Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/712836
August 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com 64 to pay his laborers and his bills. "I happened to be dealing with people who knew me and knew I could do the job," Porchetta says. "But when I was first getting on my feet, I had a lot of other friends that are contrac- tors that helped me, even lending me pieces of their equipment. I did a lot of snow removal with a rental rubber tire backhoe and kept myself going while I negotiated some other projects that came together in Febru- ary. One of those was an $800,000 project that really got things rolling." Three more large jobs would fol- low in the coming months and by the end of 2011, GMP was bringing in enough money to start building a fleet of purchased equipment. Porchetta says rental has always been a large part of his fleet strategy. "My biggest thing is making sure everybody is paid before I take any- thing for myself. When you're rent- ing you're not making as much, but your exit strategy is there because if something happens you can send it back," he explains. "You're not stuck with it and hurting your credit even more. It helped me establish my business with Cat Finance and Wells Fargo. Now they're looking for me to rent and to give me money because I've established my payment history." Another key to Porchetta's busi- ness strategy since those early days has been diversification. "To stay with the times you have to diversify and in fact my goal this year was to get more into the public sector jobs," he says. Porchetta is growing it more due to a lack of profitability on those jobs. "I'm just trying to keep the public sector open because if it gets bad, there's always work in the public sector that will help you survive," he says, explaining that while he isn't interested in taking on a higher num- ber of jobs, he wants the company to stay nimble, capable of doing jobs of all sizes and levels of complexity. "I try to go after some of the harder jobs on the commercial end because it eliminates some of the competition. I'll do jobs that are $100,000 and everything up to $35 million. To this day I'll still go do a $10,000 job," he says. "I don't try to put all my eggs in one basket. I want customers in every [market] so if one of my guys is not working at least someone else is working. "This is a lesson learned in the past," he continues. "If you make the ship in one sector, you can't turn it fast enough when things get tough." Porchetta says he wants to grow the company at a reasonable rate, slower, in fact, than it has grown in the past five years. "I can't double the size of the company again," he says. "It will kill the company because we don't have enough resources for that. I want to make a solid foundation and then be able to do other endeavors." The latest example of Porchetta's diversification strategy is his new environmental division with and an eye on getting into real estate. Communication If diversification and adaptability are at the foundation of Porchetta's business strategy, constant communi- cation is how he carries those facets out on a day-to-day basis. In addition to the day-in-advance planning sessions, Porchetta makes himself available to clients, vendors and employees 24 hours a day. "My phone never gets shut off. I contractor of the year | continued Porchetta talks with site supervisor Bucky Moore on a jobsite in South Brunswick, New Jersey.