Growing and managing your own home building and remodeling business is no easy feat. If you’re a solopreneur, who is someone running their own company single-handedly – then it’s especially difficult to juggle all the moving pieces.

But there’s still hope!

Learning from former solopreneurs, like Jason Radford with Radford Building Company, who have transformed their companies to…

• Hiring key staff so they can focus on working ON the company vs. working IN it
• Opening his first office and the key elements he incorporated
• Gradually raising the average job size while improving margins so they can earn more from each client and take on less jobs
• Key lessons Jason has learned from making this transition

Watch/Read/Listen to this episode now and hear from Jason on how he navigated this transition and what he tells other builders that are contemplating making the same changes.

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

Learn more about Jason Radford at his website https://www.radfordbuildingcompany.com/ 

Transcript:

 

Rick:  We’re interviewing Jason Radford from Radford Building Company and learning about his lessons as a solopreneur. Let’s get started

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 to Conversations That Convert. Thank you very much for joining us today. Daiana is off, but we do have a very special guest. Today, we will be doing a case study on Radford Building Company, talking about lessons from a solopreneur, Jason Radford from Radford Building Company is our special guest. Jason, welcome to Conversations at Convert. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Jason: Yeah. Hey Rick. It’s great to be here. I appreciate you making time to have me on and, have a conversation about a little bit about what we’re doing and, what we’ve got going on. 

Rick: What’s really our favorite topic is doing case studies, you know, with builders in the industry such as yourself. ’cause I think really other builders can learn more than, you know, they could from me or, or anyone else. Because they’re like, Hey, you’re in there. You’re doing it. You walk the walk, you’re talking the talk. So, you know, there’s really a great learning opportunity, I think for our entire audience watching here.

But before we jump into that, tell us a little bit more about you. Who are you, where are you at, and how did you get to be talking to me here today on Conversations That Convert? 

Jason: Yeah, that’s great. That’s a big question. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, for me, kind of I’ll just share a little bit, little sort of backstory. I know that you know, in the building industry there’s a myriad of us out there and we all have different paths. Mine is not a typical path. You know, I did not come from a family of builders a generation of builders. I studied construction management in school and got a four-year degree in that, and then got out and started working in the trenches.

Doing commercial construction was my first stint. I spent about five years doing commercial construction. Then I got into real estate sales for about a year. And then I started in residential construction which is what I’ve been doing. So I’ve been in the industry now for about 20 years, but I literally didn’t pick up a hammer until I was about 23 or 24 years old.

So I don’t, didn’t follow that tra traditional path that I hear a lot of folks do. But I had some good experiences along the way that really helped me when I started my company. And we’ll talk about that you know, a little bit later as we get into things. So, Yeah, so how did I sort of get here?

You know, talking with you as I’ve done things, and I know we’ll talk more about this, Rick, as we get into, you know, the APB and some of the ways that led me here. But really for me, it’s just, it’s having a mindset of I don’t want for myself to just have a job. I really want to have a business that thrives and I really want to do something that impacts the community and the folks I get to partner with from the vendors’ subcontractors.

The people that work for me and alongside me, and I believe to do that, you’ve gotta be willing to invest and, work with folks like you and APB. And so that’s really how I’m here. In short, is really I’m, I’m really willing to invest in myself and the business so that I can reap the benefits of that in years to come. So hopefully that answers your question. 

Rick: I think it is, you know, it’s, and that’s a big leap you bring up. A really good point is You’ve been in the, you get in the business for a while, you think you know what you’re doing, and then you get to the point where like, you know, I really don’t know what I’m doing and maybe I could do some help

And then you reach outside and you know, you’re willing to actually pay money and invest time in the e-myth which a lot of builders have read, they talk about that, where you actually make the leap of working on the business, not just in the business. And that takes a lot of discipline and also takes a lot of help.

And there’s obviously a fast way to do it, a fast track and a slow track. And I think you kind of jumped on the fast track with your coaching program and, working with us and trying to scale and, make or I should say, avoid some of those mistakes that a lot of builders make, you know, by reinventing the wheel, right? 

Trying to go out the loan and making mistakes and setbacks and trying something else, and setbacks. So I think that’s really important. We’ll talk a little bit more about that. So give us a little bit more description on your company. You said residential construction, but how many employees do you have right now, Jason?

Jason: Yeah, so right now we are focused mostly we’re design-build a hundred percent residential. Mostly focused on new homes ranging from. Let’s say 500,000 up to about 1.5 million, somewhere in that range, and then large-scale additions, and renovations from about 200,000 and up. We do have three employees on staff currently, which has been a huge blessing.

Also too, it does create headaches, you know, for guys listening out there that are really on that journey. You’re wearing the tool belt, you know, you’re scared to grow and, delegate these things. Rick, as you know in business, it’s one of those lessons that you just have to learn and you have to . .

Rick: . . let go, right?

Jason: You do. And it’s definitely challenging. I still sometimes, you know, things that are happening. I’m just like, oh. Man, I just, if I was out there, yeah. But the reality is if I was out there, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing. I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you. I mean, so that’s really part of what’s led me here too, is that willingness to let go.

