Ronnie and Irene Dausin

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“We would wake them up every morning because they were partying at night,” Irene said. 

With success the couple bought a home in Converse.  Ronnie also bought a little tin building in Converse that would be the company’s headquarters.

“I remember when he took me to it and told me how much he paid for it, he literally opened the doors and it was dirt floors,” Irene said.   “We were there for several years.”

When the Dausins decided to incorporate the business, Irene had definite ideas on changing the name.  “I was very insistent that he put his name out there, so that people knew it was him and that there was a family behind it, and be proud of that.  I was very insistent that he named it Dausin Electric and I think it has done well.”

Dausin Electric moved from the tin building to a much larger facility at Loop 410 and W.W. White Road.  Success again warranted a move to a larger facility in 2006 when the employee count reached more than 100. 

The 2.5-acre Dausin Electric Headquarters in Selma is nestled in a pecan orchard.  “We have never really sold them [pecans] but we have a pecan picker.  It is hilarious,” Irene said.  “It looks like it’s from the Beverly Hillbillies.  You drive it and it just picks them up.  We give them to customers and bag them up for friends and family.”

The latest addition to the Selma facility is the barbecue building and dining pavilion, which is used not only for Dausin’s annual customer appreciation party, but also for monthly safety meetings.

Other changes for the Dausins over the years include the addition of another company – Irene’s company, Windman Energy, focusing on alternative wind energy projects.  

The couple also looks forward to bringing more family into the company. 

“Our son, Kyle, is in college right now and he definitely shows interest in coming on board,” Irene said.  The Dausins also have a daughter, Brittany, attending college.

“We have been really blessed,” Irene said.  “We have a really fantastic family and we have been really fortunate in the business and everything has just worked out the way it was meant to be.”

When asked what the secret to success is, Ronnie said, “Hard work, honesty, integrity – just kind of the way we were raised.”

The Dausins have been married for 26 years and met while vacationing in Mexico. Irene is originally from Canada.  She suggests that humor is an important way to keep both a marriage and a business evolving. 

“You have to find the humor in life. We crack each other up a lot. We are now at the age that we can laugh about everything.”

Enjoying life after 25 years in business is another key, according to Irene. 

“Ronnie was very fortunate last year,” she said.  “One of our suppliers invited him to go on a hunting trip to South Africa.  That was quite the trek.  He got five different animals.  It was a trip of a lifetime.”  –kf

©2010 Construction News, Ltd.