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When your name is on the business, the business reflects who you are. That’s the philosophy that has worked for Bob Hamblin and his company, RLH Sealcoating, Martinsville, IN, since Hamblin sealed his first driveway in 1982.

“This is my business. This is my name. RLH are my initials, so whatever we do out there we’re going to do so I can be proud of it,” Hamblin says.

Like many sealcoaters, Hamblin started in the paving industry, sealcoating driveways on his own on weekends using 55-gal. barrels on the back of a pickup truck. Eventually he quit the paving job with nothing to fall back on, sealcoated a driveway on the way home after quitting, made $30 cash, and decided he was going into the sealcoating business full time. Business was slow at first, and he recalls one of the slowest stretches during that first summer. “One day I went out and said I’m not coming home until I get a job to sealcoat,” he says. “I got a job later that day, in the afternoon, and I still have that account to this day.”

When Hamblin started he was doing all the work from sales, to bidding, invoicing, and the sealcoating itself - and his customers loved it. Eventually RLH grew enough to run two crews, but Hamblin cut back because quality workers are hard to find (though one of his workers, Daniel Kenworthy, has been with the company 15 years).

“When we call to schedule a job the first question we get is ‘Is Bob going to do it?’” says his wife, Joyce, who handles all the in-office functions at RLH. “He’s a person people like doing business with, he’s honest, he’s fair, and they know they’re going to get a good job done.”