Episode 22: Why You Don’t Need An MBA To Run A Successful Building Company With Rachael Boyer

In episode 22 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Rachael Boyer, President and CEO of The Home Authority building company based in Minnesota, United States. Throughout this episode, Rachael shares why you don’t need an MBA to run a successful building company.

Rachael Boyer is a results-oriented, transformational leader, and business executive with more than 20 years of experience in construction, healthcare, and numerous industries. Rachael’s entrepreneurial spirit has allowed her to develop several businesses and brands from origination across a variety of industries.

Rachael’s passion for the construction industry has been built on the foundation of excellence with the customer at the centre of the experience, and the framework of passion to transform vision into reality.

Rachael’s diverse background has resulted in her being recognised as a dynamic and knowledgeable businesswoman in the construction industry with the expert ability to strategically design and transform environments in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Rachael’s true passion resides in the opportunity to serve her customers by guiding them through the transformation of their homes while allowing the customer to enjoy the ups and downs of the remodelling process.

Tune in to episode 22 now to hear Rachael’s story!

Rachael Boyer - President and CEO of The Home Authority 

Rachael Boyer is the President and CEO of The Home Authority building company. Rachael is a leader in the construction and real estate industry using modern innovation of classic craftsmanship to transform homes and business environments that inspire pride of ownership.

Connect with Rachael 

Timeline

1:04 About Rachael and The Home Authority Inc.

5:51 Rachael's defining moment to take her companies to the next level.

8:28 Why Rachael’s MBA did not help her with successfully running her building company. 

12:52 How Rachael started her journey of taking control of her companies. 

16:48 What Rachael loves about running her building company. 

20:58 Rachael’s journey with the APB.

23:50 The biggest challenge Rachael has faced. 

25:14 The three pivotal moments in Rachael’s professional life. 

30:21 Rachael’s journey as a female leader in a male-dominated industry. 

33:34 Rachael’s proudest achievement.

35:47 Rachael’s long term goals and vision for The Home Authority. 

40:20 How Rachael balances her time. 

42:31 Where Rachael sees the future of the industry progressing. 

44:52 Rachael’s advice to other builders.  

Links, Resources & More

The Home Authority Website
APB Website
APB on Instagram
APB on Facebook
APB on YouTube

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Bosco Anthony:

Hello and welcome to the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, a podcast by the Association of Professional Builders (APB) for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here, we discuss all things running a professional building company, from sales processes, financials, operations and marketing.

Bosco Anthony:

Welcome. Today, I'm joined by Rachael Boyer, President and CEO for The Home Authority, Inc., based out of Minnesota in the United States. Rachael, welcome.

Rachael Boyer:

Thank you. I appreciate being here.

Bosco Anthony:

Well Rachael, let's start off with a little bit about The Home Authority, Inc. What is it about, what have you been doing, and how long have you been doing this for?

Rachael Boyer:

Sounds good. The Home Authority, Inc. is a general contracting company. We do primarily remodels and new additions. We also do new custom home building. It is one company out of six companies that we own and operate in the Fargo–Moorhead area in Minnesota.

Bosco Anthony:

You mentioned six companies; when did you get started, and what is the experience of managing? Did you start off with six companies?

Rachael Boyer:

No. We originally launched our first company in 1996. My husband came home one day and said, "I'm going to start a painting company." And I said, "Really? We're starting a painting company?" Neither one of us had any business experience, knowledge or background. I was actually on a trajectory for my medical career, which ultimately led me to be a physician assistant. Ultimately, I proceeded with a role and an executive role as Vice President of Operations of a large healthcare system. So, in the process of him coming home and saying, "I'm launching a painting company, because it's what I love to do, and I don't want to do the norm anymore," I had to figure out how all of a sudden to be a business owner and navigate through that world without having any business knowledge and background.

Bosco Anthony:

Which seemed like it was a breeze at the time.

