Tampa Bay General Contractor Builds Momentum, Finds Success

Mijan Construction, LLC of Hillsborough County

For Charles Jackson, business owner of Mijan Construction, LLC, a Florida-based licensed general contractor, construction isn’t just a career — it’s a lifelong passion. “I chose to launch this business because I like construction,” Jackson shared. “I’ve been in construction pretty much my whole life. My technical background is in construction. I did construction in the military, and I got out of the military and was doing construction. So I love it,” he added.

Since incorporating in April 2010, the company has focused primarily on K-12 and higher education clients, while now expanding into federal government and healthcare sectors. Early on, the Florida SBDC at USF played a critical role in helping the business establish a strong foundation. With support from business consultant Brad Owens, the firm received guidance on registrations, certifications, and financial strategy.

“I’ve used the information that we learned from the [Florida] SBDC at USF primarily because it helped us start our business when we first started,” Jackson said. “I found [the] SBDC to be instrumental in getting you all the things you need to kinda help your business get formulated as far as registrations, getting certifications, getting financial information, knowing how to talk to the people that you need to, to get information to help your business,” he added.

That guidance led to measurable growth. By working with the SBDC team to develop financial projections and strengthen its financial position, the company increased its bonding capacity from $1 million to $5 million — unlocking access to larger contracts and boosting client confidence. “Mijan Construction has grown immensely in working with the SBDC at USF because we were able to first of all, get in the financial position to find out what is needed to get a loan, a line of credit. The biggest piece was we were able to work with Brad and SBDC because they helped us put together our projections and it launched us to grow from $1 million in bond capacity to $5 million. And that $5 million bond capacity put us in a whole other space as far as getting revenue,” Jackson explained.

The firm has since grown from $500,000 projects to multimillion-dollar opportunities and earned regional recognition as one of the top small businesses in the Tampa Bay area. “In addition to the SBDC, our information that we learned as a small business company with the Minority Accelerator Program out of the [Tampa Bay] Chamber, matching those two pieces, it helped us get recognition and we launched to be one of the top five companies as a small business company with five to 20 employees in the whole Tampa Bay area,” Jackson said.

Moving ahead, business success looks promising for Mijan Construction, “The next step for us in using the SBDC at USF is to be able to grow — we went from $1 million to $5 million in bond capacity. Now we’re trying to prepare and get ready for it to go to $10 million and meeting with Karen and [the Florida] APEX [Accelerator]. They’re preparing us to be able to have conversations with core engineers,” the business owner explained.

Jackson concludes with his plans to continue leveraging SBDC expertise and encourages other entrepreneurs to do the same: “I would tell any person that wants to start a business, grow their business, know more about their business, to look to the [Florida] SBDC at USF because they are the catalyst, I would say, to provide you with all the information you need.”