Minority-owned firm gets its start with help to win federal contracts.

Belinda Davis knows she doesn't fit the mold. There were those days, of course, when she got her share of quizzical glances on U.S. Air Force bases.

"You have to remember," Davis, a self-described "small, Mexican woman," says, "I'm in a man's world. I don't play the good-old-boys syndrome."

No matter. Her DGR Associates Inc. today is a veteran government contractor, with facilities management contracts at five Air Force bases. The 16-year-old suburban Kansas City firm is responsible for the upkeep of more than 6,000 military housing units.

That isn't the only place DGR is cleaning up. Davis was named the Small Business Administration Minority Small Business Person of the Year in 2004. DGR was named Minority Small Business Firm of the Year by the Kansas City SBA office last year as well.

Grady Felder, a business development specialist at the Kansas City SBA office, says DGR has earned the accolades because it consistently beats rivals for government work.

"The bulk of the work is competitive," Felder says. "There might be a half-dozen to a dozen competitors. They keep growing."

Davis is a product of the small-business world and the beneficiary of the SBA programs that support it.

Her father owned a gas station in California before moving into the home remodeling business.

"It was a mom-and-pop type business," Davis says. "In a mom-and-pop type business you have to do everything. Running a business was not foreign to me."

But government contracting was. In 1990, Davis was working as a planning and zoning staffer in Mesquite, Texas, outside of Dallas.

On a vacation cruise, she met an engineer who began to tell her about the business of government contracting. He told her to subscribe to a newsletter where contracts up for bid were listed.

Davis took it a step further by contacting the SBA office in Dallas. There, she took classes and gained certification as a small disadvantaged business.

"They had great facilities," Davis says. "I didn't have anything. They had a place where I could make my own business cards."

That opened the door to her first contract, which was for commissary work at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin. Davis basically willed her way into the deal by calling contract incumbent JC&N Maintenance Inc., then of Kansas City, and offering her services.

The dealmaker: JC&N didn't have small disadvantaged contractor status, which Bergstrom was now requiring.

"I grew up with them," Davis says. "They were my mentors. Nobody does it by themselves."

By 1992, the ambitious entrepreneur had bought out JC&hrs founders. She moved the headquarters into an old farm house in Belton, Mo., 30 minutes south of downtown Kansas City. The company had a subsidiary, DGR, that she adopted as the new name.

"They were a great bunch of people," Davis says. "But I'm a little different. I like to see how good it can get."

"While I'm a mom-and-pop in my heart, I'm probably not so much. I like to be very innovative."

That meant replacing the manual, paper-based processes with company-built software that tracked every piece of equipment DGR used on a military housing site.

That appealed to clients, allowing DGR to win deals at Tyndall and Wright-Patterson Air Force bases. Davis also says she refused to skimp on equipment, buying the best materials for her maintenance people.

"I am never the lowest price," she says. "I am always the best service."

Davis has never taken an SBA loan. Instead, she used the same bank for 15 years, Stanley Bank of Stanley, Kan., to help finance the business.

In 1997, DGR was also accepted into the SBA's 8(a) Business Development Program, which helps small disadvantaged businesses grow.

That was also the year DGR hit $10 million in revenue. But the company didn't stay at its peak very long.

DGR lost Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a client the following year, which Davis chalks up to competitive challenges and the way the military began to judge job requirements. In 1999, revenue had sunk to $6 million.

Then the situation reversed itself. The military began emphasizing past performance in its bidding requirements, which played into DGR's favor. The firm began winning business again, resulting in a $15 million year in fiscal 2005.

The past few years, Davis has been helped by the Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Center, an affiliate of Missouri Small Business Development Centers. She calls it "another set of eyes and ears" to spot contracts she should bid on.

But Davis isn't celebratory. Having watched corporate giants win multibillion dollar military deals lately, it is becoming clear that she won't be a prime contractor for very long.

That shift has already resulted in the loss of two Air Force contracts, and she's expecting more churn.

To stem the tide, Davis must partner with the larger corporations as a subcontractor in her area of expertise, facilities management for military housing. She's also trying to diversify into the private sector, targeting big-box retailers and their facilities management contracts.

So far, no new contracts have been signed. It's a significant challenge for someone who has spent her career as a military contractor.

Davis has been working with SBA counselors for help with her diversification strategy.

The SBA's Felder thinks Davis will be able to adapt to the changes because of her track record in the face of past challenges.

"The companies we deal with can vary in the amount of help they need," he says. "They happen to be one of the firms that are very sophisticated."

DGR ASSOCIATES INC.

1002 N. Scott Ave., Belton, MO 64012

[phone] * www.dgrassociates.com

Founded: 1990 * Employees: 180

Fiscal 2005 revenue: $15 million