Rachael Boyer:

Yeah, it was not a breeze. It was the lack of awareness of starting a business. How do you take something that you're passionate for, and how do you create the opportunity to expand upon it? How we started that is I literally became a sponge and I soaked up knowledge from our local SCORE group, which is retired executives who help with the business side of it. That company was the originating company, and our model and our philosophy were that we didn't want to be the biggest. We simply wanted to be the best. That company then led to multiple other companies as a result of that progression.

Bosco Anthony:

Looking back at your life back then, was it a Monday to Friday role? How was family life when you first got into this?

Rachael Boyer:

I don't think any business owner/entrepreneur could ever, ever have a Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm role. I think there are misconceptions that when you're a skilled tech of whatever nature, well you could certainly start your own company and make more money and do better. The missing link typically tends to be that you have to have a plan, and you have to work at that plan. That plan does not start at 8am, and it does not end at 5pm.

Rachael Boyer:

A true entrepreneur and a true business owner takes their passion and delves deeper into that to understand that those hours are not limited to that timeframe to build a successful company.

Bosco Anthony:

Tell me a little bit about the call to action to start this company. Obviously, it was something that your husband said. Did you feel like you were living your purpose when you started the company? Have things changed? Do you feel like you're living your purpose now? At what point did you feel driven by this particular goal?

Rachael Boyer:

My only purpose in 1996 was to pay the bills and to figure out a way to make that work. I did not truly understand the why. Simon Sinek’s book explains understanding the why in his book Start with Why. It wasn't a part of where I was at, back at that time of my life. I was going down a different path. But I knew we had to pay the bills, and I also knew that I needed to help my husband be successful in whatever he wanted to do to be successful for our future.

Rachael Boyer:

The ultimate why and passion and purpose I am now actually living. Bringing that vision to life is entirely different. It's still not a Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm job. It's something that overcomes and transcends every boundary of an hourly timeframe.

Bosco Anthony:

I guess we're going down time travel lane at this point. Tell us a little bit about the company and what was the pivotal moment for you to grow the company and really change the operations. You make all those classical mistakes as an entrepreneur when you start out. But what was that defining moment?

Rachael Boyer:

In 1996, we launched The Brush's End, which was our first company. Over the course of owning the company for several years, we understood the business in a deeper sense, especially after getting some more business knowledge and training, which is so essential. You can be a highly trained technician in whatever you choose to do. But if you don't have business knowledge and understanding, you can't put those two and two together. So, the pivotal moment came after soaking up the business knowledge and understanding that the market can only support this this type of service for this capacity.

Rachael Boyer:

We ended up going through a diversification strategy without me even understanding what a diversification strategy was. It was, again, survival of the fittest. As a business owner and an entrepreneur, you have to really understand where does your market take you? And how do you understand better what the customers and clients are needing? So, we went through a diversification strategy and launched a few divisions of the original company.

Rachael Boyer:

I later went down the classic journey of every entrepreneur. I went into business with two friends. I wrote a 300-page business plan, without any business knowledge. It was not in the construction industry; it was in another industry that I was passionate about, but unrelated.

Rachael Boyer:

That journey took me through the process of understanding better what I needed from a business perspective, and how to marry what I needed to have happen with the original company.

Rachael Boyer:

As a subcontractor at that time, we were working for a multitude of different general contractors. We saw what not to do; we learned the process of, “This doesn’t work, this won’t be successful.” We knew we could do it better, but we needed to have the bandwidth and we needed to have the support in order to make that transition happen.

Bosco Anthony:

I have a question about that, too. You mentioned that you spent some time attaining the knowledge, the business knowledge. Is that something you learn at the same place you’re acquiring your talents, or at the time were there two different places? Where do you go? That was at a time where I think the dial-up era was starting to finish up and we were starting to get into the internet era at that point. And I don’t even know if Google was that popular. So where did you go to get this knowledge in the ‘90s?

Rachael Boyer:

We didn’t have cell phones when we originally started our very first business, just to put it into perspective of the time. Our very first phone was a bag phone that we had in our vehicle, and we thought we were so cool. We did not have Google. We didn’t have email. We just didn’t have all those luxuries that we have today.

