Episode 459: How to Design Your Construction Business for Growth, Profit, and Freedom with Tom Raisanen

00:00
What if you could build your construction business the right way from the beginning instead of waiting until the chaos and the frustration and the burnout forces you to fix it? Well, that’s exactly what Tom Ryzenin is doing. After 15 years in his family’s construction business, Tom recently decided to go out on his own and launch his own home building company.

00:21
But instead of just chasing projects and doing just enough to start and then figuring out the business side later, in other words, instead of just launching the plane off the cliff and building it on the way down, he focused on building the systems, the processes and the structure that he’ll need to grow without creating a business that consumes his life. What a novel concept. Hey, you’re listening to

00:46
The Construction Leading Edge podcast from constructionleadingedge.com. My name is Todd DeWalt and we’re all about systematizing your construction business so you can maximize freedom, impact and wealth. And my team and I have helped hundreds of construction business owners over the past 10 years now do just that, to put systems in place so they can eliminate chaos, grow their profits, build stronger teams and get their lives back.

01:14
In this episode, you’ll hear how Tom Ryzenin is approaching his business the smart way, designing it from the beginning, designing it the way he wants and how he’s approaching pre-construction, project handoffs, his CEO schedule, delegation, and even his first hire. And how in a nutshell, he’s setting up the business now for more control, fewer costly mistakes, and more freedom. He’s designing this business to run.

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without him. So if you are building a construction company or you’re planning on starting a construction company that you eventually want to run without you, or maybe you’d like it to run without you tomorrow, you’re going to want to hear this and be sure to stick around until you hear about the, some of the simple, really high leverage systems that Tom has put in place before he started hiring and why that could save you from some expensive mistakes later. There are a few things more expensive than a BH.

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a bad hire and Tom’s doing a great job putting the right systems in place to prevent that stuff. So stick around for that and listen to the entire episode. And before we jump into that, I have two resources I want to get in your hands. So if you’re like a lot of people, you feel like you have no time. You just have no time. Your calendar is packed. Your days are full of firefighting and low value tasks and reactive mode.

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And there never seems to be enough time to actually work on the business, much less lead the business. And it’s really hard to create any actual freedom. What if this was your situation? What could happen in your business if you had a protected, uninterrupted four-hour block every week to work on the business instead of getting pulled into the day-to-day? What relationships could you build if you had more time to take your best clients out,

03:10
your referral partners like architects and realtors and engineers, if you take them out to lunch every once in a while. What opportunities are you missing out on that you could actually see if you had some white space on your calendar and you could actually look and think about where the business is going next. then what would it actually, speaking of blank space, what would it feel like if you could look at your calendar and actually see some blank space? And actually, maybe you’re thinking.

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calendar, I don’t have a calendar, what if you could actually plan your days out, you had more time? What would you do with that freedom? Maybe more afternoons on the boat, you would take Fridays off, maybe spend more time playing golf, more mornings in the tree stand, maybe more time with your family. Here’s the deal, after working with hundreds of construction business owners, there’s one thing that it all starts with, and that kind of freedom starts with taking control of your time. It is the only

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non-renewable resource you have and you’re probably wasting a lot of it. So if you want to take control of your time and get have more freedom, the first step is go get your hands on our Builder CEO Weekly Operating System. It is a simple operating system you can use. It takes 15 or 20 minutes a week and it’s the first step toward having that kind of freedom. So the link is in the show notes or in the description. Go get your hands on the Builder CEO Weekly Operating System.

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The second resource is this. I want you to think about this question. How good is your buyout process? This is something you’re doing on every project. If you are a general contractor, a custom home builder, remodeler, commercial general contractor, even a trade contractor, if you’re buying materials or subcontractors, you are buying out projects and there’s a pretty good chance that you’re doing it too late and there’s a pretty good chance you’re doing it.

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quarterly. This is a phase of every project, the buyout phase. And if you’re not really thinking about it, if you’re not being intentional about your buyout phase, you’re probably carrying risk too long. You’re missing out on profits and you are dealing with unnecessary chaos that you can prevent. Okay. If you want to check that out, if you want to improve your buyout process, maybe you’re like, I never heard of a buyout process, then go get your hands on my free buyout playbook.

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Learn the step that locks in costs, secures subs, reduces risk, allows you to assign risk early and protects your margins. It’s actually a phase of the project where you can improve your margins. Imagine if there was a dial and you could turn it up a few notches and get a few more percentage points on your bottom line profit. This is how you do it. It’s how you buy out your project.

