Are you just getting by when it comes to managing your company’s payroll? It can be a complicated process. Dealing with taxes, withholdings, garnishments, insurance benefits and more can get overwhelming once your business grows beyond a handful of employees. Read up on why using a third-party payroll service is a no-brainer for many business owners. gomcmag.com/featured

Overheard Online

“Actually experiencing it and living (in the Bakken) for two years and being with these guys, the brotherhood of working together was really a big thing that got us through a lot of these things.”

- Bakken Brotherhood: Oil Boom Boys gomcmag.com/featured

Fighting Foliage: Plant Management

One oilfield service that may be overlooked is vegetation removal. Excess vegetation on a lease property is a safety hazard and can interfere with operations. Pride Upkeep provides vegetation control on leases of all sizes. Days are long and the work is hard but the owners take pride in keeping busy and being successful. Find out more online. gomcmag.com/featured

Setting the Standard: Culture of Safety

This month’s featured company, R.P. Oilfield Service, hasn’t had a lost-time incident in 14 years. An impressive record like that comes from constantly fostering a safety-first mindset – it doesn’t happen by accident. Read more on how the company strives for workplace safety excellence in this exclusive online story. gomcmag.com/featured

“My family has been in the oil industry for a long time,” says Hartford, who earned a degree in business management with a focus on small businesses and entrepreneurship in 2012 from the University of Wyoming. “Rod has been a good family friend for a long time, and when I was about 15 years old, I started working for him as a shop hand during summers. And while I was in college, I ran a roustabout crew for him during summers.”

Originally, Hartford — whose father, brother and sister all work in the oil industry in one form or another — was intent on earning a degree in civil engineering. But he switched gears when Peterson asked him to think about running the business after he retired. “He wanted someone he could trust to run the company he’d built for 30 years,” Hartford says. “I’ve been running the company ever since I graduated from college. The opportunity (to eventually own the company) was there and everything just lined up the right way.”

Why pin a career on such a volatile industry that’s prone to dramatic up-and-down cycles? “It runs in the family,” Hartford says. “And I like the challenges. It’s something different every day. I learned early on that as soon as you think you know this industry and what’s going on, it can change in a second. So if you’re not continually evolving, you’re falling behind.”

DIVERSE SERVICES

Continual evolvement explains how the company has survived for so long in a rough-and-tumble industry. Over the years, Peterson’s goal was to provide what customers needed. The result: A company that offers a full range of roustabout services that run the gamut from power washing rigs and equipment, maintaining production equipment and new well construction to wellhead site preparation, installing pit liners, erecting fencing and even painting. Roustabout services account for about 75 percent of the company’s business volume, with the balance produced by anchor and auger services for workover rigs, Hartford says.

“I attribute our service diversity to Rod,” he explains. “When he first started the business, he did whatever customers needed. That meant finding guys who were skilled at things like pipe fitting, excavation, construction, fencing and painting. In short, we’ve always adapted to what our customers need. And over time, we’ve built up an inventory of skills and knowledge that allow us to meet our goal of being a preferred service company in the oilfields.”

Diversity provides many advantages. First of all, most customers prefer one-stop shopping to dealing with multiple contractors, which makes job scheduling and invoicing more complicated. “The more streamlined you can make things for customers, the better,” Hartford notes. In addition, offering a larger array of services can help offset the industry’s cyclical ups and downs by avoiding reliance on one primary revenue stream.

“But you have to be careful — there’s usually a limit to what you can offer,” Hartford warns. “You want to offer a broad range of services, but you also want to perform them competently and efficiently. If you get too big and offer too many services, the quality of work can suffer, especially if you don’t have a lot of expertise developed in those new areas.”

The solution? Stick with what you know, he suggests. It’s better to expand by offering complementary services that can leverage employees’ existing skills and the current equipment (which minimizes the need for debt-enhancing capital goods purchases), as well as the existing customer base, Hartford explains.

WEATHERING THE STORM

How has R.P. Oilfield survived during downturns like the current industry slump? By keeping close tabs on costs and avoiding fast, exponential growth. Hartford says oilfield companies that grow too big too fast run the risk of running up debt that cripples operations when a downturn hits. The company has managed to cushion the effects of downturns by growing slowly and steadily and keeping payments on equipment as low as possible.

“That’s what has allowed us to survive the ups and downs,” he says. “This industry is subject to such volatile price swings. When times are good, that million-dollar piece of equipment you bought seems like a great investment. But then a downturn comes along and you can’t make the payments on it. You have to ensure that there’s reliable demand before you invest in new equipment.”

Providing great customer service is also important, which means it’s critical to properly train employees to do jobs right. And that’s not easy to do when times are good and companies have to hire more employees quickly to meet rising demand for services. “But if they’re not properly trained and they have no real commitment to your business, the quality of work suffers,” he notes. “Then your reputation suffers, too, and in the oilfields, your reputation is a big thing.”

Sheer longevity helps, too. When a company like R.P. Oilfield has been well established for decades, customers have faith that they can rely on it through booms and busts, as opposed to companies that fail the first time they encounter a downturn.

