Stoneshire Builders’ principals, Brian and Debra Eiseman, visited Epcon Communities’ headquarters in Columbus and joined the franchise network just two days later. They discuss their journey with Epcon and what the future holds.
“This wasn’t something we wanted to learn on our own. We wanted to tap into that institutional knowledge from someone that had done this before.”
Host: Brian and Deb, thank you so much for meeting today. I just want to dive right on in. Can you both share a little bit about your career and also your existing home building business? Did you come from home building? How did you get into it? And Brian, I’ll start with you.
Brian Eiseman of Stoneshire Builders: So, we did not come from home building. I am actually a civil engineer by trade or education, however you want to say that. I spent 25 years as a consulting engineer. During that time I met and worked with a number of developers helping them develop their projects. Having a passion for construction kind of was a segue for me to get into home building 12 years ago.
Debra Eiseman of Stoneshire Builders: I am in finance. I am a commercial lender and have been for a very long time, but I’ve worked with entrepreneurs a lot. And so with Brian’s background in civil engineering and construction and my background in finance, it seemed like it was a natural fit to get into a home building business.
Host: Can you speak a little bit about Stoneshire Builders, that’s your home building business. When did that start and what’s that journey been like?
Brian: 2012. It’s been an interesting journey. It’s been a learning experience. We did not come from a background of home building so everything we’ve done has really been from the ground up.
We’ve developed our own systems, our own plans, everything. We weren’t given anything. We didn’t necessarily have an institutional knowledge to tap into with our processes. So the whole thing has been a journey, is a good way to put that.
Host: That’s actually a great segue over to Epcon. What initially prompted you to investigate Epcon, especially coming from the custom side?
Brian: Not having to build everything from the ground up again. We had the bait. The 55 plus demographic had been on our radar. That is primarily [who] we’ve catered to on our custom side of things.
We’ve always been looking to develop a community, and so when we took that step, one of the things we decided was that this wasn’t something we wanted to learn on our own. We wanted to tap into that institutional knowledge from someone that had done this before.
Host: I’m going to pass it over to you, Deb. What has surprised you the most so far about working with the Epcon team?
Debra: Probably on the sales side of it, all of the expertise that you have over there.
Host: What about you, Brian? What’s been surprising so far?
Brian: The depth of knowledge. Just the number of people with individual roles that all bring extensive knowledge in that particular area.
Host: Can you share a little bit about your first Epcon project? I know you’re just getting started with it, but what details can you share about what’s coming?
Debra: We’ll be starting right away here this spring with the model home, and we do have some lots that are already developed and ready to go that border where the newer development is going to originally be.
Host: I know you and I have talked before about how this community is going to be in a really naturally beautiful area. Can you speak to that?
Debra: It’s right on the edge of the city limits, and there’s rolling hills and meadows. And in the summertime you can hear the birds singing, the meadow larks, and hopefully some deer will pass through in there.
And there’s some natural seasonal springs that go through there. So it just seems peaceful to me.
Host: How do you envision Epcon transforming your business?
Brian: I think a more defined process. Everything’s put into place. Everything’s very structured. There will be less starting with a blank piece of paper. And, hopefully for us, what that will do is increase the number of housing starts we can do. In the custom world, we had plans that just took a long time to develop, the selection process, the features inside the home were extensive. This will limit it, not eliminate it, but limit it to streamline the process.
Host: That sort of challenges do you see arising in changing from one side of home building to another?
Brian: I think one of our biggest challenges is going to be our marketplace. We come from a market where there are no production builders, so there are none of those canned plans with canned selections in place. People are used to the freedom in our market of doing whatever they want, picking whatever they want and that’s going to become more limited.
I think personally that will be an easy obstacle to overcome because it can be overwhelming for people.
Host: I was thinking the exact same thing. If you give a buyer a hundred options, it’s difficult to make decisions. But when you lower that number significantly, it helps them to stay more focused.
Brian: The easiest comparison I can make there is going into a restaurant with a menu. When you get a one-page menu, it’s fairly simple to make the decision. You get a five-page menu, you get overwhelmed with the choices and you want everything.
Host: I love that.
Debra: Sometimes people freeze up and they don’t know, they’re scared of making a decision on a particular item, whether it be lighting or flooring or cabinetry because they think they’re going to make the wrong decision. And if you give them too many options, then they start to freeze up and it becomes overwhelming.
Host: What advice do you each have for a new Franchise Builder that’s just getting started?
Debra: Epcon has been around for many, many years. What is it, 30 plus years? They’ve been through the wars and they know how to solve the issues.
Brian: If I was comparing someone coming from a similar market, I would say, trust that there’s other ways to do things. Be very open-minded. And just absorb all the information. Don’t be set in your ways that there’s only one way to do it.
To learn more about Brian and Deb’s story, watch A Natural Fit.