Beginning her electrician’s career as a 14-year-old, Breanna Lawrence is now the president of Waltz Electric Inc., a company her father Arthur Waltz founded in 1998. This summer, the father-and-daughter duo switched positions on the company’s corporate board. Waltz is now the companys vice president. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Breanna Lawrence does not like to wait.
The Jefferson contractor also doesn’t like to sit still or keep people waiting. Emails, text messages, and phone calls are returned quickly and she almost always answers her phone because “you just never know,” she said.
“My phone goes off – text messages, emails, not as much phone calls,” she said. “I try to avoid those. I’m more of a text me or email me person so if I get an email or text, I’m the type of person, I have to write back. I can’t just ignore them. A lot of people will be like, ‘Oh, after 5:30 I’m off the clock,’ but I don’t mind looking at an email … I’ve got to get it done and move on to the next thing.”
Waltz has been getting it done since she was barely a teenager. A licensed electrician, she has been working in the trade for 24 of her 38 years, all of them spent working with Waltz Electric Inc., a company founded by her father, Arthur Waltz, in 1998. Over the summer, Waltz and Lawrence switched positions in the Waltz Electric corporate board, with Lawrence becoming the president and Waltz assuming the vice president’s role.
“Now, when we do taxes, it’s going to be under my name for everything,” Lawrence said. “We looked through a lot of stuff, and it was just so complicated to even change anything over. We’ve talked to other people who have wanted to give their business to their kid, and even if they said they only paid for this much, you’re paying so much in taxes. It’s so hard to get ahead.”
For the time being, the plan is to leave the two-person corporate board as is, Lawrence said. In the meantime, as he looks ahead to yet to be determined retirement, Waltz assists his daughter with quarterly tax reports, billing, and payroll. He continues to work with Lawrence on job sites three days a week.
“We work hand in hand, doing all our billing and all the quarterlies,” Lawrence said. “He’ll be happy when he doesn’t have to do it anymore, I’m sure, because he does our paychecks and figures all that out and takes the taxes out.”
On Fridays, if she has spare time, Lawrence tries to catch up on the company’s paperwork. Some business owners dislike that part of the business, but Lawrence considers the few hours she spends in her home office a welcome change of pace.
Lawrence started working with her father when she was 14 years old. At the time, neither one had any idea she was launching her career. Lawrence said she was initially motivated by her older sister.
“My sister was mad I didn’t have a job when I was her age,” Lawrence said. “She had started working when she had started working she was 14. Then my dad’s like, ‘Oh, you can come to work with me’ and so I worked with him off and on.”
Lily, a 7-year-old Australian shepherd mix, looks a little confused as her people, Breanna and Evan Lawrence, share a moment. The couple’s only dog, Lily is just one of the animals Breanna Lawrence cares for at the couples Jefferson home. (Courtesy photo)
After graduating from Lincoln Academy in 2005, Lawrence tried college briefly at the University of Maine at Orono before deciding it wasn’t for her at that time. She returned to Newcastle and joined her father in the trade full time.
“I didn’t have a major,” she said. “I just went because that’s what everyone says to do. So I left there and came home and started working with him again. I went to UMA in Augusta for a couple years to get stuff, but I just decided I was happy doing this.”
In 2018, Lawrence obtained her limited electrician’s license, also called a limited master’s license, which authorizes her to work professionally on residential buildings. Waltz is a licensed master electrician, qualified to work on almost anything electric, including commercial buildings. With Waltz cutting back on his hours, Waltz Electric is transitioning out of commercial contracts, although the business will still serve select commercial customers, Lawrence said.
In order to obtain an electrician’s license in Maine, individuals have to complete an apprenticeship involving thousands of hours of work in the field and hundreds of hours of classroom time. Meeting the requirements qualify an applicant to take a written test to demonstrate mastery of the state’s electrical code.
Because she started so young, Lawrence already had her required fieldwork hours before she started studying and was able apply directly for a limited master’s license, passing over journeyman’s license, which is a common step in the process.
She completed her required coursework via Camden-based Novel Engineering even as she was preparing to marry her husband, self-employed carpenter Evan Lawrence, in August 2018.
“I was doing my coursework and I was getting our wedding ready, so that was a busy year,” she said. “I waited till after we got married, and then I took my test about a month later, so I had a little extra study time and just stress release time … I’m stubborn, so I don’t like taking my time doing all the coursework. I’d go home every day and do a couple hours of work on my schooling so I was able to get all that out of the way within a year. I don’t even know if it was that long, I just wanted to get it done.”
Working in a predominantly male profession, Breanna Lawrence said she hasn’t experienced discrimination based on gender, probably because she started young and has now been in the trade for so long.
“I started so young that I was almost like the young kid on the job,” she said. “Everyone that I worked with just kind of took me as that more than anything and we’ve all gotten used to each other for that long. Now, at this point, I’m so used to being around guys, nothing throws me off.”
Well established as a capable, reliable contractor, Waltz Electric does not advertise and does not have a website or social media presence.
According to Lawrence, there is little need as the company has an established customer base and enjoys great relationships with a number of local contractors. Typically, contractors tend to use sub-contractors they are familiar with over and over again. It all comes down to personal relationships and producing good quality work in the time available, she said.
Breanna Lawrence is escorted down the aisle by her father Arthur Waltz on the day of her wedding to Evan Lawrence on Aug. 11, 2018. Although she has legally adopted her husbands last name, Breanna Lawrence but said she is still largely known as Breanna Waltz. (Courtesy photo)
“A lot of the same carpenters hire us for any job they get,” she said. “If they get a job somewhere, we’ll try to go out of our way to help them … We’ve got quite a few who have used us since I can remember. That’s always good to have that loyalty and know that if they’re busy, they’ll throw you their jobs, and you get used to working with each other.”
As much as possible, Lawrence limits herself to something close to a 40-hour workweek. Her father worked a lot when she was younger, Lawrence said, and she thinks it’s important to take time to do other things. When she not working, she likes to garden, work on projects around the house, and tend to a menagerie of wild and domestic animals.
An unabashed animal lover, Lawrence cares for a dog and “a few” outdoor and indoor-only cats, plus a contingent of feral cats, skunks, raccoons, turkeys, crows, ravens, other birds, and occasionally deer. She likes to supply the local wildlife with fresh water, and there is usually leftover cat food and cracked corn to be found around the Lawrence residence.
“The funniest thing with the raccoons and skunks, they’re all friends with (the cats),” Lawrence said. “My cat was sitting on a lawn chair, and right underneath her was a skunk eating the food; that far away from each other, content as could be.”
Lawrence said whenever she can she likes to get away to a camp she and her husband own in Shirley. They currently have camper parked on two acres gifted to the couple by Lawrence’s parents.
“I love going to camp,” she said. “Anything in the woods, I’m completely content.”
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