In the end, it all comes back to building personal relationships with customers. Hartford says part of building up that trust includes helping customers out even if it doesn’t benefit R.P. Oilfield financially. “If customers call us for a service that we don’t or can’t provide, I don’t say, ‘Oh, too bad — you’re out of luck,’” he explains. “I tell them not to worry — I’ll take care of it by finding someone else who can do it. That’s a true definition of customer service because I’m not getting anything out of it — someone else is making the money now. But the customer knows that we have their best interests in mind.”

During downturns, most employees work fewer hours (perhaps 30 a week instead of 60, for example) and some leave to take other full-time jobs. The company also scrutinizes spending even more than usual and carefully considers whether a new equipment purchase is a “want” or a “need” that allows employees to provide better service. Moreover, the company will hang onto equipment longer than originally planned; instead of selling a truck when it hits 100,000 miles, for example, the company might keep it until it reaches 150,000 miles, Hartford says.

“We try to stretch every dollar during downturns,” he points out. “And even when times are good, you still have to spend conservatively because you’ll need the surplus when business is slow.”

EQUIPMENT MATTERS

Over the decades, R.P. Oilfield has invested in a wide array of equipment in order to serve customers efficiently. That includes an auger truck built by Highway Manufacturing and five backhoes, one skid-steer, one forklift and one telehandler, all manufactured by Caterpillar; they’re used for jobs such as running dump lines, site preparation and emergency spill response.

The company also owns a trailer-mounted pressure washer made by Landa. It features a pump that generates 3,500 psi at 4.7 gpm, a 500-gallon water tank and hot water/steam capability. “When you’re cleaning rigs and trying to cut through setup oil and grease, hot water and steam come in handy,” Hartford says.

In addition, the company owns eight 1-ton Ford roustabout trucks, a 2-ton winch truck, Honda generators, a DEWALT air compressor and four trailers: two gooseneck models made by Dell Rapids Custom Trailers (DCT) and a float trailer and tilt-bed trailer made by Delta Manufacturing. Four Ford F-250 pickup trucks round out the equipment fleet. Employees use them to fulfill contracts the company signs with oil companies to go out to wells and check whether equipment is functioning properly, as well as perform small maintenance chores and measure how much gas, oil and water the well is producing. “Part of their job is to optimize the wells — make sure they produce as much oil and gas as they realistically can,” Hartford explains.

Hartford is always prepared to modify/fabricate equipment to meet customer needs. A good recent example centers on the company’s auger truck. A customer asked Hartford if there was a way to more cost-effectively get soil samples from old, backfilled water and fire pits at wellhead sites. If tests show the soil is not contaminated, the pits can be officially abandoned, which means the oil company is no longer responsible for maintaining the site. The customer was trying to avoid the expense of bringing in heavy excavating equipment to obtain soil samples from 12 feet underground (regulations mandate the depth).

The solution? Hartford fabricated a piece of hollow, 2-inch-diameter pipe and outfitted it with cutting teeth, then adapted it to fit on the end of an auger bit. “So after I auger down and get an open hole that’s 10 feet deep, I then attach a sample tube and auger down an additional 3 feet to get a good sample. Then the company sends it off to a lab to test it.

“This saves the customer from paying someone to come in with a lot of heavy equipment, get samples and then cover it all back up,” he says. “We can get the samples without removing a lot of dirt. We can do in one day what might take five or six days, using heavy equipment.”

In the long run, this new technique could generate more work from other customers who also seek a cost-effective way to obtain soil samples. As Hartford says, “It’s just another example of how we adapt and figure out — especially during these slow times — what additional services we can offer to keep customers happy.”

“We definitely wanted to offer our customers something better than the competition and this is it,” says Chris Spurgeon, southwest regional manager for DXP’s Safety Division. DXP rents the Comfort trailers and other equipment to oil-drilling companies from North Dakota to Texas to Pennsylvania, but is also a large manufacturer and distributor of industrial pumps.

“Especially in these days, with oil prices as low as they are, you have to differentiate from the competition. Either you step up your game or you lose business.

“The Superior trailers are like a camping trailer — they’re really nice,” he continues. “They look very crisp and clean. And once you walk inside one, you see that they’re pretty unique. Most other cool-down trailers have roll-down walls with evaporative cooling systems, and when we roll up with ours, there’s no comparison.”

USING THE TRAILERS

Most of the units owned by DXP are cool-down trailers, which offer workers relief from scorching heat during work breaks. OSHA-related guidelines recommend that companies schedule and enforce breaks in air-conditioned areas when the heat index rises to between 103 and 115 degrees. The cool-down trailers are also used to hold meetings and training sessions out in the field, which can significantly reduce travel time to less conveniently located corporate offices.

The Superior cool-down trailers, which are 8 1/2 feet wide, 18 feet long and 7 feet high (inside height), seat 10 to 15 people comfortably, Spurgeon notes.

