When the housing market is stagnant, it can leave homebuilders and remodelers feeling helpless and questioning how they’ll continue to grow sales and increase profitability.
Michael & Vanessa from HC Habitation in Montreal were in a similar boat until they made some savvy changes—transforming their approach to marketing, managing costs, and creating better customer experiences, all of which led to impressive revenue growth in a tough economy.
In this case study, we take an up-close look at how home improvement company like HC Habitation navigated the challenging marketplace and grew their bottom line year after year despite sluggish economic conditions. Read/Watch/Listen for key insights from their success story that you can start implementing today!
Learn more about HC Habitation here https://www.hchabitation.com/
Builder Lead Converter ATTRACTS, CAPTURES & CONVERTS high-quality leads for builders so they can pick & choose their clients & jobs. Find out how at https://www.builderleadconverter.com
Transcript:
Today on Conversations That Convert. So we’re gonna be talking about HC Habitation and, and their case study. They’re a builder in Quebec, and Montreal, and we’ll be talking about growing sales and profits in the stagnant market.
Welcome to conversations that convert every week, we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation, marketing, and sales topics for remodelers home improvement companies, and home builders, Conversations that Convert is brought to you by Builder Lead Converter, your perfect sales assistant.
And now here’s Rick and Daiana.
Rick: Hey, welcome everyone. Daiana is off today, but we do have a very special guest. I would like to introduce Michael and Vanessa from HC Habitation. Michael Vanessa, welcome, and thanks for joining us on Conversations at Convert.
Michael: Thank you, Rick. It’s our pleasure.
Rick: Yeah. Wonderful. Well, we are gonna walk through in the next 45, maybe 50, 55 minutes here, a case study on your company. So, congratulations. We’re gonna dissect you and, what, and be very, being very open and, and transparent, you know, what is going well for you guys and things that you have struggled with, and also with the, what the future looks like for you. So let’s start right away and, and, and talk about your background, HC Habitation. And I, I think the, the first thing that comes to mind is it’s a unique name for a home builder, HC Habitation. So, what’s the meaning behind it?
Vanessa: so the basics of it are habitation is actually French, cuz here in Quebec is majority French, so it’s, and the HC it’s really nothing very spectacular. our dogs’ names were Hemi and Cuda. And we were honestly looking for a name and couldn’t figure it out. So we were like, oh, Hemi and Cuda, we didn’t have kids at the time. very non-creative. H-Hemi, C-Cuda, HCM vision.
Michael: And then it stuck.
Vanessa: And then it stuck.
Rick: Oh, I love it. That’s great. Cuz you think of like, oh, there’s some sort of like spectacular meaning behind the name. It’s like, well, that was our, was our dogs.
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: Very good. So yeah. So you mentioned you are in Quebec, Quebec, and Montreal. And give us a little background on your market. How big is Quebec and you know, kind of the size of your service area?
Michael: So we work in the greater Montreal area now, Quebec itself, I think there’s a population of maybe around 8 million or so. But it’s, it’s an enormous province, so, most of the populations really concentrated around Montreal, and I think the population’s probably around somewhere in the, the 3 to 4 million range. So there are obviously lots of potential clients here. There’s still land and room to expand. So that’s definitely the area that we concentrate on, just because getting spread too, thins not good for anyone.
Rick: And I think I noticed on your website you, you roughly 40-kilometer radius around Montreal. Yeah, pretty much.
Vanessa: So I would convert to…
Rick: Yeah, so that probably would encompass most of the 3 million people, that live there. Yeah. So it’s a big market that you have. Okay. Very good. So, and then tell us, when did you start the company?
Vanessa: we started officially in 2017. We built our first home in, 2018. Prior to that, we actually had a partnership. So we did have the company before that. we really started in 2011 about, excuse me, we had a partnership, up until 2017 and then, we went out on our own after that.
Rick: Okay. And you were building homes in that partnership as well?
Vanessa: Yes.
Rick: You were. Okay. Alright, great. And so 2018 is 2023 right now. So you’re going into your fifth year? Yep, yep. Okay, fantastic. And, how did you happen to end up in this, in this business?
Michael: That’s an interesting story actually. I grew up in a family business and they were subcontractors in fire protection, so sprinkler systems. So that’s actually what I was trained in and that’s what I had worked in, as soon as I finished up in high school. But then a friend of mine was building his own family home and kind of his family had some experience in it as well. So I just helped him out for the summer and I absolutely fell in love with it. So it kind of just snowballed from there where like, okay, let’s build a house together. Let’s see if we can actually sell it. And then, you know, okay, let’s make it official. Let’s get a license, let’s get, you know, everything that we need to go, and let’s kind of, how it all fell together.
Rick: Well, that’s, that’s very interesting. And in Quebec, are, fire suppression systems or sprinkler systems, are they required in single-family homes?
Michael: No, they’re not. Certainly, they’re not municipalities. They’ll require it, but pretty much nowhere.
Rick: Okay. Yeah, that’s, that’s an expensive endeavor. If that’s the case, it adds a lot of cost. So tell, so tell us a little bit about the company right now, five years into it, what does your structure look like?
Vanessa: I mean, right now we have five employees. So we started from two to three and then we added, to that. we have two site supers. So they really take care of everything that is on-site to make sure that the trades are there and everything is being produced on time and according to schedule and correctly, of course. We have a project coordinator, so she will take the project once the sales are done, handed over to her and she kind of, and she’ll do the pos and, send out all the information to our site super. So she’s the liaison from the sales to the site, supers.
Rick: So you started with how many is this you guys, I’m assuming when you started the company, and then how did you add those employees over the last five years?
Michael: So the way that actually grew is the, the first employee of the company was neither of us actually. We went, I think the first year, a year and a half with zero salaries. So whether that’s a great decision or not, it is what it is. Now we’re here today. But our first employee was actually the site superintendent that we had from the previous partnership. So he came over, and he joined the team. So he’s the longest-standing employee right now. And then just slowly with more demand and more home sites going, that’s when we hired a second site superintendent. Then we hired a project coordinator from that point, you know, well it’s, we’ve recently hired a virtual assistant as well, so that’s helping out with some, accounting and ma admin stuff. And then, you know, we have goals for some, some future hires from there.
Rick: Okay, and we’ll talk about that a little bit later. So, let’s break down your roles and responsibilities. So Michael, let’s start with you.
Michael: So I’m chiefly in charge of the sales and kind of the direction of the company. So I’m kind of the fallback when things aren’t going good before it falls back to Vanessa when stuff’s really not going good. But I’ll handle most of the sales, most of the leads, most of those initial contacts with the clients and trying to get us to the point of a signature, on those contracts to put them into production where we send it out to the team. you know, I’m still obviously a liaison for everyone that is on the team during the production and I also try to, you know, implement things as we go. So I’m trying to work on the business a little more than just working in the business.
