Ebony Construction at the time, unexpectedly passed away at the age of 58. Her parents were divorced at the time of his death, and she had no siblings, leaving her as sole heir to the family business. Hall said her father died on a Sunday, was buried on the following Thursday; and she
was named president of the company the next Monday. Prior to her father’s death, Hall’s job was selling pathology services to dermatologists and plastic surgeons. Immediately afterwards, she commuted back and forth between Atlanta and Toledo, Ohio, for a short time before her job in Atlanta was phased out and she made the decision to move to Ohio. Faced with the decision of whether to keep the company going or close it, Hall said she knew the right decision was to make the move. Hall said: “My gut said I had to come home. If these doors aren’t open, then my family’s not eating; and other people’s families aren’t eating. That was the year our company only made money because of my dad’s life insurance policy.”
Looking back on that tumultuous time, Hall said the best thing about the situation was that she didn’t really know what she was getting into; indeed, ignorance is bliss, she said. “I didn’t have time to think about it, I just did it.” Hall said, in retrospect, she was completely blessed not to know any different or how overwhelming the task before her could potentially be. Because things happened so quickly, she didn’t have time to think through the situation, but rather functioned on autopilot and simply moved forward. Ebony Construction is now in its third generation of family operations as a heavy highway construction company. It was founded in 1986 as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE federal setaside program) by Hall’s mother with a primary focus of building catch basins, curbs and gutters. Her mom chose the name Ebony Construction because / FALL 2019
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