And again, it empowers people. So that’s, you know, that’s what we do. Who we are as far as, you know, give to give folks a little background, you know, like we started the business in 2020. Okay. I started this business just before Covid took off. I think Jan, the end of January of 2020. I left the organization where I had been for 11 years. And started this company and then Covid hit and . . .

Rick: You’re thinking, what have I done? Right? 

Jason: Yeah, it was definitely scary. I mean, I’ll tell you, it’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever done was starting this business and I’ll share more about that. I know you’ve got a question for me later about this, so I don’t wanna get too much into that, but . . .

Rick: 2022 sales volume, what did you do for 2022? 

Jason: We did about 2 million in sales. And for 2023, it’s a little bit stagnant. I think for, for this year, we, my goal is to hit 2.2 mil, so just a little bit of growth. But in 2021 to go back a year, you know, in 2021, we barely, we just did 1.1. So a big growth jump in 2022, not as big in 2023, and then I’m hoping in 2024 looking a little bit more ahead to be more in the 3 million. In fact, we’re projecting 3 million already as of today in sales with what we’ve got in the pipeline. 

Rick: So yeah. That’s that’s great. So tell and, where are you located? 

Jason: We are in Durham, North Carolina. Yes, sir. Durham, North Carolina. 

Rick: Okay. So what niche, let’s talk a little bit more about your company. So what niche are you targeting, targeting in your marketplace? 

Jason: Yeah, I mean, we really finding that our niche, we really, our goal is to be a high-level professional general contracting firm. So our niche is again, it’s new homes. It’s folks that are looking to build a new home. They have a parcel of land and they’re looking for a trusted, professional contracting firm that can really walk them through the whole process, designing it, mapping out all the details.

Obviously pulling all the permits and, just holding their hand through the whole process, is our niche. We are not . . . 

Rick: Who, who’s that ideal client that you’re doing that for? 

Jason: Who is the ideal client? Yeah, so our ideal client is probably demographically, I would say somewhere maybe late twenties, but more realistically early to mid-thirties up to, you know, say mid-forties. So I’d say 30 to 45, sort of in that range. Most of our clients are young working professionals. They have families, they have children. They’re married couples, most of them. And they’re just busy professionals, man. They’re doing what they do and they’re earning a good income doing it.

And so they’re really looking, again, for that partnership with a firm that can communicate well, that has systems and processes in place where we’re not a backup truck contractor. The word that we use around here. You know, is there’s a lot of great builders out there and, maybe some, some guys that are watching it, they’re excellent tradespeople.

They’re craftsmen, you know, they really, they understand how to build and, what it takes to build. But there’s a big difference between running a business and, being a great carpenter or whatever. And it does take a big leap of faith and it takes a lot of training and equipping. So our target client is really that clients are high-level professionals at what they do and that’s what they’re looking for. They wanna partner with someone that is, who speaks still language. 

Rick: And is this typically the first new construction project they’ve done or do you find people that, they’ve done a few before this and, they’re just, this is more like you’re moving up to more their forever home?

Jason: Yeah, that’s a great question. Most of our clients, it is first time if they’re building a new home a hundred percent first time. If they’re remodeling, they may have done some remodeling before, but it would be like a small bathroom. They’ve never done something really large and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. So again, they’re scared, you know, they’re nervous.

They’re this industry doesn’t have a great rap, right for contractors that communicate well. 

Rick: The only we get when you know somebody some builder you know, walks away with some money, a job unfinished, you know, left people holding the bag, you know? 

Jason: That’s right. 

Rick: Pretty much, that’s pretty much the press that we get for sure.

Jason: Yep. That’s it. And so really that’s part of what we’re trying to do is really eliminate that. That’s where that stereotype is as best we can, and it’s difficult, it feels like an uphill battle, Rick, I’ll tell you. Because there are so many contractors out there that they don’t even, they don’t mean anything bad by it.

They’re just doing what they know to do. And the guys like me who maybe know a little bit more on the business side, it’s, sure it’s hard. But so again, it’s how can we help develop and grow, you know, these ourselves and also the younger generation kind of coming up. 

Rick: Sure. What percentage of new homes, custom homes versus say large-scale renovations?

Jason: That’s a good question. It definitely varies, but I would say if I’m looking at just pure revenue stream, probably 60, 40, 60% new build, 40% rentals. 

Rick: Yep. Okay. All right. And one last question on that average sales price, like say for a custom home versus a renovation, where would you find yourself?

Jason: Yeah, for a custom home, I’d say the average is probably six 50. Not six 50. 

Rick: And that’s no land, obviously they already own, correct?

Jason: Correct. So we’re not building super elaborate. We have done things close to a million to date. We’ve got some things currently on the books that are gonna break a million for sure coming in 2023. As far as the renovations, I would say our average in Reno is probably 150 to 200. Okay. Maybe just, just north of 200, something like that. 

Rick: So if you’re doing a bathroom, it’s part of a whole house or a large renovation. You’re not just doing smaller jobs for your only . . .

