Bailey Russ
Geheloff
English 99
29 October 2014
Dreams of Re-Shaping the Earth

Digging holes is something nearly every boy does during adolescence. Shaping dirt is not something most people would view as art, but in fact it is. Excavation or dirt work, is a task that plays a large role in the world, no house or road can be built without it. Playing in the dirt is something that I have loved and have continued to do ever since I was young. Getting paid to “play” in the dirt would be a dream for me, and that is why owning my own excavation company is my dream job. Within this paper I will inform you as to what an excavation company does, what it takes to own a successful excavation company, and why working in the dirt is my dream job and what it will take to start my own company.

The Excavation industry is more than just simply digging hole, in fact it is a very crucial step to the building of any structure. Excavation companies dig foundations for any private or commercial building, grade and build the underlying sub-structure of roads, dig trenches for pipelines, and clear large portions of land. There are many forms of excavation companies, each company usually specializes in a certain type of work for the reason. 26,563 excavation companies exist worldwide, and employ over 460,000 workers. Heavy equipment is the key to completing any excavation job on time and on budget. Most of the employs in the industry are employed to operate heavy equipment, most being very skilled. Some of the types of heavy equipment that contractors are using are front end loaders, which are very common and are used to dig holes and to load dump trucks with material very efficiently, skid steers, which are used in compact areas, excavators, which are probably the most economical to dig large hole and trenches. Bull dozers, motor graders, scrappers, dump trucks plus many more machines are commonly seen on nearly every jobsite. The Excavation industry brings in roughly sixty-two billion dollars in profit each year from both commercial and residential jobs. This goes to show that the excavation industry is one of the largest in the world. There are several keys to owning a successful business not matter what the business does. First and most important is that the company values its customers and does whatever it takes to keep their needs satisfied. For this to happen in the excavation industry, first companies must not perform subpar work and must complete each task with the upmost expertise and quality. Next companies must employ only professional, skilled and experienced heavy equipment operators on jobsites and show proof to customers that the best operators in the industry are completing their work. This will satisfy the customer and instill the companies trust into them allowing the customer to feel as if the most professional company in the industry is performing the work for them at the highest standard possible. The next key to owning a successful excavating business is managing the company’s finances very carefully. This needs to be done because excavation work tends to follow the economy, meaning that when one goes down usually the other follows. When purchasing equipment, companies should look forward in time to see what the building economy is predicted to do, to ensure that they will be able to afford the machine. Excavating companies also must value working hard, not only on jobs that they are contracted to complete but also work hard to find new work for the future before one of the many other excavating companies does. Growing up, personally I have found that the general public thinks that all excavation companies do is dig holes, but in reality that nowhere near true. With this excavating companies need to value advertisement as well. Valuing this, companies can show the public all of the tasks the company is capable of completing which would hopefully allow the company to obtain more work, further adding upon its success.