How NOT to Scale Chaos ft. Justin Thompson

Being able to remove yourself from those day-to-day tasks allows you the time, it affords you the time to document your systems, your processes, identify areas, gaps in the business that need to be filled or plugged and allow you to work on those things. And that's the foundation that we were speaking to earlier that allows you to grow and that you don't scale chaos, right?

Good day and welcome to the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Bob Gauvreau. It is fantastic to have you with me today. I hope you're having a great day. I know I sure am. And, uh, and hopefully it's about to get a little bit better. We've got an exciting guest on here today that I will share in just a minute, but I wanna remind you that the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast is the place where we dissect the elements that contribute to entrepreneurial success from mindset and Leadership to Profits and Revenue. So today I have a guest, and if you haven't yet heard of this organization, hopefully this is very insightful. And you know, whether you are in the trades space or you are in any business space, so even if you are in, you know, the marketing world, listening to this podcast is going to share insights about why looking at a franchise model, whether to build one or to subscribe to one could be valuable for you and your business. The business that we're going to be reviewing today is Allaire Homes. So Allaire Homes is a custom home building franchise group that individuals can buy into the franchise that provides them with the systems, controls, documentation. And you know what? We don't even get into detail on the podcast here today about how much they offer their franchisees. But ultimately, You know, they're looking for successful construction businesses who are looking to scale up with systems, processes, and controls. And, you know, sometimes it's hard to build it on your own. Maybe you need to consider looking at a franchise arrangement, whether it's this one or whether it's, you know, you're in a different industry. There's benefits to the franchise model because of the systems processes that they have in place. So today, I'm excited to introduce my guest, Justin Thompson. Justin is a regional partner at Allaire Homes where he leads Ontario and Northeast Ohio franchisees. With over 7 years of experience, he's been instrumental in driving growth, scaling operations, and maintaining Allaire's reputation for craftsmanship and client-first practices. Justin is a fantastic guy. In fact, we realize we have some local connections. Here together. Really excited to have him on here to share the value of what Allaire Homes brings to the market, to learn from some of their expertise, and to just, you know, share some good information about the franchise model. So without any further ado, Justin, welcome to the podcast. Justin, thank you so much for joining us today.

Oh, thanks for having me. This is exciting.

Yeah, it's— no, it's a pleasure. And, and you've been definitely part of you know, an organization that I've seen around and, and grow and scale. And so I want to hear all about that. But even before we get started, I would love to hear, you know, the evolution of, of your career, how and where you got started and how you got to where you are today.

It's an interesting path, I'll tell you that. I fell into construction accidentally, so I'll go back a little ways. I grew up in Midland, Ontario and had the opportunity to go to Lakefield College School for high school and met some incredible people and really learned the power of relationships and just how important influential people are in your world. From there, I actually deferred university and moved to British Columbia to go play in the mountains for a year. And that year turned into 10, and I became a professional ski guide and was helicopter skiing for almost 10 years and went to university during that time as well. During the summers, I was always working in the construction industry because they lend well to each other being seasonal. And I really, I really did love the aspect from my mountain guiding career of risk mitigation. You know, we're out in the mountains and you're assessing risk all day, all evening. You're preparing for the following day. And, you know, with that, you're having a lot of fun with your guests and some really influential people in the world that that have the opportunity to go heliskiing. And I started to look at how that lends so well to the construction industry. And so my, my seasonal construction turned into 3/4 of the year and then full year and then so on and so forth. So in 2008, I started my business and the rest is history.

And so what was your business?

So I was design-build. It was called Bauer Bird Custom Design and Build, and we focused on timber frame homes specifically in the Muskoka and cottage country area. And in 2015 is when I joined Allaire.

Okay. And so we were just chatting sort of beforehand. Allaire being a franchise started in 2012. Do I get that right? Yeah. And even locally have, you know, obviously seen Allaire Homes and You know, what has Aler Homes turned into? Like, how big is the organization? Where can you find them? What does that look like? Sure.

