You’re Working For Free (And You Know It)
Right now, you’re spending 20 to 100+ hours quoting projects you’ll never win. All unpaid. All eating into time you could be spending with family or actually building.
Think about your biggest year ever. How many projects did you quote versus how many you actually built?
If you’re like most builders, you’re probably quoting 30 to 50% more jobs than you win. That’s potentially hundreds of hours of skilled work you’re giving away for free – work that’s costing you thousands in lost income, time lost and countless nights of stress.
In this conversation, Amelia and Duayne break down exactly how the custom residential industry has trapped builders in this cycle of unpaid work and, more importantly, how they’ve completely flipped it on its head.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below. Be sure to also subscribe to the Live Life Build YouTube channel.
Amelia
We know that one of the biggest challenges in the custom residential industry is that builders don’t get paid until they’re on site.
Yet, so much work as a builder involves the work that you have to do during pre-construction to work with the client, to price a job, and then potentially negotiate the price of the job, because it comes in over budget.
All of that work is totally unpaid until those contracts are actually put into practice and put into place, and then the builder actually has cash flow and money to be able to do the project. And so it means that a builder is working for free so much of the time as they’re pricing all of these jobs.
Duayne
It blows my mind, Amelia. I think back to the days when I was getting caught in those tendering scenarios, we have the data on it, like our biggest year ever. Back then, we did 13 projects, but that same year, we quoted over 43 projects. That’s so much time that I was spending on jobs I was never going to get.
And now we obviously do the PAC Process. It’s completely flipped that on its head, that it’s very hard to explain to people, I think, how long actually goes into quoting.
So many builders have different, I guess, models in their business about how they do quoting. Some just send it out to Quantity Surveyors, which is obviously a fee that has to be paid for.
But I find most of the time, especially when it comes to custom-built homes, builders are doing the quoting themselves, it might be them and a team member, or they might have an in-house estimator.
There is so much time that goes into creating scopes of work.
- Talking to suppliers,
- Going to design meetings,
- Reaching out to the client,
- Discussing different options, different materials
All those types of things. And it is not uncommon for the average home, to spend anywhere between 20 and 40 hours on a quote.
I know some of the multi-million dollar homes we do, it’s nothing for us to spend well over 100 hours preparing our quotes. So that time needs to be paid for.
Amelia
Inside Live Life Build, and particularly inside ELEVATE, we teach an entirely different process, which is our Paid As Consultant Process (or PAC Process).
And it’s amazing, because it’s a very common occurrence for builders to actually arrive and say…
“Look, I know that this is wrong in my business. I know that I’m doing a heck of a lot of work for free. I’ve heard about this PAC Process. I’ve heard from other builders that it’s really great. I’m not entirely sure I believe that I can use it in my business. I’m not entirely sure that I believe that homeowners are going to pay for it, but I still want to learn it, and I still want to understand it.”
And it’s amazing as we start to actually teach them the step-by-step process and then also support them through those mindset challenges of…
- It is possible for them to do this in their business as well
- How quickly they can turn their businesses around
- Have an entirely different way of delivering their projects that actually works for their clients far better, works for the project far better, and works for their businesses far better, too.
“The building industry is changing, and this will become the only way that things get done because of how successful it is.”
– Duayne
Duayne
The advantages of doing our PAC Process are across the board.
- It’s better for the building business
- It’s better for your mindset
- It’s better for your mental health
- It’s better for the clients
- It’s better for the designers
- It’s literally better for every single person involved.
And I know myself as a builder, back in the day when we… like I said, we were tendering or just getting a phone call from a client saying, “Hey, I want you to quote this.”
You might have a few phone conversations. You get sent some documents. You’re trying to price it. You’re not truly understanding what it is a client wants.
And I can see now very clearly why on our projects we had so many variations. Because I was never involved in the discussions. But not only was I not involved with them, I think a lot of the time, the designers and the clients weren’t actually having those conversations. I think by me being involved, it really opens up more conversation.
So, the designers and architects are there; they design the job. They’re there to talk about all the finishes and those types of things, but having a builder involved that can talk about the complexity of the job, even things like the job site, like access to where and how are we going to get things delivered? Can we get a semi-trailer in the street?
There are all these things that 9 times out of 10 I know back in the day, weren’t getting thought about because I wasn’t putting time into them.
If you’re getting called up to quote a job, you’re not going to sit down and put the right amount of time and the right amount of effort in it to give the client a true cost if you think you’re just wasting your time.