Jason: The only time we’ll take on smaller jobs for us is if it’s a referral from a great past client.

Obviously. I think that’s one thing too, to know as a builder, you never wanna lose that network of a really great client if you can fit into your business model with capacity. And I think that’s the thing that you have to know, which we can talk about this later, but that’s one of the systems that we’ve implemented through the APB is a capacity, you know, calendar that really maps out.

What, where are we at? What can we do? Because for example, I’ve got a screen porch right now that I’m working on. I would never do it a, for just anyone, but it’s a network referral and the capacity calendar has some slots available. And so I’m able to, I know with confidence we can squeeze that in there. We can take care of a great customer and keep that network referral going.

Rick: Yeah. All right. Well, tell us a little bit about the journey. So you’ve gone from startup in 2022 to 2.2 million this year. You, next year you are looking to push three. So you’ve had a pretty big growth jump. A hundred percent really between 21, and 22. Now you’re a little bit flat, but you’ve put a lot of systems in place to move up here for next year. So tell us about that journey of getting to where you are today and, you know, major obstacles, setbacks, and some of the best decisions you made. 

Jason: Yeah, no, that’s a great question again. You know, just to share, you know, kind of my journey. I was fortunate, I would say, Rick, in my situation, to have been in the industry a very long time. I didn’t start my business until I was 40 years old. And so for me, I think I was able to have a jump on some things that may be harder for some of your listening audience, that’s younger and they’ve been out here building, you know, with the tool belt on, but they don’t have that business.

Experience behind them to lean on. But for me, it, you know, it started in 2020 when I started the business. I knew going into it, I did not want just a job. So I’m thinking, how do I create a business? Well, the first thing I know I need to do is I need to create systems and processes. And so that’s really what I did the lion’s share of my first year in business was getting licensed.

I did not have my general contractor’s license. Well, during Covid, as you can imagine, this was delayed. Several times I had my test showed up for my test and the proctor never showed up, for example. And so we all this study and prep. So it took me, you know, until the end of July before I even got licensed in 2020.

Thus it was not a revenue-producing year the first year for me. It was really for me, I took the time to invest in the business and myself. And what I mean by that is I implemented things like Coconstruct, and software systems and I built out contracts. I built out specification templates and contract templates and all of the things that I knew I would need as I got busy.

So when 2021 hit and the latter part of 2020, I was prepared for that. So, in 2021, it was just me. In 2020, it was just me. In 2021, it was just me. So I was building custom homes. I had projects going. I would go out to the site, I would be there most of the day leading my crews. I didn’t tool belt a lot.

I still would work with my subcontractors, but I was leading and overseeing everything. And of course, I like a typical builder, come back into the office, work all night and, you know, all of the things man doing accounting and, sales and marketing and project management and quality control and just everything.

Obviously, I knew this was not where I wanted to stay, and so I quickly was able to reach out to some of my networks and bring some folks in. And so again, we’ve now got three team members. I’ve got two full-time folks and one part-time gal who helps me out in the office. And that’s just been helpful. Again, those systems that I created in that first in 2020 where I wasn’t making any money yet. But what I’ve done is I’ve created opportunity now for my team. We’re now using those systems that I created, right, two and a half, three years ago. 

Rick: So what I hear you saying is, you know, it was sort of, I probably accidental that with Covid it delayed things so much, it really gave you the time to focus on those systems. But you also made sure that from a financial standpoint, it’s like, Hey, I can get through this year of maybe where I’m not gonna be revenue positive. But it’ll give, I’ll take lots of time. Invest into this, the company, which now you’re seeing the fruits of three years later, essentially.

Jason: Yeah, no, that’s right. I mean, it definitely, again, 2020 was not a strong financial year for the business, and for my family, but we had things in the pipeline. It wasn’t like we had a completely empty pipeline. There were things that we were working on in the process. And so, yeah . . 

Rick: something to keep the lights on. A little bit of cash coming. 

Jason: Yeah. I knew it was coming, you know, Rick, I knew it was coming, right? And again, that’s why I had to put the effort in. And I know it’s hard for, again, your listening audience. If you’re out there tool belting and you’re, you know, you’re building, you know, decks every day and you’re doing all the things, man, how do you have time to implement? That’s a really good question. I mean, the answer really is, that you just have to make the time.

Rick: Yes. And that goes back to working on the business, right? Having the discipline to work on the business. And, I get a lot of I always talk to builders, you know, it’s sort of like your size and they talk to me and say, Hey Rick, I’m thinking about hiring a salesperson.

And you know, my response was this is like, well, do you have a defined sales process that you can measure, you know, right down to each part of the sales process? ’cause if the answer is no, you are actually, you know, you’re lighting a stick of dynamite by bringing somebody in because there’s no parameters, right.

You know, and so you are going you can’t manage something that you can’t measure, which is important. So, yeah, so you wanna scale your systems. Obviously, you put those processes in place, you create your KPIs or your K key performance indicators. So now you can measure that going forward. You can measure your employee effectiveness and then now you can manage that as you grow your company.