In, in 2012, we started franchising across Canada and then in 2017 through the US. So right now we're, we're just over 100 locations spread across North America in a lot of the major hubs and then a few smaller areas as well. But we've got representation from Ontario all the way out to BC, and then in the US coast to coast from, you know, California all the way across into right into Ohio. So lots of representation.

Just maybe getting into Lair Homes a little bit. So what is the focus of that group as far as, you know, what they provide to consumers? It's not commercial, right? It's, it's custom home building.

That's right. Yeah, we're in the custom space. So a lot of people question, you know, how can you franchise custom building, right? It's, it's not, it doesn't seem like it's scalable, but really that's what we are franchising is the systems, the processes. It's a giant mastermind of, of years and years and years of experience that we've come together to really coin the collaboration over competition where this industry, the construction industry has been relatively the same for centuries, you know, and everyone always just says, you know, well, it is what it is. And our mission really is to change that. It is to collaborate. It's to become more efficient. It's to change best practices and share that within a network, which is super cool, right?

And I know we work with a bunch of different, you know, business coaching programs that ultimately are trying to do similar things, but to teach people to get their own or build their own processes and systems. The franchise model is, it's always fascinating to me. One, the banks love it because they've seen that it's a proven model and proven systems as well. But it really is a turnkey system for people to be able to, you know, avoid all of the headaches of trying to learn these things on their own. Right? And so when you guys were building this, you know, how did you, how did you come up with the right systems? How did you build this so that it was like a franchisable model?

It all comes back to laying out what would be best practice for any given construction company, whether you're in a franchise or not. You know, what, what does every construction company need? And, and you've got your basics, right? You've got your HR, your, you need some kind of software system, you need accounting services, you need a customer acquisition plan, You need— there's a list of things you need for the basics. And so really, when you look at a construction company, typically it starts with a craftsperson who is really good at doing something, and it's typically the building side of things. You don't often see a construction company start where they went to business school and their focus was, I'm going to start a construction company. And so what we're really trying to do is allow that person to be really good at what they're good at and, and take away the things that they might struggle with. And, and that has allowed for immense scalability.

I love that. And you know what? I really love this model. And, and I think you guys are fairly unique in this, right? Like, I don't think that there's a lot of competing entities who are scaling out systems and processes for a franchise homebuilding model. So kudos to you guys. And for those who said it's not possible, I think with your 100+ locations, I think you've proved them wrong.

Well, I sure hope so. And, you know, having, having the impact in the industry for the builders has been extremely fun for sure to see that success. But to see the impact on the industry as a whole, on HPAs, on our homeowners, on our market partners, our trades, It's just been— it's a huge ripple effect and it's been extremely exciting.

That's awesome. I love it. Okay, so let's, let's think a little bit about Aler Home specifically. And as you guys have grown and evolved, you know, probably from your first franchisee up to 100, I'm sure things have changed. But what has been the role of transparency and communication to ensure that your team stays aligned as you continue to grow?

It's a great question. I mean, communication comes down to everything, I think, in, in any business, but really in this business where it really is about the, the human experience. So I would say that the alignment across our network is key. It doesn't happen by accident. There, you know, there are— we've standardized how we communicate, and that's internal and external. So we created systems that we all are bought into on a weekly basis where we as an organization get together 4 or 5 times a week, the whole organization, and, and we train together. We, we share best practices, we, we share lessons learned, we share, um, you know, different things that we can implement into our businesses that allow us to continue to evolve. And then externally, we have systems in place as well where we can communicate, whether it's with our homeowners, whether with our trades to ensure that consistency.

