Brian Bailey’s father told him, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” and for nearly 30 years as a high-end custom builder Bailey has done just that. As a young man, however, he seemed headed in a different direction, studying accounting and earning an MBA. After a brief stint in banking he happily found his way back to the wooden end of a hammer, but understanding the numbers side of business has stood him in good stead ever since. The ability to communicate with CEOs and CFOs in their native language has opened doors that surprised no one more than Bailey himself. “At the ripe age of 25 years old I built my first $1 million home,” he recalls, with some lingering disbelief. Not long after, he built one for $5 million. And while he thought he would never top that, “a few years later I built a $10 million project, and we just finished a $20 million house.” The technical challenges of building at that scale are significant, but Bailey sells his company on its ability to manage the financial aspect of large, complex jobs. “The big thing we promote is experience and systems,” he explains. “We’ve had a CPA as our controller for 20 years.”
Bailey was an early adopter of computerized accounting and job costing, and his comfort in the digital world is another selling point with the tech executives in Austin, Texas. Home automation is popular with that clientele, and Bailey’s company prides itself on its expertise in sourcing and integrating the most advanced lighting, A/V, and home monitoring systems. “The expectations here have made us push the envelope,” he says.
In the current market, hindsight has proved equally important. “This has not been my first downturn,” Bailey says, “and this downturn doesn’t compare with the one we saw in the late ’80s.” He was fortunate enough to have a large backlog of work at the start of the crisis. But experience led him to batten down the hatches when he saw trouble on the horizon, cutting costs early and controlling overhead. Volume is down, he reports, but not disastrously, and he expects to gain market share as the industry rebounds. “For the builders that remain,” he observes, “there are great opportunities out there.”
Brian A. Bailey Homes, Austin, Texas
www.baileyhomes.com
Type of business: Custom builder
Years in business: 30
Employees: 6
2009 volume: $8.9 million
2009 starts: 5
