Small Business Spotlight – February 2018: John Marion Custom Homes, LLC
Company name: John Marion Custom Homes, LLC
Person in charge: John Marion, owner and builder
Year founded: 1994
Describe what your organization provides for its customers:
We are a full-service custom home building and remodeling company. We specialize in working with clients from the planning phase to completion. Our team of designers, decorators and craftsmen work hard to provide exceptional results.
The long-term success of our company is rooted in our day-to-day decision-making, which affects the overall satisfaction of each one of our clients. The highest honor our company can receive is a referral from one of our customers. This honor is achieved only through complete customer satisfaction with both the building process and the home we’ve created together.
Give us a brief history of your business and what makes it unique:
Our dedication to fine home building began in 1994 in Springfield, Missouri. As a home builder with more than 20 years of experience, I know that using our process results in collaboration and that yields the best results. Our company is passionate about home building – but the process is about the client’s passion. For us, it’s about realizing the homeowner’s vision. Listening is one of our most important skills, fine-tuned over many years and projects.
Over the years, we’ve worked with the full spectrum of home sizes and styles for many different clients. For a full range of budgets, we’ve focused on making the building process a positive custom experience for each individual client.
What’s the most exciting recent highlight for your business?
John Marion Custom Homes was the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield’s 2017 Builder Member of the Year. The HBA is an excellent organization and we are proud of this recognition. We also recently invested in specialized estimating software and related professional development that will directly benefit our customers. We are committed to continuous improvement that results in a higher level of service for our clients. The quality of our craftsmanship is of the highest importance – and it is equally important that the business side of our operation is transparent, completely accountable to the client and conducted professionally. Accurate estimating is critically important to the success of a home building project. It is also essential to building trust. We ask our customers to trust us with what is often the largest investment they will ever make. We work incredibly hard to make sure we are absolutely worthy of that trust.
Where do you hope to see your business in 12 months?
We’ve recently transitioned to an office with warehouse space. We wanted to create a customer resource center where we can use technology and other tools to enhance the process, whether we are looking at plans or selecting products with a client.
We are growing the business in a planned, smart way. You have to be available to clients and employees to make every project successful. That high level of engagement is a fundamental component of our business model and the principle guides our growth.
What advice would you offer to someone starting their own small business?
Take planned, deliberate steps. Do your research. You want to make progress and build on emergent trends, but you also need stay fiscally strong and make sound financial decisions. Always put the customer first. We strive to be accurate, to maintain quality even in the smallest of details, and to save the customer money. That builds trust, which is really the foundation of your reputation.
