Ron Jerdon has been guided by one essential rule since launching his construction company – the Golden Rule – and that, he said, is the key to the young firm’s success.
Ron Jerdon has been guided by one essential rule since launching his construction company – the Golden Rule – and that, he said, is the key to the young firm’s success.
“My faith is part of how we run our company,” explained the owner of Jerdon Construction Services LLC of Upper Macungie Township. “As a Christian, we treat our clients how we would want to be treated, and that has come back and blossomed. And we are good at what we do.”
Jerdon, previously the vice president of a large construction company in the region, launched Jerdon Construction five years ago with his wife Lorraine, initially running the company out of their home.
“It was a different time, with the economy the way it was,” he recalled, “and the company has taken off pretty tremendously. We have strong client relationships and a good reputation in the Lehigh Valley.
“I wouldn’t say it grew easily; nothing worthwhile comes easily, but it grew rapidly,” Jerdon said, adding that one of the biggest challenges he’s faced has been balancing the company’s growth with the staff size to meet project needs.
“It’s always a delicate balancing act,” he said. “You don’t want to have too many staff, to control overhead, but you don’t want to not have enough to meet everyone’s requests.”
Today, Lorraine Jerdon is office manager, and the company has 30 full-time employees.
“We worked together to build the business,” Jerdon said. “She wore several hats. Now we have a separate project coordinator, accountant, controller, human resources support person. They all work under her now. She did everything, initially.”
Jerdon Construction is a commercial contractor, primarily serving the Lehigh Valley, according to Jerdon, who added that while his team will travel for jobs, it tries to remain within a 90-minute radius of the Valley.
“We primarily work on offices, warehouses, colleges, hospitals, that type of thing,” Jerdon said. “Right now, we are working on a large renovation for Brown Daub Volvo [in Lower Nazareth Township]. We recently completed a branch for Embassy Bank. We did a new MRI unit for St. Luke’s Hospital.”