Rick: Yeah, very smart. Very smart. So, Vanessa, your role?
Vanessa: I don’t even know too many rules. Let’s just say too many hats. I’m initially in charge of the marketing, anything that has to do with, social media, marketing posts, website, etc., when I need to, I also have a legal hat that I go put on and, talk to lawyers, and that’s not always fun, but, it is what it is. I also kind of do a bit of HR, because for the moment it is what it is. All the HR, yeah, well, all the hr. so I’ll, you know, manage all the little things that come with employees. And that, yeah, that would be kind of, I guess everything that I do. I do love marketing the most. I do not like HR and I do not like any of that other stuff, but it is what it is and you gotta do what you gotta do. So…
Rick: Yeah, exactly right. Small company, you, you wear many hats. And do you ever dive in and help out Michael with sales? Like are you ever responding to leads or is that typically…
Vanessa: I, I do respond to leads. I, I will respond to them when they come in, especially in French, because the AI does not respond in French, so I will go in and, respond to them. same thing with English. I’ll give some information, and try to book some appointments if the AI is not taking over. Yeah.
Rick: Okay. And we’ll talk a little bit more about that AI herein, in a second. So, so 2022 sales revenue. What did you guys end up with last year?
Michael: So in 2022, our sales revenue was 8 million Canadian. So that’s probably like quite, quite a bit less in US dollars. But it was…
Vanessa: Three, $3.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. It was 8 million Canadian last year and we had built 17 homes. So the average was around 4-475 per home.
Rick: Per home. Okay. And does that include land or is that home only?
Michael: So some of those did include land. I think we had two homes where the land was included, but principally most of our homes are custom homes for clients on their own lots.
Rick: On their lot. Okay. And when you do include land, I think you have some land you’re working through right now, is that right? That you’re selling through?
Michael: Yes, exactly. So we have two lots right now. That one’s kind of a model home. The other one’s a bit of a spec. So kind of a little bit on both, but we don’t get, wanna really overextend ourselves too much into that, that department.
Rick: Yeah, for sure. And you’re able to make, are you able to make margin on your land that you’re selling?
Michael: Yes.
Vanessa: Not that much, no.
Michael: The ones that we’re doing right now, we didn’t sell yet though. So we’ll see if we make a margin on that. That’s a goal. Exactly. Yeah.
Rick: We attempt to. Okay. Yeah. And so, 8 million last year projections for 2023.
Michael: So projections for 2023 we’re actually gonna be slightly less. So we’re probably only at the maybe six and a half range. Now one of the reasons for that is last year we kind of had, in our first quarter we had a really, really big sales kind of rush. And then because so much was dependent on me getting those homes into production, the sales completely dropped off in our second quarter.
Rick: Yeah, the, the, the rollercoaster effect of home.
Michael: Exactly.
Vanessa: Too much for one person.
Rick: Yeah.
Vanessa: And something had to suffer at some point, right? Like if you’re putting homes into production, well you can’t really concentrate on sales. And that’s why we hired the project coordinator and stuff like that. So, now it’s a little bit more sustainable and like, I guess normal. Normal pace.
Rick: Yeah. So that was kind of a, a learning lesson for us, which is also, you know, something that at each stage of a building company, you’re gonna have to adapt to new things. So one of the things we’re also doing this year is we’re probably gonna project much higher margins on the actual sales that we’re gonna at. So it’s, it’s a sales drop, but overall, I think we’re able to give our clients better service and we should be making more money at the end of the day. Because last year, net margins were about 6%, but that was on gross margins at around 15. So we, whereas kind of the projections of our gross margins, right now were between 23 and 25. So we have increased some of that overhead obviously by bringing new team members on. But the net should work out better.
Vanessa: Yeah
Rick: You should be hitting close at 10%. Yeah. I’m with a lot of your stuff. The magic number for builders. Exactly. Alright. So and your target market, so in, in, in Quebec, what, what do you typically try to type of client you try to work with?
Vanessa: So we’re looking for somebody who probably isn’t their first home. It’s probably somebody who’s had a home before, a little bit more life experience, family. They wanna get upgraded to another home and they want to be able to customize that and maybe change the layout and get exactly what they want.
Rick: Okay.
Vanessa: So we’re not, you know, we’re not the cookie cutter where, you know, maybe a family who is just starting off or, where they are looking for a home, but it doesn’t matter. They just need a home that’s not us. So really focused on people who kind of know more about what they want.
Rick: First-time move-up buyer that’s had some experience in what they don’t like on their first home.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: Yeah.
Vanessa: Probably a lot more like that.
Rick: Okay. All right. And that 475 you mentioned was your average. Where’s your breadth of offering? Like, where’s a starting point, and where’s like maybe a high-end home for you?
Michael: I mean, so if we’re looking at basically kind of like, we have pre-determined models that, you know, clients can pick and choose from to give them ideas, but we have one that’s starting at around 300. You know, but we’re building a home right now. It’s 1.5. We have other homes that are inflow that is, you know, 1.8, close to two. So it, it is a really wide range, but we’re seeing our average, price for the sales we’re doing now. We’re close to six to seven.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: So your revenue’s going up for sale and margins.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: Yes. Yeah.
Rick: You’re really targeted where you wanna be. I mean, really you can do, you can do less and make more.
Michael: Yeah. And that’s something that, you know, our coach with APB really kinda, he had to drill it into my head.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: Because that’s something for me that like…
Vanessa: Quality over quantity. Yeah. And it was very hard for Mike to see the number of sales go down.
Rick: Yeah.
Vanessa: Because it meant less work. But our margins are higher, so it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not making more quality over quantity.
Michael: You know? And one of the things that we’ve seen is it, it seems like the clients that you make the least amount of margin or least amount of money on are the ones that are the most upset with you, or…
Vanessa: Most least problematic.
Michael: Least satisfied. Whereas we have clients where, you know, we had a close to 40% margin at the end of the job, and we get messages that from them nonstop just thanking us. They love their house, they adore it. So it’s kind of like, until you actually experience it, you can’t really…
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: You don’t understand it.
Rick: Right. The key, you know, and that, and that’s so true. I think that and that when I work with a partner with Builder too, I said, look, the goal for us is to deliver you enough opportunities so you can say no to the wrong ones and Yes to the right ones. And feel okay about doing it. Yes.