Rachael Boyer:

My business knowledge came as, again, survival of the fittest. You have to have that. So, I started soaking it up through the training through SCORE, through other individuals, learning on my own and just doing research on my own. Eventually, I progressed. Because again, I’m travelling down the journey of my whole entire medical career at the same time, while I’m launching multiple companies, while I’m doing this. I realised, “Wow, I have an interest in business, construction and healthcare. Now, where is that going to take me?”

Rachael Boyer:

Through that journey, I decided to get my MBA. I went through a formal Masters of Business Association training program, which taught me from a street-smart business knowledge perspective of zero. It’s not something you have to have. However, to answer your question, there is a multitude of different opportunities now from a business training perspective and coaching and mentoring. I can share a little bit more knowledge on that backside of the street-smart business in the journey as well. I think that’s more critical than achieving a piece of paper that says you have a degree, and really, it's not applicable to anything related to business.

Bosco Anthony:

Take me through this MBA process. You get your MBA. It sounds like you had one foot in the construction industry and then the other foot in another career. It looks like you were playing with two different careers really, at this point.

Rachael Boyer:

I was, yeah. At that point I had just been accepted into medical school and to advanced admission. I knew I did not want to do the same thing for the rest of my life, but I didn't know what that was supposed to look like.

Rachael Boyer:

So, I went down the path of becoming a physician assistant so I could have the luxury of changing any time I wanted to. Within that journey, again, after launching our second and then our third company, I discovered after I wrote the 300-page business plan and had no business training, I should probably get some business training. When the banker said, "I'm not even going to read this, because I've never even seen anyone ever produce something like this," he gave us the money and sent us out the door. I thought, "Well okay, that was successful."

Rachael Boyer:

But what ended up happening was I was able to, fortunately for my myself, fulfil multiple passions. I was able to combine my healthcare, construction and my business passion, and tie all three of those things together. I did fortunately have the opportunity in my healthcare career to do healthcare construction for large, corporate, massive organisational construction related projects, while I could still keep my patients, my clients, my staff, my personnel. And I could keep my small businesses running successfully because I could see the larger picture of that.

Rachael Boyer:

The MBA again was essential for my executive career, for training, for law, for legal, for understanding the complexities of business. But not necessarily for, again, that street smart business opportunity.

Bosco Anthony:

At what point did you decide to dive in, go all into the construction industry? What was the factor, the X factor, that created the love for this industry? Because obviously, it sounds like when you went all in, that’s when everything started to really just hyper grow.

Rachael Boyer:

Exploded. Yeah.

Bosco Anthony:

Tell us about that journey.

Rachael Boyer:

My journey was an unfortunate journey in the fact that I was working in a healthcare system, and many healthcare systems have these issues. It's not just in one single environment. There were a lot of medical malpractice issues. There were a lot of moral and ethical issues. There were many things behind the scenes, as an executive leader, that you face and challenges that you face. I electively decided to retire from healthcare in 2016. And in 2016, I had the opportunity to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, which I still don't know by the way. Because again, I'm uniquely different that way.

Rachael Boyer:

I took myself on a journey that I was already kind of leaning towards to get that street smart business training. I took six months and I travelled across the entire United States. I learned from the most brilliant business leaders and strategists around the country. I literally was the sponge six months into that journey. I was based at home, but I would travel to the different events and trainings. With each one of them, I would come back with a multitude – and I mean a multitude – of notes and plans and purposes. It was as if I was writing my own script for how the next stage of my life was going to go.

Rachael Boyer:

I came back and in six months' time, I came in to my husband and I said, "You are no longer the CEO or President of this company. I am taking over." And he said, "Thank God." And I said, "I know where we're going."

Rachael Boyer:

I had no passion for the company at that point. We were a $300,000 company. It was nothing. We were relying on my income and my corporate career. We didn't have to be big. We didn't have to be anything that we wanted to be. We were simply a subcontractor at that point. But I developed that passion for, “We can do this better.” We can serve people in a way that they deserve to be served. We have the craftsmanship, the skillset, and what now became a proprietary process. That became our secret sauce, and we didn't want to sell that to just any other contractor.

