District Office Spotlight

What began as a hobby for Ken Tillage turned into a sole proprietorship building custom cabinets in 1982. After experiencing a few years of success and discovering a strong need for his services, Ken founded Ken Tillage Construction Company in 1991.

Ken’s son Keith Tillage graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge with a computer science degree and moved to Dallas after graduating to start his corporate career. His corporate experience was highlighted by a life changing event that he witnessed firsthand with his mentor. Keith Tillage’s mentor worked his whole life to move up the corporate ladder to make partner and when he finally did he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died soon after, at the age of 40. Keith said “My mentor’s triumph and tragedy showed me two things; Dreams are only realized through hard work and determination, and you have to act now because tomorrow is not promised.” Keith made up his mind to purse his dreams of owning his own business and decided to start Tillage Construction L.L.C in 2000 with his father Ken.

Tillage Construction L.L.C. was financed with the Tillage’s own investment and the help of friends and family along the way. The company’s first large scale contracting job taught Keith and Ken a lot of valuable lessons, none more obvious than the fact that they needed to refine their business processes. With the help of the SBA they developed a strategic business plan, and targeted jobs that fit directly into the plan. Tillage Construction L.L.C. first major client was the USDA, which began with a 20k job at the local level.

The company successfully finished the job, although it was interrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Keith was then offered a 500k job with the USDA. Keith stated “I understood that this was a pivotal point in our company and we approached this opportunity as we would come to approach every opportunity in the future, as if my company’s very existence depends on it.” After successfully completing the project Keith used the skills the SBA introduced him to in order to refine his business processes and expand to additional clients. “As a direct result of that one job we have experienced continued growth in, bonding capacity, employees and revenue” said Keith. Tillage Construction L.L.C currently has 20 million dollars in federal construction contracts, a strong management team, and strategic plans for expansion into the Florida and Texas markets. The future is very bright for Tillage Construction L.L.C.

–by Michael W. Ricks

via U.S. Small Business Administration