So really, really good point about. You know, making sure you focus on getting those systems done. And, you know, let’s face it, to an extent, we are all trying to build a doghouse around a running dog, right? We’re all, we’re all right. I mean, it’s just a matter of how fast that dog is running because if the dog is sitting there laying in the shade and you’re building the doghouse, there’s not a whole lot of money coming in the door.

So, you, you’ve gotta figure out and, how to do that and, I remember one of my mentors back said, made this statement really stuck with me, said In order to get in balance, you have to be out of balance. In other words, you’re gonna have to put a whole lot in, you know, that flywheel effect, getting that flywheel started in order to get in balance, you know, like 2, 3, 4 years down the road.

And I think we’re always looking for that, trying to make sure we have that good work-life balance. And, you know, we don’t have to spend 60, 70 hours a week working in the business. We have the ability to step away from the business. It can still operate without us. Where we’re not a key to making it go on a daily basis.

Jason: That’s right. 

Rick: Let’s more about that. You’re a member of the Association Professional Builders you’re doing coaching with them, which maybe you could explain a little bit more about how that works with APB, but more specifically I am curious is how has that changed the way you operate.

Jason: Yeah, no, that is again, a great question. Yeah, lemme tell you. So the APB has been a real, real blessing to find, you know I was fortunate enough to just be one of these guys that, you know, somehow, whether it’s through LinkedIn or I’m not sure how they’re different marketing ploys that they use, kind of got to me and, their sort of how-to videos.

And I was quick to talk with them. And again, because I just have a philosophy, and again, this is my, you know, to guys out there listening, man, you just can’t be scared to invest, you know? I know. Here’s what I know, Rick. I know there’s a lot more I don’t know than I do know. And the only way for me to get better is to have help.

If I stick to just what I know, I’m gonna stay pretty stagnant. Yes. And so I was quick to adopt the APB. They have been instrumental. It is a large investment, let’s say. But, again, it’s just what, how it’s helped me specifically, I would say a, it gives you access to a massive resource, a library of resources that you can be trained on in sales and estimating and marketing and.

WPA calculation. That’s one of the big ones I never even heard of. WPA. And until APB came around and now I calculate that every single month on a regular basis. That’s been huge. I am a part of the private mentoring coaching program. Clint. Clint is my coach and, we meet once a month.

And it’s instrumental just to have someone in my corner. That I feel like I can speak with that understands the language. They only work with builders. This isn’t just a business coach who works with any business owner across the board. Also, they work with builders across the world, so they have access to a plethora of different experiences.

That helps when I speak to my coach and do their training programs, Rick, it gives me much confidence to know, hey. This is what other guys are doing out there. If they can do it, why can’t I? But if without that context, I’m left alone on an island hoping and praying and, but really unsure of what the market’s doing.

You know, not only locally or nationally, but even globally. And I think that that’s important to have that awareness. And so that’s really what they do is they bring awareness. I mean, just, just great resources, good insight, just. I mean, I could go on and on. We could do a lot more on that, but I don’t wanna get too much in the weeds.

Rick: Some of us are lucky enough where we just organically have a mentor or mentors in our business world and they can be a plethora of knowledge and sort of guide us. And sometimes you hire that mentor. You know, and they do it for you. I mean, I’ve been like, you, I, and my mentors grew up. I always hired them.

I had nobody really close to me that said, you know, put, put his arm around me and say, Hey, Rick, here, let me tell you a few things. Yeah. And I was like, no, I started you know, looking at free content a little bit like you did, and then be like, well, you know what, if I’m really gonna do this, let’s, let’s jump in. Let’s hire this. 

And, you know, some of it has been more fruitful than others, but I do have to say some of the best decisions that I’ve made in you know, back when I was working as a GM or sales manager for my, for a builder or actually working as a fractional sales manager, a marketing manager, or just doing coaching, when I used to coach, you know, you just get so much, even just reading books and just being around these people and going to seminars and, just hearing these concepts and, working through them and just seeing some of the results and going like, wow. Yeah. You know what, you’re exactly right. If it worked for them, why can’t I use it too? 

Jason: That’s right. Very, very true. Yeah. And the last thing I’ll say on APB, you know, and part of your earlier question, what led you, me to talk with you here today? A big part of why I’m talking with you today is through the APB.

Because I know your business is a certified partner I can’t remember the exact word they used to describe it. And that’s how I found you, you know, back late last year when we started, talking about this, and again, been a huge blessing. I know we’ll talk about that later too.

Rick: Yeah, and that’s what we’re gonna move into as here. So we partnered here to attract, capture, and convert high-quality leads. So it’s a big transition, you know, it takes some time and effort. So you are a little, maybe a little over 90 days into it where you’ve been essentially up and running.

And I know you haven’t actually fully utilized all of the tools yet, but you’ve got a good chunk of them in place. But tell us about how things are going. 

Jason: Yeah. No, it’s man, it’s been, it’s been awesome, Rick. I mean you know, for me, the systems that we’ve, I’m trying to formulate my words here. There’s a lot to talk about. You know, you and your team have been great. Y’all help me obviously optimize my website, and redeploy that. And then I knew nothing of. How does this work, you know, with you guys your company your, and your platform? It was overwhelming at first. Just, I was definitely not the fastest onboarding guy.