Rachael Boyer:

I took the original company and I rebranded it, and it became The Coatings Authority. That was our original start. We had to be very careful in our market. We have a small market, and we didn't want to tick off our contractors that we were working with. We also didn't want to do it inappropriately when we were launching the multiple other companies.

Rachael Boyer:

I set forth a plan where we were going to launch the subsequent companies to follow. Those subsequent companies became The Home Authority, Cabinet Authority, Studio A, Authority Home Services, and then our real estate company, which is our B3 holdings. The journey was simply knowing where I was taking the companies, and now we knew how we were going to get there. I had a plan.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like you came in and changed the playbook. I guess it came full circle in some ways, because your husband started off with saying, "I want to start a painting company," and then you come back and say, "I'm going to take over this company and now run with the playbook." That's a really inspiring story. Tell me a little bit about the love for what you do. Has it changed over the years, looking back? What do you love today about the role, and has it changed a lot?

Rachael Boyer:

I discovered that I love business. I love the challenge. I am again, uniquely different in the fact that nothing is ever the same for me, and I like the diversity of that. I knew that about myself early on, but I didn't understand how to fully develop that.

Rachael Boyer:

What I'm passionate about, and have been from day one, is serving other people. In the role that I have now, I have the opportunity to serve and bring families together, which is our number one ‘why’. So why we exist is to bring families together. How we do that is through transforming and creating spaces for families to come together and also have their own individual spaces where they can retreat and be alone and have their quiet time.

Rachael Boyer:

If every company can just focus on that why, that allows the opportunity to be successful and for you to live your passion. So really, truly understanding that why was the biggest opportunity for me. For me, maybe more selfishly, I loved challenge and I still love challenge every single day. As Andy, my coach through APB says, “You're always building the aeroplane while it's flying down the runway.” That's fair and it's true, but I think there's a lot of opportunity out there that hasn't been tapped. If we use our creativity and our passion for serving others, then that's a great way to tap into what hasn't been developed or fully developed yet.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like there's been a few moments for growth, one of them being, "Let's go into this. Let's change the playbook and start growing these companies." Looking back, what were some of those key transformative factors that allowed you to grow and play into a bigger playing field?

Rachael Boyer:

The biggest pressure I would say, and the biggest transformation came as a result of my decision to retire and leave my executive career in healthcare behind. That meant I needed to make money to be able to support the company, to be able to support my family. The honest thing that drives most people is that you have to be able to earn a living. You have to be able to take care of yourself while you're serving your passion and your purpose.

Rachael Boyer:

That was probably the most pivotal thing that allowed the shift to happen: the simple pressure of having to figure out a way to make money. We had to do it the way that we knew we had to be, in order to love what we're doing.

Rachael Boyer:

Launching The Home Authority out of The Coatings Authority was very strategic for what that timing was. Fortunately, by the time we launched The Home Authority, we were in a position where we already had projects lined up. We already had things in motion. We already had things moving, and I was about four months ahead of what my projected timeframe would be for that.

Rachael Boyer:

Within that three-year period, I was able to take the $300,000 company and turn it into now a $3 million company with likely doubling the revenue, even as early as the next year. That comes with a lot of focus, a lot of commitment, and then understanding what that whole entire process and business structure should look like in order to navigate that change from $300,000 to $3 million.

Bosco Anthony:

Looking at this journey, obviously you probably introduced a lot more systems into the play. You talked a little bit about coaching as well. How did you become aware of APB, and how were you compelled to join there? And how has that journey been so far?

Rachael Boyer:

My entire career has been soaking information up and being a sponge. I was in the process: I had The Home Authority launched, and I thought I was winning really big. I had a 10% markup. Mark up, but now I understand the difference between markup and margin. There were many things that I thought we were smoking hot on. Because we had failed in all of the other things with the other business for so long, I was not going to do it wrong with The Home Authority. And for many things I did, I did right with The Home Authority.

Rachael Boyer:

But from an executive perspective, I was missing my $200 million operating budget where I had KPIs, and I had all those key performance indicators and all the data coming my way. Operating a small business is 10 million times more challenging than operating a large executive organisation. The reason why is because small business owners don't have the data. They don't have the knowledge, they don't have the background, and they don't have someone doing it for them. They have to be able to do that themselves.

