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SALISBURY — When James Clifford moved to North Carolina with his wife Leslie, he saw an opportunity to fill a need in the local construction space.

He started Clifford Construction Company, a one-man grading and excavation firm out of Kannapolis that has focused on smaller-scale residential projects, preparing housing lots and fixing drainage issues, for example.

“This company, one of the goals when I started it was to lean on my faith through it, and so meeting all these different people and being an asset to them and a help to them is something that is so important to us and something that I want to keep doing,” James said.

That faith has been a driving force in their business, with James stating that he makes it the center of most things in his life, including Clifford Construction.

“Business decisions are guided by prayer first and foremost. We put a lot of stake in our own transparency and integrity and making sure that when somebody’s interacting with me I can be a reflection of my faith and be a bright light for whoever I’m working with. That’s super important to me and super important to my wife,” he said.

He pointed to Romans 1:16, a verse that he said “speaks to being unashamed about your faith,” being listed on his business card as an example.

Now, James and Leslie, who manages the marketing and administration work, are working to expand the business to the point where Clifford Construction can take on commercial projects, which is where most of James’ experience lies. His bachelor’s degree from Auburn is in building science and his master’s from Boise State is in construction management. He also spent six years as a superintendent for a commercial construction company in Alabama, working on projects throughout the South before the Clifford family moved to Kannapolis.

Leslie is from China Grove, and James said he was back in Alabama for two months after working on a project in Charlotte “before I said, man, I got to get back to Charlotte.”

Part of the reason James said he wants to expand into commercial work is the amount of growth happening along the interstate corridor.

“The level of growth, everywhere from Mooresville to Charlotte to Raleigh, this whole state is just growing so quickly and there’s so much work and not enough people to do it. The labor crisis has been an issue in construction for the past few years, and it’s something that every contractor and every subcontractor is dealing with. Being able to help ease that and offer our services at the same time has been a great opportunity for us,” he said.

James said that he has been working constantly to make connections with commercial developers throughout the expansion, “buying a lot of lunches” and having his “email constantly being pinged for new projects that we’re being requested to bid on.” The largest effort, however, has been simply scaling the business and learning to manage the larger, multi-week projects.

“It does change the way that we manage our time and manage projects. That’s part of adjusting to this growth and learning, even just what we’re doing now, it’s a juggling act. It’s learning to juggle and making sure that we’re still fulfilling our obligations across the board, making sure that we have those processes in place to be able to do that when we’re taking on larger-scale work, (ensuring) we’re still fulfilling our obligations and going above and beyond with every client,” he said.

While he said that moving to commercial growth was the “natural step” for the company, James said he still plans to do residential work, which allows him to build relationships with his local community and homeowners.

“I want to be able to serve while keeping those residential operations active and ongoing and continuing to build those relationships. Being able to help build the community and solve problems for those homeowners, because that’s really what I enjoy and what makes it fun for me,” he said.

He also provided some tips for residential owners who are looking at having work done, with the main one being to ensure transparency throughout the process.

“It’s so important to make sure that everything is transparently detailed and agreed upon in writing. I think that’s pretty crucial when I’m embarking on these projects, especially larger jobs where there’s significant investment behind it,” James said.

For more information about the Cliffords or their company, go to https://www.cliffordconstruct.com/.