Sometimes, when you get on top of a wave and catch it perfectly at its crest, you start out in a better position than other surfers scrambling around you to catch up. You're in the groove, while the others are shaken by the wave's break and rush.
Bruce Akins, president of The Akins Companies in Irvine, Calif., entered the fee building market with such perfect timing. In 1987, Akins' company built 75 percent of its work to sell, and the rest as a general contractor working for other investors. Anticipating a trend that many have yet to notice, Akins decided to shake up the mix of projects. Today, his company's workload has reversed--75 percent is fee building, and only 25 percent is projects the company develops itself.
Meanwhile, Akins' overall revenue has doubled.
"This was an alternative strategy," recalls Akins. "A 101: of our friends in the housing industry downsized to reduce their overhead. We increased our staff to increase our volume."
In bad times.... During the recession, financially overstretched developers routinely cut their construction divisions as activity slowed to a crawl. Now, many are ready to break ground again and have decided to contract out construction rather than rehire their own construction crews.
That trend has paid off nicely for Birtcher Construction in Laguna Niguel, Calif., says company president Andrew Youngquist. "As developers have reorganized and looked at their organizations, and started back in a building mode-- most of them on a much smaller scale than before--they have chosen to go with companies like ours," he says.
Founded in 1939, Birtcher builds large residential projects on a fee basis for Monarch …
No comments:
Post a Comment