That's awesome. And again, I like— I'm a little bit mind blown in the model too. I really love it. You know, it's interesting, right? So my, my son worked construction this summer and had a fantastic experience. Right. And it's so funny too, because he went in and he's like, I don't know how to do anything. And I was like, that's okay. You know, like, it's, it's here, here for a learning experience and he more so was like, I want to like a nice physical job, be outside, you know, and, and he really got it and had a fantastic time. But I even think of him, you know, he's going to business school next year. And so he's maybe looking at— I don't know if he's looking at combining the two, but I know he's going to business school and going— and I'm sort of matching it up going, well, isn't that a fascinating model to match the business to the construction side? With the right systems and processes to really create a scalable model. Like for somebody coming out of the gates who is very much like you said, you know, trade focus, got a really good skillset, but like the business acumen may be a little bit missing where they would come to someone like me and be like, Bob, what do we do? It's really great to know that, you know, you guys have those systems and processes that can support a growing and scaling artist, you know, like someone who's got that talent and to be able to take that and put it to work in a profitable way. Right. It's nice to see that in the trades space.

It is. And it— and it's— I said I love to hear it. It's so nice to hear younger generation that are keen on the construction industry because as we all know, we're going to face a pretty big crisis in terms of tradespeople and just people generally wanting to get into the construction industry in a time when we need it most. You know, we've got a huge housing crisis and we've got government that is is actually coming to the table here and providing some pretty cool opportunities for new homeowners, for tradespeople getting into the, into the industry. So it's exciting to hear that your son had a good time in the industry so far. And yeah, it's also encouraging to hear that he is going to business school and there could be a link there between the two. I think that's really important.

Yeah. And so what would you guys be doing then from your standpoint? Right. Like, I'm thinking from the franchisor, you know, you know that there's going to be a need for, for staff and for all of your franchisees are going to have trouble with the recruitment side. Like, what is, what's the strategy that you guys are focusing on to try and attract that talent?

It's definitely multi-pronged. I mean, the big one, and I think the one that we need to highlight is relationships. We need to, to shed the stigma that this is, you know, an old boys club. It, it's not really, it, it's an industry of incredible people. And I think the more that we can foster an environment of that open dialogue and, and sharing and collaborating, I feel like the more that we do that, the more that people are gonna want to stay. And like you said, the more people will be attracted to it because that's something that human beings want to be part of.

Well, I can just imagine too, right? So like thinking of— and this is where I love— I love communities. I love— I love franchises for this, right? You've got an individual tradesperson who's out there working their butt off trying to, you know, build a home or whatever. And then you've got this knowledge base that's sitting there in Allaire Homes of all the experiences of everybody and coming up with these best practices. And creating— and maybe this is where we can go with the next question— but creating a culture that's inviting for that next generation, but also the retention side, you know, like what is it that's going to have people change? We know, or that want to stay, and, and we know that generationally, you know, new generations have different approaches than old generations. And I can speak from from my side, we've got a team of about 180 and the younger generation, you know, who gets a bad rap. It's like, well, no, maybe they're just smarter than we were as well. You know, like they have a focus and a priority that, you know, life is, is important and it's not all work. And so how do we as employers and organizations create an environment for them to want to be part of it? And to succeed. So I, and I love, you know, your model for this because I think for any of the franchisees who are going, I don't know how to do this, you guys have this, this support network that can again pull together best practices. So from a retention standpoint and creating a workplace culture focus, you know, what are some key things that Allaire Homes is doing to, to help support that environment?

I think the big one is, I mean, we need to focus on our project managers in the residential construction space. There, there really is no specific training or support network that exists for project managers. You know, you've got, you've got certain programs that provide certificates, say, for a project manager, but it's very generalized. That's across all industry. So we really focus on our project managers. They are the lifeblood of our, of our businesses. I mean, they're, they're forward-facing, they're front-facing with all of our trades, with our, the architects and designers and our homeowners. So creating a space of inclusivity and creating a space of constant, never-ending improvement, of, of learning, of sharing best practices. We've got hundreds of project managers with literally thousands of years of collective experience that we can feed off each other. So I think that in terms of, in terms of retention and attractability, those are the two. That's the big thing is, is just creating a space where we can learn from each other and the support level, right?

Like thinking of going into a small construction operation. And if you're the project manager, you're the— you are the resource.

Absolutely.

