193. Builders Path To Success With Jim Schneider

Welcome to another episode of Professional Builder Secrets. This episode was recorded live at the International Builder show in Las Vegas, but the content is still highly relevant for builders. Today I interviewed Jim Schneider from Schneider Construction and we talk about Jim's story from the biggest challenges he faced in his building company to the turning point that made him realize he needed to change to the things he implemented to actually achieve great success and and move forward. He also talked about how working with APB transformed the way he thought about running his building company. I hope you enjoy the episode.

There's no way to progress if you keep it all in. A lot of the progress I made with my builder 20 members was real raw, open, open, kimono stuff. Being able to talk about really what's going on, to be able to be vulnerable with them, with your coach and really be honest about, hey, this isn't, this is a problem, this isn't working or this is working. So you focus on trying to recreate the wins and avoid the losses and it's helpful to have that accountability.

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Live Professional Builder Secrets at IBS 2025. Jim Schneider, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

I've had you on the podcast before and really enjoyed interviewing you. So very excited to dive in this today. Can you tell me a bit more about Schneider Construction and what you do?

Yeah. So we're a small design build firm out of Virginia, Cape Charles, Virginia. And we committed to high performance several years ago. So it's a, it's a really, really specific niche. And you know, that's what we do. It's, it's really about high, it's building high performance homes and offering a one of a kind customer experience.

What does a high performance home look like? What does a high performance home look like?

High performance is a home that exceeds code. Okay. So for example. What we do is we include a HERS rater in every project that we do and a HERS rating is an energy rating and a home that is built to code. A brand new home, new construction built to current building home, current building code scores a 100. That's the benchmark. And anything below that is considered to be more efficient than a code built home. Well, our scores range anywhere from 8 to 52. So we scored an 8 last year, which is 92% more efficient than a code built home. It was a concrete home with solar. So super, super robust insulation package there. The concrete makes the, makes the home perform better. So solar obviously boosted our, lowered our rating. But generally speaking, we're right around 48 to 52. So we're building homes that are 50% more efficient than a code built home. They're also more comfortable. They're going to be, you know, they're going to cost less to operate, they're going to last longer, and they're going to be more comfortable.

Okay, so. So that writing, like, is it mainly about energy efficiency? Is that.

Yeah, it is, it is. So that's a. That's about energy efficiency. There's also, you know, there's also an ach. Air changes per hour. And it's about the indoor air that's in the house. It's a, it's kind of like a leakiness or not score. Code requires the ACHs to be at 5 and we typically score anywhere from a 0.75 to a 1.29. Now, when a home is built that tight, you have to mechanically change the air inside so it doesn't get stale so you can maintain the indoor air quality. So we do that mechanically with an ERV and a dehumidifier.

Okay, so that's your company. Talk to me about how you run your company. You have been with APB for a number of years now, but take me back a few years before the successful builder you are today. And what were the problems you were trying to solve within your business that made you look for a solution like us?

Yeah, I think I would have to say the number one problem was profitability. You know, we were working really hard for really low margins. I was telling Russ earlier that my wife actually said to me, my wife's a teacher, and said to me one day that she does not. She. She doesn't know anyone who works as hard as I do for nothing.

Right.

And it resonated with me because she realized, you know, I mean, she knows the. We weren't profitable. We were, we were busy. Plenty of revenue, not a lot of profit. So that was something I needed to change.

What was making you not profitable? What were the mistakes you were making?

I think it was not understanding my work in progress, not understanding the relationship my overhead had with the rest of my company, that's a big one. I was overstaffed. I had too many people for the kind of projects that we were doing. And what happened was I kind of grew as a company before I had kind of. I put together a team before I had the work that that team needed to do. So as a result, I had this machine that I had to feed, so I had to chase jobs just to feed that machine. So I found myself taking jobs, whatever job I could get, for whatever anybody would pay me, just to make sure I could feed that machine so I could keep the cash flow going. And cash flow is very different from profit.

