From a two-man crew operating out of a Ford Ranger pickup, Jim Lang has built Jacksonville-based Hardscape Construction into a nearly $4 million business with a workforce of 11 and a portfolio of projects that includes the likes of the Downtown Riverwalk.
But the company remains a tight-knit family business that involves Lang’s wife, son and parents. The focus on family, he says, is a fundamental part of Hardscape’s success.
“It’s always been family first and family friendly,” he said. “I’ve never had an outside estimator, I’ve never had an outside accounting person, anything.”
The company is structured to allow Lang to focus on the projects while his wife, Tammy, and mother, Mary, take care of other parts of the operation.
His son, Mitchell, has come up through the business the same way Jim Lang did – beginning with doing the hands-on work of installing hardscaping such as driveways and walkways – and now is overseeing the company’s residential operations while preparing to take over when Jim retires.
Jim’s father, Ed, a former engineer for General Electric, has provided business advice.
The team also includes Mike Gompper, the original employee who worked alongside Jim when he started the company in 1990.
“Without my family, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Lang said.
“I don’t have to worry about the bookkeeping. I don’t have to worry about the insurance coverage. Everything outside of the office is me, and everything inside the office is them.”
Key moments for the company came when it landed a competitive bid for the Jacksonville Riverwalk, which helped it endure the recession, and when it began working with Vallencourt Construction Co. of Green Cove Springs, one of Northeast Florida’s largest general contractors.
Lang said that relationship formed after an employee of another contractor that went out of business during the recession went to work for Vallencourt and began recommending Hardscape as a subcontractor for projects.
“That was the No. 1 driver of me being successful, being able to work with them,” he said.
“Through them, it was like branches off of a tree, because they work with everybody.”
Lang said relationship-building and word-of-mouth recommendations have been central to Hardscape’s growth, along with maintaining a tight focus on doing paver work versus expanding into concrete, asphalt and other types of hardscaping.
Doing high-quality work and on time are critical to achieving success in the Northeast Florida construction sector, Lang said, which he describes as a big city but a small community.
The company does little advertising and doesn’t have a website, a testament to its strength in attracting positive reviews from customers.
“If you don’t do good work for A, you’re never going to meet B or C,” he said.
Lang said that as he plans to begin stepping away from the company in a year or two, it has achieved a level of success and stability he couldn’t have imagined in the early days when he and Gompper spent their days pushing wheelbarrows and positioning pavers.
“I built it from the ground up – the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.
“And now, I guess what makes me so proud is that I have something to leave my son that is successful. I never anticipated leaving it to somebody, I just figured that when I made enough to retire I would quit or sell it. And now, I can still be involved and watch the business continue to grow as he runs it.”
Lang said his son holds a general contractor’s license, which would allow Mitchell Lang to expand operations if he chooses. But he said he trusted his son to take the company wherever he feels comfortable with it.
“If he would like to take it to the next level and use that GC license, he’ll have my 100% support and I’ll help him,” he said.
“I just want him to understand that you don’t have to be the biggest and baddest. Just do what you say you’re going to do, keep your stress level at a medium and keep the tires turning. Do that, and good things will happen to you.
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