Apparently I’m a morning person.
Or at least I’ve become one.
When I first started showing up to jobsites in the dark of morning, the sites were pretty much what you’d expect: tired, coffee-clutching men who had been doing this kind of work far longer than I.
The airfield is not exactly the kind of place where you’d expect a lot of smiles or pleasantries to be exchanged. But that’s what I brought with me when I started my work signing crews in for their shifts.
Bringing some cheer with me to the site each morning is essentially what sparked the motivation behind Alder. People started to take note: when Ali is up, the crew is up; when Ali is down, the crew is down and productivity suffers.
It dawned on me that things like positivity and kindness belonged in this field and we could do it better. It’s how we got started and how we earned trust in an industry that maybe didn’t quite know what to do with me at first. And, that positivity is the same approach I’m taking now as Alder is faced with some new challenges as a once-designated Disadvantaged Business Entity.
New DBE Rules, New Challenges
Just this month, I received notice that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was significantly changing its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. Alder, along with nearly 50-thousand certified DBEs around the country will need to reapply under new rules. The majority of them are small businesses like us.
The change removes long-standing presumptions tied to race or gender, meaning every owner must personally prove social and economic disadvantage. So begins the work of pulling together documents and compiling a personal narrative proving discrimination and eligibility. Is it frustrating? I’d be lying if I didn’t say “yes,” but we’re meeting it the same way we meet every challenge: with grit, grace, and positivity.
Building Alder, Step by Step
I am confident we will keep our DBE certification. The narrative speaks for itself. Financing wasn’t easy. I was told we didn’t fit the “profile” for a construction firm. It was suggested I bring on a male partner or more collateral. Instead, I used my own retirement savings to get us started.
Alder was built one relationship, one job, one early-morning crew meeting at a time. Along the way, I learned this: kindness is not weakness. It’s strength.
Our True Advantage
At Alder, we’ve learned that grit gets us through the toughest challenges hether it’s securing financing or navigating complex regulations. And it is grace that shapes how we lead our teams and support each other along the way.
The new DBE rules may test our processes, and my patience, but they cannot shake our commitment to our people, our work and the standards we uphold.
That combination of grit and grace is what has always been, and will always be, our true advantage.