War vet works to re-establish small business

Every few months Army Sgt. 1st Class Pierce sent letters to his clients – simple updates designed to keep his customers from defecting to another electrical contractor while he was gone.

“As I made my business, it was not just to have customers. I wanted to treat everyone like they were part of the family,” Pierce said.

Pierce started Billings-based Pierce Electric in June 2004, but had to shut down operations in September 2005 so he could deploy to the Middle East with the Army Reserves.

Before deploying, Pierce handed his clients off to friend and fellow electrical contractor Tom Howell for safekeeping.

Howell wanted to help Pierce because of their friendship and because Pierce was “fighting for our freedoms.”

“Bud’s a good guy,” Howell said. “I wanted to make sure that when he got back that he still had his customer base.”

At the end of October, after more than a year of military service abroad, Pierce returned to Missouri, and to his wife, 9-year-old daughter, 5-year-old son and 25 happy business clients.

Client Randy Hawkins, owner of Regional Ready Mix Inc., said he’s glad to have Pierce back.

“He’s very personable, knows his business really well and very client-oriented,” Hawkins said. “He wants somebody to be happy before he leaves.”

In the line of duty

Pierce has been in the Army for 18 years, the first 10 of which were active duty. He’s a specialty shop platoon sergeant who works on engines and electronics for Chinook cargo helicopters.

His Kansas City-based unit was originally supposed to go to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for four months of training. Two days after arriving at Fort Sill in late 2005, Pierce and his 200 Army colleagues got a new set of orders – earthquake relief in Pakistan.

Pierce’s unit flew 80 million pounds of supplies to isolated and injured Pakistanis. Four months later, his unit switched from humanitarian work to war efforts, redeploying to Kandahar, and later Bagram, Afghanistan.

The deployment made Pierce appreciate the high quality of living in the United States.

“It was a very good experience,” he said. “You see how much you don’t really need to survive and be happy.”

Back on track

Pierce is planning to retire from the Army when he hits 20 years of service in two years. Though he didn’t have any employees when he shut down for deployment, he plans to hire a couple this year, and he said it wouldn’t be fair to his future employees if he were to deploy for the Army again.

Pierce is also planning to bid on government contracts beginning next year. He’s currently learning how to bid on government contracts with the help of Heartland Procurement Technical Assistance Center of Joplin, on the campus of Missouri Southern State University. Heartland PTAC is one of 93 PTACs across the country that helps civilian companies secure government contracts.

“I hope to keep my business growing slowly,” he said, noting he’d like to add an employee or two annually. “I want to provide a good quality product with great customer service.”