Builder News How To Be A Better Customer Custom Builder| Also high on the roster of desired traits: having suppliers who are knowledgeable about the business of new-home construction, and reps who listen to builders and understand their issues before they start selling. Somewhere there’s a long list of expectations and improvements that custom home builders wish their building materials suppliers would make to the way they do business. In a recent survey by sister publication Professional Builder about builders’ and architects’ sentiments regarding their suppliers, many expressed a yearning for a personal relationship with suppliers that would help builders solve problems. But what could builders do to be better customers for their supplier partners? In a white paper about ways to build great and lasting vendor relationships, Ron Lewis, president of RB Lewis & Associates, a Chestertown, N.Y.-based consultancy for the construction industry, noted that builders and general contractors sometimes perceive material suppliers with contempt and blame them for poor performance rather than embracing suppliers as partners who add value. He wrote that occasionally the roots of poor supplier performance can be traced to “poor buyer performance,” such as poorly written purchase orders, last-minute demands for materials, constantly changing expedited orders, and claims that invoices reflect incorrect prices, among other things. Read more Five Tips To Avoiding Builder Burnout A few simple time-management techniques can help builders stay sane. Time management, stress management, life-work balance, burnout avoidance; all these management buzzwords address a challenge every builder will recognize: How to keep the business that puts food on your table from eating you alive. • Construction business consultant Jim Schug sees the problem at close range with his clients, whose job descriptions—and work hours —often seem endless. “There’s a crushing amount of pressure,” says Schug, principal of FMI Corp. • Yet success in business depends on shaking off the stress and staying healthy. • A constant stream of business books promise formulas for getting the balance right. But for home builders the best source of advice is probably their peers: builders at various stages of 16 | HBRA of Fairfield County | March 2016 their careers who have made running a successful business part of a successful life. Most of them have flirted with burnout at some point in the past, but all concur to a surprising degree on the basics of protecting your company’s most valuable asset: you. Read more
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