Business: Pro-Weld Inc.

Owners: James and Penny Oberlander

Ages: 42 and 43

Address: 1806 Antelope Road, White City

Phone: 826-1404

Employees: 13

Web: pro-weld.come-mail: info@pro-weld.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a weekly series of profiles on locally owned and operated businesses in Southern Oregon.

What do you do and how long have you been doing it?

We do custom construction and technical welding when the work has to be oil-tight. If it can be welded we can do it. We do structural steel and ornamental iron work. We handle architectural steel, installation and prototypes.

When those million-dollar homes with tile roofs go up, there’s structural steel for windows because tile is so heavy. When Bear Creek (Corp.) does additions we work for them. We’ve been in business 10 years.

How long have you lived in the Rogue Valley?

Advertisement

Jim moved here when he was 14 from Arizona and Penny moved from Redding, Calif., when she was 8, and both of us graduated from Medford Senior High.

What inspired you to go into this line of work?

Jim worked for what is now Areva SA, when it was Alstom Transformers in White City, after he got out of high school. That’s where he learned technical welding and later, he wanted to get out and do something different. He enjoys working with the best, likes to find the cream of the crop out in the real world and enjoys working with top contractors. He works with local engineers when they’re integrating steel into buildings. The challenges come when contractors come to him with an idea or problem and then he has to think outside of the box.

The real art in what we do is the fabrication. If you’re out in the field the work isn’t always what is shown in the blueprint, you have to make it happen. We’re not like assembly- line work; every day is different.

What decision or action would you change if you could do it again?

Taking business classes earlier may have saved us from learning some things the hard way.

We lived off Jim’s 401(k) at the beginning. We’re growing at 15 percent a year now.

What’s the toughest business decision you’ve made?

Leaving our jobs to start Pro-Weld and when to actually jump into it. Jim was the fabricator and Penny was the certified welder at first. We hired our first outside employee, John Skokan, our foreman, about seven years ago.

Who are your competitors?

When we are bidding, we go against AlCo Contractors Co.; Pacific Ironworks and Medford Fabrication.

How do you define success for your business?

We were a finalist this year for the Austin Family Business Award, involving family-run businesses throughout the state. Our three kids — Tifiny, Tanna and Eli — all work here.

Obviously the profit is important, that shows we’re financially successful. We don’t have to advertise; business comes to us. Repeat customers means we’re doing something right. We have more work than we get to. The biggest problem is finding employees. If I could find a couple good welders now, I’d hire them today. We spend $300 on some of them before we hire them and have them go through welding tests. That reduces our turn-around. A lot of people say they’re welders and have certification, but the test for us is to see what they can do. We need production and expertise because that’s what we’re selling. You can’t sell yourself with sloppy work.

What are your goals?

We’re in a 3,000-square-foot building right now and we’re working on top of each other. We’re planning a 12,000-square-foot building, but we need to find the property first.

Our goal is to be the employer of choice here and to expand outside the Rogue Valley so that we’re not dependent on local construction. We’ve got a health-care plan and a health savings plan for employee retention.

We’ve also developed a new company, Iron Horse Inc., producing high-grade barbecues that look like locomotives for the commercial industry, rental shops and caterers.

What training or education did you need?

Basically, experience. Jim began welding in a high school class. His teacher called Alstom and said "I’ve got a hot-dog welder." He worked from the bottom to lead man. It was technical welding on transformers. It makes him a pain to work for, but he sees things that others don’t see.

What’s your advice for budding entrepreneurs?

If you’re going to try to be successful you have to have something people want or need. You need to know business to succeed. Sixty percent of companies that go out of business had good products, but they just didn’t know the business.

To suggest an idea for this column, contact reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com