No money, no credit and fresh out of bankruptcy. A perfect time to start an excavation company!

Let’s be honest here. When I say nothing, that is a far stretch when you live in America.

If you own a car, even if it’s a rusty, ugly, beat up Maui cruiser, you are wealthier than 50% of the world’s population.

And I did have a car.

I had an ‘01 Toyota tundra. And some hand tools. A sledge hammer, grease gun, a 6’ rigging chain, some wrenches and shovels.

Not exactly everything you need to break into the heavy equipment world.

It’s really hard to do anything without money, and especially without credit. Simple things, like getting a cell phone. Hard to do.

Renting equipment. Hard to do.

Getting an off road fuel account. Hard to do.

Buying equipment. Don’t even think about it unless your buying with cash.

What I lacked in resources, I made up with ambition, determination, work ethic, and faith.

That song, “living on a prayer,” was my daily jam.

Thinking outside the box was also my daily jam.

How do you do an excavation job without being able to rent an excavator?

You borrow. You barter. You trade. You look for every opportunity that will give you a chance.

You hustle and save every penny so that one day you can buy someone else’s broken machine or truck that barely works but at least gives you a start.

My first equipment purchase was a 2004 Cat 420D backhoe. It was $28,000.

cat-backhoe

Turns out that the Maui Economic Opportunity or MEO had a program for people like me who had no credit and needed a second chance.

I spent months in that program.

I had to give them a business plan and a ton of other paperwork that I didn’t want to do but was important for me to learn and understand.

I wanted that backhoe so bad!

They eventually gave me a loan with a 20% interest rate and I didn’t even care. There was no prepayment penalty so I knew if I just got the machine, I would be able to pay it off as fast as possible.

I absolutely loved that backhoe. I did everything with it. Demolition, grading, mass x, tree removals, scrap metal recycling, you name it.

kimo-clark-operating-excavation-equipment-cat-backhoe

I built the company solely off that first piece of machinery.

Since the MEO program only let me get 1 loan, I had to really hustle to start building my fleet.

I eventually bought a truck that was buried in the bushes of Pukalani with weeds growing out of the seat, and a 4th hand small equipment trailer to haul my backhoe.

Because I still had no credit, I was forced to I keep on buying junk, used beaters with the little cash I had.

I did that for the first 2-3 years till I could actually start building credit again. Once I started growing, my CAT dealer would even let me establish credit through their internal corporate banking system that let me finally get into new equipment.

From then on, the rest was history.

When I hit my 10th year in business, I got a call from Dave Daly — the guy who helped me get my first loan for the backhoe.

He had been following my company for quite some time. I won an award for the Young Person Business of the Year and was pretty much crushing it.

Dave wanted me to speak at a conference to talk about my experience and share my story of how the program worked for me.

I remember laying it on pretty thick saying that my success was solely due to Dave and his program.

I could tell he was very proud…

As I look back, there were key moments and doors that opened in my career. Such as the MEO program that helped shape and guide the direction I ended up going in.

truth-excavation-heavy-equipment-fleet-at-the-base-yard

I am super grateful for all the opportunities and chances I was given when I started out with nothing. Well, not counting my Toyota…

#staytrue

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

About Kimo Clark

I’m a Jesus loving Christian, husband, father of 3, business owner and life loving adventurer. Born and raised on the island of Maui, I share the ups and downs of my life and the many lessons I’ve learned through trial and error. 🤙🏼

Get The Tru.X Blog Delivered To Your Inbox!

No money, no credit and fresh out of bankruptcy. A perfect time to start an excavation company!

Let’s be honest here. When I say nothing, that is a far stretch when you live in America.

If you own a car, even if it’s a rusty, ugly, beat up Maui cruiser, you are wealthier than 50% of the world’s population.

And I did have a car.

I had an ‘01 Toyota tundra. And some hand tools. A sledge hammer, grease gun, a 6’ rigging chain, some wrenches and shovels.

Not exactly everything you need to break into the heavy equipment world.

It’s really hard to do anything without money, and especially without credit. Simple things, like getting a cell phone. Hard to do.

Renting equipment. Hard to do.

Getting an off road fuel account. Hard to do.

Buying equipment. Don’t even think about it unless your buying with cash.

What I lacked in resources, I made up with ambition, determination, work ethic, and faith.

That song, “living on a prayer,” was my daily jam.

Thinking outside the box was also my daily jam.

How do you do an excavation job without being able to rent an excavator?

You borrow. You barter. You trade. You look for every opportunity that will give you a chance.

You hustle and save every penny so that one day you can buy someone else’s broken machine or truck that barely works but at least gives you a start.

My first equipment purchase was a 2004 Cat 420D backhoe. It was $28,000.

cat-backhoe

Turns out that the Maui Economic Opportunity or MEO had a program for people like me who had no credit and needed a second chance.

I spent months in that program.

I had to give them a business plan and a ton of other paperwork that I didn’t want to do but was important for me to learn and understand.

I wanted that backhoe so bad!

They eventually gave me a loan with a 20% interest rate and I didn’t even care. There was no prepayment penalty so I knew if I just got the machine, I would be able to pay it off as fast as possible.

I absolutely loved that backhoe. I did everything with it. Demolition, grading, mass x, tree removals, scrap metal recycling, you name it.

kimo-clark-operating-excavation-equipment-cat-backhoe

I built the company solely off that first piece of machinery.

Since the MEO program only let me get 1 loan, I had to really hustle to start building my fleet.

I eventually bought a truck that was buried in the bushes of Pukalani with weeds growing out of the seat, and a 4th hand small equipment trailer to haul my backhoe.

Because I still had no credit, I was forced to I keep on buying junk, used beaters with the little cash I had.

I did that for the first 2-3 years till I could actually start building credit again. Once I started growing, my CAT dealer would even let me establish credit through their internal corporate banking system that let me finally get into new equipment.

From then on, the rest was history.

When I hit my 10th year in business, I got a call from Dave Daly — the guy who helped me get my first loan for the backhoe.

He had been following my company for quite some time. I won an award for the Young Person Business of the Year and was pretty much crushing it.

Dave wanted me to speak at a conference to talk about my experience and share my story of how the program worked for me.

I remember laying it on pretty thick saying that my success was solely due to Dave and his program.

I could tell he was very proud…

As I look back, there were key moments and doors that opened in my career. Such as the MEO program that helped shape and guide the direction I ended up going in.

truth-excavation-heavy-equipment-fleet-at-the-base-yard

I am super grateful for all the opportunities and chances I was given when I started out with nothing. Well, not counting my Toyota…

#staytrue

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

2 Comments

  1. Garrett Williams February 3, 2023 at 6:28 am - Reply

    Cool story bro! Can relate in many ways!

    • kimo clark February 3, 2023 at 9:14 am - Reply

      Yeah man. The start up in the dirt game is an uphill battle.

Leave A Comment

About Kimo Clark

I’m a Jesus loving Christian, husband, father of 3, business owner and life loving adventurer. Born and raised on the island of Maui, I share the ups and downs of my life and the many lessons I’ve learned through trial and error. 🤙🏼

Get The Tru.X Blog Delivered To Your Inbox!

2 Comments

  1. Garrett Williams February 3, 2023 at 6:28 am - Reply

    Cool story bro! Can relate in many ways!

    • kimo clark February 3, 2023 at 9:14 am - Reply

      Yeah man. The start up in the dirt game is an uphill battle.

Leave A Comment