THG Companies Grows Using Clark Construction Strategic Partnership Program

Cheo Hurley, President and CEO of THG Companies, LLC

THG Companies Uses Clark Construction Strategic Partnership Program to Hyperdrive Growth

When THG Companies President & CEO Cheo Hurley was encouraged to enroll his small but growing construction firm in the Strategic Partnership Program by a Clark Construction Group (Clark) project manager, he was told the program would help his company be more successful on future Clark projects. THG Companies was in the process of completing a contract for drywall installation on the Norman Cole Jr. Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lorton, Virginia, and was having challenges with some of the requirements of performing on a large project.

The Clark Construction Strategic Partnership Program has a history of helping firms like THG Companies to overcome the challenge of learning how to best work on a major construction project and grow capacity. The program started in 2006 and has graduated 806 firms in its 19-year history. The program was developed by Clark Construction Vice President Wesley Stith. Stith is a procurement professional and has worked to engage subcontractors on numerous Clark projects. “We have awarded over $1 billion to companies that have graduated from the Strategic Partnership Program,” Stith said. “It’s a demanding program and takes some commitment, but it helps firms become more successful.”

Although Hurley knew of the time commitment necessary to complete the 10-month course, with classes nearly every Wednesday night from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., he made the investment in himself and his company to enroll in the program. Hurley always valued education and training and made acquiring additional knowledge a priority for his personal development. He is a graduate of Howard University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and has two master’s degrees; one in public administration and another in Real Estate. He has also completed entrepreneurial training in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program.

Hurley started THG Companies in 2009 as a real estate development firm in Baltimore, Maryland. But after experiencing the great economic recession, recognized a new business opportunity as a construction subcontractor. “I saw where companies doing drywall, flooring and other trades were still working during the recession, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me,” Hurley said. “Then I went back to school again to learn how to be a construction contractor.” Since that time THG Companies has focused primarily on subcontract work providing drywall installation, flooring and other construction services. The company won its first drywall contract in 2014 and has never looked back. “I never say never,” Hurley said. “But I think my real estate development days are over.”

Graduates of the 2018-2019 Clark Construction Strategic Partnership Program celebrate completion of the 10-month program to increase their company’s productivity and capacity.

Despite this rich educational history, Hurley believes completing the Clark Strategic Partnership Program has been the stimulus to send the growth of his company into hyperdrive. “The Clark program helped me bring a lot of things together and learn some of the nuance of working in the construction industry,” Hurley said. By nuance he meant acquiring some of the unwritten information and subtle skills that determine the difference between having education and acquiring knowledge.

For instance, as a finance major in college and then having a previous career working with financial investments and economic development, Hurley is fully aware of the importance of sound financial management. However, the detail he didn’t quite grasp was the importance of working with an accountant with the expertise, experience and reputation for providing construction industry accounting statements. “I’ve always tried to support businesses from my community; and while that is important, in construction you must have an accountant with experience in creating reviewed or audited financial statements for a construction firm, no matter who they are,” Hurley said.

Hurley also earned the importance of having an accountant that has a solid reputation with bonding companies, because this relationship will make it easier to get a bonding company to look favorably at their client’s financial statements.

“I’ve learned that if an accountant has 10 firms who are already working with a bonding company successfully, the relationship between the accountant and the bonding company can help my company get bonding as well. This is because of the trust the bonding company will have in the financial statements prepared by that accountant,” Hurley said.

Clark’s instructor for the Financial Statements and Accounting course was Craig Brogan, CPA, who has taught the class from the start of the program. Brogan impressed Hurley during the class, so he reached out to him for assistance with his company’s accounting needs. Brogan became the THG Companies accountant and has helped the company get its first business line of credit from a bank and helped the company secure a $2 million aggregate/$500,000 single job bonding capacity. “It’s made a huge difference in my company,” Hurley said.

Another lesson Hurley learned in the Strategic Partnership Program is the value of building professional relationships while he was in the process of receiving business training in areas like estimating, plan reading, insurance, Microsoft Excel and presentation skills. “I met several people from Clark that I did not know before joining the program,” Hurley said. “Everything is about relationships. Being an MBE or DBE might get you in the door the first time; but if you don’t have good relationships, and people don’t like you, and you don’t do good work, it won’t last.”

Hurley wasn’t expecting to identify business opportunities with other entrepreneurs in the program when he started. However, as he began to develop relationships with classmates, he recognized opportunities to do business with them as well. “I met one company that is in the federal 8(a) program. We have scheduled a meeting to discuss the projects they are working on and opportunities to do business together in the future,” Hurley said.

Clark Construction Senior Vice President Bill Magruder (left) and Vice President Wesley Stith (right) congratulate Cheo Hurley, Joseph Justin and Mina Charles for winning the Capstone Project during the 2018-2019 Strategic Partnership Program.

The program’s capstone project, an intense team competition to create a full business proposal, gave Hurley the opportunity to enhance his team building and collaboration skills. The competition is the final assignment in the program and required Hurley to work with a team of other entrepreneurs to develop a mock construction proposal; and to present the proposal to a panel of judges from the management of Clark Construction. The capstone project reinforced the ten months of training they received and allowed Hurley to reinforce the subtle skills of relationship building, collaboration and connecting with the right professionals. Hurley’s team won the competition and a prize for creating the winning proposal and sales presentation in the Request for Proposals (RFP) scenario.

Armed with the skills needed to grow a successful company and the other skills necessary to expedite the growth of his firm, Hurley is positioned to lead his company into the future. “Many construction business owners are good tradespeople, but it can take them 30 years to grow their company,” Hurley said. “But programs like the Clark Strategic Partnership Program have allowed me to accelerate the growth of my company. What it might have taken other companies 10 years to do, I believe I can do in ten years.”

Hurley’s goal for the company is to double its revenues from around $4 million today, to over $8 million in the next 3-5 years. He also anticipates joining the SBA’s 8(a) program for minority business seeking to do business with the federal government and plans to become a certified HUBZone business with the federal government. His advice to other small businesses is to not be afraid of doing business with large companies like Clark Construction. “You just have to tread lightly and start slowly so you don’t get into trouble, but it’s definitely worth it.”