If asked to build a regular single family detached livable house in 2 hours, or even 3 hours, you may say it can’t be done. If you were told it can be done, you would think it is a child’s logic problem, with some silly caveat and not worth your time. You would know even television programs with a staff of hundreds take a week to do it.

But, if you knew your life, genuinely, depended on it, you would start redefining the rules and start asking questions. What type of house? Do you want a doll house? Is it from a kit? It would not be made of concrete, right? 

Asking the right questions is a crucial step, and complete discovery is essential in every aspect of your business, and specifically for the builder managing to a schedule as well. 

If you treated it like a genuine life and death situation, you would plan, strategize and scheme to do everything you could.  Today, success takes “everything you could”. 

For your employees, your ability to plan is critical for them, and their way of life is significantly impacted by your ability, or inability, to schedule.  Your business viability is directly tied to your ability to plan and schedule. Whether it is planning to build, building a plan, selling to a plan, or planning to sell, it all involves steps.  If you think a 3 hour house can not be built, I invite you to see the real world example, of success.  Check out http://www.2hourhouse.com/  

to see how a small volume Texas builder named Brian Conoway with Conoway Homes did it. In 2 hours and 59 minutes, he, along with years of planning and hundreds of people did what most would say is impossible. He did it for charity, but undoubtedly, he did it to prove to himself that he could. 

Telling me you can not sell any homes right now, only tells me you need help in planning and management skills. Even builders who went from selling 800 homes a year to 20, are still selling homes, and they could have negated some of that free fall had they planned better. It is not about being psychic; it is about scheduling your business operations, scheduling your marketing, scheduling your sales team, scheduling each unit correctly BEFORE it is built, as well as during building, and planning for success. Others are succeeding. You can too. But likely, they are doing something you are not.  

Scheduling like it matters, scheduling for profit, and the planning that goes in to it, will help you not just survive, but thrive, in any market condition. 

By the way, if you want to order the video, when you order, type in “ buildtopia ” in the promo code box and you will see a 20% discount, automatically calculated for you. 

Erik Cofield, CGA has leveraged technology and provided business management consulting for all sizes and types of builders, developers and Remodelers since 2000, including volume, multi-family and custom, to help them improve their business. He is the National Accounts Manager with BuildTopia (www.buildtopia.com), a widely used international construction management software company. He is the Houston Sales and Marketing Council 2008 Associate of the Year. He is an author, educator, consultant and speaker.  He can be reached via ecofield@buildtopia.com.