2 Years as a Stroud Homes Builder

Video Transcript

James: Good day, everyone. I'm James Stroud, and I'm here with Peter Verrier from Tamworth.

Peter: How's it going?

James: So, it's kind of an important moment. We're about two weeks away from two years since Pete and I started working together to build this business.

Peter: Yep, it's been a good two years. Lots of learning. Lots of training.

James: Yep. What were you doing before carpentry contracting?

Peter: Yeah, subcontract carpenter. So, a bit of a change going from being on the tools to in-office most days.

James: And your leading hand carpenter is coming in as now your second intern.

Peter: Yeah, he started off as a first-year apprentice with me as someone contracting, and now a site supervisor.

James: Yeah. So, Stroud Homes is an opportunity for everyone to step up, hey?

Peter: Definitely. He's loving it at the moment. Just handed his first house over last week.

James: Excellent. And a very good defect score if I remember.

Peter: Yeah. Yep, one defect. So, gas plate not labeled, so...

James: Yeah, there's always something. Yeah, but that's a pretty good score.

Peter: That's a good score. Yep.

James: Yeah. So, I suppose, I wanted to ask you about some of the hurdles that we come through. If another builder's thinking of growing his business by working with Stroud Homes, what are the sort of the things that we've been able to solve for you?

Peter: So, we had a few issues at the beginning. Just being a carpenter off...just coming off the tools, the whole office management was a bit difficult to start with. Obviously, never been in an office, managing multiple staff that aren't tradesmen.

James: Yep, be different.

Peter: Yeah, very different. Helping with homeowners warranty was another good one.

James: It's tricky, isn't it? It's quite technical.

Peter: Yeah, it was. It was. We got that one sorted now. And the guys down in head office mainly helping us out with all the programs have been amazing.

James: Software.

Peter: Yeah, getting the software set up how we want it and how to work properly.

James: It's interesting learning the software when you have the context for it, you know?

Peter: Yeah.

James: You've got a job there, and you've got to use the estimating software to get a price and use the workflow software to program the contract admin, and then the construction.

Peter: Yeah. And just getting it set up, so we can write our reports. So, we can keep track of the cash flow, and knowing those reports are there to keep on top of things.

James: Yeah. So, after two years, how're you feeling? Do you think more work? You can feel confident about cranking through a lot higher volume of homes?

Peter: Oh, definitely. One or a 100, I think it's, you know, if you can manage the cash flow. With the systems we've got, it's easy.

James: Yep, yep. So, on that cash flow topic, a lot of learning on that. We've got our cash flow report, our net profit report. We've got, I suppose, the thing that we tried to do for ya is help you understand where you were financially. Sometimes we call it financial navigation, did we achieve that for ya?

Peter: Yeah, definitely. Definitely, a big eye-opener realising how quickly we can build our business if you played the right moves really.

James: Yep. And I guess when you see the other builders kinda falling over when times...when the market slows down a little bit, you're realising they just don't have those financial management tools.

Peter: Correct. Yeah, having the second set of eyes looking over our reports every month. It's really good just knowing we've got that back up there. You don't feel like you're on your own. Yeah, it really helps.

James: Yeah. And I guess, I sometimes look at people that are out there trying to run a business independently without any sort of financial navigation system, and I don't know how they do it.

Peter: No, me either. Honestly, I don't think we'd be where we are now without the knowledge that you guys have been able to give us really.

James: Yeah, excellent. Well, thanks, Pete. And, it's also the support the head office gives you. I supposed we talked about that a little bit. There's Claire and the girls at Boonah. We can design plans for you. We can help you with the computer. We can come on your screen if you need it. What else?

Peter: I reckon, the other builders  would be right up there. Without those guys, you know, we wouldn't be where we are. You gotta think, with Stroud Homes, all us builders, we all talk together daily really. And, you know, I've only been building for 15 years, but with the knowledge of everyone else on the team. I've been doing this for quite a while really.

James: Yeah, and there's some very experienced builders in Tamworth. But we've come in and managed to win a significant part of the marketshare with you, essentially, Stroud's systems and an ambitious young guy, is that fair to say?

Peter: Yeah, definitely.

James: Yeah. So, what do you think? How would you describe the culture at Stroud Homes, you know, ambitious builders...?

Peter: Yep, it's like a big family really. A family of builders who want to do a really good job and build their businesses.

James: Yeah, that's how I describe it. That Voxer channel that runs hot most of the time, doesn't it?

Peter: Yeah. Yeah, I think Yarren [Coffs Harbour] had a video or a photo up there at 2:00 in the morning the other morning still hard at work.

James: Yeah.

Peter: That's good.

James: Yeah, that's good. I think that a lot of people need to find a way to switch the notifications off because there's stuff happening all the time.

Peter: Yeah, I guarantee, you'll learn that pretty quick. There's always something going on.

James: Yeah. So, planning and strategising. I suppose looking forward from where we are now, what I would want us to do for you is to give you a plan for the future on how to develop your business and what the next pieces of the puzzle are to put in place. Are we doing that for you?

Peter: Hundred percent. So, we actually did that today. That's good. So, it's good to have goals and aspirations, and I think when we first started, they were very low. And being able to talk with yourself and other builders, we've been able to set our goals higher and just smash 'em out of the park really. It's been good.

James: Yeah. And one of the things we talked about was, you know, the right time to proceed with a display home, things like that. And I think one of the concerns that a lot of builders have when they look at Stroud Homes is that we will push them into doing things, but I actually put the breaks on, didn't I?

Peter: Yeah, yeah.

James: We're not quite there yet to be taking on that.

Peter: No, it's been very good. It's good to know that you've got our best interest at heart and not just your bottom line, I guess. You're trying to help us build our business and not just build your own.

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