Vanessa: Yeah. And it’s really hard to wrap your head around that because when you’re in your own when you’re, it’s once it’s your own business and it relies on you to make money when you see those numbers go down, it’s really hard to, I guess, trust the process. But yeah, you need to trust the process.
Rick: Yeah. And, the wrong person, you know, it says, I say it’s a four Ps, so it’s gotta be the right product, the right price point. The right place, location, right, and then the right personality. So you get those red flags with some people and you’re like, you know what?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: I’ve gotta design the home. I’ve gotta build it, and then I’ve gotta warranty it for you. I mean, this is a two-year relationship. I really do not wanna have the, you know, the essence sucked out of me for two years by having to work with you. So yeah, you have to politely say no to some people, it’s not the right fit. Understanding that you’ve got a process going that’ll fill your pipeline and you’ll have another opportunity.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: Yeah. Very good. All right. so let’s talk a little bit more, how would you categorize yourself as a builder? So you’ve ta, you’ve used the word custom a few times. You also have floor plans on your, on your website. So tell us what that process typically looks like.
Vanessa: I mean, I would say that we are custom and semi-custom. we’re really custom where we will go and make a custom floor plan for our clients based on their needs and their wants. And then also we have our plans if they don’t wanna, sometimes you don’t wanna, you know, go ahead and make a, make a plan of your own. We customize the interiors. And the interiors, so they can use our plans and then they can move some walls. They can, they choose all of the interior finishings for the cabinetry, everything like that. So yeah, we’re custom and setting.
Rick: Yeah. That price point you mentioned, 300 to 1.5 or 1.8, whatever it was. So is it fair to say the lower the price point people, you’re more semi-custom, and then when you get into the 1 million plus, then you’re, you’re more of a true custom.
Michael and Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: Exactly.
Rick: What do you prefer?
Michael: Hmm. It’s, it’s hard to say because it’s, you know, as builders you want to build things. So when you’re building those new custom homes, it’s fun, it’s a different experience. But then when you have a model that you’ve built, you know, we might have a model that we might have built 50 times already. It’s little tweaks, right? It’s not completely the same, but it’s generally the same thing. Okay. So, you know where the foundation’s gonna go, you know, where a lot of the mechanicals are gonna run. It’s nice because you can, you know what type of a product you’re gonna deliver at the end of the day, and you’re, you’re maybe a little more confident in it. So, you know, it’s a trade-off between both.
Vanessa: Yeah. And there are no surprises. Like, oh no, this stuff doesn’t Yes. Fit here. We didn’t put that into consideration. What do we do? It depends, but it’s also nice to see a really custom model that we’ve never done. It’s like, wow, this is so cool.
Rick: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You get the kind of, the, the wow factor for sure. Although I, I remember one of the builders I worked for when we went from that, more semi-custom to higher-end custom things. One of the things he realized right away is he had to charge more for the customs, even though the price was going up because it took more oversight and supervision. There were more opportunities for profit leaks. Like you’re talking about, you get on-site, you’re doing rough ends, like, oh, we didn’t plan for this. We have to make this adjustment. I can’t go back and charge the client. Yeah. So I’ve gotta make sure I’ve got enough margin built in to handle things like that. Now, as, as far as, so semi-custom and custom homes, do you have a model and a spec you’ve mentioned? sorry, do we have a model?
Michael: We have one home that we completely finished. So we’re using it as a model home. We’re, we’re just about to, get it staged and try to get, some visitors in there to come to check it out. And we have another home that we just brought to the, Basically interior, rough and spade. So the carpentry is all done, and the outside’s completely finished. But you know, somebody can come in and choose their floors. They can choose their cabinets, whereas the other home is kind of locked in with what it is now.
Rick: Yep. So you can close that other one in roughly 60, or 75 days.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: They need the home right away and they’ll be able to personalize the selections. Okay. And that’s some, is that new to you now? Is this the first time you’ve gone into building inventory?
Michael: No, actually it’s, it’s what we started with. So our first project ever, we had purchased I think 20 or 21 lots from a developer, and that’s how we had started. So all of our, all, almost all of our homes were built on land that we owned. It was more rare that we would actually build for clients on their own land. So it’s kind of back to what we had done in the past. So yeah, we, we are used to it. It’s just…
Vanessa: We are used to, but we kind of changed our…
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: …we saw that we had a specific niche that not many builders had, which is building on clients’ lots. Yeah. So we kind of ran with that. and obviously, it’s less overhead for us as well, right? We don’t have to have the overhead of owning land.
Rick: Right.
Vanessa: Purchasing it and then hoping that somebody buys it, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, we, we need to be niched out into that and it’s worked really well. And then we kind of, every once in a while when we see a piece of land that is affordable, which is rare…
Rick: Yeah.
Vanessa: …we kind of will build a spec home, use it as a model home for a bit until it sells.
Rick: Sure. Like a floating spec. So when you do most of your client meetings, do you typically meet at the model home or do you have an office as well?
Michael: So we actually, haven’t had an office since the beginning. It’s been all kinds of work from home or meeting clients at their homes or meeting at a model home. We reached recently just purchased a building actually. So the goal with that is we’re gonna be renovating, one of those locals and making that our office towards the end of the year. So that was a big target that we had. But right now it’s kind of a lot of phone call meetings, zoom meetings, meeting at model homes, going and meeting clients at their lot. So it’s a little bit of everything right now.
Rick: Okay. Yeah. Very good. Well, congratulations on the, on the building as, as well. for sure. So, so you guys ha, so the journey started out as a spec builder. You’ve morphed into more of a custom builder and build on your site where most builders are the exact opposite. No, they started out building on the site and then they kind of worked their way into developing land and maybe building specs or models at the end. So what have been some of the major obstacles that you’ve run into in getting to where you’re at today?
Michael: I think the biggest obstacle we had was maybe, ending that partnership and then creating this new business so that, that kind of confidence. And, you know, we were in that business for probably six or seven years. So, just to be able to take that challenge and start the new business. Obviously, we had a lot of experience, but that was, that was definitely a challenge, you know, and going from having a, having a steady paycheck and income coming in and jobs going on to not knowing what’s gonna go on and…
Vanessa: Kind of restarting.
Michael: … yeah. That was probably the…
Vanessa: You get comfortable, right? You get comfortable, but then you know it’s not good for you. And then it’s just kind of ripping off the banding and being like, oh man, we have to start from scratch again. Okay, well, can we do it? Are we gonna do it? Do we do it? Like, so anyways, we did it and it’s working, so…
Rick: And so, what, what setbacks did you have along the way of going through that process?
