“You must have a number of stories, based on your experience, of how you are going to build a better home so that your clients are going to have piece of mind and less issues.” He may make being an award-winning custom homebuilder in Vancouver look easy, but it wasn’t always that way. Today, your guy, Larry Clay, owner & operator of Clay Construction talks behind the scenes of what he overcame to be the recipient of the prestigious Grand Georgie Award for best custom home. It was October, 2009 (if that doesn’t give you chills….) …an accident, a planning glitch, then, the Great Recession…and re-inventing himself. He became the reluctant custom home builder. Reluctant because he had been a custom builder before, and spec houses were more straight forward. How do you sell your client on the added cost of high-performance homes? (I’m asking, answer below) It’s all about the language with Larry Clay, he captivates his clients with his vision, not the price tag. Last year, he met one of his mentors, Harold Orr, who schools his new student Larry on vapor barriers (and me too, I’m still scratching my head). The marketing isn’t just hiring it out. It’s knowing your building science, walking the walk, and going for the big awards. Larry’s big four for fellow contractors: Leadership, awards, education and working on your brand. But Larry asks: If you could start your business over, what would you start doing sooner, what would you stop doing sooner?
The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.
Host: Mike Knoche
Website: The Contracting Handbook
Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook
Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1
info@thecontractinghandbook.com
Guest: Larry Clay
Instagram: @theclayway