Rachael Boyer:

So, having that need and that desire to know more, I started doing more research. Now that we’re into the age where we can Google, and where we can have Facebook, I found APB. I signed up for their original portal where I could download, and I literally knocked out all of their training within probably less than a couple months. When they reached out to me, I said, "Yeah, I get the sales funnels. I get all this stuff. I just need to know how I can get on the right path and get more knowledge than what I've ever even desired before."

Rachael Boyer:

That whole journey of having benchmarks, KPIs, processes, systems, all of the things that are offered through APB was just like gold in my fingers. I've taken that information and expanded that even further, and now subsequently created from The Home Authority the multitude of other companies that have launched as a result of that.

Bosco Anthony:

Shifting to the highs and lows of the construction and industry space, and your business as well, looking back, what do you think was the biggest challenge you faced? I've talked to so many builders and know that it's not plain sailing, and it takes time. Like you said, you've had to soak up a lot of things as well. But looking back, what do you think is the biggest challenge if you had to articulate it? Would it be one key factor or a couple of them?

Rachael Boyer:

The biggest challenge that I faced in the originating company was not having business understanding and knowledge. Because again, you can be an excellent technician, but if you don't have some kind of knowledge and support, it's really hard to do both and to be both in that world.

Rachael Boyer:

What happened was I didn't necessarily charge for the services that were rendered. Even in the learning over the last year and a half with APB, I've really, really changed the entire structure of how I charge for the value of the services that are rendered.

Rachael Boyer:

I would say that, if I could summarise anything, it's really charging adequately for the value of your services, and having enough business knowledge to understand what you should be doing in your business.

Bosco Anthony:

Now every entrepreneur, every leader, every business owner has one classical mistake that will define them. Some people I've had the luxury of interviewing have given me some amazing stories, some of them being, "I didn't invest in Uber," or, "I didn't invest in a company that blew up." If you look down memory lane, what is that entrepreneur moment that you're fondly aware of that will forever change the way you operate?

Rachael Boyer:

I unfortunately had three in a row.

Bosco Anthony:

Okay.

Rachael Boyer:

They were pivotal changes in our companies. Those three in a row were again related to not charging for the services rendered and giving away your secret sauce, giving away who you are and what you do, and not really truly understanding the value of that.

Rachael Boyer:

I fortunately had the opportunity to work with three amazing clients whose homes I designed. I designed beautiful homes for them, got everything set, did way, way, way, way, way above the work and effort, and everything else that could have been done. Then they backed out of their contracts – three in a row. Three new projects that I was counting on. That was the most pivotal experience of my life to have invested that much time, money and energy. 

Rachael Boyer:

It’s important to understand that people are fickle; you want to be able to give and serve, and you want to be able to do the things that you're passionate about. But you also are a business owner, and you have to run a company. That means being paid for the services rendered. That was a pivotal moment, and then understanding the business processes around that and why that happens to new business owners, especially in the construction industry. That's a really key thing to feel confident about and to not stress out about when you're trying to build your company.

Rachael Boyer:

Unfortunately, I lost some time, money and energy, and I was stuck without a lot of projects as a result of that. So again, pressure was on to perform and to overcome that challenge. Those are very big swings in projections and planning for a company. That was a very, very key, pivotal moment for me for how we were going to do things differently in our business.

Bosco Anthony:

Losing three prospective clients is a pretty game changing sort of impact. At this point, you're probably going through doubt yourself, questioning yourself as well. How do you bring yourself back to saying, "We need to change, but at the same time we're going to be okay"? I'm sure that must have taken a knock on your ego as well as a leader.

Rachael Boyer:

Yeah, absolutely. I felt like I had failed our companies. I felt like I had failed our team. What ends up happening as a business owner, especially if you’re passionate about what you're doing, is you take things personally. That is probably one of the first laws of sales: don't be offended. Don't take things personally. It's a business. But yet when you're serving your purpose, and you feel like you're serving your purpose and your clients for a very specific reason, it's hard not to take that personally.