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Go click the link in the show notes or the description and get your hands on the buyout playbook, or you can go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash buyout, B-U-Y-O-U-T. Now let’s jump into my conversation with Tom Reisenman. Tom, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Todd. You have just made a pretty significant transition in your career and business. And I think you did a lot of

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smart things to prepare for it. Frankly, you’ve done some things to avoid problems that I wish more people would do, which we’ll get to in a minute. Let’s start with this. Tell us the name of your company, where you’re located and what kind of work you do. name is Tom Reisnen. I am the owner of Reisnen Home Builders. We are located in Southern New Hampshire. So we’re on the Southwest side of New Hampshire, about 45 minutes out of Boston.

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Primarily we are a new construction home builder. Right now we’re taking on smaller projects, but the goal is to be custom homes or all new builds for the company. Let’s talk about your story. You just made a big transition recently. Talk to us about what you’ve been doing the past five or 10 years leading up to this transition, what the big transition was and what your

07:30
What you’re doing now. So I worked for my family company, worked for my dad and mom, and my sisters were in the office. I’ve worked for them for the last 15 years. started out with them as more of a laborer, on as project manager and took everything that had to do field related was in my realm. So in the last 15 years, we probably built

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200 to 250 houses throughout southern New Hampshire, a couple different towns. And so in the last two years, my dad’s looking to retire. We both wanted different things. So we both realized that the best way moving forward was I was going to start my own company, which I started two years ago, just doing minor small side jobs. But July 1st was my big transition to

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start on my own, fully on my own now. And I got a one new build under old, get him ready to go underway. So we’re hitting the road running. mentioned that you and your dad wanted different things. Why did you decide to start your own business rather than stay in the family business? So my dad’s going to retire, but he still wants to develop land. So, um,

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It was easier for us to split kind of. I’m going to venture my way. He’s going to venture his way so he can keep selling land to me under the company that I’ve been working under and I’m going to start my own company. which is. Which is good for me. It’s my name, my brand, my face so. And to new new company, new fresh start for me, which also comes with a lot of.

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build in internally, as well as externally. Quick break for something that might hit close to home. If you are a custom home builder, remodeler, or a commercial GC, and your business basically lives in your head, this is for you. I was on a business evaluation call recently with a builder doing multimillion dollar custom homes and big renovations. On paper from the outside, everything looks great. But in reality, he was working 60 to 70 hours a week. And when we looked at it, he admitted,

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that he was spending about 75 % of his time in reactive mode, putting out fires on low rent activities. When we talked about his handoff from the office to the field, he graded it at like a C minus or a D plus. You see, they were starting jobs before the scope was nailed down. Subs weren’t clearly lined up. Material selections were half baked. And there was a lot of we’ll figure it out as we go. Classic, just enough to start.

10:25
trap stuff and that led to costly mistakes delays and there were a couple of near disasters on high profile projects that he absolutely could not afford to screw up and then when we went through the evaluation we found hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in hidden profit between the rework giveaways lost productivity schedule delays and then the opportunity cost and the common thread was a weak pre-construction and handoff process there was a

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pre-construction deficiency. And that call is what I would like to invite you to today. It’s a free, about 45 minute business evaluation call with my team. We’ll walk through a simple diagnostic to grade your office to field handoff. We’ll quantify the hidden profit that may be in your business. And then we’ll map out what a real operating system for your business would look like so it can run without everything going through you. Then if it looks like we can help,

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We’ll schedule a second call to go through the implementation program that fits your specific situation. If it’s not a fit, you’ll still walk away with clarity and a concrete plan. But here’s the deal. This is not for everybody. It’s for companies doing over a million dollars a year in revenue. And we only have capacity to take on a handful of clients each month. So if you want your business to look real different 12 months from now, now is the time to take action to.

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book your business evaluation call. You can click the link in the show notes or simply go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash apply, A P P L Y and book your business evaluation call. Yeah. And the hats off to you for that. Most, most of the people that I talk to, they focus on the building, the external building, building projects first. You might say they’re

12:18
stuck living in the projects. And then they look up and they’re like, Oh, we have this business now that’s just consuming my life and it’s a mess. And I have to, I have to reorganize it. Now it’s time to start building the structures, but you were really smart in doing that upfront. Why did you decide to take that route? When most people would say, I just got to sell some work. I just got to hire some people. What made you decide that you needed to build internally and get that done first, and then explain what you mean by.

