Andrew Young, a retired military veteran, runs Chief Excavation and Landscaping in Alabama with a focus on small, family-oriented operations. Using compact equipment like the DEVELON DTL35, Young tackles residential and commercial projects, showcasing his skills and values gained from his military background.
DEVELON photo
He operates a compact track loader to perform his everyday tasks like excavating, grading, lifting and moving materials and backfilling.
Andrew Young retired from the U.S. military after a 20-year career. Upon retiring, he made a list of what he wanted his life to look like after he left the military. At the top of his list was to be his own boss.
Young started Chief Excavation and Landscaping (CEAL) in Huntsville, Ala., seven years ago. He intentionally keeps his business small as an owner-operator.
"After being in the military for 20 years and answering to people, as well as being responsible for large divisions of people, I am very happy to just manage myself and not have to try and convince somebody else that my ideas are good," said Young.
Also, near the top of his list is to spend as much time with his family as possible, including summers with his three children when they aren't in school.
"Having any kind of service business, especially in the green industry and taking summers off, that's an anomaly," Young said. "I work maybe 140 days a year, and I'm very happy with that."
Small, Medium-Sized Jobs
Young started his contracting business like many other small businesses: with a pickup truck, trailer, a compact track loader and attachments. He gained on-the-job experience doing work for a local concrete company pouring new driveways.
Today, Young operates a variety of compact equipment and attachments on his job sites, including residential and commercial landscaping projects. He operates a compact track loader to perform his everyday tasks like excavating, grading, lifting and moving materials and backfilling.
As Young established himself as a professional contractor with a strong reputation on getting the job done right, his customers started asking him to take on larger projects like land-clearing tasks.
"I had been getting calls saying, ‘Hey, do y'all do any land clearing?' and I would recommend somebody else in my network," he said. "But I got to the point where some machines were paid off, and I had the bandwidth to do it. I thought, ‘Well, this is as good as any time to do it.'"
He needed a larger compact track loader with more horsepower to use a forestry mulching attachment for shredding and clearing vegetation, including trees, brush and other wood material. Cutting blades made of hardened steel easily shred the vegetation and turn it into mulch.
"We're getting into forestry mulching and looking at all the local brands that we could use," said Young.
During his research, he discovered that Doosan Infracore began offering compact track loaders and mini excavators when they rebranded as DEVELON.
"As y'all know, good customer service from your construction equipment dealership is important to any business that needs regular service and maintenance," he said.
That led him to a local dealer — R&M Equipment Rentals — where he purchased a new DEVELON DTL35 compact track loader. The large-frame, vertical-lift-path compact track loader has 115.3 horsepower, making it an ideal machine for land clearing.
In addition, the DTL35 compact track loader comes standard with auxiliary high-flow hydraulics and an impact-resistant polycarbonate door, providing power and enhanced durability. The high-flow hydraulics power the attachment motor and achieve optimal performance when clearing vegetation.
Skill Development
In addition to his hands-on experience working on job sites, Young said serving in the military for 20 years taught him numerous soft skills and the confidence to learn new skills like construction.
"I can learn something new and master it rather quickly with ease," he said. "That comes with the skills that you learn in the military."
Young follows straightforward advice when it comes to working with customers in this industry: Answer the phone, be polite, show up when you say you're going to show up and do the job well.
He recently had his daughter Bella join him on a mulch refresh project for a homeowner. It's an example of how he's passing on his expertise and a sense of responsibility to the next generation.
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