Jodi Baker – Baker Builders

These are interesting times for Jodi Baker, helping four children complete school at home and running a construction business side-by-side with her husband Dustin during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

In the midst of helping her children work through their daily assignments, checking homework, putting supper on the table and doing late-night social media posts for the Denver-based construction business, she says the words of the Baker Builders company mantra drives her: “Expect more.”

Jodi Baker | Owner/Marketing | Baker Builders

“It’s who we are,” Baker says. “It encompasses everything we stand for and resonates throughout all of our relationships with our clients, customers and employees. Quality and commitment are the values that mean the most to us and ones we want to share with others through our business that we love. We want to be here for the long term.”

Getting started

Commitment between Dustin and Jodi was evident early-on when they met each other at Benedictine College in Kansas.

The two got married soon after her graduation in 2006 and moved to California, working in construction there. But with family roots in the Rockies, the couple gravitated back to Colorado, where together they started Baker Builders in 2013.

With about 80 employees today, Baker Builders started out building residential homes and finishing basements, but it wasn’t long before its business shifted to include commercial construction of specialized metal buildings over the last seven years. It’s now known nationwide for construction of these buildings, used for everything from storage to manufacturing, with construction teams from Oregon to Florida.

“It was a great decision for our business, and we have our own erect crew which separates us from everybody else” she says.”

Division of labor

While Dustin’s forte is setting up the projects and conducting the design work (he grew up with construction since age 9) Jodi runs the marketing for the company.

With a background in finance and entrepreneurship, Baker helped grow the company to the point where they have hired an accountant. Now she can focus on maintaining the website, social media and marketing initiatives that help drive the business forward—even if that work is completed after her three sons and daughter are off to bed.

People are sometimes surprised that she’s the majority owner of Baker Builders, expecting a man instead in this male-dominated industry. Currently she’s in the process of getting the company certified as a woman-owned business.

“I hope that the company’s work and accomplishments change the perception of what women in construction can do,” Baker says. “It is a unique aspect of our business.”

True to form

Currently, Baker Builders is ready to begin a 38,000-square-foot office building for the Insulation Technology Corporation in their hometown of Frederick, a suburb of Denver. The design is true to Baker’s model, and will include a warehouse, office with breakrooms, a conference room and a mezzanine level. Other structures like it have had surprising warmth and affordability for a commercial metal building, according to clients.

“It’s a really good representation of what we do,” she says. “It’s a project that reflects the way we treat people, clients and customers—something we take seriously.”

Family first

That’s a practice and commitment the couple wants to extend to every employee as well.

As Baker explains, she wants every employee to work with Baker Builders for the long haul. Each summer they invite each person and their family to a lakeside get-together—an event they hope to hold again when the country reopens.

It’s that family team, she says, that brings each project to the finish line—work she’s only too happy to share from a marketing perspective.

“As I put each project post together it’s almost like looking at a family photo album,” Baker says. “Hearing the positive feedback from clients and employees, hearing that everything looks awesome and that people are taking great pride in the work, is the greatest source of satisfaction.”