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building internally, if you would. I’ve worked for bigger companies, big construction companies down in South Florida. So I saw systems and some structure, different planning that I think I wanted in my business. So I didn’t go to college. I got out of high school, I went to work. That’s all I knew. I I work hard and

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Hopefully it’d pay off some days. I didn’t have the schooling behind me that I guess some business owners have. So I was looking for change. My parents did a great job with their company. 30 plus years building houses the way they wanted to, the way they ran their company. Very successful. So now I want to start mine and have systems in place and processes in place.

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before I started hiring people. So, which led me to the Construction Lead and Edge. It started with a podcast, believe it or not. You had a family business guy on there before. Someone sent it to me and said, hey, listen to this guy. And that’s when I was just, man, I think I listened to every episode before I contacted you guys because I wanted to be part of the Construction Lead and Edge group. And to be talking to you now is, it’s very exciting for me.

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What kind of problems were you concerned about happening without having those systems? What were you trying to prevent from happening that led you to build these things internally before you got started? The biggest thing for me is I don’t have a big bank roll just starting out. So I can’t have costly mistakes. So when it comes down to it, I need to make sure that I have a good idea of what I’m going to.

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be bringing in before I’m spending it. So if I could invest in myself before I do a project and so for the last two years I’ve been doing side jobs and I’ve, I’ve just kind of stacked money away trying to save some for just exactly what I did is I invested in myself and put some processes or learn some processes along the way over the last six months of how to.

15:12
How I want to structure my company and what I want out of it. What kind of mistakes specifically were you concerned about happening? Just even estimating projects. One mistake could cost you $30,000. You miss a line item or you have all your numbers in there and you’re like, I forgot my overhead. I can’t afford to work for free. We just don’t want to miss those little steps. Make sure that everything’s accounted for and

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If I do make a mistake, maybe it’s a smaller one. It’s not, not a big one. There’s a study that I reference on why successful contractors fail. And one of the questions in there was how much money can you lose on one project? And the answer is all of it. You can, you can lose all of the money on one project. I like to use the, uh, the waterline approach, like on a, on a boat, if there’s a hole above the waterline.

16:09
Yeah, you could probably survive that, but if you have a hole below the waterline, the ship’s going to sink. So it’s very, very possible to have those below the waterline mistakes. And one of those is an extinction level event. Unfortunately, you’ve been working with us for six months or so. Now you went through our systematize your construction business program, transition into the CEO Alliance. So take us back to the moment in the program.

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when you’re learning about systems and processes we teach, was there a moment where you were like, ah, this is what I need or this is what’s really going to help me? One thing that really was like, okay, this is great. I started charging a minimal estimate fee for people and I was just a small price just to weed out the people that just wanted a number, just to see how much something costs and

17:08
coming into it, you guys have a whole pre-construction process that is set up for people to pay for and they’re getting valuable information. And I didn’t know how to go from, I want to charge 1 % or half a percent per project to get a little bit of money just to pay for some plans and stuff so I’m not working for free to, hey, this is a lucrative business model.

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that you can have a teamwork for you making some money or covering your costs and setting up goals way ahead of time and setting up projects before they’re started. So when I heard that and that, was like, oh, I don’t have to work for free or I don’t have to work for a minimal cost. Nail on the head on that one. I was like, but I need that because I don’t like the tire kickers.

18:05
It just makes sense, especially in the industry that we’re in with so many choices, so much time. There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into all of our quote in estimates, proposals to everyone. So if you really want a good estimate, a good proposal, it’s, it’s going to cost some money. think a lot of people think of pre-construction and estimating as a sunk cost, it’s overhead cost. And then people realize, Oh, I can cover, I can at least break even.

18:35
and cover my costs, but what a lot of people have figured out is pre-construction can and should be a profit center. It should generate profit on its own and set up your construction projects to be more profitable as well. Yeah. I actually, I just saw an article from builder trend. They posted five trends that leading home builders see for the future or something like that. And number one.

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was a focus on pre-construction. Have you been successful in getting paid for pre-construction? I have been successful. Can you tell us about that first time when you tried it and it actually worked? The first time it’s a little nerve wracking. So you go into it and you’re asking people for money for essentially nothing, you’re giving them a bunch of information. So it took me a little bit to kind of come around and

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I felt like it was the right client, the client we had a history before this, and I knew they wanted to go with me and they were hoping to go with me. I sold it as, right, for my plans, this is what we’re going to charge. And to move forward, you know, this is what you’re going to get. You’re not getting just a plan with nothing else. We’re going to have specs and selections on all of this. So.