And so, so for them to have a network of peers that they can bounce ideas off of and support one another, super powerful for the business owner.

It's a huge value add because when you think of an individual construction company, you know, you're, you're typically you're doing business development, you're doing, you know, your, your software management, you're doing customer service, you're also onboarding and training and supporting your project managers. And sure, as you grow and scale, you probably have people that you put in place to handle those things. But in those early stages, that's a lot for, for a single home or a business owner to handle. So really it's putting the right people in place to handle those things. And that's something that we've thrived in, is, is ensuring that we've got the right people in the right seats for sure.

And now, as Alair Homes, like, again, not, not being around a super long time, right, and has seen some really successful growth along the way. How do you feel that the organization has had to balance sort of growth with the ambition and the scalability, but maintaining the quality, right? Because I feel like a lot of businesses when, you know, the scalability is turned to the extreme and the exponential growth curve hits, which, which you guys have realized some massive growth, you know, sometimes things start falling apart along the way. How have you guys focused on making sure that that quality has been retained throughout that process?

I mean, documenting systems, documenting processes, though, you— we hear it all the time in business coaching, and it can't be more true. So it starts with that. And I love the analogy of building a house since we're talking about that is, you know, you don't, you don't start building a house with framing, right? You start with a really good plan and then you do a land assessment and then you excavate and found foundation. And, and it's the same with business. We need, we need to do the same thing. We need to have a really good plan. It needs to be documented. It needs to be reviewed, revisited, updated, bought in with the whole team, shared. And then we can start to insert the right people. We can start to scale. We can start to grow. And I think that that is the foundation of, of the quality. If you've got the right people in, in your organization that are bought in, the desire to want to surpass what the expectation of a homeowner would be in quality is, is already there. That's a natural born thing. And so that coupled with accountability, I think, is the, is the big one. There has to be a system or a process in place for accountability. And it's not a Big Brother thing. It's not a slap on the wrist thing. It is a collective. We have the desire to exceed the expectations of our homeowner. And this is what must happen on every project to do it. So it's, you know, the— it's the foundation, the plan, but the accountability. We approach every single project in the same manner. So we've got a documented process. It works. It's changed over time. We've continued to update it as, you know, we look at efficiencies or when we bring on new builders into the franchise network and they say, hey, have you— have we thought about this? Have we thought about that? What if we were to replace this with this other thing? And we continue to evolve and just hone in so that we can continue to deliver as we grow at a high level.

Yeah. And accountability, you know, I would say for any business that's higher than 10 employees, you know, a key word for success is going to be accountability. And one of the, one of the areas that we've we focused on over the years was getting really clear on the expectations of every individual on the team and making sure that they know the importance of their role and how it contributes to the success of the overall group. Right. And, you know, we've seen over the years, you know, as we were learning this, right, we should have bought a franchise or invested in somebody who already had this done. Doesn't really exist in our, in our space, but You know, having to learn that and say, you know, you could see people fall off and their productivity fall off and you start to inquire as to why. And people just, they're not buying into the group because they don't understand how they're contributing and they don't feel valuable in the overall process and building all of that out. Like, that's a serious project. We spent multiple years creating this and I, And I'm sure Allaire Homes did as well. But now that's a framework and a process for franchisees to, to utilize and ensure that they don't have to relearn that, which is excellent. Now, as you guys were building out these systems, these processes, you're thinking of the culture of Allaire Homes. Have you found that the culture has changed since 2012, or was it always a culture of focusing on growth and expansion across North America?

I'd say that the culture has always been really strong. It's a group of like-minded people that, that, you know, naturally think about growth and whether that's, you know, self-growth, business growth, whatever that is. I mean, it's always been that culture. I think that the, the real secret sauce was, was getting enough of those like-minded people in the same room. Working on the same model. You've got tons of different groups available in every industry to collaborate. You know, you've got your breakfast meetings and your lunch meetings and, and everyone collaborates, but everyone's running on different operating systems, different accounting models, different contracts, different— everything's different. It's really hard to, to implement best practices and efficiencies when it's all different. So getting, getting this group of people together in the room that's operating on the identical business model, using the same systems and processes, whether they're in Toronto, Canada, or Houston, Texas, is pretty special. And that's really, I think, to go back to culture, that's really added to the culture. It's, it's a group of people that are all like-minded that I mean, growth is, is right up there for sure, but it's got to be, it's got to be scalable. Responsible growth and we're all bought into that same mindset. And I feel like that has, has always been there, but it just continues to scale because we keep attracting such amazing people.