I know y’all had to push me a lot. I felt completely out of my element, out of my league with implementing it. But y’all were great to walk me through it. It’s, I’ll say this to the listening audience. It’s robust, it’s more robust than I thought it was, but it’s also, it’s becoming more easy to use.

It’s a learning curve. Anything you do new again, it’s an investment. It’s definitely taken a lot of time, but I can tell you the beauty of this system. Now I can look at my pipeline. I know exactly where every single. Opportunity is whether they’re in a discovery call you know, a qualification call where they are in my sales pipeline.

And that can be customized. It has just been phenomenal. I get appointment confirmations just automatically I’ll just get an email and I’m like, oh, I have a phone call like next Tuesday, and guess what I did to get that phone call? Nothing. I did nothing. Of course, I did something. I partnered with you and your team.

Of course, I’m paying for that service, but man, Just that ability, because before I partnered with you guys, my phone would ring, Hey, you know, this is Joe. And I just, I saw your son and I just wanted to talk and just see like, could you come help? Which is fine. We love helping man, but, but we’re all busy professionals. 

Now, what they do is they see my sign, they look us up online, they say, oh, schedule a meeting, schedule a call. And I just, and it’s done. I rarely even get a phone call. Now, Rick, to be honest, I rarely get a phone call and I’m grateful for that. Furthermore, one thing I’ll say about y’all’s system that I didn’t understand or know that I really appreciate is the ability, and I’ve seen the power of texting.

I am not a millennial, you know and so I know there are a lot of millennials listening to offensive guys, but I didn’t grow up with a cell phone in my hand, you know, as a teenager and texting all the time. And so for me, texting has always felt unprofessional. To me, I feel like email is a lot more professional, but what I’m learning, and Rick, you’ve helped me with this some is, and then just using it, people respond to texting.

Where they will never respond to an email. One thing I love about your system is it allows me in one place to text an email on the same platform and not have to go bouncing back and forth to figure out what is happening. And I just think that is phenomenal. And texting on a keyboard is a whole lot easier than texting.

Rick: I agree. Agree. Yes. I love that too. I’ll text as much as I can from a keyboard and, I might literally all thumbs and I try to do. Yeah. But yeah. Good. Good point. And I think, you know, the, to add onto your point a little bit there when we get that lead, we just do not know how they prefer to communicate.

So let’s just try all three. Let’s text, let’s email, let’s call. They’ll let you know how they prefer and yeah, the vast majority of people do prefer to text. And the great thing for you or any other builder is that you know, texting is about a hundred percent open rate within an hour of when you send it email open rate, maybe 20%, maybe 30%.

And you know, otherwise, where is it? Well, I never got the email. Oh, it’s in spam, you know, or I don’t, I didn’t like the subject line, or I didn’t recognize it was you and I didn’t, you know, I lost it in my inbox, I deleted it by mistake, you know? Yep. That’s the challenge with email. So, you know, it used to be where email was really more at the forefront of communication.

It’s kind of flipped, where now the text is really the forefront or the reminder, the gentle nudge if you will. And, then the email becomes more secondary is what we’re finding. And of course, there’s also messaging on and I know you’re not that involved in social media, but Google My Businesses can be a real profitable area for a builder too, just to, you know, look up that local home builder or remodeler in such and such an area.

And then you gotta Google my business profile and they can, you know, they can chat with you now too. Or they can call you and that call comes in, it’s recorded. It is just making your life easier or your salesperson’s life easier because everything’s managed in one hub like you said, versus I’ve gotta use this app for this and, my phone here and my computer for this.

And it becomes very difficult to be efficient. 

Jason: Yeah. And one thing, you just mentioned something there that reminded me. I just found out about y’all’s system actually this earlier this week. I had a guy reach out and I actually was on the road when my time was to call him. Well, I didn’t have his number.

So I’ll pull up the app, the builder lead converter app, find his contact information and hit call from the app. No big deal. I call him, I talk to him. We have a 20-minute conversation, get back. I’m taking notes and I’m like, Hey, what’s this? A recording of the whole conversation. Yeah, exactly. And I’m like, wow, this is great.

So now I’m gonna start using that for each phone call so that I can go back and remember if I forgot, what did we talk about? I can go back. And that’s again, just a neat feature I didn’t even know existed. So like you said, I’ve not. You know, again, if your listing audience, I’ve barely scratched the surface and I am only implementing certain parts of what you guys can do and I’m seeing the power of it already for sure. And I know, as you said, there’s a lot more I could grow, so I still have a long way to go. 

Rick: We all do. We all do. Absolutely. So tell us about some of your current business initiatives that you’re working on as you scale your company. We’re going, you know, getting over 3 million. 

Jason: Yeah, I mean obviously we’ve talked about some, I mean, one of my big business initiatives was partnering, you know, with you guys and getting a lot of this sort of busy work off my plate chasing leads down, man, I.