20:02
If someone wants to come behind me and you want them to bid on it too, they’re good in all this information. So we’re all bidding on the same thing. You’re not getting two different plans. Everyone’s going to use the same floor and same windows. So everyone’s going to use the same stuff. So if my price is a little bit higher, it’s a little bit higher. Someone else is a little bit lower. least we’re all in the same ballpark or, know, we’re all, we’re all playing on the same field here. And the people were actually,

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They were fine with it. And I think I was more nervous and they couldn’t give me a check quick. And they were like, yeah, no problem. We understand. And so all the nerves were for nothing. Most of the obstacles are, are between the ears of the builder. Because when you explain it the right way, the client’s like, Oh yeah, that makes sense. I actually don’t want a free estimate. I want a detailed proposal. So do think you’ll ever go back to giving free estimates just for fun? Nope.

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Now I will give free advice. That’s it for that’s it for friends and family, but no free estimates. So let’s talk about the systems that you put in place, the, the internal building that you did. What would you say are the most important building blocks that we have helped you develop for your business, the parts of the business or the specific systems and processes that you feel like are the

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really foundational to setting you up for success? Or there’s some specific things that come to mind? The next thing would be the nail nail in the handoff. So going from our pre-construction, I don’t have a team yet. So it’s not, it’s not like I got a team to do this with, but having the pre-construction to construction part, we are having nail the handoff doing that. You guys really helped me see that there’s, there’s a big line.

22:00
And the line needs to be there so that there’s a nice handoff. And right now I’m by myself, but I still do it. This is all pre-construction stuff. When I’m ready to build, it’s moving into this category. It’s on its own. So pre-construction to construction that nailed the handoff was very important. And it’s only going to get more important when I start hiring people. Looking back over your career, what sort of problems

22:29
Do you see or have you seen happening because projects weren’t handed off properly? Time delays is a big one. Hey, we’re ready to install the tile. It’s not there. It’s a three week backup. Well, why wasn’t it? Ah, the customers weren’t too sure. Just having, you know, the pre-construction and when that’s done and the, you know, it’s getting moved over to nailing the handoff to the construction crew. Everything’s picked out.

22:59
Everything can be ordered. Everything’s on standby waiting. So if we can pick up an extra two weeks in our schedule, three weeks in our schedule for if we hit our date that we projected to begin with, I think that’s a win. If we have all our dates in there, we can hit the date that we told the client. I think that’s a very big win in the construction world. Yeah. So nailing the handoff and that, that whole pre-construction process.

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is a big deal for those who aren’t familiar. They’re wondering what does this handoff mean? What does nailing the handoff mean? When you think of a fully handed off project, what does that mean to you? What specifically is getting handed off at the beginning of the project? We would have drawings, our construction drawings would be handed off. So it would go from our, essentially our estimated team. It would go from the estimated team to the construction team.

23:58
And we’d have drawings, specs and selections. Everything would be picked out. So they would get the whole package. They’d go from an estimating pre-construction team to the construction team. So they would be getting everything. I’ve had some people say it’s just not practical to get the client to make all of these selections upfront. They’re just going to change things as you go along. What would you say to those people? Why, why do you want?

24:28
Or do you want all selections and why should the client want to make all selections upfront? wouldn’t say there’s going to be no changes. Certain people have certain budgets. They have certain tastes. When you, when they get into building a house, you can tell all of a it’s like, Oh, we know this guy’s going with these appliances. They’re, they, everything’s going to be a little bit more. So usually they’re going to be right around their budget because if you’re figuring something for a smaller price, it, it’s a big surprise when all of a you, Hey, you owe me $30,000 more for this upgrade.

24:56
And they’re just like, well, like that’s not good. Like all of a sudden we’re fighting and I didn’t do anything. I’m just being honest with them and telling them what the cost is. And like, they’re mad at me. So I think having everything picked out, you know, if they’re going to make some small changes, it’s not the end of the world, but to have everything picked out with a good starting point is the key to success on the end, end of the job.

25:26
Yeah, I agree because let’s say you’re carrying an allowance for appliances. Then when they select their appliances halfway through the project and you come back to them and say, Hey, those appliances, they are beautiful. However, here’s a $30,000 change order. Then suddenly it’s like, well, Tom, your allowance was wrong. Why should I have to pay? Why are you bringing this up now? Your allowance was wrong. Whereas.

