Rob Clifton always knew he would find his way into the family business. He worked his way up, and now, he’s the one at the head of the table.
His father, Steve Clifton, started Clifton Construction in Augusta more than three decades ago after graduating from Auburn University with a construction degree, the same path Rob Clifton would take years later.
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Steve Clifton worked for several years in Hilton Head, S.C. At that point, he decided to start his own business, and his wife had family in Augusta. The CSRA was a natural choice.
Steve Clifton started the business out of his house and slowly grew his client base. Repeat customers and word of mouth began to grow the company, and Steve Clifton said his customers were loyal and good to him.
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“I had grown the business as much as I wanted to. I’m a project manager at heart, more nuts and bolts and hands on. That is my passion and my love,” he said. “Rob enjoys the business end of it more than I do, so it was a natural transition for him to take more of a leadership role.”
Maintaining a family atmosphere has been critical in growing the business over the last few decades.
“We want to continue to maintain a family culture,” Steve Clifton said. “I think Rob will create more of a consistency in the business aspect of things and be able to maintain good relationships with our contractors, vendors and customers. He will make sure we have good people and let them know how important they are to us and that they are part of our family.”
The family atmosphere is something Rob Clifton hopes to maintain as he has shifted into more of a leadership role at the company.
“We’ve positioned ourselves well for the future,” Rob Clifton said. “We don’t want to be too big. We want to remain close-knit. Typical family businesses don’t grow to a corporation, and even though we have grown a lot, we don’t want that feel. We care about our people, and we never want to lose that. My dad felt strongly about that and I do, too.”
Rob Clifton said that while he and his father are very different, their skill sets mesh well together and make for a strong team dynamic.
“My dad is my role model. At a young age, I always looked up to him as a man of integrity,” Rob Clifton said. “He’s an engineer, more detail-oriented. I’m more of a high flyer, big vision kind of guy, so that dynamic helps us to complement each other well.”
The father and son had an agreement that after college, Rob Clifton would go to work for a different company for at least two years.
After attending Auburn, Rob moved to Atlanta and worked at a flooring company for five years before his dad called him and asked if he wanted to come back home and work at the family business.
“My dad sat me down and asked how we were going to transition this,” Rob Clifton said.
“I had been focused on flooring for a few years and wasn’t as well-versed in the big picture construction at first, so I worked with my dad on some builds and then managed a few projects on my own,” Rob Clifton said. “I moved into more of a business development role, moved up after some time to VP and now I am CEO of the company, managing day-to-day operations.”
Steve Clifton still owns the company, but Rob Clifton is in the process of buying him out. Rob Clifton said that changes needed to be made in terms of software, safety and otherwise when he took the helm. Bringing the old school ways into the current day was a focus for him, he said.
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“I use my father for his knowledge of construction, and I keep him in the loop with any changes from a managerial perspective,” Rob Clifton said. “He’s trusted, me and we’ve been very successful over the past few years. As of five months ago, we’ve opened a second office in Columbia, S.C.”
Clifton Construction started out building convenience stores and gas stations, but the business diversified since. Among its projects local office spaces, libraries in Grovetown and Harlem and Journey Community Church.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com.
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