Yeah, I'm sure you've had some restless nights from all that.

No doubt, no doubt. It's not a comfortable position to be in.

Yeah, no doubt. So what made you want to change then? Apart from the fact that you just stressed from all of the, you know, the lack of profitability and feeling like you were chasing your tail, all that kind of stuff. What was the trigger point for you that made you think I need to do something differently here?

Well, I think you get to a point where you come to terms with the fact that I'm responsible for not just my own family, but I'm responsible for the families of all of my, all of my people, my team. I'm responsible. You know, my decision making has tentacles and I needed to do a better job.

Okay, so you reached that point. What happened next?

Well, my interesting journey with APB was I was, I was a member for about a year, ish, maybe a year, maybe a little bit more, and really never took advantage of, of all that APB has to offer. So after that year, I let the, I let my membership expire. I didn't, I didn't use the membership. And then when I got to this point again, I don't, I don't know if it was an email or a social media post or whatever where I, I got reconnected and I thought, you know, that's, that's, that's something I. There's a resource for me. So I re established my membership, got into private coaching and it really has changed. It's really been a game changer for me. I've learned a lot about how to manage my company from a financial standpoint, from a workflow standpoint. It's given me a lot of tools that I didn't have before. I'm a builder 20 guy. I'm a huge proponent of my builder 20 club. And what I get from that is at a Certain level, the coaching, the action plans, the knowledge that I get here is a much more granular level, much more one on one level. So between the two changed everything.

I'm trying to understand what it was that really made you make a shift because you mentioned that you struggled with profitability before and you were a member of APB for a period of time, didn't implement as much as you would have liked. So what made you make it such a big shift that you were starting to take action?

Well, I mean, I think as time goes by, you start to realize that there's a finite period of time left in my career. I am not risk averse. I've always taken a lot of chances because I always knew I had enough time to fix it. And as I've gotten older, I realized that my time is more finite. I have to be more conservative, I have to make better decisions. I also found myself struggling with.

With.

Where my business was, leaned on several of my Builder 20 members. That, that the help I got from them, yeah, was the prerequisite to me getting involved with apb. But it was, it was just, it was, it was emotional, it was financial, it was mental. There's just so many reasons I had to get out of that cycle.

What's your core driving force with all of that? You mentioned the lives of the people that work for you and your family. Is that what it comes back to?

Yeah, it really does. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I have this little family, my team that relies on me. I don't take it lightly. I think a lot about the fact that what I do every day affects how they, how they manage their own households, take that very seriously. And as a result, it became clear to me that I had to do a better job managing those decisions.

This is probably a sidetrack, but you were sharing something with me earlier and I hope you don't mind me sharing it now.

That's good.

But you brought your team here to IBS in Vegas and you're all staying together in a house and you mentioned the benefit was so you can collaborate together. I think that's a great initiative. Can you talk to me about what, how that came about?

So, yeah, so my builder 20 club put together a, or established a PM group really to give our, you know, our teams, our individual teams the ability to tap into each other as we do. It's not nearly as, it's not nearly as intimate. They don't share financials and business plans like we do, but they all run into the Same challenges. They have the same challenges with trades and clients and weather and all the things that we deal with. And to give them an opportunity to reach out to their counterparts in other parts of the country that work for builders that are part of our group really is a, is a huge win. We started last year. We had our second Vegas PM meeting yesterday. We did three zooms throughout the year where they were all able to get on and collaborate and learn from each other. But the, the staying together, we happen to be staying in a timeshare, and the benefit to that is instead of retreating to everybody's individual room, you're in a place where everybody gets back. You can collaborate, you talk. I get a download from them about what their day was like. We all sat before dinner last night and I said, so, how was the meeting? And I just sat back. Not easy for me to sit back and not talk, but I, I did. And, and I just let them, I just let them share. So it was good. Really, really productive.

