In this video, find out why Stroud Homes continues to grow and how they can help you become a successful franchisee.
Video Transcript:
Sophie: So I am here today to decide if Stroud Homes is a good direction to take my family business so I thought I’d sit down with the owner of Stroud Homes, James Stroud, to run through some quick statistics. And what I’d really like to know, James, is how is the Stroud group currently performing?
James: Going right back to when Stroud Homes started, we were getting about 600 leads a year, and this year we will finish on around 11,000. That’s about 18 times growth in 5 years.
Sophie: And what does that mean for me investing in the business?
James: You are investing with Stroud Homes because of our marketing expertise. You want us to make your phone ring.
Sophie: Yeah.
James: That’s a big part of why you would choose to do business with Stroud Homes. And those statistics should give you a bit of confidence that we know what we’re doing. We’ve been able to also increase our slab site starts, as we call them, or slab down, by around 55% a year for the last 3 years.
Sophie: Wow.
James: So I’ve had people say to me, “Well, is that reasonable to expect to continue that rate of growth?” In this past 12 months, we’ve actually added another 55% of builders to our team.
Sophie: Wow.
James: So they are going to deliver that 55% growth in site starts next year.
Sophie: What I’d really like to know is how is Stroud going to maintain that rate of growth.
James: So we are into this stage now where we’ve got a good base of builders right across New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland. And as these builders demonstrate the success of the Stroud model, we found other builders more likely to contact us and say, “Is this the right solution for my business?”
So that’s where the growth has continued to come from. There is another aspect to it, too, Sophie. As we build up our volumes and as the builders demonstrate their professionalism, suppliers are supporting us more and more all the time.
Sophie: Of course, yeah.
James: I get phone calls all the time from suppliers who say, “We would like to lock in the Stroud business by offering you a deal you can’t refuse.” So the brand awareness has shot up this year. Got 35,000 people on our Facebook page. So we’re just seeing this exponential growth because of all of these little things happening and each individual builder running their own marketing plan, which complements the national marketing plan.
Sophie: So, James, there is clearly some emerging dominance coming from the Stroud brand at the moment.
James: Yeah, and I think emerging is the key word I think that there is still an opportunity to be a part of the Stroud team. So Stroud Homes builders have twice as many training days every year as some of our competitors, some of our competing building franchise organisations. And I guess I made a simple calculation in my mind when I started that if we do twice as much training for our builders they will be twice as successful.
Sophie: And through your communication tools, these apps, and things that you have within the business, you’re constantly in communication with your franchisees. Correct?
James: Exactly. If you could be a mouse in the corner at head office, you would see that the people that work there, answering phones, taking calls…and they do a lot of on-screen assistant. It’s just that little push just to get you to the next stage. We know that builders aren’t very comfortable when using computer software. And we’ve learned how to support them. I guess the growth proves that.
The builders have come and the business has grown because they have had the tools and the support they needed to achieve that. We really believe in recognising the achievements of each individual person and team. And so it’s growth that puts Stroud Homes among the most important new home brands in Australia, and that’s exciting.
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