Michael: Getting the company started, obviously it’s, you know, there, there’s financing, there’s coming up with the money, especially when we had to, buy all those lots for the first project. It’s, it’s just weird. Like we’re, you know, we’re in a different place right now where I look at a bank account balance and there’s a number where I’m like, okay, I don’t want to get under there because then we’re, we’re in scary territory. But then I remember what the bank account balance was before and I’m like, Hey, we were fine. Let’s go. We’re rolling. Like, we’re super happy. So that changes with different stages as well. So obviously getting that financing in place was, was tough. That was a big, kind of big leap stress to know that you have these commitments made.
Rick: Yeah
Michael: And you’re not a hundred percent sure if they’re gonna work or not. but you have to work through it. So those were, those were some, some challenging times. They went well, obviously, I mean, you know, I think it’s kind of the same for every builder. probably in the last few years when those first kinds of covid shutdowns happened, especially for us as builders, a learning lesson was we were doing a, we were starting to do some homes for clients on their lots but myself being very trusting and, accepting, you know, okay, when we get payments from clients sometimes, oh, well the bank only distributed dispersed this amount, so this is how much we’re gonna pay you. And they’re like, okay, we’ll continue to work. We’ll continue to work. And I think at, at one point we had one job that was like 300,000 over that they owed us another job was like 75. There was one that was like 120. And I didn’t realize how…
Vanessa: Dangerous.
Michael: … how dangerous.
Rick: Right. That’s exposed…
Michael: Especially as a, as a growing company because, you know, I had those payments coming due to our suppliers even though the work was shut down. So I’ve made the commitment to those suppliers, so I, I have to pay them. You know, there are trades, they have mouths to feed, so I have to be more responsible in getting those payments, receiving those payments on time. You know, so that, that was probably a, that that was a, a reality check. But yeah, we made it through and we’ve used those lessons better for the future, I’d say.
Rick: So Canada did shut down construction sites?
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: Yeah. Actually our pro here in Quebec,
Michael: Yeah…
Vanessa: … was the absolute worst. I think all of Canada.
Rick: You were the most restrictive. Quebec was…
Vanessa: We were very restrictive.
Michael: We were, we were real. We had a curfew like…
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: When we go back in time we can really go on a tangent and get away from building if we wanna talk about that.
Vanessa: But it was absolutely ridiculous.
Michael: Yeah, the construction sites were shut down for one month, so we were lucky. We were one of the few actual industries that were allowed to go back to work cuz it was, we considered essential. Essential. Yes. Okay. You know, we shut down for one month, which, which was great. You know, we’re thankful. We’re lucky that we were able to get back to work quickly. but you know, that period of one month when you’re owed that much money and you’re not getting money because the bank’s saying you’re not progressing and they don’t want to release anything cuz they don’t know what’s gonna go on and the client to pay. You know, it puts you in a particular situation.
Rick: Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And, in the states, it was state by state, so in some states, there was no shutdown because it was automatically considered. Yeah. You need to do the, there were some states that did shut down like Quebec did.
Vanessa: Yeah. It was a reality check and it was actually a lesson. For us to actually be a little less lenient with payment and a little less, I don’t wanna say less trusting cuz…
Rick: Oh, I did the same thing last year.
Vanessa: Yeah. It’s just…
Rick: I’m even worse. Right. So it wasn’t a very good lesson. I’ll, I’ll go off on another tangent as well. We were building a multiplex for an investing group, and we let it get to the point where we were owed over a million.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: Wow.
Vanessa: And then I put my lawyer hat on.
Michael: Yeah. So then when she says she has to do some legal discussions, well, that was an important point. And one of the things that, you know, we learned through that process is if we hadn’t put, our legal lien on the building, this was basically like two buildings. One of the buildings was actually for sale…
Vanessa: And we didn’t know.
Michael: … if it was sold before we put our legal lien, we would’ve lost I think, 800,000 that was due just in that property. So…
Vanessa: That was a tough lesson. But now, I mean, it, it brought us to the point where when there is money owed, we do have rights. And we don’t have to feel bad for coming in and saying, Hey, you owe us money. You need to pay or we’re gonna shut down the site. So that was a hard thing for Mike too, just as a person in general, he’s just a very trusting and very kind person that it’s very hard to go and tell someone that. But now, now I don’t think he has to.
Michael: No, no. I let Vanessa handle that part.
Vanessa: Yeah… I’m the mean guy. I’m the mean guy.
Rick: It’s, it’s an important lesson though because our clients always wanna hold us to the contract. Right. But then we oftentimes are lenient and not holding them to the contract. It goes both ways.
Michael: Yes.
Vanessa: Exactly.
Rick: It is a business relationship and we need to treat it as that.
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: Absolutely.
Rick: Yeah. So, that was some of your setbacks. How about best decisions were some of the best decisions you made to get yourself to where you are today?
Vanessa: Our best decision was again, quitting that partnership and going out, together. I mean, it sounds very, I guess corny, but we do work very well together. There’s a lot of, you know, spouses that don’t work well together, but I think we’re a really good mix where, you know, he brings in the logic, I bring in the emotions, and we kind of just, You know, work very well together. So that was really a, a great decision, I would say is the best decision.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, I would think so.
Rick: So let’s talk a little bit more about the association Professional Builders. You guys are involved with them. Tell us a little bit about the services that you’re currently using.
Michael: Yeah, so right now we’re in their private mentoring program. Our coach is Clint Vest. So we’ve been working with them for probably about two years. Two, two years now. It’s coming up in just about two years. so, you know, I, I think one of the, the real keys was working with a coach. Like at first, I was always a little bit hesitant cause I’m like, okay, what do I need to coach for? Like, I’m the boss. I know what’s going on. Like, and…
Vanessa: You know, it’s reapprehensive, right?
Michael: It, it is what it is. But even the best athletes in the world have coaches. They have somebody that’s, you know, cheering them on from the sidelines. And I like the fact that he can take, an outsider’s look. And kind of like…
Vanessa: Bring it back into perspective.
Michael: Bring it back into perspective where, you know, sometimes, you know, even if I’m more logical, I’ll get emotional about decisions. You’re in it every day, you’re breathing it every day, you’re sleeping it every day, whereas somebody comes from the outside and they can give you that perspective. So I find that really, yeah, that really gets a lot of value out of
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: But what has made the biggest impact on your business since entered into this coaching relationship?
Michael: I mean, touching on that, again, I would say it’s really him reiterating the point of quality over quantity. Cuz for me, it was always like, okay…
Vanessa: Quantity.