And like, obviously I know that you had your own business going on. Is it when you talk about like-minded people, did you bring in all construction business owners to bring together best practices early on? Or is it people from a vast array of different experiences?

Both. I mean, our network of franchise— our franchise owners are— have, have been in the industry for a long time, have established very credible construction companies in their communities. They're, they're community-oriented. They've got great teams. That's— that is the makeup of our you know, call it avatar of a franchisee where they, where they plug in here is now we've got, you know, a fully built out agency style marketing team at our head office that, that we have access to, right? We've got a software development team, we've got a compliance team and an operations team. And the, all of these teams are working in the background to ensure that all of our franchisees have access to that. At their fingertips. So it's a combination of all of the above.

And so, and maybe there's not an answer to this one, but, you know, 2012, 100 locations, and I'll give my 2 cents on this as well on building a business that's saleable. But have you had transition from one owner to the next and how does that work? And I'll maybe preface that to say, Listen, you know, we've, we've done a lot of training and, and work around the saleability of businesses, and the saleability of businesses is not as high as a lot of people would think it is because the business is built around the individual and there's maybe no value because there's no systems and processes in place. So you guys have created the model for a franchisee to ultimately have everything sort of turnkey and ready to roll. So it is very saleable. I'm just wondering what that looks like in some of the cases, if you've seen some owners transition out or retire over that period.

Yeah, we have. And that's been a really exciting part for us. I was talking about our project managers earlier. You know, one of the, one of the things that we're super excited about is the scalability of a project manager where we can, we can actually implement all of these systems and processes to allow our business owners to achieve growth that they wouldn't otherwise be able to achieve. And we've called it our multi-unit system where, where we mentor project managers to own their own businesses. So we'll have, we'll have franchisor franchisees that own 2, 3, 4 locations alongside a project manager that they've mentored in, you know, an incubator style model. So we've, we've had, we've seen those transitions, but we've also, to your point, we've seen the transition where our franchisees are retiring and, you know, a typical contractor retiring is, is selling their tools typically. And we've created something where there's a valuable asset to sell, whether that's internally, which we've seen transactions happen, or externally.

And you know what, Justin, the more that you talk about Alaire Homes, the more it makes me want to get into being a builder and being part of that organization. Sounds like you guys are doing some really great things over there. I have some rapid-fire questions I've got for you. So we're going to, we're going to put you right on the spot and see what you come up with.

Okay, let's have some fun. Sure.

All right, let's do this. So the one system that you could not scale a business out without would be what?

The right people, for sure. Um, hire slow, fire fast. We've heard it a million times, and I— and it, it is so true every time.

Yeah, I know we've all been there where we've maybe held on to somebody a little bit longer than we should have, right?

That's right, that's right.

You know, we've got a, we've got a situation in our organization where we, we almost— we don't do the fire fast situation where we try and make sure that everybody's got the support. So we almost reflect back and say, is, is someone's lack of success in their role, depending on what it's for, right? Like, if it's performance-based or if it's attitude and culture-based, different, different story.

Very different. Yes.

Performance-based, we would put somebody on a performance improvement plan to say, okay, like, we want to have you successful here, so we're going to give you 30 days, we're going to give you every tool and every access to support and mentorship, and we want you to get back on track. So that one we, we extend. But yes, if it's cultural, behavioral, you know, that one's— that one you've got to get rid of. We, we don't want to have people around the organization who are not aligned with who we are as a team, for sure. When it comes to delegation, what's the hardest part for most entrepreneurs to master?

