Episode 40 - Blueprints to Success: Navigating the Home Construction Maze

Ever wondered how to navigate the complex maze of residential construction? Buckle up, join me, Chris Kirby, a seasoned construction industry veteran, and let's unearth the secret to successful homebuilding and remodeling. Together, we'll unravel the power dynamics of effective communication, establishing and maintaining solid relationships, and how to maneuver through delays and hard decisions during a project. Not forgetting the hardworking contractors out there! We have our new segment, Contractor Shout-out, where we recognize the dedication and tireless effort exhibited by these tradespeople.

In the ever-evolving world of business, networking and team building are fundamental. As we share our experiences with business networking and the lessons learned, we’ll also delve into the perennial challenge of labor estimation and management. Trust me; it’s a roller-coaster ride worth experiencing! The heartbeat of any successful team lies in constant improvement and recruitment. Let’s break down these concepts as we discuss character, reliability, and the role they play in the success of a contracting business.

Finally, we turn our attention to the unsung heroes in project management, interior designers. We shed light on their crucial role in client satisfaction and the importance of their clear, regular communication. We will also reveal how to handle project hiccups professionally and the necessity of a detail-oriented approach to ensure client vision is realized. Listen in as we embark on this exciting journey through design and construction, with a hint of what’s coming up in future episodes, including an exciting project on a sports academy!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. Let's go. Welcome everybody to the Homebuilding and Remodeling Show. My name is Chris Kirby and I'll be your host. I am the owner of three construction companies on the Alabama Gulf Coast. The show is about residential construction. We're going to cover topics of homebuilding and remodeling. Are you thinking of doing a remodel or building a home? Are you a contractor looking to improve your knowledge base or grow your business? Have you ever done a remodel project or built a home? There were so many things you wish you knew or that you could have done differently during the process. Then this show is for you. We break down the process of building and remodeling and how to have the best results during your project. Whether you are a DIYer looking for tips, someone looking to hire a contractor to do a project, or a contractor looking to expand your knowledge base or your business, welcome aboard. Glad to have you. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 1:11

We kick off the show with my thoughts on homebuilding and remodeling. I'll share best practices and talk about some of our experiences in business and out in the field. These shared thoughts and lessons learned are meant to help you on your very own journey. Let's go. And how you respond to that, how you respond to the adversity and how you build confidence with your client. If you're communicating every day is going to dictate what happens when a delay comes up, when a problem arises. They want to know that you have the resolve, you have what it takes as a contractor, as a contracting business, to take care of the problem in a timely manner. But even if it's not in a timely manner, your response to the situation is going to dictate how they feel about your project moving forward. They will understand and be more likely to be understanding, if you've communicated, if you've done everything that you could possibly do and the delay was inevitable. There's unforeseen circumstances that cause delays and if you've already built that relationship, then the client is going to trust that you can handle that delay.

Speaker 1: 2:29

A key element to your success when you're doing a remodel project or a home build is being able to gauge the client's needs, being able to understand and stay ahead of their decision-making. Once you build that relationship and you really understand the client needs, it's going to go a long ways, not only when problems arise during a project, but in making sure they trust that you can make decisions without them and for them in their absence, and that right there is critical to the time that a project takes and decision-making during a project. There are so many decisions that have to be made during a project or during a home build. So if they trust that you know what you're doing and that you're going to come through with your word and that you're guiding them and you're talking to them and you're being open and honest, you're communicating effectively, they're more likely to let you guide them during the project. They don't delay decision-making. You're a couple of steps ahead of them when asking them to make selections, when to make decisions and if they have changes, you're communicating effectively on what the change entails, how long it's going to take, how much money needs to be spent for that change. All of those things are a part of understanding the client needs.

Speaker 1: 4:01

This is our new contractor shout-out segment. We are going to pick 40 contractors a month that tag their business page and our post on the home building and remodeling show Facebook page. And this month we have with us the GSR construction out of Nicholasville, kentucky, jmo services out of Lansdale, pennsylvania, nwf renovations and landscaping in Northwest Florida, wasmers Pro painting out of South Bend, indiana, and Lake's home improvements out of Battle Creek, michigan. Thank you all for commenting on the monthly post. We will do another post next month. Like, subscribe and share our Facebook page and hopefully you get a shout-out next time.