They offer an array of features, including: an Onan diesel generator (built by Cummins Power Generation, a subsidiary of Cummins); two 13,500 Btu air conditioners; 30-gallon diesel fuel cell; Bulldog trailer hitches (a brand owned by Cequent Performance Products); 4-ton Bulldog sidewinder jacks that simplify setup and takedown; two stabilizer jacks in the rear for leveling in rough terrain; two 12-foot-long aluminum bench seats with backs and one 4-foot-long aluminum bench seat in the front for added seating; a 10-foot-long table; multiple electrical outlets; a sprayed-in floor liner that rises 2 feet up the interior walls and allows for easy pressure-washer cleaning; two floor drains; three fluorescent lights; two full-size doors, located in the front and the rear; and two windows on each side, plus one on the rear wall.

“The inside walls are like those dry-erase boards, so you can write on them during meetings,” Spurgeon adds. “And you can’t even hear the generator running. It also features an auxiliary plug that you can connect to an electrical hookup, like at RV parks, and avoid using the generator.”

Spurgeon also likes the fact that the trailer comes with an external oil tank for the generator that automatically replenishes it when fuel runs low. “Eventually, you also have to refill that auxiliary tank, but it’s usually good to go for about 24 hours,” he says.

BUILT-IN GPS

There’s another feature that helps both DXP and its customers: a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) device that helps thwart thefts and boosts efficiency. “That way we know if it’s moving,” Spurgeon explains. “And if they (the company renting the unit) move it to five or six different wells, it leaves a breadcrumb trail, which is a big time-saver for us when it comes time to pick up the units.

“That helps the oil and gas drilling companies, too, because each drilling site gets billed for the time a trailer is there. So we can tell them where the unit was and for how long, when it moved and when it stopped. That helps them tremendously with their recordkeeping and billing.”

EASY TO MAINTAIN

Furthermore, the trailers are easy to maintain and operate. “If you can take care of a camping trailer, you can maintain one of these,” he says. “You just have to change the oil periodically and that’s about it. We’ve barely had any problems with them. The generator starts with the push of a button. My kid could operate it.”

The trailers cost anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000, depending on the size and level of modification/customization. But DXP can also charge a higher rate, which increases the return on investment, although that dynamic has changed since oil prices dropped, Spurgeon points out. Nonetheless, he still considers them a good investment. “You get what you pay for,” as he puts it.

“The quality of these trailers makes us look professional,” he says. “Nobody else out there has trailers these nice. I’ve been working in the oilfields for 18 years and I’ve never seen trailers like them. They really reflect well on our work and our company. Customers see that our equipment, our work and our people are the best. In the end, it’s all about differentiation — making others step up their game to keep up with us.”

Typically, the answer is to call out scuba divers or drain the whole tank. However, one alternative is slowly making the jump from the fish farm industry to the frac tank and offshore rig crowd — remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). One easily handled option, manufactured by Deep Trekker, drew a crowd to the company’s demonstration tank on the floor of the 2016 Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show.

The Deep Trekker DTG2 ROV comprises two die-cast aluminum sides separated by a 360-degree polycarbonate window, through which the camera can look out. Double O-ring seals keep the water out, and the unit is completely self-contained.

“We are talking with tank manufacturers, municipal contractors who do tank work, and basically any individuals who perform tank inspection,” says Sean Phillips, engineering manager. “We originally marketed this product to the fish farm and pleasure boat construction industry but have gotten more and more inquiries from frac and water tank inspection folks, along with offshore rigs. That’s our biggest reason for coming to WWETT this year.”

The camera can rotate 270 degrees in the vertical plane and can be rotated to see both below and above the vehicle, and behind it to a limited degree. Panning the camera is accomplished by turning the ROV to the left or right using the thrusters mounted on each side. To see behind, the pilot can pitch the ROV body and look straight back.

“The controls are very similar to an Xbox video game controller,” says Phillips. “Not only does the ROV perform a needed service, the operators actually have fun doing it.”

Rechargeable batteries that power all the electronics, and the camera are all located inside the hull. The full unit weighs slightly less than 19 pounds and is rated to depths between 330 and 500 feet, depending on the model chosen. The unit’s depth is controlled using the two thrusters and an internal pitch control system. Adjustable ballast weights are located externally, allowing the unit to stay in a fixed submerged plane even in moving water.

Units are designed to capture or manipulate objects below the surface and come with 164 to 500 feet of tether cable, an integrated screen controller and cable reel. An optional two-function grabber arm can pick up all sorts of objects one might find at the bottom of a tank. It also allows operators to perform minor repairs or retrieve water samples. Heavier objects can be retrieved by locking the grabber onto them, and hauling the ROV and object back to the surface by the tether. Other options include a CHIRP sonar package that enables the ROV to be operated in low visibility, a thickness gauge, navigation sensors and auxiliary lighting to complement the standard lighting system.

Deep Trekker markets the DTG2 ROV as a versatile system. Besides municipal water treatment and fish farms, sales have been made to commercial divers, pipeline operators, underwater construction firms, search and rescue teams, and offshore rig operators.

