Winter 2022

Dan Rutledge had been in the construction business since he graduated from high school in the late 80s. Then when his son DJ graduated from high school 11 years ago, he told his father they should start their own excavating business. Dan says, “At that time, I was a superintendent for another company. I thought about it and decided that if we were going to go through with it, that was the time. ‘OK, let’s do it’,” he told DJ. They started off with a small loan from a local bank. Two additional family members joined the business, and Rutledge Excavating, INC was born. Dan states, “It was tough starting out. We kept having to worry about getting paid in time to be able to make payroll, especially during the first few years when we were still building our credit and reputation.” Most of the work Rutledge Excavating, INC does is comprised of public projects, and government pay cycles tend to be slow — usually a month or two, sometimes even three. “It was tough paying our bills while waiting for those large payments to come in.” In addition, the majority of the work that Rutledge bids re- quires bonding. “When you’re a young company, it’s difficult to get that. We’d pretty much have to finish one project be- fore we’d have enough bonding capacity to do the next one.” Today, DJ helps his father manage a company that employs over 40 people and grosses about $10 million annually, han- dling equipment acquisition, maintenance and hiring.