Sands marks 25 years thanks to living ‘the golden rule’

Dec. 19, 2019

Greg Sands’ 25th year in business also was a big one.

His company, Sands Drywall, wrapped up work on some major projects – from the Avera Specialty Hospital to the new Citibank office – and had a record first quarter.

His staff, which has grown from a one-man operation to 250 people, has barely any turnover.

And projects that have personal meaning for Sands – the Avera Addiction Care Center and the Glory House expansion – saw major progress.

“The reason for our success has always been the golden rule of treating people the way I want to be treated – people I work for and people that work for me,” said Sands, who started in the industry in Rapid City in 1975 as a drywall finisher and formed his company in 1994.

The “secret sauce” is something he said he learned while in recovery from drug addiction.

“Treating people the way you want to be treated is just a good way to live life,” Sands said.

Building the dream

At one point, Sands dreamed of having five people with the name “Sands Drywall” on their uniforms.

“That was truly the dream,” he said. “And once I hit 50 people – going from zero to 50 was really hard – and maintaining 50 was extremely hard. But 50 to 100 happened pretty quickly, within 18 months or so.”

He now has offices in Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Dickinson, N.D., while working on jobs in six states.

There were multiple tipping points along the way, many tied to his longtime and loyal business clients.

Samuelson Development was “my first mega-customer in Rapid City,” he said. “We’ve probably done 1,000 (apartment) units for them there.”

Lloyd Cos. in Sioux Falls was an early major client, and Sands continues to work on many of the company’s construction projects today.

“Greg and his team have always been dependable and on time, and he’s always willing to give back of his time to help others,” said founder Craig Lloyd, who first remembers working with Sands on an apartment project in the early 2000s.

Journey Group began using Sands on many of its projects about seven years ago.

“What we really appreciate about Greg and his team is they’re very professional. We expect a lot of our trade contractor partners in terms of how they manage their projects and especially around the health and wellness and safety of their people, which affects the whole team,” CEO Randy Knecht said.

Journey looks to “their level of quality, their responsiveness and ability to staff projects appropriately because our projects tend to be larger in this region. They have the capacity and the staff and resources to not only do the job but do it very well. They continue to meet our performance expectations and have come a long way in terms of their safety practices on our job sites.”

Sands said he’s grateful to “have great people working for great companies that are working for great owners,” he said. “I’m working for A-list owners with the A-list general contractors, and I believe I’m giving them the A team.”

In the next six to nine months, the Sands team will swell by about 100 people for seasonal work. The company does a lot of networking through employees and online to hire to meet its growth needs. Many referrals come from family and friends.

Turnover is almost non-existent, Sands said, estimating retention at 97 percent in the office and more than 90 percent in the field.

“In the construction world, that’s a grand slam,” he said. “Treating my employees fair is something that separates me from the pack. When our employees go into a crisis, we’re there for them like family.”

Looking forward, giving back

Sands knows what it’s like to go through a personal crisis. In 1989, he was arrested for cocaine distribution in Aberdeen and spent two years in prison.

It was a wake-up call. Not long after his release, he became a business owner. He’s now such a successful one that he’s able – and more than willing – to give back.

Sands is well known in the business world for his philanthropy, Knecht and Lloyd agreed.

The Avera Addiction Care Center has been one of his philanthropic endeavors for years, from the planning stages through the opening earlier this month.

“There’s an extreme need,” he said. “Our community needed a full-blown inpatient treatment facility desperately. With the opioid explosion, it’s just an absolute necessity for us, and Avera stepped up and did it.”

He also has been a driving force behind the Glory House expansion, where former inmates can begin integrating back into society. Twenty-five new units opened, and 50 more are coming, he said.

“The way I think about a person’s living environment, therapeutically, is that it’s like when you pop in your car and it just got cleaned. It picks you up. You feel a bit better,” Sands explained. “I feel like it’s the same way with housing. If you walk in your house and it’s a pit, that’s going to bring you down. So we’re going to allow people with felony convictions (that qualify) to stay there, and they’re going to be full in the blink of an eye.”

As he nears retirement age, Sands is starting to travel more and be in the office a bit less. He plans to gradually transition that way over the next several years.

While he works through his succession planning, he said he’s grateful knowing the team he has built will be able to carry on the market-leading legacy he has created.

“I’ve never been more aware of the value of the team than I am today,” he said. “There could have been a time I wasn’t smart enough to figure that out, how this all really came together, and now that I’m looking back, I see the whole picture.”

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Sands marks 25 years thanks to living ‘the golden rule’

There was a time Greg Sands dreamed of having five people wearing a Sands Drywall uniform. Twenty-five years later, he’s at more than 250 team members and leaving a legacy beyond his business.

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