“We have units in several West Coast municipalities, and NASA even bought one for tank testing and inspection,” says Phillips. “I would say the vast majority of our customers perform very niche duties involving underwater inspection or exploration. That’s why we felt it was a fit for this show.”The interest level was actually higher than expected for the first-time WWETT exhibitors, as the company sold five DTG2 ROV units right on the show floor. The interest in the ROV surprised Phillips, who came into the week thinking the company’s submersible crawler camera system would garner the majority of the interest.

“I would say the number of attendees who deal with tanks and tank inspections at this show was a surprise,” he says. “We did get a lot of great leads on the crawler system, but the interest in the ROV was just phenomenal. That leads me to believe that this show and this market is a great opportunity for Deep Trekker.” 519/342-3177; www.deeptrekker.com.

It can be scary for the new owner coming in and for the previous owner leaving. One of the biggest concerns for the current owner is: Am I leaving the business in the right hands?
Rod Peterson, owner of R.P. Oilfield Service in Rock Springs, Wyoming, won’t have to worry about those things when he hands over his business later this summer to longtime employee Patrick Hartford.

Hartford will take over the company, profiled this month, after being an employee of it since he was 15 years old. Hartford stayed with the company while earning a degree in business management and graduating in 2012.

KEEPING IT TIGHT

Peterson founded R.P. Oilfield Service 30 years ago and has been through many ups and downs in the oil industry. While it was tough to make it through some of them, he did so by keeping a diverse menu of services and not expanding too fast.

The company kept close tabs on costs and avoided fast, exponential growth. Companies that grow too fast run the risk of running up debt that cripples operations when a downturn hits. Peterson kept going by growing slowly and keeping payments on equipment as low as possible.

That tip is also found in the Building the Business feature this month. Gas Oil & Mining Contractor talked to Rooster McConaughey and Butch Gilliam, stars of CNBC’s West Texas Investors Club reality TV series and oilfield entrepreneurs.

The millionaires both said staying out of debt is one of the greatest business advantages to have.

PLAN TO STAY OUT OF DEBT

According to Business Insider, 50 to 70 percent of small businesses fail within the first 18 months. There are no foolproof guidelines for opening a business, but here are some ways to remain debt-free:

Consider your funding options — Before running out to the bank for a loan, determine if you’ll be able to repay it.

Pay with cash whenever possible — It might take you longer to purchase something, but you’ll avoid the burden of debt.  

Avoid impulse purchases — You see a new directional drill and want to buy it because it’s the latest and greatest piece of equipment, but your 5-year-old machine can do the same thing.

Think: Do you really need the new machine?

There are many other ways to remain debt-free, including performing regular maintenance on vehicles so they last longer, and purchasing used equipment
instead of new.

Not going into debt will help you and your business stay afloat, especially when the industry is in a lull. Take the advice of the experts in this magazine.

HOW HAVE YOU SAVED?

How have you avoided going into debt? Did you have a plan going into your business or did someone help you with advice? Email me at editor@gomcmag.com and tell me about your success stories.

In the meantime, enjoy this issue! 

Consultants from state agencies or universities provide the help to identify workplace hazards, give advice on OSHA compliance, and assist with injury and illness prevention programs. The consultants are not OSHA employees and, with few exceptions, are not allowed to communicate with OSHA about their findings.

“There is a wall between us,” explains Cavanagh, an employee of the University of Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. “Our consultants and the OSHA inspectors are not allowed to compare notes or have conversations about clients. Our results are only provided to the company and to the union, if there is one.”

If a consultant would find a serious hazard, however, the company would be responsible to make corrections within a certain time. “We try our best to be flexible,” says Cavanagh. “We typically assign a 60-day correction and will work with companies if it’s going to take longer.” If the company still fails to fix a serious hazard despite the assistance, it would be reported to OSHA, though that is rare.

The service is targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses, making about 30,000 visits a year nationwide. In 2014, 55 percent of the companies employed between one and 25 workers with just 2 percent having more than 250 employees.

Employer determines extent of assistance

Wisconsin’s consultants include four safety experts and five industrial hygienists, one of whom is an engineer. Who gets assigned to a company depends upon the type of assistance requested. “The company determines the scope of the visit,” says Cavanagh. That may entail looking at one issue such as noise, one department, or the entire company. “The employer is in the driver’s seat.”

Once work begins, a company may decide to expand the focus or could cut back. Cavanagh says one example would be if several violations were found. The company or the consultant may decide that it would be best to correct those before continuing. Consultants also point out obvious hazards that are outside the scope of the inspection, such as a missing safety guard, so the company can take immediate action to protect workers.

Testimonials

One firm that has used the service in Wisconsin several times wrote of one consultant, “She is great to work with, as she not only points out hazards/issues that she finds, but also takes time to explain.”

Another admitted that there was “trepidation” about inviting an inspection but learned that it had risks the company was not aware of. “A lot of companies feel that anything having to do with OSHA is bad because they are seen as the enemy.” The firm used three of the program’s consultants who, they say, “put our concerns at ease and were very informative and helpful.”

