Growing Government Work

  Austin OutdoorAustin Outdoor, a Florida-based landscape firm, had always focused primarily on designing, constructing and maintaining landscaping for resorts and commercial office buildings. But as the effects of the recession began to hit, they wanted to start establishing more government work.

“We recognized traditional commercial real estate development was slowing down and government projects offered us another opportunity,” says William Dellecker, executive vice president. “But when looking at the market, there were many unique aspects when dealing with government entities, as compared to our traditional work. There were enough differences that it was evident a specialized business development manager, who had a statewide focus on securing government work, would be needed.”

In order to start serving this market, Austin Outdoor added the new position, “business development manager – government services,” to its business development team in February of this year. Charles Granger was hired for the position, someone the company had worked with before while he served as a horticulture professor at nearby Daytona State College.

Granger says the beauty of his job is there is no such thing as a typical day. “I may end up at a pre-bid one day, which could be anywhere in the state,” he says. “Or I may have to turn in a bid which requires working with the estimating department and landscape architects. Essentially every day is different, but a big part of the job is research so that means office days, too.”

Keeping up with research and finding leads may be one of the most time-consuming and challenging aspects of the job, adds Granger, but it’s also one of the most important. “When you’re dealing with government entities, you’re literally talking thousands of them – and that’s just for Florida,” he explains. “We also have to be tuned in every day as to what’s going on from a stimulus standpoint. So there’s just a lot to keep up with, and trying to gather information is a huge part of the job.”

Since hiring Granger, the company has bid on a wide variety of projects, including everything from streetscape maintenance to national cemeteries and port terminals.

Selecting the jobs that are best fit for Austin Outdoor to bid on is another challenging part of Granger’s position. “With so much work out there, it’s important that we find jobs that are suitable for our company,” he says. While it may serve as a challenge, Granger says the variety of jobs out there keeps his work interesting, too.

Since this is a whole new ballgame for the entire company, it’s been a learning experience for everyone. Granger says the company is learning that every government agency works differently, meaning specs and bids can differ vastly from job to job. Taking on government work also requires new considerations that Granger is responsible for handling on an as-needed basis. For example, security clearances could be a part of his position. “This is much different than anything the company has had to deal with in the past when doing resort work,” he says. “But if you look at doing something like sub stations in this post-9/11 era, all the guys working on that type of job now have to get security clearance. It’d be the same case if we had work with a cruise terminal or airport. So there’s even a human resource management component to this position.”

Granger also has had to learn about getting prequalified – which was never an issue with their previous work.
While it’s all still very new for the company, Dellecker says the position has already paid off in terms of securing new work. Before hiring a business development manager specializing in government work, the company was rarely even aware of government jobs coming up for bid.

“We also didn’t have the necessary requirements in place to competitively bid on some of that work,” Dellecker adds. “But Charles’ position adds to the strength of our business development efforts.”

The author is a freelance writer based in Royersford, Pa.