From the builder’s mouth – a Wellington builder’s start-up journey

Taking his building business from a team of three to 22 over two years has been a dream come true for The Successful Builder (TSB) client Jeremy Claridge, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy journey. TSB asked him if he would share what he has learned that might help other young builders starting out in the business

TSB: Starting out in business can be hard and slow. How did you go about getting clients in the first place?

JEREMY: I focused on delivering great service and then getting referrals from satisfied clients. It meant we kept getting clients who also wanted great service.

TSB: More recently you have grown dramatically. What has been the single most important step you have taken that’s delivered this success?

JEREMY: I had to learn to value and manage my time. When I became serious about growing my business, one of the key things I realised was that I needed to get control of time.

It became clear that this was my only truly irreplaceable asset, so I needed to use it better. I had an apprentice and intermittent contractors, so I was personally busy on the tools, and gaining control over time took discipline.

I started by keeping a planning diary and scheduling when I would work on the tools – including how many hours each week – and when I would work on quoting and invoicing.

I learned to collate similar tasks into blocks of time and do these all at once. I became more focused and more efficient. It was a bit frustrating, as sometimes I had to compromise on completing immediate tasks to achieve long-term goals.

Everyone has the same number of hours in the day, so if you want to improve your results, then you need to learn to use your time differently.

TSB: When you started out, you told me that you didn’t really know much about business. How is it that you now have a company of 22 people?

JEREMY: Everyone’s an expert when you start out in business. Everyone has an opinion about what you should and shouldn’t do. But there are some opinions that you simply shouldn’t listen to. Initially I wasn’t sure how to pick the better opinions, and it cost me, but now I know.

TSB: So what constitutes good advice?

JEREMY: Firstly, just because someone is good at business doesn’t necessarily make them good at advising others.

Secondly, some professionals are really good at working with small businesses in general areas, but they run out of steam when you want them to give you specific help for your business ASAP!

Thirdly, I learned that there is a difference between business knowledge and business wisdom. Business knowledge is about what is generally true, but it doesn’t take into account the specific cultural, personnel and local specifics of an individual business (or my personality!)

This is where business wisdom is important. Something that may be true in most situations, may be unwise in my specific situation.

You need to find advisors who know both the business you are in, and who will take the time to get to know your particular situation. No advisor will ever get it right all the time, so be prepared to balance advice with your own developing experience.

TSB: Some time ago, I did a tally up and discovered that a custom build normally involves up to 40 different subcontractors and suppliers. How do you build relationships with this many people and/or companies?

JEREMY: One of the first things I was told by a mentor was to surround myself with good subbies and suppliers, so from the beginning I have made a conscious decision to only work with people who share my values.

It’s taken longer to grow this type of network, but it’s proved worthwhile when something’s gone wrong, as there’s a common foundation on which to work out a solution. It just makes good business sense to eliminate conflicts that arise from having different values.

Furthermore, we learned to talk to our suppliers as soon as we thought we might be facing a problem and to map out how we planned to resolve it. The great people at Placemakers Evans Bay have been particularly helpful – Graeme Joy and his team have believed in us, supported us, and provided consistent and competitive pricing and really good service as we’ve grown. Relationships like that are gold.

Being a builder isn’t easy, so surrounding yourself with good people really helps make it better.

TSB: You have grown to a team of 22. What have you learned about recruiting?

JEREMY: In some respects, it’s fairly straightforward; as the old saying goes, ‘if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys’. In our situation, we try to offer something really unique to our staff in the form of culture, income and work-life balance.

I was fortunate that the first person I took on as an apprentice was a really great guy, who stayed with me after completing his time and only left because he moved to another city.

Now when we recruit, we focus first on the ability of the applicant to fit into our team culture. Of course skill is important, but we would rather not hire someone than compromise on the character and attitude we look for.

We also teach our team to appreciate that we get paid by the client – not by the company – and delivering quality in good time is the key to ensuring this.

TSB: A final word of advice?

JEREMY: Don’t be afraid of risk.

Running a building business, or any business for that matter, comes with some element of risk. If you get it wrong, it can and will cost you. However, there are steps you can take to minimise risk. Things do go wrong, but when you have good systems the risks are reduced.

We have put in place processes that give us up-to-the-moment information about the progress of each job against its schedule. This enables us to intervene immediately if we suspect there might be a problem. Our accountant helps us plan our cash flow to ensure that we will always be able to meet our commitments, and our marketing and sales processes give us a measure of control over the number of clients we take on.

If I was to make a final comment, it would be that self-belief is also crucial – set your sights high, but make sure to create goals and steps to lead you there.

Jeremy owns the building business iConstruct and has been in business since 2012. He operates in the wider Wellington area, and enjoys a spot of surfing and other outdoor pursuits.

 

Graeme Owen, based in Auckland, is a builders’ business coach. Since 2006, he has helped builders throughout New Zealand get off the tools, make decent money, and free up time for family, fishing, and enjoying sports. www.thesuccessfulbuilder.com