BOOK OF EXPERTS: Sacon builds trust through high-quality work in every phase of construction

BY DOUG HUNT, OWNER, SACON

I began working in the construction industry as a young man striking out on my own in Charleston. It was a natural career path for me given that my uncles, cousins, grandfathers and father had also been contractors in their time.

In the 24 years I worked in Charleston, I learned new trades and worked my way up the totem pole of the industry. I had taken classes along the way, involving drafting, estimating, real estate, design-build, marketing, construction financing, estimate digitizing and construction management. Eventually I became vice president and later president and owner of Sacon in 2015.

The goals of the company aligned with my own values that had kept me going for all those years: the rewards from designing and building commercial businesses. I feel rewarded by overseeing projects from their design phase to the final inspection. My employees are rewarded by gaining more experience and becoming more valuable assets to the company. Our customers are rewarded by receiving high-quality, in-house work that is reflective of Sacon’s 35-plus year history.

Typically, when a business owner puts a project out to bid, multiple construction companies will race to the bottom with the lowest price possible and do so by utilizing subcontractors in their work. While this can often guarantee the lowest price for a project, it doesn’t always guarantee the highest quality work.

That’s what sets us apart at Sacon. We always strive to use zero subcontractors with our work. Doing so allows us to know the various ins and outs of the space we’re working with while the client rests easy knowing that we are reliable and accountable for the people in the field.

As the owner of Sacon, my role in the day-to-day operations of the company involves adhering to the high-quality business practices and integrity of the company. I also maintain the standards of the work, always wanting us to go above and beyond the customer’s expectations.

At Sacon we want to build everything per code with integrity, regardless of whether all the work will be seen by the average consumer. For example, you don’t see all the work that goes into the ceilings or the walls, but we always strive for high quality, photogenic work that doesn’t cut corners. In addition, we always perform tasks the right way and per the manufacturer’s guidelines for the materials, especially when there’s a chance we’ll be maintaining those products in the future with one of our maintenance agreements.

Before I purchased Sacon, I wrote down the kind of values and work ethics we would strive for moving forward. One of the goals was to build a new facility for the company to operate in more efficiently and pass that efficiency onto the clients’ finished products. Although there’s plenty of economic uncertainty these days, we continue to follow the business plan and design of the company set forth in 2015. Maintaining confidence in those plans is what helps us weather any storms.

I oversee dozens of employees, so it’s important to help every one of them be successful in their field, because that guarantees success for the company overall. This often involves challenging employees to explore talents and learn more within and outside their field with more certifications and licenses. This raises the value of the individual employee and Sacon itself.

Many members of our team are state license holders. Every Friday we gather in a morning meeting to make sure every employee is on the same page regarding where each project is at. I believe that effective communication leads to more effective work in the field.

Our hard work doesn’t end with the final inspection. While most contractors will wash their hands of a project after completion, we also offer preventative maintenance agreements with our clients so we can service their businesses for years to come. After all, our team has the most knowledge about the space, so it only makes sense to contract with us to maintain it in the long run as well.

What makes me an expert in my field, and in turn Sacon one of the best in the industry, is that I believe in accountability and enabling people to succeed. It’s not just about Sacon succeeding by having a reliable team of experts. It’s also about the individual mechanic or technician succeeding in their field and seeing the businesses we build be successful. These values have kept us going since I joined the company eight years ago and I believe they will keep us going well into the future.

This content appeared first in the SC Biz News Book of Experts.