Rachael Boyer:

So yes, it did have personal impact. But there's also that part of being an entrepreneur where you are naturally a risk taker. I looked at it as in everything that I've done, as long as I continue to fail forward, I'm okay. If I fail backwards and I fail to get up, it's not about getting knocked down. It's about how you get up, or the fact that you simply get up.

Rachael Boyer:

With that being said, I had to figure out now how to shift other projects and how to bring other opportunities my way. I had to move past those three in a row experiences. But I think that's the triple effect of okay, that's the wrong way to do it. If you're going to get knocked in the head and understand what you should be doing, that's a pretty clear indicator that that doesn't work to do it that way. Over the course of time, I've been able to shift our processes and align our business practices so that doesn't happen again.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like it's a really valuable lesson that you've acquired obviously about yourself as well and the vision for the company. How has being in this particular role transformed you as a leader? I ask this because there are two clear observations. One is you're running multiple companies. You've made it through those classical eras to get to where you are today and it hasn't been an easy journey. But also, you are one of the minority right now as a woman in a very male dominant environment, running a company. I'm sure that is a story and a book maybe on its own. But how has this experience changed you? Has the thought really hit you that you are in a very small circle that's growing? It is still a male dominant environment. How has that changed you?

Rachael Boyer:

I guess from my personal perspective, I've always been in a male dominated field and environment. I grew up with all boys around me. I played with boys. All my friends were boys. So as a child, that's all I knew. In healthcare, the role that I was in was very male dominated and a very different environment to be in. As a young female executive in a good old boys’ club environment in healthcare, whoa! That was the biggest life lesson in how to not only trust myself and respect myself as a female leader, but to bring others around me to create that same sense of collaboration and trust and teamwork.

Rachael Boyer:

Being in the construction field, I was in healthcare construction telling the guys, "No, I'm not going to settle for a quarter of an inch difference. It has to be exactly like it needs to be. Because there's going to be a patient on the operating room table, it has to be this precise."

Rachael Boyer:

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with absolutely brilliant men and women in the field and to learn how to become the best leader that I could. Fortunately, whatever skillset I have, I have the ability to build really strong teams. I think as a successful leader, it's not necessarily about you being so brilliant. 

Rachael Boyer:

It's about surrounding yourself with brilliant people. It’s about taking the weaknesses that you have, or the lack of desire to do specific things, and finding people around you who are talented in those areas. It’s also about being willing to be vulnerable, and being willing to know your limits and your boundaries. I can honestly tell you that my team does not let me rip tape in this field. They don't let me even pick up scissors in this environment, because I don't know how to build. I don't know physically how. I don't have that talent.

Rachael Boyer:

But I can tell you that I can design and build any project, or any home, and blow up any space and feel 100% confident in it because I have the right team around me. I know what I want. I have the vision. I have the right team. They can do the work to make that right.

Rachael Boyer:

Being a leader is about knowing your limits, building the right team and establishing those critical boundaries between the entire group to know where you can be successful. As a woman, there's really no defining point that a woman can or cannot do. It's a matter of choice.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like you've had a lot of reflection on this, and it looks like you're playing to your strength, and the team's playing to their strengths as well. What do you think is the biggest achievement that you're really proud of today with The Home Authority, Inc.? It sounds like there's a collection of companies. I was reviewing your website; you almost offer a one-stop shop. Is that a fair assessment?

Rachael Boyer:

Yep. I would say the biggest accomplishment is that we've created an environment where individuals who are investing even a small amount of money – because they don't have the luxury of building a multi-million-dollar home – can have the same great experience as someone who's building a multi-million-dollar home or investing in whatever they're investing in for their future.

Rachael Boyer:

Every single client who comes into our space will have a unique experience. They have an inspiration showroom to guide them, a home design centre. They have the Studio A, which is our design firm. We do all of the custom fabrication. We have our private collection, and we do all the interior design. They have custom cabinetry that's custom built specifically for them. They have the coatings that they deserve for concrete coatings and painting and finishes. Cabinet refinishing. And they have us at the end with Authority Home Services, which is kind of our handyman type service, for those little jobs that are just too big for them to handle. That whole conglomerate of companies is so uniquely different, that I don't believe there's anyone else like us in the world. And I'm proud of that.