25:55
If you start off with a baseline, have something selected. have an appliance package that you can point to and say, okay, you selected your appliances. And then now you’ve changed it. You can say to the client, your selection is now more than your original selection, what you’ve requested. So the finger’s not pointing at Tom’s budget. It’s pointing at their selection. You have to have a baseline.

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to start from. This is where so many people mess up is we’ll just throw an allowance in for flooring. We’ll throw an allowance in for cabinets. We’ll throw an allowance in for a pool for appliances. Then we’ll reconcile them as they go. And allowances are, they put you into the, just enough to start trap and it just kicks the can down the road and you’re just asking for trouble. Here’s a question. I actually saw this post recently, a remodeler, maybe a builder.

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posted a question that was something like, how do I get my clients to make decisions? We’re in the middle of this project and I’m trying to get them to make selections where we’re giving them selection schedules, but they’re not making them. They’re not, they’re not making selections and it’s starting to delay the project. What advice would you give this person? It’s a lot of handholding and I think get in.

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getting the customer to know the outcome, kind of have an end goal before they get started. So it’s too late for this gentleman, but how do you get people to make decisions? As you tell them, we will start your project when all selections are made. And if you don’t make your selections, then you’ll lose your slot and we’ll go to the next project. So there has to be.

27:48
There has to be consequences to not making decisions. And if you start a project without the selections made, you’ve lost all of your leverage and you’re just kicking that can down the road. And at some point, actually it’s not kicking a can. like to visualize it as you’re setting these bear traps in front of yourself. You’re opening up these steel jaw traps and you’re tossing them out in front of yourself somewhere. And at some point there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to step in it.

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So have a pre-construction process, nail the handoff, set that expectation with your client that all selections need to be made upfront and set that expectation and hold them to that. So pre-construction, nailing the handoff was huge. What else would you say has been foundational? What are some of the other systems or processes that you’ve learned from our program that have been foundational for you? So right now.

28:47
A big thing on my day-to-day is my schedule, my own personal schedule. And I plan out each week, a week ahead of time. That way I know what’s going on. I put time in there for office work, job site work, if I’m going to make marketing calls or who I’m calling, which was all set up by you guys, by the construction leader. Hey, you need to set your day up. Don’t go into this blind.

29:17
Don’t, don’t wake up Monday morning and go, what am I doing today? You know, um, the big thing is not, not getting stuck in one spot, not picking up a hammer and just going to swing a hammer again, because it’s the easy thing that we know how to do or going to pick up a room, keeping your task level at where you’re rated is big. are some owner level tasks? Let’s talk about some owner level.

29:45
Well, some things that are not owner level tasks, like running to pick up materials for a subcontractor being the, the dump trailer guy who’s picking up trash and taking it to the landfill and spending two hours round trip. are some other things that you see other builders doing that you would say that’s not owner level stuff? lot of guys spend a lot of time driving, whether it’s to lawyer’s office or this guy. do everything through zoom now.

30:14
Like if we can’t do it on zoom, I’m like hard pressed to go there and like it’s could be half hour, 20 minutes, know, whatever it is, it all adds up 20 minutes there, 20 minutes back. lose an hour. So let’s talk about your CEO schedule. You shared a hack recently on one of our CEO Alliance calls where you leverage your virtual assistant for your CEO deep work sessions. Tell us about how that.

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how that came about and how leveraging your virtual assistant to help you with your CEO schedule. So my virtual assistant is awesome. Right now I use her once a week. I was using her twice a week, but we went down to once a week for an hour. And that time is just time for me and her to get stuff done. So we work on the business.

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some of the stuff is working in the business, but we try to work on the business. We have an insurance audit coming. So me and her started that working it together. And okay, once I get her to do this one time next year, when it comes back around, she can do it next year all by ourselves. So one, she holds me accountable. We’re able to get a lot of work done or get some stuff that she needs to understand or stuff that I need to get from her.

31:39
So we both help each other out quite a bit and using her just holds me accountable. I don’t procrastinate. some reason we will, uh, let ourselves down, I guess. But if there’s somebody else who’s going to show up, we don’t want to let them down. So you mentioned you don’t have a team. Why was a virtual assistant your, your first hire? Some people would say, well, I’ve got to hire somebody in the field or I’ve got to hire.