Michael: … it’s numbers. Like I don’t care what, not that I don’t care, but the net number doesn’t matter as much. But I need to see that, that revenue, that revenue needs to be as high as possible. Let’s sign more contracts, let’s get more going, let’s get more going. Where he’s really kind of, brought us back to a reality of saying like, okay, you don’t need to sign four contracts. If you can have one sale, that’s literally gonna equate to the profit of those four. So your revenue might not be as high. Your profit at the end of the day is better. You’re giving your clients a much better level of service.
Vanessa: And you don’t have, you have, you know what I mean? You don’t have 50 clients to deal with. You now have 20, but you’re making the same amount of profit. So you know, you’re not trying to run around and just try to serve those 50 cuz you signed them and you don’t know what to do. And, and actually, that’s what happened also with, the sales, right? Like we had too many. Where we couldn’t concentrate on anything else. And then it lagged with the sales, so,
Rick: Sure. Then it left you, left you a hole of lack of sales, and now you’re playing catch up.
Michael and Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: Getting through that think that’s an important lesson because a lot of times it’s, you know, it’s sort of a pride thing and maybe Michael used like, it’s like, yeah, we sold 30 homes or we did 12 million in revenue and you know, but you’re like, at the end of the day it’s like, what was left.
Vanessa: But I made 50 bucks.
Michael: Absolutely.
Rick: Yes. Gonna McDonald’s to celebrate, right?
Vanessa: You order for two days for McDonald’s 50.
Michael: Exactly.
Rick: But it takes the same amount. You know, I, I always look at the opportunity cost too. It takes the same amount o of oversight and supervision and if you tie up your resources with a bad sale, it means you don’t have the resources for that good sale.
Michael: Oh, absolutely.
Rick: Right? I mean, and, and…
Vanessa: so right now thinking about that.
Rick: Yeah. You know, you, you, you, you kind of get so caught. And I and I think you made a good point. Michael’s like, we get so caught up in working in the business that we don’t step back and look to work on the business. Go like, what am I doing?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: You know, I’m going, you know, a hundred miles an hour one way, but I got my blinders on and I need to, you know, step back and look around and go, whoa, I’m missing something over here.
Vanessa: And that’s what, that’s what Clint does. Yeah. he keeps us back on, puts us back on track, and keeps us focused. And just back to the basics of what we actually need to continue doing. And the next step that we need to hit and the next milestone to complete.
Rick: Let’s talk a little bit more about, so new initiative and implementation. So, it’s not easy to pull yourself out of working in the business and actually take the time, force yourself to take the time to work on the business. So how do you, so you come up with an idea with the clin says, Hey, you should do this. How do you as a team then implement that new initiative or take that on?
Michael: We kind of implement them, we try to have quarterly rocks. So we’ll take on kind of a big project for the quarter, either individually or together. And, you know, we might have maybe two rocks for the quarter. So we’re gonna give ourselves that, that leeway to try to get that done for, in that period of three months. Obviously, if we can get it a little bit faster or better. Now, one thing that Clint also helped us implement is something like daily sprints. So we’ll do something like, okay, 45 minutes a day that you are working on that business, you’re working towards that rock. So once we start implementing that, the rocks came to completion a lot faster, and by getting those rocks completed, then everything else kind of got a little bit easier after.
So there’s, there are some days where I’m like sitting around, And I’m like, okay, what am I, what am I gonna do right now? Like where, where I’m like, okay, what am I gonna do? I’m, I’m kind of ahead on my rocks. Like I’m, I’m at a point where, you know, I, I feel like we’re starting to get the things that we need in place. There have always been more things to go on, but I have more time to think and work on the business. So that’s something, by doing those, by committing to getting that little bit done every day, you’d really be surprised at how much you get done.
Vanessa: Yeah. We, Mike had, estimating software that basically he purchased and left on his desktop for a while. Never did, because it was just such a huge, huge endeavor to kind of go in and, I guess code everything, price code.
Michael: Make templates and stuff.
Vanessa: Make, yeah. Make all the templates and everything. And, so Clint was like, listen, you need to do this. Do 45 minutes a day every single day. And I think within two weeks he had it done when it was sitting on his desktop for like three months.
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: And he was just like, oh God, I don’t wanna do this.
Michael: Yeah. It’s, you know, what’s the, the problem? How, what’s the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time. At a time. Right. You know, I just chipped away on it and it came together in no time where when I was looking at the total of it, it was like, no, I can’t do this. It’s too big to let me push it off. Let me push it off. And it just never gets done. And you never…
Rick: Yeah. Very, very true. Very good point. the term I’ve always called uses time blocking.
Michael: Yeah.
Vanessa: Yep.
Rick: Was I, I, I, and I, and I think I noticed that on your calendar when I was actually looking at your appointments, it’s like, I literally put the time on my calendar like an appointment and it’s sacred. Right. It’s like, I’m not gonna change it. I’m not gonna double book myself with a client meeting or something like that. It’s like, no, I need to do this.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: And it’s so smart. Actually, we talked a little bit before the call here today about the EOS or entrepreneurial operating system. Rock. 90-day rocks are exactly what that system uses too. Cause too often we say, oh, this is my goal for the year.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: Then you start out pretty good and then you, all of a sudden you just forget about it and next thing you know, it’s September and you’re going like, oh yeah, remember that was our goal back in January. Whereas the Rock, it’s like, yeah, it’s due at the end of March.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: And so you, you’re, you’re seeing that progress a lot faster than spreading it out over 12 months. So…
Vanessa: I’m very good at that. Very good at forgetting what I had to do last.
Rick: We all are, we’ve all been there, you know, so Yeah. Don’t feel bad Vanessa, that’s for sure. We’ve all been there. So that’s, that, that’s great. Yeah. So I, it sounds like, just to summarize, you know, not only having the knowledge that like a coach or APB brings the table, but it’s also that accountability factor and just doing that, like I said, taking that little bit every single day and before you know it, it’s gone. that, that, that big, you know, the mountain is now down to a molehill and it’s like, Hey, we conquered it. Let’s go on to the next one. We, have you ever heard of the four quadrants? Urgent?
Michael: Yes.
Rick: Important? Yes. So your quadrant number one is what’s urgent and important. That’s your fire. That’s typically where most people operate if you just put it. Yeah. Quadrant number two is something that is important but not urgent. And then you have something that is, urgent but not important, and then not important and not urgent. So the quadrant you wanna operate in is what you’re doing right now. That, that, that sprint, it’s important, but it’s not urgent. And the more you operate there, the less fires you have.
Michael: Exactly.