Rachael Boyer:

There's more to come with that. There's definitely more that I can do to make it better every single day. That's what my goal is: to continue to develop something that can outlive me, and outlast me, and be a part of the way that we should be serving our clients and our communities.

Bosco Anthony:

So, what is the long-term goal? What's the plan for your building company? Is this going to be something that do you have an exit strategy in play, and what does that look like? Is it a franchise model? Is it a generational handover? Where do you see this moving to?

Rachael Boyer:

I don't necessarily have a specific exit strategy, which is very interesting. When I went on my street- smart business journey and learned from brilliant business strategists, the first thing they said is, "You have to understand that going into business is about selling the business." I said, "What? Really? That's really my only purpose?" But I have a general plan of how I want to continue to develop and grow the companies. I don't know that our one and only son will be that person who wants to take over and continue from generation to generation. But I do want to establish a company that will outlive us and outlast us. Meaning that when I'm not here, it can still run on its own. That's a true business, that you don't become the bottleneck of the company that you're running.

Rachael Boyer:

As I continue down my next three to five years of what does that exit strategy look like, ultimately, what would be really nice is to have a long-term strategy for whether it be franchising or whether it be our son taking over and taking it down that direction. We don't have a clearly defined path at this point. If I've failed as a business owner because I don't have the sale of the business in mind, I'm okay with that for now, because there are bigger fish for me to fry at this point. But I do recognise that that has to come as part of my next stage of business planning. 

Rachael Boyer:

As an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a new business owner, or even a business owner who's changing, you have to take the first things first. That is: get things cleaned up, get a system, make it operate the way you need to, and then take the next step forward from there.

Bosco Anthony:

I noticed on your website, you also offer financing. It's openly advertised as well. Tell me a little bit about what the process is there, because it is so unique. I've seen so many different builders’ websites, but that's not something that they throw out there. Tell me a little bit about that.

Rachael Boyer:

Again, this is about being different, and being different in the community. If we're truly saying that we're here to help people and bring families together, then we have to offer that.

Rachael Boyer:

One thing that we found was that a lot of our clients didn't have the financial resources to be able to understand how to get an optimal return on their investment, which is another one of our values. Anytime we're creating an environment for a homeowner, it's the biggest investment that they're going to make. We want to make sure that they get an optimal return on their investment. We've opened up the opportunity for them to have third-party financing through us. We have everything from 0% financing, to 15 years, to 3.99%. There's a whole different diverse class of what we can offer from financing.

Rachael Boyer:

We also have a local banking partner who does all of what we call our renovation financing. They built a program for us to allow our clients who want to wrap in renovation financing with their primary mortgage and finance it all in one transaction.

Rachael Boyer:

We also have our real estate partner with whom we can literally take a client through anything that they want or need. We can sell their existing house, we can buy them a house, we can renovate their house, we can finance their house. We can build them a new house. We can do whatever the case may be; it’s just the fact that we care enough to work through that process with them. Yes, it does take time and investment, and you have to have some knowledge of market and rates and industry, and you have to keep up on that. It's still a service that no one else offers in our region. And it's one of those things that creates a competitive advantage that we can literally say we can do anything, but we don't also have to be everything to everyone. We can be very specific working with the clients that we've set as our avatar, and be very specific with what we offer them and how we can serve them best.

Bosco Anthony:

I have a hard question here. But is balance a myth for people who run companies? You're running six right now. You're a mum and a wife. How's your schedule? Is it still chaotic?

Rachael Boyer:

You can ask my coach how he feels about my schedule. My schedule is definitely getting better, but it's definitely a challenge. I'm a natural hard worker. That's all I've ever known in my entire life. My grandparents grew up on a farm, and when you're a farmer, you just work your fields, and you do what you have to do to keep your hands to the plough.

