In recognition of National Women in Construction Week, the Office of Civil Rights spotlights small business owner Alexis Bostrom, founder of Big Wolf Siteworks, specializing in excavation, demolition, and land clearing. Bostrom has participated in several MnDOT OCR programs while growing her business.

Bostrom was motivated to create Big Wolf Siteworks by a strong sense of what is right for families. She observed that her husband, an operating engineer, did not have the best work environment and, because the work is seasonal, he worked nonstop for six to eight months of a year. Bostrom’s pivotal moment occurred when her husband was refused a day off work – a Saturday – for an urgent medical event in their family.

“Forget that,” Bostrom said to her husband. “I’m going to be your boss.” 

So, Bostrom set up her LLC, and by that spring, Nels Bostrom was her full-time employee. “We hit the ground running. It was the best and the scariest decision, but almost the easiest decision.”

Although Bostrom had worked with big equipment on the family farm, she never expected to own and run a business in excavation, demolition and land clearing. “I grew up saying I wanted to be either a police officer or a Disney princess,” Bostrom laughed. “And my college degree is in criminal justice.” Sitework appears to differ wildly from that, but the throughline is Bostrom’s sense of compassion for individuals and communities.

“It really comes down to the foundation of who I am as a person,” Bostrom said. “My identity, my ethics are rooted in my heritage, my people, and this definitely drives me.”

Bostrom, a citizen of Red Lake Nation, named Big Wolf Siteworks after her late father, whose Ojibwe name Chi ma’iingan translates to Big Wolf. He was a police officer, as was Bostrom’s grandfather, and several of her relatives are also in law enforcement.

“My dad taught me my work ethic and about just treating people well,” Bostrom said. “I wanted that in the heart of my company. Truly, I am just trying to be the version of me that younger-me would look up to and be proud of, especially as far as being a good person and doing good work. I care about my team and their families so deeply. I know that my team is safe here. Little-me who wanted to be a police officer or Disney princess would think that’s cool.”

Bostrom has grown her company, in part, by participating in MnDOT Office of Civil Rights business and workforce development programs. Through these programs, Bostrom obtained her Commercial Driver’s License, and Nels Bostrom became certified in erosion control. This training and credentialing would otherwise have been cost-prohibitive.

Nicole Larson, MnDOT Office of Civil Rights project specialist, said, “Big Wolf Siteworks provides a perfect example of how we want our programs to work for small businesses. Bostrom has followed a great timeline of getting workforce training, using small business support, and now using Micro Grants to keep expanding capacity – a clear path of business growth and using different OCR resources at different stages to match their needs.”

Bostrom made the leap from working on private, residential projects to bidding on government projects after her daughter was born.

“I have another mouth to feed,” Bostrom said. “But truly the Pathways to Success program was the driver behind going all in. I can’t even put a dollar value on the things I walked away from Pathways with – confidence, the behind-the-scenes knowledge, the contacts. I’m very appreciative.”

The focus of Pathways to Success is to support certified small businesses as they navigate bidding on MnDOT projects. “It’s intimidating to go up against bigger companies,” Bostrom said. “But hey, we all start somewhere. Pathways gave me better insight. Now I know how to read a government bid, what I’m looking for, and what questions to ask. And you realize there’s no dumb question. There are so many projects where I’m looking at it and there’s a contact or a deadline for a question and, you know, you call and ask, or you send an email, or there’s a Q&A panel. You’re not the only one that’s wondering, or it’s a really good question, or there’s an addendum that comes out after that.”  

Big Wolf was recently awarded a Micro Grant to purchase software that will help Bostrom bid on bigger contracts. “Receiving that was a game-changer. It’s going to streamline a lot of things. Especially this year – most likely we’re starting on a big project in the next two weeks because we need to get trees knocked down before bats start nesting.”  

Bostrom is proud of all Big Wolf projects, but one she loves is their first MnDOT highway construction job. “It was on Hwy 10 in Coon Rapids, subcontracted with C. S. McCrossan, and they were amazing to work with. The first day they were on site, I had to drive by. I got giddy about it because I could see my crew on the side of the highway for the first time. It was the coolest feeling, seeing the name I came up with on a logo on the side of the highway. Even my friends sent me photos, saying ‘oh my gosh, I saw your people on the side of the highway!’”

Women in Construction week is “not to just acknowledge the women working in construction,” Bostrom said. “It’s also to show the possibilities. I would hope that when my daughter enters the workforce, whatever she does, that it isn’t a rarity for a woman, a Native American woman, to own a construction business.”

“I didn’t see this growing up. That my daughter gets to see these things is really cool. She definitely sees hard work.”