Rick: Another figure out, it’s like you get to the point you’re like, Hey, I’m gonna take the kids to the park, you know, two o’clock on a Wednesday because I have time to do it, you know, everything is running the way it’s supposed to run.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: Vanessa, you know, to, we’ll take a little bit a, a look here at the website, but you obviously, I guess the first thing I’ll explain is that you have to produce a website of both English and French, just because that’s a law in Quebec.
Vanessa: We don’t have to do English.
Michael: Yeah, we don’t have to do English.
Rick: Have to do French. But you have both English and French speaking in Quebec.
Vanessa: Yeah, exactly.
Rick: So let’s start off with attracting high-quality leads and content, but walk us through, you know, some of the content that, that you have on your site that you, you think helps you get that lead.
Vanessa: The headline right away is to let people know that we do custom homes and that’s pretty much what we’re good at. And then we came in with, you know, your system of putting in the buttons. Buttons.
Rick: One of ’em right here. This would be a lead magnet or a call to action.
Vanessa: Yeah, exactly. So we didn’t have any of those at all on the website. And then you guys were very patient with us, cuz we had to do even more work because we had French.
Rick: Yeah.
Michael: Everything. Multiple languages.
Rick: Yeah. I think you probably were one of the most complex implementations that we…
Vanessa: Yeah. So not only did we have to do that, but you guys had to do that too. So, that was great.
Rick: All to actions right down here…
Vanessa: Yeah, exactly.
Rick: Library schedule call planning guide and then, and then price, the price quote.
Vanessa: And you know, like before we did implement them, I never noticed them on any other sites. But then when I did implement them and saw that they were working, cuz I was skeptical at first, like, oh, click here, call us. And I’m like, oh, no one wants to do that. You know, why would you wanna do that? But then when we implemented them, they literally worked. And then I saw literally Apple has them, every, every huge brand has them where you scroll and every scroll has a very call action, specific call to action and it’s meant for every scroll and it makes sense. So, yeah.
Rick: This is some of your floor plans and, I noticed you guys had 15 plans on your site and it looks like it’s a pretty good spread. So that breadth of offering, that $300 million plus. Yeah. I’m assuming that these kinds of compromise everything and I noticed your plans are a little bit more narrow, so it looks like you’re building on more…
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: Or lots in, in, in, Montreal.
Vanessa: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Rick: And lots of two stories it looks like.
Michael: Yes. Yeah. Almost zero. single-story bungalows here, because the thing is you do need to, I mean, have a bigger lot. Well, yeah, you need a bigger lot and obviously, you need to dig past the frost line, so most of the time you’re doing the basement.
Rick: Yeah. So you have a basement, two floors above grade. So 1500 square foot foundation. Now you have a 4,500-square-foot home. More, more or less.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: There, so you also do, I think as far as projects, this is where you have some, available homes. So this is Donald Street, I think this is where your model is.
Michael: Exactly, yeah.
Rick: And looks like you have two more. Lots there. And, and then you’re, the other thing I like about your site, and I think a lot of builders miss out on this is bios.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: And I don’t know why it is, but it’s like you’re a small business. You are working, it’s a very intimate relationship when we’re designing and building a home. And like, and as I said, between the design period, the construction period, and the warranty period, it’s two-plus years, a lot of times.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: How about we introduce who you’ll be working with? So I think it’s so important. That every builder, you know, instead of having just a generic about us page, which could have been written by some copywriter in a different country…
Michael: Yes.
Rick: …is like, yeah, these are real people, and here are photos and there’s a little bit of bio on here. and, and I think, and I think this is great. You know how you guys have introduced your team and it looks like you probably have one new team member here.
Michael: Yeah. Add, we have to add one of those in. That’s the Vanessa’s Gotta get on that.
Rick: Yeah. So, we’ll, and let’s talk a little bit more about the lead magnets, which I guess we have right here. You brought up a good point, Vanessa, in that, you know, do these really work? One of the things, the mistakes we make in marketing sales is we assume the lead knows what they should do.
Vanessa: Yes.
Rick: We assume what our client or our client knows what they should do next. And anytime we assume that oftentimes we create confusion and then we, the term paralysis by analysis. I won’t do anything because I’m not sure what to do cuz there are too many. So either there are not enough options or there are too many options. So the call to action or the lead magnets are all based on three questions. Every lead has the same three questions. They can’t, they wanna know what will their home look like. Yeah. So, they can’t visualize it. They wanna know how much it will cost and they wanna know where they can build it. So, and number one question again is what will it look like?
So you have your floor plans, which I’m gonna go back to here, for your model. So we always recommend five to 15-floor plans, and this is something you guys already had. A lot of builders we work with, they really have no floor plans on their site. So we’ll actually add floor plans to them. So as we go in and look at the floor plans, this is great cuz now we can see imagery, we can look at, you know, the different plans here, but what do people want to do more than anything else? They want to look at lots of floor plans. Yeah, so this is probably our most effective lead magnet, which is giving them access to a design library. And the nice thing about this is that it, when they, when they opt-in, it’s, they’re still on your website.
We can then get a little bit more information about what location they’re considering. And the most important part about this is that we use those same three questions to do what’s called market segmentation. So we will adjust the messaging based on what they’re interested in. So we know if somebody goes into your design library, they’re most interested in floor plans, so now I can adjust the messaging to create a compelling reason of why they want to talk to you so they can get their design questions answered or if it’s pricing, we’ll then say, Hey, you should talk to Michael to get your pricing questions answered. Or the location, we’ll talk to Michael to get to find your lot or to help evaluate a lot.
You already, you already own. so you have to be very specific and you have to tell ’em exactly what they should do. So if you, again, look at this, call to action on here, it’s like, Hey, complete the form below to get access to your 4,000 plans. And this is called permission-based or inbound marketing. In other words, they are interested in something. And what you are essentially asking your lead to do is in exchange for your contact information and permission to follow up. And you’ll notice that right down here by submitting this form, you agree to receive SMS and or email communication from us. Text messaging rates may apply. So they’re agreeing to allow you to follow up with them, but they’re getting something in return for it.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: And, and it’s, I I, I want to know what can my home look like? And, you know, as well as I do, is that they can look at floor plans for hours and they still can’t visualize what a one plan looks like. They still need to go out and see the model or look at the home or walk through it, but it gives them a starting point. And the most important thing that I try to convey to all of our partners is that when one, a local lead, in your case in Montreal, when they find a local source that will offer them the answers to their questions. You know, what can I build?
How much will it cost? Where can I build it? When they find those answers, they will stop. They will stop. And if you can keep ’em on the site long enough and create a compelling reason, they will opt-in. And then once they opt-in, then it’s just a matter of time. It’s just a matter of time of giving them what they want, of being a resource for them, of staying relevant with them. And when they’re ready, hopefully, you’re top of mind and you get the opportunity.