Rachael Boyer:

In the world that I grew up in with medicine, I was up at 2am each morning operating and in the middle of a trauma. Then I would be back in the clinic to see patients by 8am. So, I don't know anything different in my brain. Balance is hard when you don't have the right people in the right seats. For me, it’s been really, really critical to start to develop these companies. Again, building the team is starting from scratch. It was me, and it was my husband running the operations and our employees for The Coatings Authority. And now, it’s not just me.

Rachael Boyer:

I’ve had to add the right people. I track how many hours I spend on X number of things that I’m doing, and where I need to make the next move on the chess board; whatever you call it. How do I take that next step to build the right team and put them in the right seats, so that I’m not constantly doing everything?

Rachael Boyer:

I could definitely use more balance in my life. But what I have learned to do is I now take a week every single quarter, and I literally retreat. I go through both a personal retreat and a business retreat, strategically by myself to have time to think. That has been just an absolute blessing for me as a business owner, as a mum, a wife, a team member and all of the other things that I do.

Bosco Anthony:

The industry’s changing obviously over the years. Where do you think the future state of the residential and construction industry is evolving, especially in Minnesota and the United States?

Rachael Boyer:

I would say that we have to be exponentially smarter, and we have to be exponentially more process oriented and systematised. The reason why is because we already see what happens when we have personnel issues, manufacturing issues, lack of process in systems, lack of control and lack of leadership. In the United States, it’s very prevalent. I’d say even across the world, people struggle because of the interrelated events that happen as a global economic impact.

Rachael Boyer:

As a business owner, my approach and my philosophy in the next year and a half are all on mergers, acquisitions and having a systematised strategic plan on how that is going to happen. Smaller, less prepared companies will not be able to withstand what’s going to happen, even in the next nine months. In the United States, we’re going to have some major financial and economic issues, and even more so than we’ve already seen. You need to be prepared as a business owner – APB is very, very specific about this – you need to have your cash on hand, operating and working cash, and know your WIPAA [Work in Progress Accounting Adjustment]. And you need to be really strategic and thoughtful about where you’re going and what your direction is. 

Rachael Boyer:

I as a business owner and a business leader will not fail. We’re going to continue to thrive in the pandemic like we have. We'll continue to build and increase our projections. But it’s going to come at the expense of other companies that are not going to be able to perform, because they don’t have the systems in place. They don’t have the right strategic plan, and they don’t have the right team members behind them working in unison.

Bosco Anthony:

If you look back, and this is my final question for the day, if you look back on this entire journey, past, present, future, what advice would you give a younger version of yourself getting into the industry today, or any of the listeners out there who are new builders as well who are listening to this episode? What advice would you give them?

Rachael Boyer:

My advice that I would give them is to be fluid. And to never, ever put yourself in a position where you are only limited to one thing. As you continue to age, and grow, and develop, and meet new people around you, and learn new things, it’s really important to allow yourself to be free and willing to fail forward, and to understand that you don’t have to have limits. The only limits that you have are those that you put on yourself. 

Rachael Boyer:

We have the opportunity as business owners and leaders to change how we deliver the products and services that we provide, whatever that may be. Whether you own a restaurant, or you own a construction company, or you’re a salesperson for someone else. It doesn’t matter. I would say don’t limit yourself, and be prepared to take on any challenge that comes your way, but also to define, clearly define, what it is that you have passion for, and what it is that you’re willing to do.

Rachael Boyer:

As I mentioned earlier on, I launched another company that was completely unrelated to healthcare. It was something that I was passionate about. But I learned now that if it doesn’t fall into my three buckets, I have to say no to it. I’m willing to say no to something that’s not going to fulfil those three buckets in my life. So, clearly understand that there is no limit. You can do whatever you desire to achieve, but know what your passions are, and know what your purpose is.

Bosco Anthony:

So, staying fluid is the advice. Thank you so much, Rachael, for such a lovely interview. We really appreciate you being here today and for your time and your wisdom as well.

Rachael Boyer:

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Bosco Anthony:

Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe to Professional Builders Secrets on your favourite podcast platform and leave a review. To learn more about how the systems at APB can help you grow your building company, visit associationofprofessionalbuilders.com. See you next time.