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somebody to do bookkeeping. Why did you decide that a virtual assistant was the first hire? For me, I’ll be plain and simple. It’s easier for me to build the house than to write an email. Plain and simple. I could build a house. I enjoy building a house, put me down to write an email. Why does it take you 10 minutes to write a two second email? So she handles a lot of that stuff. So I can, you know, message her pretty easily and

32:34
We can talk it out, talk the email through and she writes it and we’re good. I don’t have to be, you know, in front of a computer 24 seven, but she handles a lot of stuff that I’m just not good at. Yeah. We talk a lot about who, not how. So instead of you wondering, how can I get better at doing all this stuff? hate better question is who else can do this stuff for me? So I don’t have to get better at my weaknesses. Yeah. Very nice. And if you don’t mind me asking, how did you.

33:03
How did you find your virtual assistant? It was on a community page on the job tread Facebook page. I was looking for someone to help me set up my job tread and she reached out to me. I said, Hey, I’ll give it a try. And I think it’s been three months. She helped me set up my job tread and she, she just wants, she wanted more out of me.

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as a commitment and it was perfect timing. Cause that’s when I was going out on my own. I needed to get more stuff. So she handles a lot of the social media part, the emailing part, the insurance part. She reached out to me and so far it’s worked out great. We’ve seen a lot of people have great success in our community in the CEO Alliance with Birchham assistants and executive assistants. I hired an executive assistant about a year ago and.

34:02
I don’t know how I did it before. It was such a no brainer. And that’s what we’ve heard from so many, so many of our clients is just a no brainer and they, they take so much load off your plate and it just works really well when it’s, when it’s set up properly. Speaking of set up properly for people who are, who have a virtual assistant or maybe they’re thinking about it. What is one, one tip that you found that has helped.

34:30
your virtual assistants relationship be more successful? We have, I call it my VA tracker on a Google sheet. So we both can access it and I input stuff on there that I need from her or she does the vice versa. She needs, you know, certain things from me. She puts it on there. We have the sheet we just share and we both go through it. We do that. That kind of starts our meeting off and.

34:59
When we have those on Wednesdays to start going through those and it works good for both of us. It’s a good starting point. And by the time you get to the bottom of it, you have more stuff on there. You have some stuff checked off and it’s just a good local spot that we both can get to. And it’s easy to find, easy to see just having a tracker set up that works great. mentioned hiring. said at one point you wanted to do these things before you hired a team.

35:28
As you think about the future, what are some of the systems that we’ve helped you create that you believe will help set you up for success as it relates to growing your team in the future? Construction, lead and edge focuses on five key, like points. That’s a crucial concept that just simplifies things so much. I,

35:55
I’ve talked about the big five in other podcast episodes. So if you’re listening to this and you’re wondering, what is this big five? You can go to our website, go to the podcast page and you can search for big five. There’s a directory there that you can search for that for. So let’s talk about some of the, results that you’ve seen from the, work you’ve done putting these systems in place. I know it’s early, but what, what are some of the, the quantifiable results or the things you can point to?

36:25
That would make you say, all right, these systems and processes are helping. Anything come to mind there? One of the big ones, I guess, is in a system or process, but it was a very heavily talked about in the construction is, Hey, what do you want to do? What’s your key focus? Stop, stop thinking about the hundred different things that you want to do in your company. Think about the one thing or the two things that are important and build your systems around those. So mine was.

36:55
I want to build new construction homes. So everything I focus on is new construction. My goal is to be all new construction homes at some point in time. But having just my estimating portion set up the way that you guys help me guide me in that direction of like, all right, you don’t need to worry about doing excavation work and building houses, worry about the building the house.

37:25
And, you know, sub out the excavation. Yeah. We use the 80-20 principle. What are the, thing that you’ve probably heard me say ad nauseam is what’s the 20 % it’s going to lead to 80 % of the results. And then just focus on the 20 % and that simplifies things so much. Let’s talk about the, the CEO Alliance a little bit. You finished the SYCB program and got those systems installed in your business. And then you.

37:53
Transition right into the CEO Alliance. How would you describe the CEO Alliance in your own words and what has being in that group done for you? We’re in it with one coach, but you’re in there with six, seven other guys. So you’re really in there with a bunch of coaches around you and guys that have, I’m lucky because most of them have been doing it longer than me. Like I’m just starting out. Yeah, I’ve been in the construction world, but I’m just starting out my company and.

38:23
Everyone’s willing to help and everyone’s cheering me on and everyone’s holding you accountable for the things you say you’re going to do and people are checking in. So it has been really good to see the group comes together. I’ve had guys reach out to me, you know, on the side, ask me what’s going on or how they would do this. And, you know, they might like something I had to say. So we got a little side check going. So it’s been really good.