The consultants can:

• Help recognize hazards in the workplace
• Suggest general approaches or options for solving a safety or health problem
• Identify the kinds of help available if further assistance is needed
• Provide a written report summarizing findings
• Assist in developing or maintaining an effective injury and illness prevention program
• Provide training and education for the company and its employees

Requesting assistance

Every state has an On-Site Consultation Program with contacts listed online at osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/consult.html. Most deal only with private employers, not municipal or state government entities. Visits generally begin within a few weeks of the request, depending on workload and the nature of the issue. Visits are prioritized for things such as an imminent threat, reports of workers getting ill, and the size and risk potential of the business, with smaller businesses getting preference.

A company may also be referred to the program by OSHA. That could happen if the agency receives a nonformal complaint such as one that is unsigned or from a worker who has been fired.

Companies may also be referred after being cited. “OSHA might be willing to reduce the penalty if a company agrees to have a consultant come in and verify that everything is corrected,” says Cavanagh. “They don’t say you have to come to us, but they usually let the employer know about our program and that it’s free of charge.”

Today, Dahill has been in recruiting for over 20 years, having spent 17 years of her career as an executive vice president at a national recruiting firm. As the oil and gas industry began to boom, in 2013 she decided to take the opportunity to go back to her oil industry roots and launch her own oil and gas recruiting firm, The Dahill Group.

The Dahill Group is an executive oil and gas recruiting firm headquartered in Denver, and offers a full range of recruitment and executive search services in Texas and Wyoming.

OIL AND GAS RECRUITING

While Dahill is in charge of operations and is the executive recruiter, she relies on her family members to give her insights into specifics about the industry within their respective fields. The Dahill Group also consists of Elizabeth’s brothers, Robert and James, who are advisers for the company. “I rely on them to provide guidance at times when it is difficult for me to be able to identify some types of specific talent that my client is looking for,” Dahill says.

Oil and gas recruiters tend to work in specialized areas, such as engineering, geosciences or oilfield services. “The Dahill Group specializes in mid- and executive-level placements in the areas of executive, legal, finance, land, business operations, investor relations, regulatory, compliance and engineering,” Dahill says.

The firm also provides consulting services to candidates, from offering market insight to input on improving and tailoring resumes, and how to effectively conduct a job search.

The Dahill Group works with a variety of clients, from large international corporate clients to small E&P companies, as well as companies in the midstream sector. The Dahill Group is hired by the client rather than the candidate.

“When we are hired by a client to conduct a search, we leverage our connections and expertise to help them find and hire the top talent in the market,” Dahill says. “We have developed long-term relationships in the industry — some going back 18 years. We stay abreast of changes in the industry and stay involved in the oil and gas community, which makes us uniquely positioned in understanding the needs of our clients.”

GETTING HIRED

When the client hires The Dahill Group, they’ll ask for Dahill and her team to go into the market to find that top talent. “We do that by having access and resources into the executive-level management teams of the oil and gas companies, whether it’s large integrated majors or small midstream companies,” Dahill says. “To be able to do that and tap into those resources, you really need to be heavily involved in the industry and participate in associations, and understand specifically what it is they do and understand the challenges they face in the market.”

When a client looking to fill a specific opening states to Dahill exactly what the company wants, that’s when Dahill searches for the ideal candidates for the job.

“We evaluate that candidate’s skills, their experience, their background,” Dahill says. “If they are a match for what the client is looking for, then we go back to the client to let them know we’ve identified a candidate or candidates.”

DOWNTURN TAKES ITS TOLL

When Dahill launched the company in 2013, the oil and gas industry was in a boom cycle. Dahill was able to take advantage of the abundant opportunities to service the industry’s hiring needs. But, the oil and gas industry is cyclical, and there are obstacles to overcome in both the boom and bust parts of the cycle.

“Companies were frantically hiring in 2012 and 2013, and business was insane,” Dahill says. “The laws of supply and demand are always at play in this industry. During the most recent boom, companies were scrambling to find talent, which meant the demand for top-tier candidates was high while the supply was low. Now, the opposite phenomenon is occurring — there is an abundant supply of top-tier candidates, but companies are wary to hire in times like these, which makes demand low.”

Dahill forecasts a rough road ahead through the remainder of 2016 for most in the oil and gas industry. She notes that people have asked her why she doesn’t retool herself and start recruiting in a different industry, but she doesn’t believe in giving up on a path she’s chosen.

“I’ve been through a boom and bust before, and while it is never easy, I believe one of the greatest values of our firm is that we are partners with our clients and candidates for the long haul,” Dahill says.

Lindberg enjoys face-to-face interaction and getting to know about someone’s business and why they support the Bakken Shale. Lindberg himself is a big proponent of North Dakota’s most valuable natural resource. He is the director of Bakken Backers, which is composed of 5,000 businesses, leaders, workers and citizens who support the shale and its benefit to North

Dakota. The coalition was formed in January 2013 to give the perspective that the industry really matters across North Dakota.