So the benefits are across the board, but for the homeowners, I have just seen so dramatically how things have changed, because by the time we get to a contract now, clients know what they’re getting.
They’ve selected things.
We’ve talked through things.
They know where things are going.
And it’s a collaboration.
It’s not just me talking about things; the designers and the architects are talking about how things are going to go, and then I’ve learned a huge amount from being involved in those conversations.
So by the time we get to the site, we start doing the build. The scope of works has been confirmed, the finishes have been confirmed, the designs confirmed, and literally, the site meetings during the build have just become show and tell.
Whereas back in the day, before I was doing the PAC Process, site meetings were always knots in my stomach, very anxious. A lot of the time, very uncomfortable conversations, because literally, every time I was meeting with a client, there was a variation.
There was something that they thought they were getting that we didn’t know about.
There was something that we’d done as per the plans, but they weren’t quite sure that it was going to be that way.
And it’s amazing, the transformation from how we were 10 years ago to how we do things now is incredible.
Amelia
I know in my career, I’ve worked in lots of other sectors, as well as custom residential. And in those other sectors, we’ve always had during those design conversations, somebody advising on cost and buildability, and it’s been so important for the design to be enriched by those understandings of…
- How can we gain efficiencies in time?
- How can we ensure that materials are going to be detailed the way that they need to?
- How are we going to ensure that all of that effort and energy and money that’s going into the design in the first place doesn’t get hijacked during construction, because there’s a different set of opinions about how that thing needs to be built.
And bringing together the designer or architect and the builder and the client in that fantastic collaboration during pre-construction creates this fantastic professional kind of relationship and opportunity to bring all of those concerns, questions, challenges out into the open and then get the biggest bang for buck, realise the maximum potential of the budget in an affordable outcome on site that does the best for the homeowner and the project.
It’s so awesome to see when homeowners hear it, they are like, “Of course, it’s a no-brainer”, because architects and designers aren’t costing professionals. They rarely get to see the project right through construction and know what those designs have cost in the end.
And builders get to actually bring that expertise into the design when it can have an impact, and they’re not trying to then unravel all of that effort and energy that’s been spent when construction actually starts. Homeowners enter the contract, confident that everybody understands what they’re seeking to achieve.
We see this time and time again with our members, once they get over that mindset hurdle of, “Oh, okay, yes, I can do this. This is possible for me.” And they often then start, they won’t charge a huge amount for it, they’ll use it as an opportunity to test how it’s going to be feasible for their business.
But we’ve got builders in regional locations, in urban locations, in suburban locations, all around Australia and New Zealand who are using the PAC Process effectively in their business, and it’s transforming their business as a result.
Duayne
It’s all about education.
And I guarantee anyone that puts the time and effort into learning the PAC Process for implementing their business, it changes so many parts of your business that it’s… It’s just unbelievable.
I guarantee, I guess, any builder out there that thinks that this is maybe not quite right, it’s just a bit of a fad or something that is happening out there, the building industry is changing, and this will become the only way that things get done because of how successful it is.
We teach the PAC Process in our ELEVATE program. So if you think that this is something that resonates with you, I guarantee you, if you’re a builder out there that’s watching this video, think of all the problems you’re having currently with your clients on your project, and all the things that you’re blaming your clients for.
And, yeah, I would bet you that this PAC Process will help solve 99% of those problems.
The Transformation is Real, And It’s Available to You
What Duayne shared is the reality for hundreds of builders who’ve made the shift from free quoting to paid consulting.
The transformation looks like this:
- From 43+ quotes to win 13 projects to paid consultation on every project
- From anxious site meetings full of variations to collaborative “show and tell” sessions
- From clients who don’t understand what they’re getting to clients who are confident and informed
- From designers working in isolation to true collaboration that maximises every dollar
The PAC Process is transforming how builders across Australia and New Zealand approach pre-construction work. It’s a proven system that turns your expertise into paid consulting, eliminates variations, and creates collaborative relationships with clients and designers.
This approach is becoming the standard. Builders who don’t adapt will find themselves competing solely on price with clients who don’t value their expertise. Those who embrace the PAC Process will build profitable businesses with clients who respect their time and knowledge.
If you’re tired of quoting jobs you’ll never win and ready to be paid for your expertise from day one, the PAC Process is one of the core frameworks we teach inside ELEVATE.
Learn more about ELEVATE and discover how hundreds of builders are building profitable businesses while reclaiming their time and sanity.