Speaker 1: 4:48

And now we move into Shop Talk. It's the portion of the show where I bring in a co-host and we cover trending topics in home building and remodeling. Hope you enjoy. Let's go Production right. We're not a production builder. We're not some of the larger production builders. However, we've established a good relationship and a good reputation with our local community and so we are seeing an uptick in the volume of work that we're doing. And we'll never be a production builder. Each house we do is custom, but for us to keep up with the workload that we have, we wanna maintain and control quality and relationships. The only way to do that is to have stuff in-house like what we do, especially in the new homes.

Speaker 2: 5:36

Having our guys here lately, really in there doing the work a lot lately, has definitely helped out a lot and not having to wait on the subs, because subs for kitchen and baths you know what I mean, they're hard to get a hold of.

Speaker 1: 5:52

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 5:53

It can really stall out a new home bill for sure.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Yeah, and we delayed it because, I'll be honest with you, our remodeling KCR, kirby Custom Renovations, was so busy that Kirby Homes we you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 6:07

We were pitting you guys on the back burner Right.

Speaker 1: 6:09

we couldn't even use them for custom homes, because the kitchen and bath side were so busy and so we kind of had to make a decision to grow right. So we're at a really critical point where our companies and I'll just talk about the numbers, but, like last year, we did $5 million as a company and for us to break through and actually make money off of that we didn't make and put that in our pockets.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Right, that's our revenue and there's a huge difference in revenue and income and profit and loss, and I do wanna dive in on that. But for us to really we've been talking about it here lately about how can we not just do $5 million but do $7 million or $6 million and make money off of that like real legitimate money after expenses. How can we make money? And you have to make the types of decisions that we're making right, and then we'll pivot a little bit here. But another part of not just growing production and bringing in people like the electrician and plumber, but we've been really hitting hard on Having an executive leadership team right and doing some team building, right, right, and so we're about to start that journey Really next week where we're gonna do a lot of team building events just with our executive leadership team and Just all in an effort to try and prove each company right, right, and so that stuff is gonna be new to some people and then it's going to be different for the others who have had Leadership training and experiences.

Speaker 1: 7:50

But you know, when I look at it, I you know my job is to make sure that everybody in the company has Value and they feel valued and that they're happy here, but when? And you can get real with this but when I came to you and we sat down, we talked about doing the leadership training. What was your well, what was your thoughts on that and what do you think you know that's gonna do for us in our company?

Speaker 2: 8:17

It's gonna help a lot. I've never really had any leadership training ever so it's kind of exciting and you know, just to help me grow personally, you know it's exciting.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Yeah Well, not only that, but like you, you've done the B&I thing right. You've never done a bit business group like that, or have you?

Speaker 2: 8:38

before you came here not at all in those first couple months of meetings I was a nervous wreck. But then you know, now it's just a, it's like going because we got a smaller group. So, yeah, right now it's just kind of going and hanging out with my friends and talking business. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So that that relationship you started in the B&I where it was man, what is? What is Chris doing? He's sending me to this, to this group. Right, business networking International is what B&I is, but it's a, it's a business network group where you refer business back and forth. But you know, those things help your professionalism. Yes, right, I mean, would you agree?

Speaker 1: 9:19

Very much, yeah, and it gets you out of your comfort zone because you're standing up in front right, sometimes a smaller Group, but sometimes it is a larger group when you have what's it called, when you invite people. Yes, when you have business day and so the concept for me on that was not only will we get business referrals right, but you will get out of your comfort zone right, challenge you'll be exposed and and every little Effort to do that, I think, makes us better.

Speaker 1: 9:49

So the leadership training is going to be the same thing. It's something that you've got to be willing and wanting to do, but the reason we're going to do it is in an effort to make the company better right? You know what I mean, and so that I think we've got a good core group. That's gonna be a part of that. I do, too, but the value in us forming even closer bonds To make sure that we're taking care of the company, that's what it's really right about for us. And, again, it's something that you've never done, but you've flourished in that. I think you're even. Are you on the board or you're one of the? What are you?