“At that time, it was thought of as largely driving western North Dakota only,” Lindberg says. “When you look at the data, it’s really impacted every city. Even cities like Fargo have 1 percent of their employment directly in oil and gas. That’s not even counting all the engineering and manufacturing jobs that come from it as well.”

HELPING THE INDUSTRY

Bakken Backers, which Lindberg runs largely on his own with the assistance of an intern out of an office in Bismarck, works closely with the likes of engineering companies, construction companies and manufacturing firms. “They care about the industry, but have a little bit different viewpoint than a producer or a major service company,” Lindberg says.

Randy Pruett — who is the spokesman for Target Logistics, which is the largest provider of turnkey housing solutions in the United States — loves the work the coalition has done. “They have a broad reach across all the players in the Bakken and they have insight into the issues,” Pruett says. “They really have their finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the area.”

The coalition, which usually only gets involved in statewide issues, is primarily focused on two missions.

“One is giving a positive perception of western North Dakota, and another part of that single mission is promoting funding for western North Dakota,” Lindberg says. “We’ve worked really hard on things like the surge bill and oil tax sharing with local entities.”

The second mission is making sure state and local governments have policies that are friendly to a good business climate for oil and gas. “That means lower tax rates and smart but not crippling regulations,” Lindberg says.

FIGHTING THE ISSUES

The surge bill came in early 2015 and called for North Dakota to put $1.1 billion into highways and communities affected by the state’s exploding growth due to oil development. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed off on the bill after approval from the North Dakota Senate.

“We really fight after top-line issues,” Lindberg says. “You can imagine what fighting for the surge bill did for engineering or construction companies that might be located in Grand Forks and work out in the Bakken. It provides a pretty big impact for them.”

The biggest issue the Bakken Backers has ever dealt with to date relates to the City of Williston trying to eliminate crew camps. In November 2015, the Williston City Commission voted 3-2 in favor of getting rid of camps in its city. However, a compromise was offered for discussion by the commission for Ordinance 1038.

The Williston City Commission met again on March 8 of this year to discuss the measure. Just one week earlier, the 1038 Housing Compromise Alliance was established and coordinated by Lindberg. The alliance unified industry support for crew camps and encouraged the commission to adopt long-term policies that benefit the city, industry, temporary workers and local residents. The 1038 Housing Compromise Alliance brought together 13 oil producers, 14 service supply companies and four associations and community groups.

“Rob did a magnificent job of pulling together the biggest and the best players in the Bakken,” Pruett says.

Despite all the hard work by the alliance, the Williston City Commission again voted 3-2 to eliminate crew camps.

“We weren’t victorious, but we sure made a splash,” Lindberg says.

COMING UP NEXT

After leaving its mark on the crew camps issue, it’s not been as hectic for Lindberg and the Bakken Backers. The coalition’s next major push is to continue to protect the perception of western North Dakota and make sure there are good policies in place for gas and oil throughout the election cycle.

“I’m sure there will be plenty of issues around that,” Lindberg says. “And making sure that people remember that it’s either the second or the top employment base in the state, and it matters a lot.”

With the Bakken Backers not dealing with a major issue, Lindberg has been able to put together the tools to make the coalition even better. “We work on our online infrastructure and put a lot of time on our Facebook page and try to build that up or our email list and those sorts of things,” Lindberg says. “Just sitting down face to face and having coffee with people. There really isn’t a slow time as long as you’re preparing for the next big issue.”

Lindberg is very optimistic another oil boom will make its way back to the Bakken. It might just take a little time.

“I’d bet everything on it,” Lindberg says. “I think 2016 is going to be pretty difficult. But if you look at the fundamentals of decline rates in the United States and across the world, I’m very comfortable with the prospect of oil coming back this year. I think it’s going to happen faster. I almost look at the lag time between fundamentals and the perception of markets moving and we didn’t think it was going to be as bad until it got so bad. I think now we’re kind of having the negative hangover rather than the positive hangover.”

Trying to look positively at the oil industry, Lindberg has manageable goals for Bakken Backers as it heads into the future.

“Just to continue our two missions is really it,” Lindberg says. “We’ve steadily grown our base from zero three years ago to 5,000 contacts. We’re better able to mobilize on issues quickly than we’ve ever been able to do.”

The shooting of the second season recently wrapped up and new episodes began airing on CNBC on June 7. This go-around, the show’s featured entrepreneurs were more prepared — at least for the audience they’d be selling their idea to, if not their actual business plan.

“The shock factor is gone,” Rooster says. “They know more about us than we know about them.”

“We’ve had fun,” Butch says. “The people who come to see us seem to be really passionate. It’s cool to see that because it’s hard to hang on to that passion and enthusiasm in business.”

The two men have been partners in their investment company since 2007, but each has decades of individual business success, largely in the oilfields. Here they share some of the knowledge they’ve picked up over the years.

GOMC: What’s a lesson you learned early in your business careers that still sticks with you?