Letting go.

Yeah, yeah.

Letting go.

Shit, right?

Yeah, yeah. And letting go doesn't mean that you give up. Letting go means that you put the responsibility on someone who's probably better than you at it and that you maintain that accountability as the business owner.

It's funny, this, this past week, I, I don't know if you've heard of Mike Michalowicz. He wrote a book called Profit First. He just wrote a new book on the money mastery or the money effect. Now, I should know this because I just recorded with him this week. But one of the things, one of the books that he, he had was focused on systems and operations. And, you know, he hit me with a comment in there. I'm going to say it was 3 or 4 years ago. And, you know, the idea was that we have to be able to let our employees make their own decisions, take their own direction, and ultimately fail. We need to stop giving them, you know, here's what you need to do or here's the direction, more so the What do you think you should do? And ultimately, because we know it's faster to say, just do this, right? This is the answer. But we eliminate their ability to grow individually and professionally if we're restricting their ability to make those decisions. And it hit me hard. And just this week when we recorded again, he said, well, yeah, that was part of the reason why you wanted— we wanted every business owner to have a 4-week vacation. And he said, it's not about the 4-week vacation, it's about the business getting a vacation from you making all the decisions. And I was like, yeah, so true, right? So the business needs to be able to evolve and make decisions without, you know, the entrepreneur sitting there making them. So that's right, couldn't agree more. We have to be able to let things go. Now this, this next question ties right into this. Okay. What is the first thing that you let go when you're scaling your operations?

That is a good question. I think the— as the business owner, the first thing that you really probably should let go is that project management piece. And it's, it's identifying— I mean, we, we use EOS in Allaire, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, huge advocate for it, documenting the systems, the processes, the people analyzer, all of the tools that come along with it. Incredible system. So a little plug there, but maybe I can get Gino Wickman on here.

Justin, that would be incredible.

You should.

Yeah, I should reach out to him for sure.

Having those systems documented, incredible. Being able to, being able to remove yourself from those day-to-day tasks allows you to allows you the time, it affords you the time to document your systems, your processes, identify areas of gaps in the business that, that need to be filled or plugged and, and allow you to work on those things. And that's the foundation that we were speaking to earlier that allows you to grow and that you don't scale chaos, right?

Absolutely. I don't even like this next question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. It says culture or profit, which one comes first when scaling a business?

Wow. Culture for sure.

Right? Like, you have to see that otherwise you're an asshole.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. And you're probably a broke asshole because it's pretty hard to be profitable if you don't have great people.

100%. Yeah, 100%. And long term, right? Like, I think, I think maybe the question is more so, are you long-term focused or are you short-term focused? And I think short-term, sometimes people get caught up in profits. You know, I was just having a conversation with, with somebody yesterday and, you know, their sales were maybe in a little bit of a rut, but, you know, not far off of where it needs to be. And they all immediately were like, how do we cost cut? Who do we, who do we drop down? Who do we need to eliminate? And I'm like, well, no, no, no, no. You know, focus back on your values and tweaking some of your, you know, the the, the formula for generating your sales. You know, right now your lead generation is too low. You know, it's not, it's not let's start cutting operations people. It's, you know, that when you start cutting and so focused on profit, it will deteriorate your culture and it's just so short-sighted for sure. And we all know the stories of the CEOs who come in and they're the transforming people, but they never last because they need to get in and out because nobody likes them.

That's right.

They've ruined or transformed the culture. And maybe organizations need that, but it sure as hell won't be mine. You know, that's right.

Or ours. You know, exactly. This industry, the construction industry, has certainly taken a hit over the last couple of years. There's no question. So there's less opportunities. Less opportunities typically means less profit for, for the business owners. And I mean, hey, we're all in business to make money for sure. But if that's the only reason, I don't know that this is the right business for you. You know, if that's the only reason. But if some of your reasons align or your core values align with, with mentorship and creating opportunity for others and allowing people to grow within your organization, if those types of things are happening and those core values are shared, amongst your organization, I would imagine that your, your business is going to see healthy growth. That's going to have— it's going to reflect in healthy profits for sure.