Speaker 2: 10:25

down in the leadership. I was the Um Guess host yeah my first year. Yeah, they vote like my second weekend. They made me the guest host.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Yeah, that's what happens. Yeah, the visitor host and then now I'm on the Membership committee very sure, yeah, and so you actually sit down and interview people who want to become members, and okay and just kind of find out and that you just, you know, I mean just make sure they're good fit for the group and yeah you know if we can help each other out?

Speaker 1: 11:00

Yeah, and speaking of like groups and good fits and things like that. You know we are bringing on people that we didn't just go out and and you find subs and say come join our team. So we kind of had to.

Speaker 2: 11:17

Again, it was their character, right so that's a huge thing here at Kirby is character, yeah, I mean because we're just like just one big family. So you know, if you don't kind of vibe, you're probably not gonna work out.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Well, we would you know. Not that you can work, you know, but it's the integrity piece yeah, it's just gotta be a good human being, yeah yeah, and showing up and being just care. You know what I mean. One of the hardest things for for people to learn in any not just contracting, but in any small business, is how important it is to show up, how important it is to be consistent.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Yes, right just being reliable, especially in this field of work, because if you call in, and especially if you're a crew lead, yeah, yeah, that job's dead for the day. Yeah, there's it. Just it throws you in a huge bind and yeah yeah, and we have to pivot. Yeah, we have to figure out okay, customers don't want to hear that a guy called out we'll wear somebody else.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Yeah, yeah and that's one of those things again, when you're doing your estimating and it circles, it's full circle back to the estimating piece. But when you're doing your estimating you can't, you don't know what's behind the wall and so you do your best guess. When you do the estimate, there's gonna be stuff you find. But also when you do your labor number again, if you write price that, if you say it's gonna take seven days and you bid for seven days because you're scared to bid for 10, oh, fear and fear of losing a job. The minute you go seven days you're probably gonna break even or lose money. The minute you go eight, you've lost money, right. So you have to protect yourself. And you just said it. We've got crew leads that'll call out. We've got helpers that'll call out. There's legitimate times where they are sick and they need to be home or be with their kids. So we build our work schedule around that and that way if there is a one day or two day delay, we've told the client 10 days, not seven and not five.

Speaker 1: 13:25

You know what I mean, so those are some of the little things that we do around here and we'll continue to dive into increasing our profit margins and why we do some of the things that we do and, trust me, we do a lot of what we do because we have learned hard lessons, right right exactly so everything we do, we continually talk about process improvement, time management, hiring the right employees, and we're constantly recruiting, because it's inevitable, when you get to a point where we're 30 deep, that somebody is going to move on.

Speaker 1: 14:04

And it's not all negative, it's not all you know. Oh, they've just quit, or you know, you get that. You get the people who just quit or don't show up, and it is what it is, but they move on to more successful positions or they move on to different careers or whatever.

Speaker 2: 14:20

So you always have to be on the lookout for new talent and new talent, always yeah, and because bring them in, nobody's scared to do right, I'm always keep my ear out for somebody, you know I mean and wish we won't be long before we need another team.

Speaker 1: 14:40

You know, yeah and, yeah and that's kind of the goal is because every team we create is another stream of revenue and that's why we built it in teams and we do a draw schedule for payroll each week instead of, if it's 10,000, we don't collect half, do half and half. We actually will break it down. If the 10,000 takes three weeks, it's going to be 3,333. You know what I mean. So anyway, all right.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Well, I appreciate you coming on as always, we'll dig deep a little bit more into our remodeling processes and, uh, until next time, thanks. Now we're going to move into the portion of the show where we talk interior design. We're going to bring in an interior designer and we're going to talk trending design and products. I hope you enjoy. Let's go.

