Jacqueline Crane Hansen

President

Crane Builders

Waveland, Miss.

Projected 2023 Revenue: $3.5 million

On updating processes: My dad and I worked together for the past 10 years, and I purchased the balance of the company from him in 2019. We’ve been updating our processes and documents from what he developed when he started the company in the 80s. It’s been an opportunity to fine tune things. Our management team is a little bit younger and more technologically driven, and we’ve updated things for in-house operations as well as customer relations. On the one hand, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But at the same time, can we improve how we’re working? There was nothing really wrong, it was more “How can we make it better?”  

On gaining repeat-referral clients: I have continued good working relationships with the homeowners for our completed projects. We have a lot of referrals because of that, as well as families where we’ve worked with them on three or more projects over the years. For a lot of our clients, this is a vacation home, so during hurricane season we’ll check in often. We’re in southern Mississippi, and don’t freeze all that frequently, so many of our homeowners aren’t used to freeze prep, especially for a second residence. We’ll check in when it’s time to wrap faucets and things like that, and we do a number of maintenance items for them as well. Our humidity changes can make moldings crack, and we need to go back through and caulk and touch up different areas. So, it depends on the time of year, the size of the project and the customer. If they’re around more, we don’t necessarily check in as much, but some of the out-of-towners need some reminders.

Unveiling the Forty Under 40 Class of 2023