In 2004, Nathan Martinez, who had worked for years as a pipefitter, estimator and project manager, started a construction business from his basement and backyard.
Since then, things have gone well for the Denver company. Martinez’s NM Industrial Services earned revenue of nearly $10 million last year, with Martinez working seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
“I feel blessed,” Martinez said Tuesday. “All the hard work is paying off. The help of my family and friends has been huge.”
Martinez and NM Industrial Services on Tuesday received recognition from the Obama administration in the form of a visit from Karen Mills, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of the president’s Cabinet.
The company — which specializes in mechanical process piping, plumbing and vertical construction — recently received a 2012 SBA Administrator Award of Excellence, the only award of its type given in Colorado this year.
“Companies like NM say everything about entrepreneurship,” Mills said. “You can start a business in this country and grow it to an extraordinary level.”
In the past eight years, all of the company’s earnings have been put back into the operation, Martinez said. He hasn’t given himself a bonus, bought fancy cars or purchased a new home.
Martinez said he worked with the SBA from the beginning and that part of NM’s growth was made possible because of access to government contracting opportunities.
Mills said the SBA supported more than $176 million in lending to more than 275 small businesses in Denver in fiscal 2011.
Nationally, Denver is known for its entrepreneurship, she said.
“You have a sense that an entrepreneur can prosper here,” she said.
Also on Tuesday, Mills spoke at a roundtable at the Denver Metro Small Business Center.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939, hpankratz@denverpost.com or