38:52
You’re coming to Nashville in October, right? This will be your first live meetup with this group. Yep. I’ll be in Nashville. So I’m excited. I was a little hesitant on Cancun. So I skipped Cancun last year. And when I signed up for the CEO Alliance, the big thing for me signing up was I, I don’t want to be in the same spot I am today as I am in a year. So that’s why I’m taking the group construction lead and edge. And that’s why I’m.

39:22
I’m moving forward. want to move forward and be as successful as I can. It’s a great group and these live meetups are, it’s hard to describe. They are, they are lot of fun, very, very impactful. It takes things to, to another level. If you could go back and give Tom from say two years ago, one piece of advice as 2024, Tom was thinking about making this transition and thinking about making the jump.

39:50
What is one piece of advice you would give 2024 Tom? It’s never too late to start something new. just, you can always go for it. People say, well, try to do this now. Just do it. If there’s somebody who’s listening to this thinking, man, that’s exactly where I am. I’m in a business. Maybe it’s a family business. Maybe it’s not. And they are thinking about making the jump to, to start their own

40:20
business, what is one piece of advice you would give them to avoid a pitfall or maybe let’s start with this. What’s one of the big pitfalls they may not even be aware of and what’s a piece of advice you would give them to avoid that pitfall? have a lot of self integrity. didn’t want to lose any relationships when I was splitting off, whether it was, you know, my family side, subcontractor side. So.

40:49
I wanted to make sure I stayed that course of, with my integrity of who I am as a person and who I am as Tom Reisnand. wanted to keep that intact. So stayed true to who you are to, know, sometimes doing the right thing might take more time, but in the end, hopefully it’ll pay off. don’t know about a lot of us. know this guy 20 years ago was in such a rush to get to the next step. I would.

41:19
I would tend to take shortcuts and I just wanted to get to the next step and made a lot of mistakes. And what I realized was it’s, it’s one thing to get to the next level, like to start your own business or get that promotion or whatever. Get your business to a certain revenue level. But the better question, a question that most people ask is how do I get there? And a better question is how do I sustain it and how do I do it the right way?

41:49
How do you do it with integrity? How do you do it without burning things down? That’s a much better question that I like to ask now is how do you, how will you sustain it once you get there? know I couldn’t do it by myself either. having construction lead an edge, the CEO Alliance has been tremendously helpful. Some of the mistakes that the guys have made in the CEO Alliance, they’re like, Hey,

42:16
You know, we wish you were where you are now. So, you know, think twice before you do that kind of mentality. I like getting the lesson without the scar. And that’s one of the benefits of being in a group like this with a bunch of guys and gals who’ve been at it a long time. They’re more than willing to say, Hey, look, you see the scar? This is how I got this. You can avoid it by doing this and hats off to you for, for being.

42:44
willing to invest the time and energy and being humble enough to say, look, need, I want to avoid the scars. I want to get things set up the right way because most people just jump in and start building and they don’t put the systems in place like they should. So hats off to you for doing that. Tom, what is, what’s something you believe to be true about business that some people might think is unconventional?

43:14
maybe even a little crazy. Anything come to mind? Um, it doesn’t have to be chaotic. So, but Tom construction is chaos. think a lot of people live that way in the construction world and that’s, that’s never been me. I’m trying, I’m trying to stay calm. Even when the homeowners get excited about something, I’m pretty good at calming them down. So.

43:41
I’m a very calm person and it’s not a chaotic process. It’s a stressful process, but the stress comes from the unknowns. So the more they know, the better off everyone is keeps everyone’s stress levels down. That’s the first thing people need to recognize is it doesn’t have to be chaotic. If you believe that’s true, if you believe construction is chaos, then you just won’t think there’s anything you can do about it. You’re like,

44:08
just is the way it is. can’t schedule, we can’t plan, we can’t set expectations. We just have to get better at playing whack-a-mole. So yeah, completely agree. It does not have to be chaotic. If somebody were to call you and say, Tom, I’m thinking about signing up with the construction leading edge and working with them, getting in these systems in place and joining the CEO Alliance. But I’m just not sure if it’s a good move. What would you tell them?

44:36
I asked them a couple of questions first, I asked them, what’s kind of your processes now? Like, do you have systems? Do you have processes? And I bet you a lot of people don’t have, they might have a process, but they don’t have the system behind the process. They might say, yeah, we give the customers these sheets they pick off of that. And the detail that goes behind this construction leading edge, every part of it always led into the next part, just kept moving forward.