You know, y’all’s, workflow is doing that for me. You know, so for us, again, it’s continuing to optimize our systems so that we can scale and just make sure they’re working properly. I think, you know, one thing I’m really looking into right now is how can I delegate the accounting side. I do currently do all the accounting.

I know there’s a lot of builders out there. Their wives are like doing all the books for ’em. I don’t have that luxury. Unfortunately. But, I do, you know, my wife is great and she she does other things, but that’s a piece that I’m, I appreciated early into the business because I wanted to understand the accounting side because I’ve never done that.

So I think if you’re starting a business, it’s good to start there. But that’s something I’m really working to implement right now I’ve got some folks I’m talking to to outsource that. That’s a big one. If I could take that off my plate. And beyond that, it’s really, I think it’s just you know, continuing to pour into my team and optimize my systems so that I have systems that really run the business.

And I can just train my team on how to use those systems. And there’s a lot more we have to do. You know, you mentioned sales. I’m not at a point where I need a salesperson yet, nor do I have a process for that if I was gonna bring ’em on. So I know that there’s a lot of work in the business to do to be able to go out there and do the business itself.

So, I think there’s the big things I’m looking to hire, you know, in the next 12 months. Probably two to three key people to help make that $3 million possible. One of those, I need another project manager. We always need project managers in our business. And then also some more office support staff that’s helping with selection, procurement permitting and, maybe some light finance things, and maybe some sales.

You know, my goal, I don’t know if you, when you’ll ask this, but one, one question. 

Rick: Yeah. Let’s jump into that. Let’s talk about your future goals. 

Jason: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So my goal really, you know, for me and my business, and I think this is one of the beauties of business ownership, is the sky’s the limit.

In fact, you know, one of the greatest pieces of counsel that I got when I started my business through podcasting and reading, was to really start with the end goal and really sort of design, what you want in life. Right? Not, don’t even, don’t even think about your business just yet. Like, what do you want?

And then you figure out what you want and then you, we have the beauty Rick to design a business that can help us achieve that want, whatever that is. And it’s gonna look different for everybody. You know, some people are happy out there building so many decks a year, and that’s all they wanna do is go build a deck and they wanna earn a good, honest living and that’s fine.

Others of us, like myself, wanna have a small, thriving business and that’s where we are. So, my goal, I’m not looking to be a big enterprise. Necessarily I would like to be sitting at the four to $6 million mark in the next, you know, three years, I’d say three to five years, and just have a healthy, profitable, thriving business that is really doing a good work in the community and, is known just to be a contractor of utmost integrity and service and execution. We’ve got some big goals, man. One of our big goals honestly, is we wanna be able to commit to writing. And we just started doing this this year where we guarantee we finish on time and on budget or we pay you basically liquidated damages type thing.

And that’s unheard of in the residential world, and I just don’t see any reason why a professional contractor can’t execute at that level. And it’s not a sales gimmick. It’s not to pull people in and hoodwink ’em. It’s just, listen, if you want a professional, we’re your guy and we’re not perfect, but we’ll put it in writing and, where we mess up, if it costs you, it should cost us.

Rick: Yeah, sure. 

Jason: So that’s a big goal. Let’s see. You know, one big thing I would say about my goal personally, Rick, is I’ve been doing this a long time, and any of you guys out there, you know, that have been doing this a long time, selection, procurement, sales, permitting, all of the things, man, it just, it gets a little mundane.

You know, it gets a little boring when you’ve done it so long. So what I’m really passionate about now is building that thriving business so that I can pull people into this business, give them a great job, a great opportunity, hopefully, lead them really well, reward them for their efforts, and let them use their gifts that God has given them to go out and serve the community and have a great time doing it.

Because what we do, while for many folks, it’s a luxury. It is still a great need. People are always looking to build or optimize their current homes, and I think they’re looking for great contractors to do it. And so, again, why not us? Why not me? You know.

Rick: I love some of those ideas. In fact, I remember just when you were talking about your guarantee we did that. One of my builders actually, had a clause in the contract, and it went both ways. We said, if you bought Mr. Byer or Mrs. Byer delay. The closing or the completion. You pay X amount per day. Wow. If we delay it, we will pay you X amount per day. So it went both ways. So we said, Hey, this is the partnership.

And you know, sure enough, you know, I have some people that wanna delay or don’t wanna close, and they drag their feet and we say, that’s fine. We have a closing date set. And if you don’t, if you’re not closing that day, this is your penal, you know, this is, we’re penalizing you. The same thing is like if we give you a closing date and we don’t make it.

We’re paying you for the delay. Yeah. As well. So it went both, it went both ways, and it was actually pretty successful. People did appreciate that and were willing to do that. But I where you’re going with your future growth goals and, for the company.

So you think sitting right at, like you said, right around that five, $6 million a year is kind of like where you’d like to sort of just run a really profitable, efficient. Business that allows you to do some of the bigger things in the community, in your local community. Is that, is that . . 

