December 2016 | Business View Magazine

102 103 “4G came in around 2011 and is currently still being deployed. It’s about a five year run, now, on these technologies. 3G was probably more like a seven or eight year run.” Regarding its own next five years, Shambaugh beleives that Project Group 2000’s growth will necessarily be tied to the carriers’ visions and the deployment of their networks. “We want to march in step with the carriers and their needs for outside facilities - which could be a tower site or a small cell on an electric pole,” he says. “We want to be one of the prime contractors in any of those technologies that they need and want to deploy and/or upgrade. At the same time, we want to do that in more markets – growing our business and expanding our foot- print and service area.” Tom Cameron is Project Group 2000’s CEO. He joined the company as a majority equity partner in 2014, bringing with him years of experi- ence in growing a service-type busi- ness. One of his goals, in addition to the processes described by Sham- baugh, is expanding the company by acquisition. “First, grow as much as we can, organically, which is some- times difficult because of the labor force you’re looking for. So, we’re also looking for some acquisition opportunities over the next five years.” Cameron believes that the costs of doing business, such as the amount of money that’s put into the necessary certifications (Project Group 2000 has thirteen of them); the high cost of insurances (Project Group 2000 carries general liability, auto, workers’ compensation, profes- sional liability, and environmental policies, plus special riders for particular jobs and projects); and the expenses for training and compensating highly skilled workers in a dan- gerous profession; all make it difficult for smaller firms to remain profit- able. “It’s hard for the small guy,” he says. “To exist in the industry, you’ve got to be part of a bigger team. So, we’re going to be fairly aggressive in the next five years, looking for, maybe five to ten times growth opportu- prOject grOup 2000 Preferred vendor n Quality Background Screening www.qualitybackground screening.com With access to billions of records through hundreds of thousands of databases in 50 states and 200 countries, Quality Background Screening provides customized, computerized background search packages that are fast, accurate, discreet, and cost effective. These searches can even be performed on the com- pany’s state-of-the-art web search interface, when an employer needs the results quickly. nities. That’s our strategy moving forward.” As Project Group 2000 embarks on its third decade, meeting new challenges and conquering new markets, both Shambaugh and Cameron continue to stress their com- pany’s commitment to safety, integrity, and, perhaps most of all, to craftsmanship in an industry that demands all three. “Those three things, for any of our customers, are very critical,” Shambaugh declares. “Safety – any new customer that we may come in contact with, if they’re good at vetting contractors, their very first question, and right out of the box is, ‘What kind of safety programs do you have?’ Integrity – they need to know that the company they’re dealing with has good communication throughout the organization, from the top, down to the field people that they deal with on a daily basis. And crafts- manship – the fact that these sites and these projects are executed to the technical and mechanical standards that they have to meet to make sure that these networks perform up to their specifications.”