And I, you know, here's the finance person coming out in me here a little bit. And, you know, I've said this, I love working with tradespeople. You know, we have an active growth model for working with more and more tradespeople. Part of the reason is that I feel like they make such a huge impact on the lives of those they serve, you know, like Thinking of, of a lair with custom home builds like this is maybe the most expensive investment somebody will make in their lifetime. And you guys are facilitating that and making it, you know, their dream come true. And, you know, I think of other trades, you know, electrical, plumbing, dealing with emergencies, helping support, you know, those dream homes and, you know, the impact that the tradespeople have. AI is not going to replace that. And, you know, the future is, is bright. The finance part that comes out for me is, you know, for the builders, for the plumbers, the electricians, now is the time that you have to be focused on your finances because with inflation and gas prices and everything that's going— all the craziness that's going on in the world, if you're not paying attention to this, you could blink and your costs might, you know, rise 20%. And all of a sudden, all the great work that you do and the impact that you have could be financially jeopardized. And so, you know, and I'm assuming with Alera, you guys have a great financial model of transparency of, of this is how things need to be reported. But for most tradespeople, they don't, they don't have that. And, you know, guys, we got to be paying attention. You got to be paying attention to your gross profit right now because, you know, the fuel costs, the delivery costs, the contractors, the subcontractors that we're using, prices are all going up and it's impacting us. We have to be aware of this. And we also need to be making sure that when we have contracts into the future with our customers, that there's price adjustment clauses as well related to this. Because if you're getting into a fixed price contract and 12 months later starting it and the inflation has gone up, or like, again, the craziness that's happening in the world that's driving up fuel prices, we don't know what that looks like. We need— that needs to be transferable because otherwise we're just jeopardizing everything. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that too, Justin, but that was the end rant for the finance guy.

Yeah, no, I love it. I couldn't agree more. You know, know your numbers, know your numbers. It is, it is so important. And our, our accounting system is, is world class. And you know, there's a lot of contractors that do that. That old shoebox accounting, right? Where at the end of the year it's like, here's all my receipts and I, and I sure hope I made money. And that, and that worked for a long time. But like you said, now that, now that the world is changing on, on the daily and pricing and costing and everything is just changing, you just have to know your numbers. So one of the, one of the systems that we've created is just a software program that we manage our projects in that is also our accounting software. So it's proprietary. So we're managing these in real time while our accounting teams are also on the back end managing our books so that we have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we have real live numbers of where our business sits. And then, you know, a monthly call with our controller to ensure that we're on track, that we're, you know, that we're meeting or exceeding our goals. If we're not, we're falling short. Where are they? How do we adjust that on a monthly basis instead of annual at tax time? Right. So know your numbers.

100%. And I think part of this too, and I'm a Traction fan as well. In fact, you know what, I'm a fan of many different operating systems. Just having one, you know, I think I'm a fan of that to begin with. But Traction would be— would be— it would have been my first love as well.

Yeah.

But I think in in traction, you know, talking about accountability and delivering. But it's also like the financial accountability of making sure that you have a meeting cadence, that, you know, you're— you are reviewing this, that you are aware of it because, you know, your numbers are what needs to drive your decision-making. And, you know, numbers don't lie. They don't lie as long as they're up to date, they're accurate. Right. And they won't— they won't lie to you. They'll— they'll lie to you if you have somebody who's not competent, maybe pulling them together. So So it is a pretty important role within your organization. I'm glad to hear Alera has, has focused so strongly on that. And, you know, that's something that we try and build as well for the non-franchise contractors, you know, just having that regular cadence, the importance of those numbers in making great decisions. Last question for you, Justin, and then, then I'm going to thank you for this because I think it's been extremely valuable. But if you had to go back, what's the best piece of advice that you would give a founder who's facing a major setback or a failure while trying to scale their business?

