Episode 127: Berks Homes: Family Owned for 50 Years + Building and Maintaining Relationships with Ben Horning

Written By Greg Villafana

Today Brad speaks with Ben Horning, General Manager at Berks Homes and the founder of BH Design Build, a comprehensive design and construction company serving Berks and Chester counties in Pennsylvania.

Growing up in the homebuilding business sparked Ben’s passion for building and renovating homes. After graduating and working in new construction, he began to buy, renovate and sell homes.

He founded BHDB in 2012 and eventually partnered with company President Brock Garber in 2014. He is also currently in the process of taking over Berks Homes from his father, right alongside his sister.

Today’s conversation centers around Ben’s approach to building and maintaining relationships with clients, subcontractors, trade partners, and employees, especially now as the country slowly begins to ease into a post-pandemic world.

He talks about what it is like to take over the family business and how he ensures that he runs a tight ship that is efficient, organized, and has a culture characterized by helpfulness, humility, awareness, and being driven.

Topics Discussed:

  • [05:07] Challenges that Ben is dealing with today

  • [07:51] Adjusting to frequent price shifts for supplies

  • [13:12] Dealing with rising prices across the board while maintaining client relationships

  • [16:49] Setting expectations with subcontractors, suppliers, and trade partners

  • [25:35] Ensuring job cleanliness and why onboarding is a big deal

  • [29:32] Taking ownership of your business

  • [30:48] Cultivating great company culture

  • [41:27] Motivating employees beyond the dollar

  • [46:47] Working in a family business

  • [52:16] Taking over the business from his father

  • [55:36] Land acquisition between different regions

  • [01:01:46] Ben’s career before becoming GM at Berks Homes

  • [1:06:44] What Ben does for fun

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Key Quotes by Ben:

  • At the end of the day, our trades are built for the volume, and they know that the way that we purchase things has a little bit of “you win some, you lose some”, but you’re always going to have a certain amount of work. You’re not going to be starving for work for more than a week. There’s always consistent work.

  • The accountability really starts upfront when we onboard [subcontractors, suppliers, and trade partners]. There are two sides of the fence in this relationship: your side of the fence as trade partner, and my side of the fence as builder.

  • Clean equals quality.

  • We want people who not only want to be world-class or the best in their business, but they also care about the goals of the company and achieving them and working together to get there.

Greg Villafana
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Episode 128: Organize, Manage, Lead & Control with Daniel Devol Custom Builder
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Episode 126: House of Form: Design From the Heart & Soul to Achieve Quality Brand Expression with Dala Al-Fuwaires