Yeah. I think one of the big takeaways, the, the, the amount of times I've spoken to you about your success, a lot of it comes back to openness, to talk to other people about the challenges you face.

Yeah, no doubt. I, I, there's no way, there's no way to progress if you keep it all in. You know, a lot of, A lot of the, A lot of the progress I made with my builder 20 members was real raw, open kimono stuff. You share everything. And being able to talk with the private coaching here at APB about really what's going on, to be able to be vulnerable with them, with your coach, and really be honest about, hey, this is a problem. This isn't working, or this is working. So you focus on trying to recreate the wins and avoid the losses. And it's helpful to have that mentor, that accountability.

Have you always been open and vulnerable like that, or is that something you've developed?

No, I've always been pretty good with that. Uh, I, it's funny, I have this, I have this thing that I share with folks that it's mostly, mostly shows up on social media posts when I have something to say. Um, and it's a very real conversation. I used to have this conversation with my mom. Where I remember was probably, probably in middle school is when it started. I was standing next to her while she was cooking, and she looked at me, she said, you know, Jimmy, not everybody needs to know what's on your mind. And I looked at her, I said, you know, Mom, I'm actually pretty sure they do. So I've always been pretty good about sharing what's on my mind. Pretty open and so it's easy for me to be vulnerable. It's not comfortable. Okay. You don't, it's not comfortable to share that you're, you feel like you're not doing a good job. But, but I've always had the ability to do it.

Sharing your feelings might be one thing, but sharing what's on your mind might have got you into some trouble.

Well, it does, it does. My kids have blocked me on social media, so there's all that.

Okay, so let's take a step back again. You mentioned profitability was one thing that you struggled with and then systems within your business and you kind of skimmed over things like work in progress and the way you price jobs and all that kind of stuff. Can you talk about practically how you implemented those things in your company?

Yeah, sure. I mean there's, you know, there's the, the APB action plans offer a very step by step approach to how these things get done. So, you know, for me it's just following the system. It's really just doing the things that, you know, following the resources that I've got, the resources that you provide, you know, the pricing for profit and understanding, you know, how to look at those numbers, the difference between markup and margin, you know, understanding, you know, where that, where that contract price has to come from. It's not a, you know, it's not arbitrary. There's a, there's a science behind it. And, and, and being able to learn that from APB is really, you know, just, it's just implementation really. It's following the, following the system.

So what was some like, when it comes back to profitability, you mentioned before that you were doing some jobs that you weren't making any money on. How did you go about actually increasing your margins so that they were profitable then?

Sure. Well, I think, you know, you get, we were able to get to a point where we were more confident. I was more confident about taking, taking on projects that were the right projects for us. Being able to, being comfortable with someone going in another direction, you know, while, while I'm certainly comfortable, you know, sharing what's on my mind and you know, I've not always been comfortable losing. Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, you've got folks that come and all of a sudden they decide that you're not a fit and they go in another direction and that's hard. But with experience and confidence, as you build A profitable company, a solid company, healthy company, you're more able to let those folks go because you realize you're not really losing. You're just passing on someone that's not really your client anyway. So that has made. That's made all the difference in the world. So when you start, you know, we start taking on projects that are more aligned with what your business model is. Instead of just taking something to pay the bills, it becomes easier to increase your margins. Okay. Also, I'll go back to what I said before. Understanding, getting. Having a better understanding of the relationship between your overhead and the rest of the company. My overhead is a much different percentage of our overall business now. We're much leaner, much more efficient. So that also really plays into the profitability.

Yeah, of course. Of course. You said working with the right clients. How did you go about defining what the right client was?

Well, you. You create this avatar you talk about, you know, you. It's kind of like you. You go through this. Kind of like this. This process of deciding, okay, if. If I could hire the right. The perfect client, what would it be? What would they do? What would they. What's their family structure? How are they going to use the home? You know, what type of. You know, what type of resources do they have to build the home? Yeah. So creating a profile, avatar profile is really where we started. And then sticking, you know, sticking to that, being true to that, and if someone doesn't fit that mold, move on. I don't need to. I don't need the practice, which is.

