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If doing it all wasn’t enough of a challenge, Napolitano says that, before joining the 20 Club, he and his brothers were trying to think it all, too.
“The 20 Club was the best thing that ever happened to our company,” Napolitano says. “When you’re running your own business, you’re in a kind of vacuum. You only have yourself and your partners to bounce ideas off of.”
That changed when a fellow founding 20 Club member, a builder from Atlanta, explained the corporate structure and procedures of his company’s operations to Napolitano. The Atlanta builder had created several departments within his company, each with its own manager to oversee daily operations.
“I liked his whole structure,” Napolitano says, so he applied it to his own company. Napolitano Homes now has seven departments, each with its own manager. Napolitano and his brothers still oversee their basic areas of responsibility, but now they rely on their department managers to manage daily operations. “Our company is run so much better than before,” Napolitano says.
NAHB’s 20 Clubs provide networking and educational opportunity for builders or remodelers from non-competing markets. Individual club members act almost as “boards of directors” as the clubs meet several times a year to share and compare financial information, look for trouble spots and offer each other advice about how to increase profit ratios and improve performance.
Napolitano says his club meets once a year to discuss financial operations ― members bring their company’s chief financial officer or key financial staff to those meetings. Members then host the other meetings on a rotating basis. Those meetings generally include a tour of one or more of the host member’s homes or communities under construction.
Napolitano has gained other valuable tips through his 20 Club, some small, some major. For example, Napolitano never scheduled walk-throughs until the day of closing, but other club members recommended that he schedule at least two walk-throughs for his home buyers ― one at least three days before closing and the other at closing — so closing wasn’t the first time they saw their homes. By scheduling walk-throughs this way, Napolitano was told, he would have time to correct any problems before closing rather than after the new home owners had moved in.
This lengthened his home building process and added a few days of interest payments, he said, but it increased customer satisfaction and referrals, a tradeoff he was more than willing to make.
Napolitano was also interested in starting his own mortgage company. Before he did so, he asked fellow club members who founded and operated their own mortgage companies. “The other guys told us the pitfalls to avoid,” he said.
Sharing ideas is a two-way street in the 20 Club program. Napolitano said club members interested in improving their customer service programs have come to him for help. Several have even used his company’s program as their model. “Basically, we hold a two-hour seminar for all our buyers who are getting close to closing on their homes,” he said. “We take them step by step through what they can expect so they have a better understanding of the process. The process goes much smoother this way.”
“Out of all of the services that NAHB has provided to its members, and I go way back with NAHB, this is by far the best service they’ve ever provided,” Napolitano offers. “The benefits of being in a 20 Club go right to the bottom line. Our bottom line has increased substantially as we have learned how to market homes and build homes better and operate our business more effectively.”
To learn more about NAHB’s 20 Club programs, click here, or e-mail Jeff Lambert, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8609.
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