Brian A. Bailey

      Spouse: Jan Bailey
      Children: Ben, Jake
      Hobbies: horses, hunting

      Guiding principle:
       If you're not changing, you're          not getting better.
      Years in business: 20
      Number of employees: 6

Brian A. Bailey Homes
Management Team

      Brian A. Bailey - President
      Gaynell Green - Executive Vice       President and Controller
      Mary Anne Hackney - Sales       and Marketing Manager
      Stuart Sivy - Construction       Manager
      Robert Kibel - Construction       Manager
      Linda Youngblood - Office       Manager

With his cowboy boots and easy manner, it's hard to imagine Brian Bailey as a banker. Yet that was his intended career path as he finished his M.B.A. before fate took him into home building. But at least one banker's trait has stayed with him: He's happiest when he's documenting something. For a company with 10 million-dollar homes under construction, it's a handy quality to have.

"People ask, 'How do you keep up all these relationships, and how do you keep track of all these jobs?' "To me, it's easy," he says. "It's all documented. It's all written down."

And it is. Right down to his phone conversations, every one, every day, recorded on a yellow pad. It's the way he functions. Consequently, the documents for each job bulge from a book at least 5 inches thick. And Bailey, a longtime tech wiz, keeps details of each job on a computer file. All 400 line items of each budget can be found there. Every room is broken down into labor and materials, every countertop and every fixture.

"How we've continued to improve is to identify what the cost relationship is. Everything has a price... As a result, we've tried to quantify to the nth degree the exact cost of all labor and materials; we've taken the guesswork out of it."

Over the past year, Bailey has revised and expanded his specs, warranty manuals, selection guides, and change-order processes. "Prospective clients who have reviewed these specifications have been impressed, and this alone has set us apart from our competition," he says. "Our documentation has proven to [clear up] any discrepancies.

- "If you tell the customer how you're going to build the house, you take them out of the black hole."-
                                                                   Brian A. Bailey

Getting Connected
To improve the flow of information from the field, Bailey recently equipped all his employees with Palm Pilots. Construction managers make notes during the day and download the information each evening to the office computers. Before morning, the information is faxed to subcontractors and suppliers.
And that's only phase one of Bailey's plan. "I want to have a system where every one of my subcontractors and suppliers is on e-mail, where we're notifying them [regularly] of the exact progress of our jobs and of customers' selections, and it's a totally integrated information system. It's going to make our business so much better." He thinks he'll have it going in two years. The process will lay the ground-work for Bailey to increase production.

Bailey's systems have evolved over time from a simple spreadsheet to track scheduling to a software program of his own creation that generates a flowchart of each job. The one-page color chart shows at a glance what has been done and when each type of task is scheduled. This makes it easier to make changes, to react more quickly, to be more efficient. Every week, the chart is updated, the staff goes over it together, and the new version is given to customers. "I'm working on a new program that's going to blow this out of the water," Bailey confides, positively animated at the prospect.

      In the Loop
      It takes at least nine months to build a Bailey home, and clients are right there, from beginning to end. In fact, Bailey holds a       scheduled meeting with each client each week to walk the home together. Ten meetings a week take a chunk of time, especially       when some stretch to two hours, but Bailey's found its well worth the effort. "If you tell the customer how you're going to build the       house, you take them out of the black hole. If you keep them up to date with you as the schedule varies, they don't have any       surprises,because you've kept them with you the whole time. They've built the house with you."

      Bailey updates all schedules and selections every Friday and notes, "People like us because we    discipline them about their       decisions." He also sends digital photos of construction, and starting this  spring, each client will be able to access a private       mailbox on Bailey Homes' Web site to see those  photos,  their construction schedule, change orders, and other details about       the progress of their home.

      Not only do clients know the schedule, they see every bid, and they know exactly what the company is  going  to make on the job.       Through its careful communication and in dozens of small ways, Bailey makes sure the  company earns every bit of the profit -       and that the customer knows it.

       "We really become family to our customers," says Mary Anne Hackney, Bailey's sales manager. That  includes sending flowers       to customers with new babies, she says, sending birthday notes, giving them  gifts when they close on their homes, and       delivering dinner to them on move-in day.

      Bailey will go back - in a heartbeat - and do warranty work five, six, seven years later. Stuart Sivy, one of the  firm's construction       managers, once spent two hours on a Saturday putting in a new microwave for a  customer who just didn't trust anyone else to       do it. And Bailey is all for it. "Brian gives me a lot of liberty to  spend my time this way. He doesn't question it," says Sivy.

      That level of service earns the company a 50 percent referral rate. The other 50 percent comes from  Realtor relationships that       Hackney painstakingly nurtures. Sales are not a problem at Bailey Homes. All  the  company's "time slots" for new jobs to start in       1999 were sold well before the end of last year.

      Even so, Bailey isn't a slave to his clients. Because he stays so connected to them, no-one needs to  chase  him down on       evenings or weekends. The key to making it work, he says, is to manage customer  expectations throughout the job.

      "There are some jobs I won't take. That's where experience comes in by being able to determine people's  expectations. If you       can't meet their expectations, don't do the job, because you can't get there. That's what  this business is all about."

      Every job also has to meet Bailey's financial parameters. He passes on jobs that don't deliver the margins  he's set. Maybe that's       the banker in him. And perhaps he's mindful of 1988, when real estate activity in  Austin just plain stopped, and he lost       everything. "Disposing of our lot inventory was a challenge I don't  care to relive," says Bailey, recalling the days when he       developed his own land. So now, he simply keeps  land off his balance sheet.

      When a subdivision is under way, Bailey has contracts for lots, and before he has to close, he sells them  to  buyers. Because of       that - and the fact he hasn't built a spec in so long - the company has no debt.

      The Right Attitude
      Bailey credits his employee "family" with the company's success. They share the commitment to making  clients not just       satisfied, but truly delighted. "This isn't a one-man show," Bailey remarks. It's a team effort,  he says, to keep on top of every job       and to deliver the service the company has become known for.  Recalling the times they've moved slabs and added wings to       houses after they've been framed, Bailey  says, "We never, ever say, 'We can't do that.' "

     Sivy once tore out every bit of trim, including flooring, when customers decided they didn't like the stain  color they had chosen.

      "In this business, you've got to keep moving forward. You've got to continue to get better," says Bailey, who  listens to tapes on       management topics while driving to work. He's in constant motion. When he says, "I  wake up in the morning going a thousand       miles an hour with my hair on fire," it's not hard to picture the  flames.

      And though he's extremely driven, Bailey believes that work has to be fun. "I'm very content. I know who we  are and what we do."       It's obvious that with his plans for new computer systems and a more aggressive  production schedule, he's having a ball.