Vanessa: Yep.
Rick: To have a conversation with them, which leads us to the conversion, aspect. so after they go ahead and, and opt into one of your lead magnets, now we need to convert them into an appointment. And this is where the magic really happens.
Vanessa: Yes.
Rick: So you can, you’re not working on the job site.
Michael: Yes.
Rick: You’re doing your, you know, your, your, your rocks working on those and, and you’ve got, a sales assistant working in the background, giving them those compelling messages, creating a reason for them to want to talk to you, then making it really easy for them to book an appointment with you. And when I say book an appointment, it’s that phone call. It’s just to get ’em on the phone, be able to go through the qualification process to just understand, is this somebody that’s a good fit for you? Are you a good fit for them?
Shouldn’t you go to the next step? Yes or no? And if not, That’s fine. You know, we’re gonna have a lot more nos than we have yeses, but the idea is, is that I create enough opportunities, so say no to the wrong ones and yes to the right ones. So we have lots of tools you guys have been working with. We’ve done database reactivation for, and you guys had a big list of cold leads. I, I think, 1400 if I remember right.
Michael: Yeah. I think we were somewhere around that area.
Rick: Yeah. So one of the first things we did is we went back and we shot an offer out to all of those people just to try to reactivate them and, and, and reengage them and, and get them in front of you. We right now are doing our booking campaigns for new leads, coming on the website. We have a referral generator. We’re working for you people that are actually in the process right now or in warranty. We have an event coming up, I think for your new model home.
Michael: Yeah.
Rick: Here, here pretty quick. and results so far. So I’ll just give a couple of numbers and then I’ll let you talk about, you know, some of the personal things. So last 30 days, you guys captured 60 leads two a day, which is phenomenal. And you’ve had 19 of those leads, 19 appointments from those leads from 16 different leads. So it’s about a 27% conversion rate. And those were all booked by the lead. Those weren’t including the appointments you booked. Those were just from the lead. so give us a little, so tell us a little bit more again, about how that’s been working for you and, you know, what’s your, how’s your day-to-day changed since, implementing this system?
Michael: Yeah, I mean, for my end, as I said, I’m the one who does most of the sales. So I would be doing interactions with the clients and, you know, to touch back on that first database reactivation that we had, as soon as it was sent out, we had gone almost two sales right away, so that was good because we had, we had openings in our slots for the spring, so that really was a kind of a, I guess the emotional relief of being like, okay, good. Like we’re gonna have that work. It’s filled. you know, and then just continually since then even, you know, it’s saved me a lot of time.
I do like following up with clients, but like sometimes I’ll go to either send ’em a message or call them and I’ve seen the AI’s already done it, so they’ve already been reached out to, so I get those appointments booked in, I’m able to talk to them. It’s a more professional setting. You know, we had some kind of, some stuff in place before, but it, it wasn’t that great. Yeah. We did it ourselves. Right.
Vanessa: It was manual. That’s, that was the problem. Right. You have to manually, you have to manually take time. This is literally out of mind and it does it and you get the call. So…
Michael: Exactly. And the follow-up, right where I would. basically, the way I would set myself up in the past with our CRM is every Thursday I would spend probably four or five hours just calling or emailing or messaging everybody back. But in reality, maybe all the people that I was speaking to, if I’d make a hundred calls, maybe 10 of those were actually people I should be calling. Whereas, you know, with, VLC, it kind of, weeds out a lot of the people who are just kicking tires and it really narrows it down to the serious people that want to book an appointment.
They want to speak with you, they want more information. You know, and I’m, I’m probably, maybe. Being the entrepreneur and as well in sales where I might be over emotional about it, like, I’m probably super annoying because like Vanessa will be talking to me about something and I’ll be like, oh, somebody, somebody made an appointment. Or Oh, somebody downloaded the lead magnet. Like, you know, but it’s just, it is what it’s.
Rick: It’s fun to see. It’s fun to see. It’s active, it’s an active funnel and you know, going back to there’s only so much time in the day. You can’t be doing everything at once. But, I think, you know, going back to your previous thing you’ve thrown up every Thursday, it’s like, yeah, when should you be following up with a new lead? That’s a question. How soon should be following up on the new lead? The ideal time to follow up with a new lead is when they’re still on your website.
Michael: Yes.
Rick: Yeah. Then, when that, cuz that’s when the emulsions are the highest and where you can actually convert them. And so that’s why we try to book ’em right off your website. And normally it’s within about four days that they will book, but the first text message goes out to them two minutes afterward. So you, you and you, you guys can’t do that. I mean, it’s just impossible to be able to always get that message out and always have the right wording and things.
Michael: Exactly. So I mean, you know, since we’ve started this, this conversation, I mean, I haven’t checked my phone, I haven’t on silent, but I’m sure when I pop it up there’s gonna be conversations going back and forth and right. If, if you are not involved in that, that’s just such a powerful tool, you know, because obviously it gives you time to either work on other things in the business that, you know, those important things that you can advance on and, you know, or just get back a little bit of your life, right? So, yeah.
Rick: Yeah, absolutely. And the pipeline, obviously. Now, the nice thing is, is what you have developed right now on your site is you have the client acquisition funnel in place. So now Vanessa, I know you like marketing, we’ve talked about this. Alright, now I’m gonna tweak some of my ads. Now I’m gonna maybe put a campaign together. I know if I drive ’em to the website, I’m converting. Three, four, 5% of those, unique site visitors into leads, and then 27% from there are converting into appointments. Well, now it’s a numbers game, you know, really? All right, so we wanna grow the business. We wanna go after a certain target market. You can do all that now, understanding that those opportunity leaks are plugged in.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: You know, you, you know, if, if I, if I drive leads there, I will get results and ultimately it’ll turn into contracts. So, very exciting. All right, so we’re gonna, we’re gonna bring this home, but, talk about a couple of things here. So, current business initiatives you’re working on. I know we talked about profitability a little bit here. You also have talked a little bit about growing the company, adding some employees. So where are you at there?
Vanessa: Right now we have our site super who’s going on, maternity leave. So we’re hiring for a replacement for that. Once that is done, then we will start putting our energy toward hiring a salesperson. We did a lot of our protocols and our breakdowns of what, what they would need to do, and just like the structure of the, the position, you know, so that’s all done, at least because of the AI. Mike has more time and he was able to do that. So, yeah, so it would be another site, super well, replacement site super and salesperson. And then after that, I’m, I’m assuming the next person would probably be another site super, as well.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, I think, that’s the thing here in Quebec, obviously our site superintendent, she’s a, she’s a female, and here in Quebec, you can have up to a year of maternity leave. So it’s, it’s…
Rick: A lot longer.
