Engineered to grow

Trudi Williams became an engineer to prove a point.

A nurse by training, Williams was headed to medical school when her boyfriend told her she didn't have what it takes to be an engineer.

So she switched careers, became an environmental engineer in 1981 and married that boyfriend, Don Williams, also an engineer. “I should've gone into medicine,” she says with a smile.

But Williams says she wanted to prove that she could be an engineer, and she built TKW Consulting Engineers in Southwest Florida where the good-old-boy network was still well entrenched at the time.

Williams had been turned down for partnership in the Fort Myers engineering firm where she labored for seven years after completing her university degree. When a male engineer she had trained was promoted to partner over her, she decided to leave. “We need to keep the boys together,” they told her when she asked why she was excluded.

A friend told Williams she could start her own firm, which she did in the living room of her house. Her biggest expense at the time was a $700 monthly bill for the brick-sized cell phone she used.

Her first client was the Gasparilla Inn on Boca Grande. “The reception among the private sector was OK, but the government wasn't,” she says.

Lee County municipal chiefs wouldn't give TKW a shot at government work despite Williams' qualifications. She overheard one make a disparaging comment that she drafted while stirring spaghetti sauce. She wasn't discouraged, however. “It made me more determined,” she says. “If you give up, they win.”

Williams acknowledged that losing business because of her gender made her mad. She released her anger on the tennis court. “I've been known to put people's initials on that tennis ball,” she smiles.

But times changed and TKW landed its first big municipal job in 1995, designing the sewers for the new campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. “You just never, ever, ever give up,” Williams says.

Williams' reputation was cemented when she was named to the board of the South Florida Water Management District and elected chair in 2001. Her peers with the National Society of Professional Engineers awarded her the prestigious Professionals Engineers in Private Practice Award in 2006.

In 2004, Williams was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, propelling her to prominence in the region. Her biggest accomplishment was shepherding the state's purchase of Babcock Ranch, 71,000 acres that straddle Charlotte and Lee counties.

Gender issues aren't a problem for Williams anymore. She says engineering schools are graduating an equal number of women and men, creating a more level playing field.

TKW weathered the recession despite the drop in billings from $7 million at the peak of the boom in 2007 to about $2.5 million last year. “We've always been a very profitable outfit,” Williams says. “Service separates us from the rest.”

Tips
Trudi Williams successfully grew her Fort Myers engineering firm into a $2.5 million business. Here are tips she shares with other women:

Never give in to disparaging remarks by your competitors.

“Don't let the bastards get you down,” Williams says.

Be passionate and don't be timid.

“You've got to have fire in the belly,” Williams says. “Jump in with both feet.”

Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Williams says she asked clients to refer others to her and write letters of recommendation. One client passed her business cards at a Rotary Club meeting.

Look for talent.

“Always hire people who are smarter than you,” Williams says.

Be professional.

The first time Williams ordered business cards, they were printed on peach-colored paper. Today, they're solid green. “It was probably a bad to do light peach,” she says. “We're professional.”