Rooster: Stay out of debt. Any way you can, just stay out of debt. The people who you think are there for you, such as loan institutions, a lot of times they’re not there anymore when things go south. They’ll pull the plug awful fast nowadays on people who probably would have made it had the bank stuck with them a little longer. Don’t get yourself in a situation where someone can shut you down.

Butch: Not having debt is one of the greatest business advantages you can have, especially during a slump like the one we’re in right now. Everyone wants to get big and rich overnight, and the problem with that is the problems grow exponentially with your growth. A lot of people aren’t able to handle it. The thing I’m proudest of that I’ve done, and I think Rooster has done the same thing, is growing as you can take the growth and not letting it get away from you.

GOMC: What are the benefits of taking that slow-growth approach?

Rooster: If you have slow growth, you can handle the downturns. A lot of times your competition goes away — the ones that are in it for the quick dollar anyway — and you’re still there. Maybe it wipes you out pretty good, but you’ll still be stable if you have slow growth. You’ll have a good foundation.

Butch: That’s what is happening in West Texas right now. Companies are dropping right and left because they’ve overextended themselves. They saw nothing but blue sky, went out and borrowed a bunch of money, and expanded beyond their capabilities. I like to be kind of conservative. I save up my money, and I go out and buy the equipment I need. I don’t owe a bank or anybody. I grow as my business allows me to grow. I have never allowed my business to grow because of the amount of money I was able to borrow.

GOMC: What are some of the mistakes you’ve learned from over the years?

Butch: That’s why we’re such good advisers to these young entrepreneurs on the show. We’ve run out of mistakes to make. We’ve done them all — some of them two or three times. For me, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made is being a little too trusting of people. That’s just the way it is. It’s kind of like playing the stock market and buying 20 different stocks. You know some of them are probably going to go south over time, but you just hope that based on your research, more of them will end up doing well and in the long run you’ll be OK.

Rooster: That’s why we say we like people to have some kind of skin in the game, some kind of risk, where they’re going to lose too. It seems like they pay more attention then. There are people all over the country who will come to you and say, “Hey, I’ve got this great deal and we’re going to use your money, but I’ll ride hard on it.” Then they lose all your money and say, “Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll find you another deal.”

Butch: Whatever business you’re in, it’s all very risky, but the thing I’ve learned over the years is the most difficult thing is after you’ve made some money. Then you get the real dangerous people coming out of the woodwork. They’ll come at you under the guise of being a financial adviser or someone on a wealth management team when they don’t have any experience going out and working and contributing an actual product to society. Yet they’re going to tell you how to handle your money. That’s where I’ve been burned worse than any other place in business. Not by people with deliberate intentions, but by people who come at you with a suit and tie or nice dress on. Those are the people you have to be aware of.

GOMC: A main theme with your show is that business success is largely about the person and not just a great idea or product. Why do you emphasize that and think it’s so important?

Rooster: It doesn’t make any difference how good a deal is. If you get in with the wrong person, chances are it’s going to go south. So you have to measure up the person. Now that doesn’t mean that just because they’re a good person we’re going to throw money at them if it’s an idea we don’t believe in. We’re not a charity. But if the deal has some merit, we’re going to invest if it’s the right person.

Butch: We learned the hard way. We’ve been involved with some businesses that were great but wrecked by a bad manager. And vice versa. We’ve been engaged with businesses that were really floundering, but you put the right person at the helm and they got back on track. We’re looking for someone who wants to work hard like we did and stay the course, and turn a business around. It’s not going to be an overnight deal.

GOMC: What often gets overlooked by the entrepreneurs who come to you?

Butch: One thing that I’ve seen that’s kind of inherent throughout the entrepreneurs is the passion for whatever it is they’re trying to do is real and it’s heartfelt. But the one thing that I think Rooster and I can agree is pretty prevalent is that they’re so passionate about it, they nearly become blind to some of the red flags. They’re emotionally caught up in wanting to be successful so badly, they can’t see the warning signs that may be all over their business idea.

GOMC: At the end of the day, what is the overall business philosophy you try to get across to these entrepreneurs?

Butch: Many of them have a different philosophy than we do on how they’re going to get to that destination of success they’re seeking. They want to skip the journey and just get to the destination. That’s not what we’re all about, so if that’s their mentality, Rooster and I can’t help them. All we know how to do is show people how to commit to something, stay the course, and wait for the reward over the long haul.

Rooster: One of the most satisfying things in life is being able to reflect on it. If you don’t have a story, what good is it?

Butch: The story is the journey. It’s not the destination. People get that mixed up. They think at the end I’m going to be rich and this is where I want to be. But at the end of the day, what do you really have that’s valuable? It’s the memories of that journey. On this show we’re trying to help people become successful. And that really, in our minds, isn’t as much about how much money you’re making as it is how satisfied and content you are with your life. You’re not just spending money, you’re spending your days. People think dollars in the bank account are more valuable than days. Well, when you know you’re fixing to run out of them, you’ll change your philosophy on that quickly.