Speaker 3: 15:31

Actually we want to choose everything upfront, but when things like this happen. We can't yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And so now we can go ahead and get the backsplash going and kind of, you know, finish and finalize the project and ultimately the client was able to get what she wants. But you know, it took three tries with the countertops, and those are things. It does happen. We're not infallible and we run into scenarios where we make mistakes or a vendor may make a mistake. Usually it's just kind of being accountable, but it does become a situation where the client now has to have their hands in every step of the project because, due to nobody's fault, but you know, just, it's a situation where it stuff happens but their trust is a little bit damaged.

Speaker 3: 16:25

They get a little bit wary, like they want to know. Like you know, they kind of got the heart broken.

Speaker 2: 16:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:31

What they imagined and what they thought they were doing. And unfortunately, like with the court site, I mean that is a natural stone, Whereas courts is manmade, where it has a lot more continuing like we know we can get. Another one is going to be just like it.

Speaker 1: 16:45

We can't do that with court site. Yeah, absolutely, and not everybody understands that.

Speaker 1: 16:50

Yeah, and so there's an education piece to what we do, where you know for us, for the lessons learned on this, we look back at each job and we kind of analyze how the job went, how the job flow went, how the communication went. What would you say, you know, moving forward for you. Each time something like this happens, we try to reflect and come up with a best practice to mitigate it moving forward. So what do you think like in your mind? You know, being new to the kitchen and bath portion of this. Now how do you handle that moving forward?

Speaker 3: 17:29

Moving forward. I mean, I know that there's going to be extra precautions that we're definitely going to take when we're using and working around court site yeah, whereas you know some painting situations that may or may not have even had anything to do with it.

Speaker 1: 17:43

Right.

Speaker 3: 17:44

You know we're covering things with plastic or paper where, like, paper is porous. Yeah, Anything can come through it. We really need to use things like plastic or really like something, something that can't absorb, yeah, that it cannot absorb.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Absorb or soak through to cause any issues or anything like that so tip of the day if you're going to have, because it wasn't just a countertop replacement, so it's kind of this was a twofold. We did get the cabinets refinished.

Speaker 1: 18:10

So, we had somebody come in and refinish and paint the cabinets and they did well as far as covering up everything. However, it could have been the fact that you're using paper to cover everything and it could have been some of the material, some of the product used to paint the cabinets absorbs into the countertop, and so you want to make sure that, whatever you're doing, if you're doing a countertop replacement, even if you're not doing a countertop replacement the stuff that you're using, if you're going to refinish or paint in that kitchen on site which most of the time, if the countertops aren't being replaced and you are getting your cabinets painted a lot of people or companies I know we do and we'll take off the doors and bring them to a shop and do the doors and house but the faces. You can't rip out cabinets, so you're going to paint the cabinets on site.

Speaker 1: 19:06

So, there's no doubt 100% of the time that when you're painting on site, you're using products you should be covering right, and for us it was covered. But what you don't think about is and this is again just comes from experience but, like with this, it would have been fine using the paper that we used or that they used to cover on most countertops.

Speaker 3: 19:32

Yes, on most, but given that it was quartzite.

Speaker 1: 19:34

Lo and behold.

Speaker 3: 19:36

It's a little more vulnerable.

Speaker 1: 19:37

I guess you could say, and so you know. Some of you more experienced designers out there may have known about this. I would love to hear if you did. But you know that was the first time I've ever heard of ballooning or water ballooning, and so it was a lesson learned for us. A tough one because that stuff's expensive. But also with quartzite, you know, our fabricator that we traditionally use has had problems just fabricating quartzite.

Speaker 1: 20:02

It's a very sensitive product and it is the most, one of the most expensive countertops that you can get, and so you really have to treat it with kid gloves. You have to. You know, you kind of have to know the product, and we did. But again, this was one of those one off scenarios and it and it happened. You know, first it was the ballooning, then it was the same, and so it's inevitable that we make mistakes or mistakes are made on projects, especially in kitchen and bath, you know it's just there's a lot to a kitchen or bath remodel.

Speaker 1: 20:37

When you're putting all the pieces together, you've got multiple people in and out, so, but for you, for you guys, it's just really keeping the vision intact. And then when something like this happens, right, how do you handle that with the client? So the client is going to be upset because they didn't get the exact piece. So their original piece that they wanted obviously didn't get. They ended up with something that they were happy with and hopefully just as happy. But when this was all happening, what were you doing in the background, like, how are you keeping the clients confidence?

