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The company also hired Andy Bartley to focus on marketing materials, promotional brochures, developing the website and expanding the customer database. He was also responsible for organizing the material needed for Bartley Corp. to become a CFA Certified Contractor through the Concrete Foundations Association (CFA), a designation that sets the company apart from its competition. "In a slow market you don't always want to add people, but he is the right kind of person to add," Bartley explains. "He can focus on those things so everyone else can focus on their areas of expertise."

Residential roots
Bartley Corp. began as a cast-in-place residential concrete foundation company in the 1970s when aluminum forming was in its infancy. Buck Bartley, Jim's father and founder of the company, says his main competition in the early days was block contractors. He worked to market directly to builders about the benefits of cast-in-place concrete. "Most builders switched pretty quickly because we were far superior over block. We could pour foundations year round, could do footings and other concrete work on the job, and it's just a better product - more water-tight and good for custom work," Buck explains. He adds that custom builders were slower to jump on concrete than track builders, but after one custom builder decided to build his own home with a concrete foundation he spread the word about the benefits.

Today, custom foundations are Bartley's Corp.'s forte. "We pride ourselves on doing difficult work no one else wants to do," Jim Bartley says. "It might be a complicated addition or a single-family home with unique details. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors with this work. A lot of our customers do odd-ball jobs with 10- or 12-foot walls, retaining walls built into their designs, and other unique features like that."

Nearly 20 years ago, Bartley Corp. expanded into light commercial work because it had the talent on staff to help them diversify into this sector. Much of Bartley Corp.'s expansion over the years, however, has been related to its residential services, namely excavation, demolition, waterproofing and helical piers. Over the last few years, the company has broken into green building by offering insulated walls, pervious concrete and concrete homes.

"I really believe in concrete houses," Bartley says. "I see the green movement in general and in this economy as a whole as a good opportunity to get people to think about concrete houses. There's a small niche of home buyers who are looking at concrete houses. Not a lot of people know they can have a concrete house. But this green movement is throughout the economy and it gives us an opportunity to show people what we offer in the green area."