Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success Part 3-Landmark Engineering

We interviewed the founders of some of Jacksonville's fastest growing privately-held companies to learn how they build their bridges to success.

Nina Sickler is the President of Landmark Engineering.

"We specialize in transportation engineering, which is highway and bridge design," says Sickler.

Sickler started her business in 2006—not long before the economic collapse. However, five years later, Landmark Engineering is not only running, it’s growing.
Sickler maps out her success strategy:

Maintain Adaptability

Sickler: "If you thought about the industry 5 or 10 years ago, a lot of the focus was on adding additional lane miles, putting in more roads, wider roads, to handle all of the capacity. With lower funding, the real focus now is on maintenance. We're looking at projects like rehabilitating bridges rather than putting in new bridges. Repairing roads, finding ways to get more folks along the roads with fewer lane miles, such as intelligence transportation systems."

Consistent Quality

Sickler: "There are a lot of firms that are out there that don’t have enough work, and we're all hungry. We're all working hard to get business. If you don’t deliver for the client, there is another company right behind you that is willing to bend over backwards. It is really important in this economy to keep your quality at the highest level."

Spend on Staff, Not Stuff

Sickler: "We started by pretty much bootstrapping. When I started the company, I started in the office of a friend in basically a closet. It was 5x7 foot; I could touch both sides of the office with my hands as I was sitting in my chair. It made a huge difference."

Big or Small, Take Notes on it All

Sickler: "When I graduated from college at Georgia Tech, I moved back to Florida and started with a very large company. There were 10,000 employees. In fact, my first job was working on the automated skyway express."

Sickler: "After that, I started working for a very small company, where you take on a lot of responsibility and you learn a lot very quickly. I did a lot of work out on construction sites, and there is nothing like seeing things being built to really learn how you can improve your designs.

Sickler: "Looking at the large business, that helped me build a vision for what we could do and seeing the small business helped me see what steps were required at the beginning to get where we wanted to go."

There have been a lot of ups and downs, but the one beneficial part of having your own company is that no matter what happens, you know that you have had the best opportunity possible to shape what happens to you.

If you’re interested in launching your own business, Florida State College is offering a bachelor’s degree program in Business Administration starting in the Fall of 2011—and there’s a specific track for social entrepreneurship. You can find out more at fscj.edu. The Chamber of Commerce also offers workshops, mentoring and other great resources through its Small Business Center.