Persevere. You know, it's a failure is typically not fatal. A failure in a business is maybe a red flag that has identified somewhere something that needs to be adjusted or a system created or a new person put in place. But I think, I think that along with learning the skill of compartmentalization, you know, where, where it's a fast-paced industry, there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of money with a lot of money and a lot of emotion that can create a lot of fireworks. So just learning how to compartmentalize those emotions and, you know, approaching, approaching any situation, whether it's, whether it's a challenging one or, you know, some kind of failure or it's an opportunity, just approaching it with as little emotion as possible, allowing that to sink in, digest it, try and think of all the perspectives that could come from that one thing, and then capitalize on it. It's usually an opportunity, even if at the time it feels like, you know, that's the end. It isn't. You can always move past these things. Surround yourself with the right people and that will happen.

You know, it's funny and what a great answer. I just met with this young entrepreneur who's at the local university this morning before we hopped on. And, you know, I like to, I like to do some mentorship with some of the students and normally it's facilitated through the school. But this young gentleman reached out to me directly and so I gave him an hour and a half this morning. And one of the first questions he said is, you know, what is one skill that I need to really drive home to be a successful entrepreneur? And I said, resilience. Yeah, fair enough. And he's like, well, what do you mean by that? I said, well, truthfully, like, it's a bumpy road. It is not a linear line. It is up and down. And you know what, a lot of people quit before, you know, they— before something has failed. And really, ultimately, failure is when you just stop doing it or you give up. And You know, resilience, man, if you're not able to overcome challenging moments or deal with negative feedback in a positive way or, you know, deal with, you know, financial challenges or market issues, you know, like these are all things, people issues, employee issues, turnover, you know, like all challenges that we have as business owners. So if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, was what I said to him is like, you've got to understand how you get yourself in the right frame of mind to deal with these things head on instead of, you know, letting them become emotional. And, you know, I believe in that so strongly as well. And, you know, I've said, I've said many times, you know, this may not work for everybody, but we're all going to have challenging moments. And for me, I will put my headphones in, I will put on a video from Motiversity on YouTube, and I will go for a 10-minute walk. And by the time I come back, I'm high stepping and ready to go. You know, it's—

I love it.

Everybody's got to find their way to get themselves in, in a position to, to address these things head on and to solve the problem. And truthfully, if you can solve problems for yourself and for other people, you're going to be successful.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And surround yourself with the right people. Like we, I think as humans, we instinctively, we're emotional people. And for whatever reason, this industry has, has blocked sharing that emotion for so long. But we need to share, we need to talk, you know. So, so if, if you're out there and you're listening and, and you've got something on your mind or a challenge or, or something that you're working through, I guarantee that others are working through the exact same thing or have already. So just reach out there, be open, you know, and solve those problems together.

Absolutely. Justin, this has been an absolute pleasure. And I know now that we have a local connection, I look forward to connecting in person after this. What is the best way for people to either reach out to you personally or to find more information about Allaire Homes or anything that you're working on?

Check out our website, allairehomes.com, or you can always reach me on LinkedIn. So it's @JustinThompson. Happy to connect with anyone and look forward to continuing the conversation.

It's amazing. Thank you guys. And thank you, Justin. For everybody watching, this has been the Wealthy Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Bob Gauvreau. It's always a pleasure to have you here with us. Remember, we're here to empower business owners with the financial knowledge and strategy they need to be successful, because truthfully, entrepreneurs are making a positive movement and a positive change in the world greater than any other community that I can ever see. So super proud to be part of that. If there's been something in here that Justin has shared, which I know he shared a wealth of knowledge, if there's something that you feel would be beneficial to share with someone, please copy this, share this out. Again, we're here to help support entrepreneurs on their journey. So the more we can share this out, the better. If you have any comments, you have any questions, drop it in the comments here as well. We're going to put Justin's contact information and Allaire Homes contact information in here as well so that you can reach out and connect. But once again, give us a follow. We're doing this every other week. I look forward to seeing you next time, and thanks again for joining us today.