Jason: I mean, it feels like a good goal right now, Rick, as you know, but we’ll see. We’ll see how things go. I mean, I’m at a point now, you know, that sort of 2 million, two and a half million even if we get to the 3 million next year, I think we’re in this, you know, I’m not a business expert guy, so I, you know, but I think we’re in this real crux of a position of. You know, we’ve broken a million and, we’re doing well, but it to, to scale and to hit three and four and five and six, you’ve got, again, you’ve got to invest.

I’ve got to have more people. I just simply can’t execute. But again, it’s not about just having a bunch of people doing a bunch of stuff, it’s how we create systems and efficiencies to optimize their time, make their job easier, more enjoyable, and more efficient because it’s gonna keep our overhead down.

Rick: Well, and I, this is sort of our, our last question. But one of the things that as we jump into this that I wanna just, you know, I guess touch on, and you mentioned it a little bit at the beginning, is saying no. So here is an example. You said, oh, I billed between 500 and about 1.5 million. Well, let’s just say you have two clients come to you and one wants to do a $2 million house.

Everyone wants to do a $3 million house. So those two jobs alone, that’s $5 million worth of business. You know, now you have to step back and look within yourself, look at that production calendar, and say, boy, it sure would be nice to have $5 million of the sale, but what does that do to my business?

Because, you know, we always get attracted to the big shiny thing. We think, wow, if I can land this, my life’s gonna be so much easier. But obviously with that big of a job, and let’s go the other way, let’s go that small job too. When we say yes to those, and if we’re not set up for those, we don’t have the system set up to deal with either complex or maybe a simple job that can really throw a wrench in things.

So we always, we talk about, you know, with our clients and with you as well, I say, is that our goal as your partner is to give you the opportunity to say no and not sweat it. In other words, you have enough of a backlog in your pipeline that you’re comfortable saying no to the wrong jobs because you can say you have enough of the right jobs to say yes to.

But you know, as far as words of wisdom from you, I mean, let’s just throw that question out there. Somebody comes to you and says, Hey Jason, yeah, yeah. I wanna build a $3 million custom home. And you’re, you know, projected already to do $3 million right now. How do you deal with that? 

Jason: Yeah, that’s a great question. And it’s so true in our industry because it’s historically, it’s feast or famine, right? That’s where most builders, I mean, that’s the world I came from. I’ve experienced that some, but not a lot by God’s grace in my business. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the words of wisdom is sort out to answer your question, I think number one, you gotta know your numbers.

You gotta be confident in what you’re about. You gotta know your niche. You gotta know your skillset and your team’s skillset. I mean, could we build a three, five, $10 million house? Yeah, we could build it, but it would completely paralyze us really that a 3 million house is probably gonna take, I don’t know, I’d guess 18 to 24 months to construct.

I’ve never built one that big. And I have to know the only way I could do this is to hire an entire team. Dedicated to just that one project, or take me out of the community for about two years and just say, sorry, we can’t help anybody else because we’re only over here helping this one client.

And one of my great passions is to help people. So I don’t love that. I don’t love that. So for me, it’ll be relatively easy to say no. Plus it would be a little scary. So that it makes it easy too. Yeah. But again, I think for me it’s, you know, I’ve been in the business long enough, Rick, that I’m confident in my numbers.

I know my niche. I think where it gets harder is when it’s not three mil. It’s like, you know, I don’t know, 1.6 or seven. Like, it’s not like we have a cutoff or geographically is another great example. We have a 30-mile radius we really wanna stay in, but if some kind, I’ve got a meeting lined up next Monday.

It’s 34 miles away, you know, so it’s just outside our reach. But you know what? I’m gonna go meet and we’re gonna look at this project case by case. Yeah. And I’m taking my lead project manager with me so that we can put our heads together and say, Hey, does this opportunity make sense? Can we help this person?

’cause really, that’s what this business should be about, in my opinion. I think that’s one of my words of wisdom. If you’re doing this just to make a ton of money if you’re doing it just to get rich. I listen. I can’t judge the heart, that’s not my job, but I think that we’re in a position as builders to really provide a great service, and it should, I think it should come from a place of truly wanting to help and serve people and create something for them that they’re looking to achieve.

And, further, you know, words of wisdom, again, I’ve said this before, don’t be scared to invest. I mean, if you don’t invest in yourself, and your business, I mean, you’re likely to just stay exactly where you are, just like you are forever, you know, in your professional career. And, if that’s okay with you.

Sure. I know that most of the people in my sphere are looking to grow. You know, not for attaboys, not not to show. It’s just, I don’t know. I think it’s just how God created us. We’re all, you know, to just to challenge ourselves and, do something new and exciting, and but also, like you said, Rick, not chase the shiny thing.

Exciting, but keep ourselves you know, like Lowe’s, hardware’s, tagline’s great. You know, never stop improving. I think. I think they get it right, you know? Yeah. And I think to never stop improving, you gotta surround yourself with businesses like yours that are challenging you to think differently and do things differently.

You gotta get in a coaching program like APB, you gotta make those investments, and then you gotta invest in your team. You gotta grow your team. You gotta take that leap of faith to pull some people into your organization and equip ’em, you know, train ’em and let ’em do what they do and they’re gonna make mistakes.