It’s easy to mistake a job site problem for an equipment malfunction. Bad depth. Doesn’t locate right. Those are the types of brief, vague descriptions that sometimes accompany McLaughlin locators that get sent in for repair, says Matt Manning, the company’s products manager of electronics.

“We have a physical test we do where we check the equipment at three points. We check multiple frequencies and different modes of locating. If we can’t find a problem, we can’t fix it,” Manning says. “An extremely high percentage of the units we send back out, we never hear about again, which indicates there must have been something wrong at the job site. That’s not our goal. We don’t like sending people equipment where we didn’t define what was wrong. But a majority of the time it’s the user not understanding the job site.”

Effective locating begins with identifying potential issues and using the equipment properly.

“Sometimes a locator is only as accurate as its operator,” Manning says. “There can be a lot of human error. A locator is designed to be held straight up and down, not swinging around. And you don’t want to grip the instrument. You want to keep your thumbs relaxed so the locator is always hanging down.”

That allows the locator to move along a consistent, horizontal plane — not according to the contours of the ground.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad locates on the inclines and declines along the side of a road because the instrument was not being used on a consistent, horizontal plane,” Manning says. “I saw a case where there was a mislocate on an embankment because the person was just trying to keep the locator at the same distance off the ground and was not moving on a consistent plane. The locate was right — if you were going off an angle.”

From there, accurate locating is about adjusting to the conditions of the job site. For example, say you’re trying to locate an underground line in an area congested with other utilities. Manning suggests locating the line to a known point.

“You don’t want to just walk away 50 feet from where you’re connected, start to locate and say with certainty you have your line. You want to do an evaluation. Locate back to the source and, if possible, the next visible indicator. I’ve seen a lot of bad locates in which the operator walked to where they thought the utility should be and thought they had it, but they didn’t understand that the signal they were sending out wasn’t on just their utility.”

A remedy for improving the likelihood of staying on your targeted utility in a congested environment is to start your locate in a less congested area.

“People tend to focus on the congested environment,” Manning says. “Instead of setting up at, say, a telephone pole or utility box in that area, go to the next one that’s not in the congested area. Locate from the uncongested area into the congested area. That can help a lot in that situation.”

An understanding of soil conditions is also important. Dry soil is less conductive than wet soil and may produce a weak signal on the line being targeted, creating a more challenging locate. That comes into play especially with sandy soils.

“If it recently rained, sand might work alright, but sand drains very quickly so the top surface might not contain any moisture,” Manning says. “You might have to use a different (grounding element). I’ve used a stop sign before to get a ground in sandy situations.”

That can also be helpful in the wintertime when you may be dealing with frozen ground.

“Frozen ground is highly resistant. One time I used a sign that was below the frost line,” Manning says. “That got me from a high resistance down to a wet, low resistance. The key is getting a good ground for the transmitter.”

Develop an understanding of some of these finer points of locating and perhaps you won’t find yourself sending the equipment back to the manufacturer, assuming that it’s the source of your difficulties on a job site.

“People I have worked with who have at least a day of locator training — and I don’t mean on only the instrument — are much better than someone who just grabbed the equipment, read the manual and went out there,” Manning says. “It’s two parts. You have to know the equipment and how to utility locate.”

7 tips for better locating

It’s important to be able to accurately identify the location of underground pipes and cables before getting started on a project, so you need your locator working properly. Here are seven tips aimed at keeping you on target:

Establish a test point. Regularly test your equipment on a known pipe or line, so that if a problem arises in the field you can immediately rule out equipment failure, says McLaughlin electronic products manager Matt Manning. Mark this location and you have a go-to point every time you need to test your equipment.

Check your frequency. To begin, be sure your transmitter and locator are set to the same frequency, says Eric Huber, a senior product manager for RIDGID. “You could be transmitting 8 kHz, but you’re trying to find 33 kHz and you won’t find it because you’re not transmitting it.”

Read the manual. “When people call me with problems, the best questions are from those who have read the manual,” Manning says. “Their questions are usually more specific and I’m better able to help them.”

Take a utility locating course. “Many people out there have been handed down information from the previous guy doing their job. But equipment has progressed and that person’s experience may be related to older pieces of equipment, so some things could get missed,” Manning says.

Keep ’em dry. “Some locators are better than others, but most manufacturers have built their equipment to withstand the elements — snow, rain, mist,” Manning says. “If it’s a downpour where you don’t even want to be out there, it will probably affect the equipment too.”

Don’t be careless. A problem Manning sees far too often is equipment getting run over. “Too many people just lay the equipment down where they’re working or they’ll lean it up against a truck, or lay it on the tailgate. Then someone hops in the truck and leaves; next thing you know the locator falls off the truck or gets run over.”

Remove the batteries. “Dead batteries leak acid. Good batteries don’t,” Manning says. “If you forget to turn off the equipment, you’ll eventually run the batteries down. If you’re using it every day, it may not be a big issue. But if you’re using it, say once a week, that battery will start leaking acid and before you know it, your unit’s damaged.”