Northern Nevada

DARREN VANDERFORD VICE PRESIDENT

The beginning of the year is always the time to look back, take stock of where we are, and look forward. At the begenning of the year I attend multiple forecast events held by builders or real estate groups. The message is always the same – be wary of these few factors but, aside from that, everything will be great! Despite working in an optimistic position at Helix (estimators on the whole would not last long with a negative outlook!), I tend to always be on the lookout for those warning signs. By the end of the year the results are usually the same. Some predictions came true and others no. The moral is if we listened to those readings, the tea leaves and followed their advice implicitly, our results would be mixed. It’s very difficult to manage a business when success or failure is a mystery until the end. At Helix, our procurement teams are very skilled at weeding through the sea of information and focusing on what’s most important. And that is … shut out the noise and focus on the task at hand.

As always, our task is to land enough contracts to keep the crews employed and our company growing. One thing Helix “Get Work” people do best is capitalizing on opportunities. They’ve done that with wonderful success for our Reno office. Recent awards include the Element Hotel at Park Lane, Lake Street Student Housing, and Pacific Steel to name a few. At Park Lane alone we’ve been awarded $24,000,000 worth of work! That is an amazing accomplishment. That being said, our estimating team would not continue to be successful if not for our performance in the field. Well over half of all the work we do is repeat business. If our office support staff did not turn in billings on time, respond to requests for insurance, provide lien releases, process payments, issue subcontracts, order material, conduct training, do safety audits, manage the tools and equipment, and more, we would not have any clients to speak of. That brings us to the question … How many people at Helix are involved with getting work? The answer is … all of them!

Some other exciting news from up North, our offices were recently upgraded with new workstations. Our environment now more closely matches the open concept of Vegas. In addition, our Service Department is growing with several new workspaces established in their area.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Cody Kinnison moving up to Vice President. Congrats on a well- deserved promotion!