Primed for contracting success: family-owned company that paints water towers masters the art of working with government agencies.

• Author: Hughes, Leah
• Position: CAROLINA MANAGEMENT TEAM

Clark Fields' second day on the job was an unconventional one. The business administrator made his start with Carolina Management Team (CMT) by attending an unveiling ceremony for a project the company completed for free. In celebration of the company's 10-year anniversary, the owners and staff decided to give back to the industry, so they provided a water-tank rehabilitation free of charge, at an estimated value of more than $56,000, to the town of Burnsville.

"Getting to see that, I said, 'Yep, this is a different company,"' Fields says.

The company, which generates about $4 million in annual revenue, specializes in repairing concrete, painting and applying high-performance coatings for water and waste-water-treatment operations. About 90 percent of its projects are for government agencies such as municipalities and counties.

Brother-and-sister team David Van Zee and Wendy Banks founded CMT in Asheville in 2003; neither had worked in the industry. (Van Zee has a manufacturing-engineering degree and previously worked as a systems and process engineer for Bonset America Corporation and Konica USA. Banks spent 15 years in the hospitality industry, including stints at Hyatt Hotels, Walt Disney Attractions and Universal Orlando.) Instead, they were inspired by their father's experience in small business and the coatings industry. Their father, George Van Zee, agreed to come out of retirement to help them with the launch.

One of the team's first moves was to connect with the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC). The center encourages the growth of small businesses in the state by providing management counseling and educational resources.

Before joining CMT, Fields worked for the SBTDC for about six years counseling companies interested in doing business with the government.

He met Van Zee and Banks through the center. As CMT gained success, Fields used the company as an example of how to acquire government contracts.

"They were the model company in the way they do things and the way they operated," Fields says. "They represented everything I was telling folks they needed to do to be successful."

Banks' previous career in hospitality taught her the importance of relationships. The first step in winning a government contract is for a business to register with the state and then research the specific municipality to identify additional requirements. Many companies share the misconception that once they complete...