Michael: … than, you know, just a few months off where we can adapt. So it’s, it’s something long term. And, you know, with speaking with our coach Clint, you know, when she comes back, we wanna be at the stage where we need our three site superintendents. So that’s why with the progress that we’ve seen so far with our leads coming in, and the quality of leads and communication with BLC is, you know, it gives us that confidence to start the preparations to hire a salesperson. So all those things go step and step where we can hire that salesperson.
We know obviously there’s gonna be a learning period at the beginning, so I’m gonna be there supporting and then we can increase the amount of sales and homes that we have to build next year to support those three sites superintendents. And as you said before, it comes down to math, right? So if we know what our conversions are, then we can pump some more money into the marketing for that in order to get those numbers up.
Rick: Yeah, exactly right. And you know, the important thing you guys did that a lot of villages don’t do, is you have a clearly defined sales process. I mean, I know we built the pipeline, so you’re tracking that whereas everyone goes through the pipeline, you can look at what’s the revenue projection from each pipeline. You understand your conversion rate from one milestone to the next, or one stage to the next. But now when you hire a salesperson, I always say management 101, you cannot manage what you don’t measure. So as long as you have a sales process that you are measuring, you can manage that salesperson and you can coach them up and you can help them through bottlenecks and things that, that you run across. But most sales builders are like, oh, I’m busy. I’ll hire a salesperson. You know, like, okay, go sell.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Rick: It’s like, oh, what’s your process? You know? And obviously, with APB we talk about production slots selling, we talk about getting, you know, getting paid to do estimates and you know, upfront, incremental commitments from incremental work. And, and that obviously takes a lot of training and it takes a lot of knowledge, and that there has to be a really, a set plan in place to be able to run that. So, kudos to you guys for getting that in place first. We finish up here, I wanna talk a little bit about your Montreal Children’s Hospital. That’s, I know, a big passion for you guys. So tell us a little bit about what you are doing there as far as with your business and, and the hospital.
Vanessa: We do have two children. we’ve always wanted to donate a million dollars to the children. It was just this goal that we had. it didn’t really stem from anything in particular. We just feel like children should be supported when you know the worst times and they can’t really be out there being children and doing the things that they wanna do. So the goal was a million dollars at some point in time, at some point in our lives. And, after, you know, a few years of being in business, we still hadn’t done anything towards that. And I was thinking, you know if we do have that million-dollar chunk of change in the bank account, are we really going to be like, Hey, let’s give it all away? It’s hard, right? Yeah.
I mean, you see that money and you’re like, oh wow. Like how am I gonna just give a million dollars? We really wanted to, so I had the idea of, breaking or chipping away at it, with every home that we built we would donate a thousand dollars. So this way is a lot less apparent in the bank account, you know, that big billion dollars. But I mean, so far where we’re at right now, we’re almost set almost at $70,000.
Rick: Wow. That’s fantastic.
Vanessa: Yeah. So it’s really important to us every, every home that we do sell, we have two more thousand to give. this week we just deliver two more homes and, yeah, it’s just very important to support, support that hospital for us.
Rick: Well, that, you know, that’s so, that’s so cool. and I love your methodology too. It’s like we’re going back to eating the elephant, right?
Vanessa: Well, that’s it.
Rick: Yeah. 1000. How do we give away a million dollars, a thousand dollars at a time?
Michael: Exactly.
Vanessa: Exactly.
Rick: You know, it’s how we do it, but I think it’s, it brings you a bigger point, of what, being a business owner, why are we doing this? No. I remember one-time people walked Shark Tank, I think it was Laurie and Shark Tank. She, she always says, you know, entrepreneurs are only people that are willing to work 80 hours a week so they don’t have to work 40. I mean, you know, it’s like, you, you take this on. But yeah, with that, it gives you the opportunity to do things like this. And, I think it’s also good to un to look at your business and say, Hey, this, this can be a tool for a, what, it’s a, a ministry or something that’s important to you and, and, and that it gets you, to do something more than just putting money in your, paying your bills, putting money in your bank account, getting, you know, existing and now you’re doing something like this, you know, for your local hospital. It’s, it’s such a great endeavor for you. So good.
Vanessa: Really important for us to be able to give back. You know, we do support, you know, like our son’s hockey team and stuff like that, and the softball team for our daughters, the other local hockey team that’s here, but the children’s hospital is just very important. Every single dollar that we give and that anybody gives literally goes to that foundation. And it’s used for everything in the hospital, for the children, for everything.
Rick: That’s great. Yeah. And for those of you that don’t live in Canada, just as a little disclaimer, it is by law you have to support your local hockey team if you live in Canada, it’s…
Vanessa: It’s, you have to, it’s sacred.
Rick: You have to. It’s sacred. Absolutely. So let’s, let’s just wrap it up with future goals.
Michael: And I see us continuing to grow the business as far as staff, as far as revenue, you know, and increasing the profitability at the same time. So I would think short term, you know, I would, I would potentially think we’d be at a target of probably between, you know, 12 to 15 million in revenue in the next five years. and, you know, we, we’d have to have the profitability somewhere between 10 and 15 percent, if not, you know, maybe that revenue doesn’t necessarily need to be where it is if we’re not hitting those profitability goals. So, sure. That’s something that we’re gonna work on.
Rick: Okay. Yep. And, maybe have that new salesperson and another site superintendent as well.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Michael: In there.
Rick: Yeah. That’s very, very good. Well, Michael and Vanessa, thank you so much for sharing HC Habitation and your stories, and your journey. And, you know, it’s, I think hopefully be very, fruitful for who’s ever watching this. And I do appreciate the partnership too. It’s really fun to see you get set up and even though it was a complicated setup, it’s really cool to see the results now.
Vanessa: Thank you. Thank you for…
Michael: Yes, thank you for your patience.
Rick: Yes. And well, thank you for the partnership and the opportunity too. And we, you know, we’re gonna do more and more as we get going here too, with events and, and, and other things to help you get those goals. But if you are anyone else who’s watching this if you’d like to schedule a strategy call today and find out how we can attract, capture, and convert high-quality leads for you too, so you can pick and choose your clients and jobs just like Michael and, and Vanessa. Go ahead and just click that link below and we’ll go ahead and get on a call and, and, start talking a little bit more about your business. So, until then, Thanks very much for watching Conversations That Convert everyone. Michael and Vanessa, thank you again for your, wonderful insight and wisdom and we’ll see you next time.
Vanessa: Thanks.
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