For most builders in the US, the top concern right now is trade capacity – do they have enough trades to build the homes they are selling? If not, their schedules go longer than planned. If not, they end up using lower-quality trades. If not, they need to pay more to get a trade. All of these results are bad and cost the company time and money. What most builders tend to do is fight for the top tiered trades – the “A-Players”. The idea is that quality, schedule compliance, and better volume can only be produced by the A-Players. To use anyone else would compromise the quality of the home.
But I will argue, it does not need to be this way. We, at Elliott Homes, can be different.
There are a few builders out there who do things differently. They realize that most trades can do good work – even those who are seen as B and C players by other builders. These forward-thinking builders realize the most common difference between the A’s and the B’s/C’s is the trade’s ability to do business. While most builders see the B’s/C’s as unreliable and produce poor quality – the forward-thinking builders see opportunity.
What the B’s and C’s need is a builder to create systems and processes which allows them to flourish. They need a system which tells them exactly what “quality” is and how to produce it every time. A-Players have good memories – they can remember how we told them to do the work before. But why rely on memories at all?
I have a goal for all of us. Let’s create a system which allows good-hearted trades to do great work. Let’s create a system where it is easy to do it the right way. Let’s create scalability and be able to plug any trade into our system and have them produce excellence…every time. A system so solid that it can be taken anywhere and work. Let’s build a system where good-hearted trades can work safely, produce quality, and go home every night with an appreciation for what Elliott Homes means to them and their families.
This is not a call to accept sub-standard work. This is not a call to give someone a 10th chance. This is a call for us to be different. I have seen enough builders to know that we don’t want to be like most of them.
Let’s work to be different.