Most trades businesses do not fail because they lack work.
They fail because growth outruns people, systems, safety, and discipline.

In this episode of Builders, Makers, Doers, Andy and Elliot sit down with leaders from a fast-growing excavation company to talk about the side of growth most contractors never slow down enough to confront.

Not hype.
Not vanity revenue.
Real decisions that protect the business.

This conversation goes deep into what happens after acquisition, rapid headcount growth, and higher-risk work enters the picture.

More jobs do not automatically mean a better company.
Sometimes they expose everything that was barely holding together.

This episode is about restraint, discipline, and leadership under pressure.

You will hear how this team:

• Grew headcount from under 100 to nearly 300
• Improved safety while scaling operations
• Walked away from good work because resources were not ready
• Evaluated risk before bidding, not after losing money
• Discovered that back-office capacity can quietly cap growth
• Learned that hiring is still the biggest constraint in the trades

This is not an excavation episode.

It is a leadership episode.

For contractors, builders, and specialty trades owners, this conversation applies whether you run five people or five hundred.

In this episode, we unpack:

✅ Why saying no can be the most profitable decision you make
✅ How safety culture shows up before leadership speeches do
✅ What disciplined risk evaluation actually looks like before bidding
✅ Why growth breaks support teams before it breaks crews
✅ How labor challenges force smarter work selection
✅ Why resilience is built long before the job goes sideways

This episode is about growth with guardrails.

Because scaling without discipline does not build value.
It builds exposure.

🎧 Watch the full episode and subscribe to Builders, Makers, Doers.

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Connect with the Hosts

Andy Bassett, CEO, Ellerbrock-Norris
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-bassett-cpcu-cic-7711853/

Elliot Bassett, President and Partner, Ellerbrock-Norris
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-bassett-aip-cpcu-84499515/

🌐 https://www.ellerbrock-norris.com/