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Soil-Tech: Fearless Owner Finds New Opportunities
Las Vegas Business Press, Business Profile
By Brian Sodoma
July 1, 2002

Jerry Stanley is a gambler.

But not the casino type.

“We’ll try anything,” he said about his company Soil-Tech, which has enjoyed steady revenue growth over the past decade as a hydroseeding, dust control and color mitigation company.

Maybe hydroseeding and dust mitigation doesn’t sound like exciting business, but an hour in Stanley’s office offers the sense that a “sky’s the limit” mentality is a little too confining for the entrepreneur.

He started the company with a friend in 1988, after briefly enjoying the informal title of the “youngest realtor” in the valley during a foray into real estate shortly after graduating from high school.

“I always thought I would be a big real estate developer,” he said.

But fate would have it otherwise.

It all started when a friend bought a hydroseeding machine and explained to Stanley how grass can germinate within a few days after applying a seed mulch. Stanley was optimistic that new development would eventually revive the stagnant real estate market at the time, and saw the need for a hydroseeding company in the valley.

After “hocking everything” he owned, begging a bank for as much money as it could give and getting $10,000 from his sister. Stanley mustered up $20,000 to buy his own hydroseeding truck, a mechanical marvel that can shoot the seed mix the length of a football field.

Still, it wasn’t until the late 1990s when Stanley’s “try anything” determination really began to pay off.

With air quality taking a beating in the Las Vegas Valley and environmental controls put into place, the stage was set for the expansion of Soil-Tech’s offerings.

Stanley looked at his hydroseeding product and knew that its ingredients included a tackifier (organic glue), paper mulch, fertilizer and grass seed. Take away the last two ingredients and you have a dust control product that can help contractors keep dust control levels down when it is sprayed on the soil.

Since then, Stanley has diversified his dust control line and now carries about six different dust control products, all formulations the Las Vegas native conjured up himself.

“I’m the mad scientist around here,” he said.

Stanley’s list of clients is huge, including Del Webb and the Nevada Department of Transportation. His business has blossomed into about 70 percent dust control in the past four years.

While he still does hydroseeding, sod is now the preferred method for adding grass with most new developments nowadays. Therefore, her splits the remaining 30 percent of his business between color mitigation and hydroseeding.

Color mitigation is another revenue stream where clients use Soil-Tech’s proprietary formula to transform bulldozed land back to its original hue.

“We’ve done work for almost every contractor in town,” he said.

About 85 percent of Stanley’s business comes from referrals. As many business owners know, there are very few companies that take root in Las Vegas and actually stick around. Stanley on the other hand can boast the same cell phone number for the past 13 years.

“All of my competition is from out of state,” he said. “But there are so many people coming in and out of here all the time.”

Instead customers seem to prefer letting Stanley figure out their needs.

Give Stanley an hour and he can recount endless tales of troubleshooting dust and color mitigation projects for the state and other entities.

“People call me sometimes and ask can I do this?” he explained. “I say, ‘I don’t know, let me try.’”

This fearless approach to business is what Stanley said keeps him ahead of the competition.

“I think a lot of contractors just don’t get it. They bid one job, then they bid on another. They don’t look at the big picture of having diversified revenue streams,” he said.

Stanley said that his company has grown ten-fold since it started.

“It’s been a steady calculated growth,” he said.

Q&A

What was your initial investment?
$20,000 after I hocked everything, went to a bank and got as much money as I could, and borrowed $10,000 from my sister.

How long have you been in this industry?
14 years.

Who or what has had the most influence on your decision making?
My gut. I’ve always had to rely on my intuition. I think being in business you realize you have no one to go to but yourself. As an employee you can ask someone, but as an owner it’s different. And that’s good.

What has been your best business decision?
Hiring the right people. You’re only as good as your employees.

What has been your worst business decision?
Hiring the wrong people. Through the years, I’ve had some bad apples.

What is the secret of your success?
Creating and finding new markets and building business relationships. I know so many people in town, and this is a really flighty town.

What advice would you give another entrepreneur starting a business in Southern Nevada?
Building business relationships is the key.