We’re a “Top Contractor”… Here’s what that Means!
Whether you’re a customer of ours or a property manager we hope will soon become a customer, you’ve probably noticed we proudly proclaim in our marketing efforts and on our website materials that we’re a “Top Contractor” for various industry services.
We thought we’d tell you exactly what that means.
The Top Contractor status is a recognition conferred on companies by the paving & pavement maintenance industry’s flagship trade magazine, Pavement Maintenance & Construction. It’s a bit like being a Fortune 500 company in that the Top Contractor list is based on sales volume for each fiscal year.
But a major difference between the Fortune 500 and Pavement’s list is that the Fortune 500 are public companies whose revenue is available for all to see. Paving and pavement maintenance contractors, however, are almost exclusively privately held companies who do not have to reveal their revenue to anyone but the IRS.
So, to qualify for one of Pavement’s Top Contractor lists (there are four), contractors like us have to complete a confidential survey and send it in to be considered. So the first thing to understand is that participation in the list is voluntary; any contractor in the country can participate. We like to participate because we like to see where we stack up. (We stack up well!)
The second thing to realize is that Pavement magazine doesn’t just take a contractor’s word on what his annual revenue is. The magazine requires any contractor that participates to support that revenue figure with some type of third-party verification of the sales number (usually by the company’s accountant on the accountant’s letterhead). So the magazine invites all contractors to participate and then holds up a hoop they need to jump through to be considered.
Doing the “Top Contractor” Math
After that it all comes down to the magazine’s math. Here’s how it works:
Let’s say Contractor A reports revenue for fiscal year 2018 of $100,000 (working with small round figures will make this easier). Contractor A then tells the magazine that Paving generates 50% of that revenue, Sealcoating generates 30%, and Pavement Repair generates the remaining 20%.
The magazine then multiplies the total revenue ($100,000) by the percent generated by each service to determine the amount of revenue each service contributes to the total, so:
- $100,000 x 50% = $50,000 generated by Paving work
- $100,000 x 30% = $30,000 generated by Sealcoating work
- $100,000 x 20% = $20,000 generated by Pavement Repair work
It’s those dollar figures that are used to determine if a contractor qualifies for a Top Contractor list.
Pavement magazine conducts these calculations for every contractor who completes the Top Contractor survey and provides third-party verification. The magazine then lists, in each service category (Paving, Sealcoating, Pavement Repair, Striping) the companies from largest sales to smallest – then they draw a line after company #75 and those companies above the line make up, for example, the Paving 75.
So using our example above, if the cutoff for the Paving 75 at company #75 was $55,000 (in other words if Contractor #75 had paving sales of $55,000), Contractor A would not make the Paving Top Contractor list. But Contractor A could still make the other service lists; if the cutoff for the Sealcoating list was $25,000 Contractor A (with sealcoating sales of $30,000) would qualify for that list.
The magazine does all these calculations internally. Once the lists are determined, Pavement magazine reorganizes them alphabetically and announces them to the industry in its June/July issue.
What Being a Top Contractor Means
So that’s how the Top Contractors are determined. But what does being a Top Contractor mean?
Well, mainly it means we’re one of the highest revenue-producing contractors in the industry. That means we do a lot of work – and it means the people we work for continue to invite us back to do more! Because there’s virtually no way a contractor can be one of the Top Contractors in the country without generating a significant amount of repeat business. So yes, we do good work, but we have our customers to thank for enabling us to become a Top Contractor!
Awards are great. Everyone likes to be recognized for what they do – and we’re no different. But we don’t take this recognition lightly. We know how hard we’ve worked to become the contractor of choice for most of our customers, and we’re going to continue working that hard to justify the awards and to make sure we stay on the Top Contractor (and preferred customer) lists.
So what’s the best thing about being a named a Top Contractor? It fires us up!
