- April 18, 2024
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Joe Wright and his wife moved from Philadelphia to Palm Coast in 1993 when he accepted a job in Orlando. But by the time he arrived in town, the man who hired him had been fired. Wright was left jobless.
He took a $6-an-hour job wiring houses in Palm Coast for ITT Inc. the next day.
It was a struggle for Wright and his young family.
Fast forward to 2003: While working for a different, yet struggling electrical company, Wright realized he could do all the work himself.
He closed out his 401k, bought a Ford F150 and started working on his own the next day.
“Mother’s Day that year I was in a ditch, my wife was in a ditch, my daughter was in a ditch, and my son was a baby, so he was crawling around some dirt pile somewhere,” Wright joked.
But through all the trying times, Wright remembered one of his father’s old sayings: If you’re going to be a ditch digger, be the best ditch digger you can be.
“That’s what I am,” Wright said. “I’m a ditch digger.”
Wright started Quantum Electrical Contractors Inc. in 2004. The company is strong in the utility market and does a lot of service work locally. Quantum Electric survived the economic downturn of the early 2000s, and Wright said the company may have come out better because of it. Unsuccessful, or unprepared, companies were washed out, and only the strong businesses remained.
“It was a really good time to rebuild, restructure and figure out what mistakes we were making,” he said.
Quantum Electric was able to make just over $1 million four years ago. Now it’s making upward of about $6 million.
"Joe Wright is one of the most genuine and generous people to support the Flagler County Education Foundation. We can always count on Joe to come through for us. No matter what the request, he always figures out a way to make it happen."
Joe Rizzo, Flagler Schools
Consistent effort for its customers is what’s moved the company forward, he said.
“Our customers are our biggest sales people,” Wright said. “We don’t really go out to ask people for new work. When somebody says I can’t get this done, our customers tell them to call us.”
Wright, who also co-owns a sister electrical company called Aqua Electric LLC, has relied on his family to boost production, as well.
Both his daughter and son work for Quantum Electric.
“The one person who’s not here is my wife,” he said laughing. “She was offered a job but turned it down.”
Nowadays, when he does enter the field, usually once or twice per week, it’s to oversee things. His ditch-digging days are over.
But sometimes, when he’s in his office in a unit off Palm Coast Parkway, he thinks back to the time when he used to get his hands dirty.
“Some days I like that time better,” he said. “There’s days where I crave to just dig a ditch and throw a pipe in it. There’s been a lot ups and downs, but I’ve always maintained that best ditch digger mentality.”
