RSC, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., rents wheelbarrows, ladders, cranes and backhoes to construction contractors and independent builders.
Builders had expected a continued influx of high-technology employees, flush with stock options, said Tom Hoyt, chief executive of McStain Enterprises, one of the area's largest independent builders.
These days, stretch work is done by independent builders, with Lincoln-Mercury and Cadillac, the two main manufacturers, selling a "base unit" sedan for the livery trade.
Eric Wittenberg, the president of McStain Enterprises, a large independent home builder in Colorado, said: "The uncertainty of the attacks and the uncertainty of how we're going to respond to them is going to weigh heavily on consumers' minds.
By the end of the decade, there were some 20 contractors in North America building Earthships, and independent home builders were able to erect Earthships for less than $100,000 by studying with Reynolds's firm, Solar Survival Architecture (later Earthship Biotecture).
Dell started the company back in 1984 with a $1,000 and a dream of putting small, independent computer builders out of business cutting out the middleman and selling PCs directly to consumers.
It became one of the most successful independent sports-car builders of the era.
Ridgeons, one of the UK's largest independent timber and builders merchants with 27 locations across East Anglia, have embraced sustainable building with significant investment into their product and service lines.
Labour's latest plan is to encourage councils to sell off small plots of land to independent buyers and builders, to help young people access home ownership and to give small developers an opportunity to compete with the nation's major housebuilders.
