Growth Decoder: Building beyond 1,000% growth with HRD Homes

Insights you'll take away from this episode: 

• 7:00: Have an idea for expanding your offering? Get feedback from your customer base. To help validate that you're on the right track, ask your customers if this is something they would want. 
• 15:49: Find a healthy dynamic for working with your partner. Identify each other's strengths, align them to the areas of responsibility within your business, and then stay in your lane. And don't be shy about asking each other for help. 
• 19:44: Be willing to fail. Know that things will go wrong – when they do, use your learnings to do better. A setback doesn't mean it's over. 
• 20:46: Authenticity is important – particularly on social media. Be intentional in how you demonstrate your business' value to your audience. Connect with your audience by creating content that's true to your voice and your story.       

Growing full-speed ahead

Lindsay and Robert Vieville were building three or four custom homes a year when they opened their first show home. Within three years, they were doing more than 30 builds.

“That’s amazing — 1,000-per-cent growth. But that kind of growth can also kill a company,” Robert tells Growth Decoder, CWB’s business podcast. “We learned a lot of important things through that time. We always made sure that what we did was focused on quality and that if we made a mistake, it was fixed.”

From the beginning, the husband and wife team at HRD Homes in Stony Plain knew it was essential to stay true to themselves and trust their instincts. They’d built a successful framing business across three provinces with those values, ensuring that authenticity and family were at the core of their business decisions. So when they decided to delve further into custom designs and builds, they approached it the same way.

Whether it was bringing along one or two of their six daughters to meetings with the company lawyer, hosting community events and workshops around the Edmonton region, or challenging conventions with their designs, they have done things the Vieville way.

“They have developed a solid reputation through the quality of their work and this has helped them to build a strong brand in their community,” says Carlos Cartagena, Senior Manager of Business Development for CWB's West Point Banking Centre. 

“We are able to tell a lot about HRD through the quality of the homes they build, the passion that Robert and Lindsay put into their business, and the people they choose as employees and business partners."

Lindsay and Robert also prioritized having a bank in their corner that would support HRD as it grew, and provide insight into managing growth. That led them to explore several financial institutions in 2020.

CWB won their business because it took a personalized approach, meeting with the Vievilles at their show home. The bank wanted to understand the company’s story and see what Lindsay and Robert were building — a gesture that set CWB apart.

“Our values and mission as an organization guide us to approach our clients in a manner that may be different than our competitors,” says Cartagena, explaining that relationships are at the heart of how CWB operates. “We showed genuine interest in their business and took the time to get to know Robert and Lindsay as people. With that as our foundation, we were better able to understand their financial goals and to prepare a financing and banking package that has allowed them to grow their business.”

Looking to the future, the Vievilles are starting to build custom homes in the city of Edmonton. They’re also looking at raw land to build and design their own community. This move will allow them to continue to build their brand and drive new growth in Alberta, with CWB there to support them.

Listen to more of HRD Homes’ story of incredible growth and response to business challenges on CWB's podcast, Growth Decoder.