Yeah, for sure. Just like you are. And I think we just gotta be gracious with people. We gotta hold ’em accountable. Be very honest and direct with people. So I could go on, man. But, that’s . . .

Rick: I heard you say two things that really popped into my mind that really stood out to me. Number one is I think you didn’t say the words, but staying in your lane.

You know, knowing what your lane is, what your niche is, what you’re good at, and also what you’re not good at. And not to be tempted by that next shiny thing you know about that project that comes up. You know, that’s too good to be true. You can’t turn it down. And I said that is the. That’s where the Achilles heel is.

Business is where we are. Put ourselves in a position where we are forced to take on the wrong job. It’s like at that slot, we need the revenue, we gotta keep the guys busy, we’re gonna lose our trades. We’re, you know, we have a cashflow crunch or, you know, try to make our payroll. So we say, oh, I gotta do it.

So either we’re sacrificing, it’s the wrong person, it’s the wrong project, it’s the wrong place, or it’s the wrong price. We’re gonna sacrifice one or more of those things when we take on the wrong job. And I remember one of my builders that I worked for as a GM for him, I remember when he was consistently a $500,000 guy building semi-custom homes.

And then he took out a million dollar plus custom, and he got done with that. And he goes, you know, I put my same markup on the million dollar home as I was doing my $500,000 homes. Well, the complexity of doing this million-dollar home. It was so much more than we’re used to. It took so much more staff time, even though that was essentially two homes, for one, my margins are that much worse because I sucked up so much of my staff doing that. 

So, yeah, you really gotta be careful as you jump into those new endeavors and think like, Hey, this is gonna be the greatest thing ever. And all of a sudden you get done with it and you go like, wow, that was dumb. Hopefully, you can avoid some of those same mistakes, but I think that’s the first thing that stood out to me.

The second thing is that, yeah, this business is a means to an end. It’s like, why are we building this business? It’s so we can do things outside of the business. Whether that’s, again, having time with your family or making an impact on your local community or being able to coach and mentor those employees on, you know, not only professional but a personal basis around you.

You know, you and I, you know, it’s like, Hey, I want to be a beacon of, of light in my, in my community as well, and, you know, showing how. Christ is working in me and through me, you know, not only with my employees but also with my client base and even my traits. There, as well. So yeah, those things really I think that’s very, very wise words from you as you share that with with everyone else.

Jason: Yeah. One last thing I’ll say on that as you were talking, just kind of thinking it through. I think also too, I mean, the principle of contentment, you know, I think in our business, I’ve been at events and talking with other builders, and I’m just like, wow. Like these guys are like doing it. I mean, they’re building $5 million homes.

Their grandpa is a builder, and their uncle like they’re their three generations later. And I’m just sitting over here, little old me thinking, oh, I’m nothing. I’m worthless. You know, all these things. And I think the comparison trap and just getting back and being like, you know what, no, I’m content. With where God has me and whether my business stays at two mil or grows to 20 mil.

Yeah. Great. Again, it’s just, what can I do today? What’s the next right step today to serve people well, to do the right thing, to give them a great, honest, professional level service through communication, estimating all of the things to execute on the project, and then you know what the results, they’ll come.

And they’re gonna look different for everybody. And that’s not to say that you can’t go out here and, work harder to get some more results, but I think it can be dangerous. And I know this exists in the building community, but look at, you know, Joe’s company. You know, and then it’s like you’re chasing after what Joe has when maybe you should just chase because your path is just gonna look different.

So I think just be content, you know, and make sure, again, you gotta know your numbers because listen, if you’re not profitable, It doesn’t matter if you’re doing 50 million. 

Rick: Absolutely. I was just gonna say the same thing. I so many of those guys that chase the big numbers, when you open up their books and you look at their net margins and you’re like, what?

What are you building for practice here? I mean, it’s all ego driven and it’s all about, well, I did 20 million, 30 million, 40 million. It’s like, yeah, but you made no money. You know, I mean, it’s like at the end of the day, who cares do 3 million and, you know, and have a net profit, a 10 and call it a day.

That’s, I mean, you made more money at with a 10% net at 3 million than you did doing 30 million. Yep. You made one. And look at all the liability you created for yourself. So yeah, I think that’s true. You have to check that. You go and you have to you have to, you know, really understand what is the end game, what’s the end goal here?

Am I, is it really where I’m doing some good? Or is it them? Just trying to pad my ego here. Yep. Yeah. I, I’m doing a $5 million home here in this home here and it’s like, 

Jason: it sounds cool, right, Rick? It sounds cool.

Rick: It sounds cool. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and so does buying a Ferrari sounds cool as well, but then you gotta own it and pay insurance and maintain it and, watch the depreciation.

It’s like, I don’t know, you know, how good of a decision that was made. But yeah, very, very wise words. Thank you so much. And if you’d like to know more about Jason’s company, we’ll put a link below to his website, Radford building company.com. Check out his website, and some of the things he’s doing, it’s got some cool stuff on it as well.

So Jason, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your story, your case study, and for my brothers and sisters in Christ, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Always we’ll. See you next.