Hard when you need cash, though.

No doubt. Yeah, no doubt. It's really the hardest decision to make when you need the cash flow. So it's a cycle. Fortunately, we were able to break that gave us the ability to stop making those decisions.

Okay, so you've found the desire to change. You've implemented new systems in your. In your building company, such as work in progress, accounting, adjustment, pricing for profit, construction, slots we've spoken about before. We didn't mention it today, but I know you implemented that as well, which helped you sell when you didn't feel like a natural salesperson. What's life like now? How's it different?

It's so much more comfortable. I was talking to Russ earlier about the confidence, the difference in the confidence that you have with anything. You. You're able to make better decisions when you're not desperate. You make better decisions. And I don't care whether that's a business thing. I don't care. I don't care if that's on the ball field or business or family. When you're. When you're not. When you're not pressed and stressed and desperate to make that decision, it is going to be a better decision. So. So that's where it comes from.

That's the root of it. So did you say ball field? You're a baseball guy?

Yeah, I'm a baseball fan. So I'm like one of those guys. I'm one of those baseball coaches that coaches baseball because I play baseball, not because I'm really any good at coaching.

I always love the correlation between success in sports teams and business. Actually. It's one of my favorites.

Yeah, so I'm much more of a wrestler than I was a wrestler. Not.

Oh, okay.

Was a wrestler that played baseball. So.

Okay, very good. What would your number one piece of advice for other builders out there that might be further back in the journey than you are?

Wow, that's a really good question. I think, I think about my own development, my own, like, where I am in my business now and if I could go back and tell myself an earlier version of myself what not to do, it would be to focus. It would be to do what you do well. Don't try to be everything to everyone. I wasted a lot of time. I shouldn't say wasted. I lost a lot of time trying, trying to be everything to everybody. And when I realized that committing to a specific niche, doing something very systematically, doing it over and over and doing it really, really well, that just changed who we were, changed who I am.

Do you feel like you needed to have that all experience to understand what your niche was, though, or do you think you could have decided earlier?

I'm sorry, say it again.

Do you think you needed all of that experience to understand what your niche was, or do you think you could have decided earlier?

I think it's a little bit of both. I think you need experience to. To learn, you know, to learn who you are. But I. But I also think that, you know, I've always had a very entrepreneurial spirit. A little bit of a squirrel. You know, I see that next shiny, that new bright, shiny object over there and think, well, I can make money do that and I can make money do. I could make that work and I can make this work. So I think less of that. So I think it's a combination. Certainly experience is going to mold who you are and help you make decisions, but it's also a level of focus that can be independent from experience that really helps focus.

And that's the takeaway message and obviously accepting help or being vulnerable to talk to other people. I think the other big takeaway for me.

Yeah. And I'll say, too, that what's been interesting is that I have had, you know, I've had other private coaching experiences other than apb. What I found is that the APB coaching experience was much more comprehensive. I actually had coaching advice that put me, you know, put me in a bad spot. Not because it was bad advice, it was incomplete advice.

Right.

It was only part of the equation. So I followed the advice, but there were parts of it that were left out that, you know, you get to app and you realize, oh, well, there's. There's more to it than that. So now if I take that advice, which is the same advice I'm getting here, but then add the piece I was missing, well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, that's good to know. Jim, thanks so much for coming on Professional Builder Secrets today. You've got a couple of presentations coming up this week.

Yeah.

You're speaking tomorrow and Thursday.

Yeah. So I speak with Russ tomorrow at 8:30 and 12:30 about pricing for profit. And then I speak with Andy 12:30 on Thursday about construction slots.

Perfect. Well, they're in the IBS education sessions upstairs for those that want to go check them out.

Yeah.

Thanks for coming on the show.

All right. Thanks so much.

Cheers. Thanks.