45:05
all the way to the pre-construction, into the construction phase, how it all flows together and it all has a purpose. And if you’re willing to keep making mistakes and paying for them, stay where you are. If you want someone to lead with you and dig into you and figure out where the mistakes are coming from and start building your processes, know, go to the construction lead and edge, go talk to guys that have been doing it 20, 30 years that are

45:35
No, they’re happy to see they’re like, man, we wish you’re a couple months in or two years in, you know, we wish we had were in your shoes, like, and so it’s never too late to start. You know, there’s guys have been here for a while. There’s guys that have owned companies for a long time and everyone wants to do better at the end of the day. Construction land and edge helps your company grow and do better. That’s the big thing. Well, I appreciate that.

46:04
If somebody is listening and they’re like, that sounds great. I recognize I need better pre-construction. need systems and processes, but I just don’t have time. I just don’t have time. My phone’s ringing all the time. I’m running around. I just don’t have time to do this stuff. I’m going to do it when, things settle down. What would you tell that person? So I was that person. I waited for winter time and everything kind of slowed down for us in the winter time.

46:31
We’re going into a winter didn’t have a whole bunch going on, but I knew I’d be able to put my time and efforts into the course that I was taken. I lined it up, think pretty good. And I was able to get some of the stuff, a lot of the work accomplished and like, it doesn’t have to be perfect either. You’re not getting quizzes. You’re not getting tests. You’re getting the majority of the work and

47:00
putting some systems together with them to set you up for the future. It’s not all getting done. This is a, it’s an ongoing course or class that, you know, you’re doing by yourself. I’m going to be building stuff for the next three, four or five years. So, but construction lead and edge has helped me set the foundation to build off of. So we’re just going to keep building off of that foundation and moving forward. It’s a continuous.

47:28
thing, somebody asked me once, so when are we ever going to be done with these systems that improving things? And the answer is, well, never, because there will always be things you can improve upon. It’s about continuous improvement. There’s no, there’s no real finish line unless you exit the business or you retire or sell it. And the thing is what, what I’ve seen is

47:51
people who get into this, get excited about improving things like, there’s another area we can improve. Oh, there’s another thing we can streamline. Oh, there’s an issue we can solve one last time. So it’s a different, a different mindset, definitely. And you’ve done a great job implementing. You’ve showed up, followed the process, implemented, okay. With accountability, coachable, and you just did the work. Hats off to you for, for having the foresight to do this earlier than most would.

48:19
And frankly, most people wait until things break or feel like they’re about to break. Yeah. Well done. One last question. Very important question. If somebody is traveling through your area, what is that town? And then what is the restaurant or cocktail bar, pizza joint, beer joint that they just absolutely need to go visit if they’re in your area. So it’s the next town over from where I am is in Nashua and the restaurant is the lost cowboy.

48:49
So it’s a brewery with it’s a barbecue steak. You can get the prime rib. don’t ask you by the ounce. It’s by the inch. So I love a good prime rib and man, this thing just every time it, it amazes me, you know, not that I need anything more than a one inch prime rib, but you can get a two inch prime rib from there. That’s unbelievable. The lost cowboy in Nashua and get the primary by the edge. Normally prime rib is sold by arts.

49:18
served out by like the 16th of an inch. So getting a full inch of prime rib. Yeah. Sounds like the carnivore diet. Well, good stuff, Tom. Man, I appreciate you taking the time to be on here. Congratulations on the success and putting the work in and then making that jump a month ago. And I’m looking forward to watching your progress over the next few years and helping you just get to the next level and the next level and the next level. Also look forward to seeing you in Nashville.

49:51
My pleasure. See you Tom. Hey, before you hit stop and skip on to the next episode, let me ask you something. If you’re building custom homes or big renovations and you’re starting jobs before scope, subs and selections are completely dialed in, how long can you keep scaling like that before something cracks? That’s exactly what we’ll unpack on your free business evaluation call. In about 45 minutes, my team will help you do a few things. Grade your current handoff.

50:20
from office to field, put some real numbers to the hidden profit bleeds that could be in your business. There could be hidden profits in your business. Sketch out what a repeatable operating system would look like in your business from sales to pre-construction through completion. And if it looks like we can help, we’ll book a follow-up call to talk about the right implementation program for you. If it’s not, you’ll still leave with clarity and next steps. We will leave you better than we found you. So to book your call and be

50:50
sure that you qualify for that call go to constructionleadingedge.com forward slash apply a PPL Y or click the show notes there’s a link in the show notes and book your business evaluation call