“Eventually, enough reasons to get started stack up and you realize it’s now or never.”

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Bryant Electric is a family owned electrician service that has been serving the Austin, Texas area since 1986.

MO: What inspired you to launch your business?

Craig: Right before launching my business I was working full time for an electrical contractor. Eventually, enough reasons to get started stack up and you realize it’s now or never. At the time, I had three young kids to support so it was a big leap of faith. There were many ups and downs, but when you have enough motivation for why you have to make your business grow and thrive, you find a way to keep the doors open. Luckily, my wife Jane was an incredible support. We grew slowly, but we just kept working at it. That was about 30 years ago, and I can tell you now we are very blessed for that leap of faith we took.

MO: What issue does your core product help solve and how so?

Craig: Some electrical work is very basic, but many areas require a lot of expertise and experience. As a business owner, you have to be able to meet the basic needs and also offer other options. This is why our company, Bryant Electric, includes home and commercial service work to our list of services that we provide. The key is not to stretch yourself too thin, and know what you can provide and do really well. If you add too many services, you’ll be mediocre and many and a master of none.

MO: What’s the most exciting thing on the horizon for you/your Company?

Craig: Everyone on the management team at Bryant has worked really hard to stay focused on two things. One, doing everything we can to complete whatever size job we are hired to do in a way that absolutely exceeds our customers expectations. We achieve this by giving a fair price and a high quality installation. And secondly, ensuring that the entire process with our company from the first call or email until we have completed the project, is done respectfully with patience and a great attitude. It’s about more than the service we provide, it’s important how our team interacts with customers, and how you make customers FEEL. Make every customer feel as if they are your only one. They deserve that attention and gratitude. Consumers won’t forget how it feels to interact with your team.

MO: Where do you envision your company in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

Craig: Thanks to all of the incredible people on our team who really live and breath high standards and a great attitude, we have steadily grown over the past decade into becoming a major player in not only the service side of electrical work but also in competing for mid-size commercial work. All of us here at Bryant Electric strongly desire to grow the company to a level that can outlast any future economic downturn. And it is exciting to actually see this vision come to fruition.

Another thing that has helped our company grow is being flexible and open minded. In the last two years, we’ve began using Internet Marketing, which was something new for us, and it’s been fantastic. It’s important to keep an open mind in business because the field is always changing and it’s better to teach your competitors how to do things than learn from them. Through the use of new technology and Internet Marketing, we’ve seen our service calls go from 5-8 a week to 6-10 a day. Long term, our goal is to triple that, and we’ve been working hard to make it a reality one step at a time.

MO: Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?

Craig: Success can be measured in many ways, but most importantly I ask myself, “How do I FEEL about my business?” You can have all the numbers on paper qualifying your business as a success, but if at the end of the day you’re miserable, that’s not success in my book. When I look at my team members in our office, when I hear them answer the phone, I can feel they are happy and they are excited to be a part of this team. We enjoy working together and I think we all feel the company growing in a great way. When myhead hits the pillow at night, I’m happy with how my business has grown and how I can provide for my family. The numbers on paper may display success to the rest of the world, but to me, it’s all about how I feel at the end of the day. And on those merits, I feel very successful, and I’m very grateful for that.