Building custom houses may not be the most difficult business to enter, but it is a very difficult business to stay in and an even tougher one to thrive in. As anyone who’s worked in the industry knows, running a successful custom home building company requires more than construction know-how; the skills to manage money, time, and people are every bit as important.
A builder who lasts in this business for any length of time must be doing a lot of things right. While that’s admirable, it’s not enough to merit a Pacesetter Award. We receive a lot of entries for the Pacesetter program—more than 75 this year—and virtually all of them come from builders who run good, solid businesses. But when the magazine’s editors sit down to weigh the nominees against one another, we look for builders who are more than good; we want standouts. They must have made an effort in one of six areas of the custom building business—marketing, management, customer service, production, design, or innovation—that took their company to a higher level of excellence.
We look for builders who have cast a critical eye on their businesses and discovered problem areas to fix or opportunities to exploit. They have analyzed their findings and developed plans to correct weak spots or to take advantage of promising possibilities. They have exhibited the commitment, exerted the discipline, and expended the energy to put their ideas into action. And then they have explained to us exactly what they did to make their businesses even better. (That last step is very important for winning a Pacesetter Award. We get entries that make general claims, such as, “We provide great customer service” or “Our houses are built to exceed the highest standards,” but the entrants don’t relate exactly what they did to bring their businesses to such heights, and we aren’t able to evaluate the merits of their efforts.)
What impresses me about the Pacesetter winners we have written about over the last 11 years of the program is that they resist complacency. Being good is never enough. Instead they seek out areas in which to improve their businesses and their houses, and they tackle the challenge with energy and creativity. This year’s winners are no different. They have come up with some great ideas to make their businesses better (and that could possibly help you improve your own). I’m proud to introduce you to the 2005 Pacesetter Award winners, a standout every one. You’ll find their stories here.
