For anyone who has been in the custom home building industry long enough to have gone around the proverbial block a time or two, the current slowdown isn’t anything new. It has, however, been a while since we’ve been here, so it’s important to realize that the economy will turn around. The housing market will boom again, and right now your job is to make the most of this temporary downturn.
Admittedly, it can be difficult to plan for the housing market’s comeback when surviving the current market is forefront on your mind. However, who says you can’t do both? Managing your current jobs and at the same time strategizing for the future is what you’ve been doing during the good times, right? The difference now is that the current situation has created so many concerns that it can be difficult to see beyond the daily grind. Instead of sitting, waiting, and hoping the worst of the housing crunch will quietly pass you by, you’ve got to be proactive. Here are some tips to stay competitive and to put a team and systems together that will make your business hum when the industry takes off again:
Get back to basics
In a housing slump, there is often the temptation to latch onto any cash-generating opportunity. But first make sure the new opportunity works with the culture of your business, your brand, and your future goals. What are its benefits? What are the potential pitfalls? Is the payoff great enough? How would taking advantage of this opportunity affect the core of your business?
Getting through a rough patch in the market frequently requires custom builders to diversify and take on new ways of doing business, but don’t scatter yourself, your team, and your business so much that you lose focus. Make sure you are genuinely interested in and excited about a new opportunity before taking the leap.
Set your business apart
Whether you know it or not, potential customers are still out there and are actively looking to buy. Perhaps they are driving around and peeking in the windows of your spec homes, scoping out the land you have for sale, creating a vision of how their dream home might look on that very property. Of course, they are likely to take more time to make a commitment, but the point is that there are buyers out there. What are you doing to make them take notice of you and your product?
Actively court home buyers by showcasing your product and company strengths every opportunity you have. Make yourself available to talk with people at open houses. Make sure your trucks are clean and your properties are impeccably groomed. Be confident and make sure your team consistently portrays your brand in a positive light. All of these things will go a long way in setting the stage for a potential customer who is ready to talk.
Hire new employees
A slow market is the best time to build your team; there are many talented and skilled people in the industry who are now out of a job. This is your opportunity to pick from the cream of the crop and put them to work for you.
Plan for what’s next
Think about the days when the crush of business was literally suffocating you and your team. Yes, the cash flow was nice, but what about the attention to detail and your systems that got left behind? You may have been so desperate for skilled labor that you took on anyone you could find. Communication may have been lacking, and employee burnout was the norm. Was that any way to run a business?
Take advantage of slow times to shore up your business systems. Just think about how much more fun the turnaround could be if you, your team, and your business were actually ready for it instead of being behind the eight ball when things get hectic again. What better time than now to build systems for communication; delegation; accountability; and team, project, and financial management?
Start by clarifing the chain of command and job descriptions for each position within your company. Define how information is to flow between the office and the field. Create a system that keeps the financial status of your company current and well managed.
There is no question that the housing boom of yesterday has ended, but it doesn’t mean that the housing boom of tomorrow isn’t going to come your way. Put your business in a position to pounce on what’s next.
