Raised in the Business

Women muscle their way into construction world

by R.W. Clever

The seven daughters of Bill Snelson learned early in their lives what hard work was all about. They tackled household chores as young girls in their Sedro Woolley home and by the time they were in their early teens they were working at Dad’s office, cleaning, filing, running errands and acquiring the skills that would one day serve them well.

It was 1981 when the seven sisters made a big decision about their future. Women’s Liberation and the Equal Rights Amendment had become mainstream ideas. Dolly Parton’s anthem to working women, “9 to 5,” was near the top of the pop charts.

The Snelson Companies were a successful part of the Northwest Washington construction industry. As a general contractor, Bill Snelson provided electrical wiring and installation services as part of his overall business. In 1981 he decided to spin that part of the business off as a separate company.

But the new company would not stray far from the Snelson family fold. Led by sister Nancy, then in her late 20s, the seven sisters stepped up and bought the electrical contracting business. Like many women who sought to become business owners, the sisters wanted to be masters of their own fate.

Thus was born Seven Sisters, Inc., which at the time was one of the few electrical contracting companies in the state owned and operated by women. It is also one of the true success stories to come out of the era of state-mandated contracting goals for women and minority-owned firms.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t gotten a boost from that program,” said Nancy (Snelson) Williams, who serves as president of the firm.

The pathway followed by Williams and her sisters is an increasingly familiar one for Skagit County women involved in businesses once considered to be almost exclusive male turf. Women have moved into the trucking business, manufacturing, construction and other fields that 20 years ago would have been difficult for them to enter. For many, like the Snelson sisters, that training began at a father’s knee.

Beth Folkers, president of Quantum Construction Inc., of Anacortes, likewise grew up in the building trades. Her first boss was her father, Jack Thomas.

“I’ve been around construction all my life,” said Folkers. “I started out as a kid cleaning the office and the equipment.”

Gradually, Folkers learned to manage the office for her father’s business and when she took over she had years of experience under her belt. Today, Quantum handles a variety of projects including work at the Shell Refinery, the Mount Vernon School District, Whidbey Naval Air Station and the University of Washington marine laboratory at Friday Harbor.

“I like to keep the projects local, at least in the five-county area,” she said, noting that it eases the travel strain on her 20-person work force.

Folkers said Quantum now has “about $2 million” in construction projects in the works. Her company is certified as a woman-owned business by the state.

The state’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise certification programs began in 1983 and helped give a start to many woman-owned businesses. Among the first woman-owned businesses to seek certification was Seven Sisters, Inc. By getting state clearance for their status as a woman-owned business, the company was able to take advantage of so-called “set-asides” provided for certified woman or minority owned businesses.

Christine Thompson, Seven Sister’s vice president, acknowledges that the set asides were a definite boost to their young company when it was most needed.

“It was hard to get yourself established at that time,” said Thompson. “The minority and woman set-asides made a big difference.”

With the passage of Initiative 200 four years ago, mandatory goals and preferences for minority and women owned businesses were removed. The state could still operate its certification program and assist MWBE businesses in getting government contracts and it could still use its offices to assure that women and minority owned businesses got a fair shake.

By 1998, however, Seven Sisters was well-established and it had been many years since the company had to rely on mandatory set-asides in public contracting.

Seven Sisters had grown to about 50 employees and was doing millions of dollars a year in business and was the second largest electrical contracting firm in Skagit County after Valley Electric.

Williams said Seven Sisters survived and thrived in part because the sisters knew how to find the help they needed early.

“A lot of entrepreneurs go out there and think just because you know how to do something well you will be successful,” said Williams. “But that doesn’t mean you know how to run a business.”

A pivotal development was when the big Seattle law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine “adopted” the Seven Sisters into a program the firm had developed to assist “emerging businesses.” The new company had, without charge, the services of one of the Northwest’s leading law firms.

Volunteers at the firm help set up Seven Sisters with a business plan, an employee manual, contracts and helped negotiate loans with the banks.

“When you are just starting out you don’t have time to sit down and figure all that stuff out; you’re working just to survive,” said Williams, who fondly recalls her Davis Wright Tremaine mentors.

Meanwhile, sister Christine Thompson pursued a business degree at Western Washington University – a process that took 10 years while she kept the company’s books and raised a family. She is now vice president and chief financial officer. A third sister, Julie Stuart, works for the company and is its secretary. The rest of the sisters are stockholders but chose to pursue other careers.