Speaker 3: 21:13

Talking with everyone talking to the project manager of you know us is KCR and the cabinet people and the countertops like really feeling everybody in on the gaps as far as like okay, look, this is what we're dealing with, this is what we want to avoid. So I mean full trust and you to make sure that we're not gonna have any more issues, right, but it's just a lot of communication and just making sure that we understand the integrity of the products and then what everyone else is using and how they're gonna execute it when I think to it was you know, at this point you're reactive because it's already happened.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Right, how you handle that and communicate with the client makes all the difference right so you know, and you said it's almost at that point, you have to over communicate because they're they're aggravated there.

Speaker 1: 22:00

you know they can't be in their kitchen or whatever it is, for already a week, two weeks, three weeks, and then Stuff happens, and so you know and Christie has said it before on other episodes that you're acting as a mediator because they're gonna call you and say you know, or it is as simple as one of the construction guys running the tile vertical instead of horizontal or horizontal instead vertical and you're like wait, let me you know what I mean.

Speaker 3: 22:29

I think that what we have realized to you mean we're really like the quality control, yes of the project that's a good way to put it.

Speaker 1: 22:36

So as the interior designer right, you're overseeing the prod project and you know if you're working with contractors and clients. You're continually checking for quality right and so it's your job to talk to the project manager or talk to who's running construction if you notice something right. And you should be an advocate for the client absolutely right, you should be looking, and we never try to say maybe they won't see it right now you know what I mean because they're going to eventually.

Speaker 1: 23:14

it may not be at the time we're there, but later when they're home.

Speaker 3: 23:19

Yes, they start like I'm a very tactile person so I touch a lot of stuff yeah. Like I mean just even with the seams. Yeah, like that client, she was feeling for the differences and, and yeah, and yeah like there's just so many different things that they examine, when you know they sit and look at it for a week after we pull out and everything's done.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Yeah they're seeing more and more and if they don't see what they thought, they were, getting happy well, not only that, but then you know it speaks volumes when you actually call out something that they had no idea was a problem or was not right you know, yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:57

so and I've seen that happen, where you actually, as the designer, have free reign for the vision piece and you put together a vision and the clients like I love it, and the designer sitting back going what, that's not really what I intended it to be. And you call it out and they're like, okay, I had, that's all you know, because then you're really Acting on their behalf and and then it lets them know I would have never seen that, I would have never said anything about that.

Speaker 1: 24:26

I thought it looked great. So it just shows that you know we have integrity and that you're looking out for their behalf right. Communication is key, yes, and then acting as a mediator, but just making sure that you call out mistakes as they happen. And where I think most people will take A fence when you call out a mistake is in how you do it.

Speaker 1: 24:50

So if you're standing in front of the client and you're, you know, pointing and you know you shouldn't really do that, no you should pull them to the side, or you know, just hey, and then after the fact go back to the client and say, hey, I had to talk with you know, jimmy, joe or whoever and we talked about. I noticed that, so don't worry about I, got it.

Speaker 3: 25:13

Yeah, it should really be like separate conversation, like, as far as I'm concerned, as I'm, I'm the ears to listen to their concerns. As far as you know, I know what they want. I painted the vision. Now let's make sure they get it any concerns they have or anything that I see we can discuss. But I'm gonna go to my guys and talk to them and say, okay, how are we gonna solve this? To make sure it's a right, yeah, and then go back to the clients.

Speaker 3: 25:37

And this is the action plan that we're taking and that we're gonna take care right, and a lot of that should be happening internally, you know oh, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 25:44

Okay, awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming and always, as always, just talking about projects with us, and we look forward to catching up on the sports Academy next time you're on the show and you know, just listening to some more of our trials and tribulations and Construction world, and especially the interior design side. So, all right, thanks. Thanks for having me, thanks for joining us today. As always, we are grateful for our listeners and your continued support. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on social media via Facebook, instagram and TikTok, get more info at our website, wwwthethombuildingshowcom and, as always, remember who we are the home building and remodeling show.