This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dave Beeler, president and owner of Beeler Construction.
The podcast highlights the history of the third-generation commercial general contractor, which focuses largely on projects in southeastern Wisconsin. Beeler discusses the company’s approach to working on projects within active facilities.
“We really enjoy sitting down with the clients on the front end, developing a phasing plan,” he said. “Really, our focus is to keep their businesses operational and generating revenue while we are working on their projects.”
He also weighs in on the national tariff conversation, noting worries about their impact are influencing business decisions across the industry.
“When you get enough individuals that have that sense of fear, that just creates some hesitation and it’s a snowball and a ripple effect that goes down the line,” he said. “So with us, having a smaller percentage of our projects being large … we haven’t seen quite as much impact on the tariffs.”
But at the same time, labor challenges and inflation are throwing a curveball into construction planning, Beeler said. He notes the company typically tries to guage project costs two to three years ahead of time.
“Unfortunately, with the inflation, it’s thrown numbers off quite a bit across all industries,” he said, adding “if there’s anything we can do to help out with any of those inflated costs we certainly do so. However, it gets to a certain point where we can’t cover all the increased costs that come through.”
Meanwhile, company leaders are having to “put on different lenses for different employees” as they navigate labor market challenges, he said. By adapting to preferences of workers from different generations, the firm is putting a greater focus on employee retention, according to Beeler.
“The retention is very important,” he said. “With the low tenure or short tenure that we’re experiencing with most of the folks, if it’s only two to three years, that industry standard is they’re staying with these companies … before you can capitalize on some of these employees, they may have moved on to another career opportunity.”
Beeler also shares some insights on the company’s three-year plan, noting it helps keep employees on-track while also being used to inform partners, clients and others.
“It ties everything together and it really just ensures that we are all rowing in that same direction and headed to the same destination,” he said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