For Nancy Williams, a vibrant woman with bright eyes and an easy laugh, the company is everything she ever wanted, career-wise.

All the Snelson girls went through the cycle of home chores, graduating to work around their father’s offices and, eventually, learning about the construction business. At the age of 12, Nancy was cleaning Dad’s offices, running parts, working in the tool shed and other duties.

Growing up in the business, Williams said she learned to deal with men in a trade that had long been all but closed to women. Many of the men still working for the company after two decades still remember her as a young girl.

“They would pull their pranks, like sending me to the auto parts store for ‘muffler bearings’,” she said. But Williams said she never felt that she was being harassed, although she admits that being the Boss’s daughter might have given her some immunity.

It never dawned on Williams to be in any business other than construction. After graduating from Sedro Woolley High School she skipped college and went straight to work fulltime for her dad’s company. Bill Snelson died nearly six years ago, but by all accounts he was very proud of what his daughters had done with the company.

Bonnie Christianson is another woman who began learning about a “man’s” business at an early age. As a young woman she worked for a friend of her father’s at an electronic supply house in Seattle.

Being of the Old School, the friend would never allow her, or any woman, to move into outside sales. Christianson finally did work her way into counter sales, where her knowledge of electronic gear began to grow.

After many years as a manufacturer’s representative in the electronics industry, Christianson felt she was ready to make a big move. She had noticed that one of her occasional suppliers of wire and cable in the Auburn area was experiencing some trouble. It was only after she bought the former West Air, Inc. that she realized how bad things had gotten.

“I didn’t realize what I was getting into,” she said. She found that the company, which she named West Air II, had no policies or procedures, no employee manual, vendors were not getting paid and it had fallen about six months behind on deliveries to customers.

The previous owner had discouraged her from contacting the company’s customers before the purchase deal was made. She said she was warned that the customers might be concerned about the company changing hands. Big mistake, she says.

“I made a big mistake by not going directly to the customer base and finding out for myself,” she said.

Christianson moved the company to new quarters on Pease Road, in Burlington, where her new husband, David Christianson, operates a seed company. After a year of 12-18 hour days, Christianson felt that she was finally on the right track. Relations with both vendors and customers were healed and new customers were coming in.

Finally, in mid-August she made a last change that would complete the transformation of the company. The name, “West Air II,” along with its “baggage,” was jettisoned in favor of a new name, Cadillac Cable, Inc. Christianson now has 30 full-time employees and believes that she will be expanding over the next few years.

Don Wick, of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County, assisted Christianson with the move. Hers is the kind of small, “niche” company the association is working to recruit to the county. Wick says he believes that Christianson’s company has the potential to be a stable, long-term source of employment.

Christianson recently invested $100,000 to acquire a laser wire marker that will mark part numbers on wires, making the product much easier to handle by installers. She expects that the next step will be bar coding of wire and cable.

Christianson is another woman who says she never felt intimidated by being a woman in a male-dominated business. She always felt that she could hold her own. Her next major focus will be customer recruitment and she has her eyes on The Boeing Co.

Meanwhile, she is hoping to be able to spend more time with her family now that the company is on a smoother path.

Another Skagit County woman making huge inroads in a male-dominated field is Jacki A. Kaelin-Williams. She is a freight expeditor who has operated her company, American Transportation Systems, for 10 years as sole owner.

Kaelin-Williams operates a large network of independent truckers, booking loads all over the country. She has a staff of three brokers and a bookkeeper – all women. She’s hired men as brokers before, but they never seemed to work out.

“They seem a little intimidated by the women because we know what we’re doing,” she said.

The fast-paced business depends upon a freight broker’s ability to schedule loads ahead of the truckers and keep their down time at a minimum.

“Our job is to match up the load and the driver,” said Kaelin-Williams, who has arranged transportation for everything from apples to hippopotamuses.

Yes, hippos. She once had to get two hippos from the Midwest down to Florida, where they were going to be placed in a zoo. They needed a refrigerator unit to prevent overheating of the animals, which had to be sedated for the trip and accompanied by a veterinarian.

In the arcane world of freight forwarders, Kaelin-Williams has gained wide respect among her peers. In 1999 she was elected as the first woman president of the 95-year-old Transportation Club of Seattle, an organization that includes among its members executives of some of the largest marine freight companies in the world, truckers, railroads and air freight firms.

“Being a woman in this business, every day you’ve got to prove yourself,” said Kaelin-Williams.

She expects to run her business for many years to come and confesses to the hope that perhaps one of her three sons might be interested in taking it over one day.