Kieran McCarthy: Moving from tradesman to building contractor

I guess my story is somewhat similar to yours. Whereas I studied civil engineering, I always wanted to work on site so I became a site engineer rather than a design engineer in an office. This was a great career for many years but I always had my mind set on going out on my own, I just don’t know exactly what type of company I wanted to start. Eventually, the drive to start out on this path got to a level that I just had to do it. I got the opportunity to build an extension for a friend and next thing I knew I was up and running.

I knew it would be frantic for the first few months and it certainly was. I had to sell my car and buy a jeep and trailer (which I had to learn how to reverse with). I had to get used to doing much of the labouring myself as we had no staff, only me. I was calling to a few of our sites by day, delivering materials and removing rubbish to a landfill and then doing the books and studying drawings by night. I had no real plan, it was just do what I knew how to do and see where it got me.

This worked for a few years in a very buoyant economy up to 2008 when the Celtic Tiger bubble burst. Now all builders were targeting my little niche of extensions and renovations so I had to learn the first rule of business, always be differentiating yourself, innovating, and adding value. As I was an engineer, we started offering design as part of our service. All of a sudden we had our own ‘end of the market’; a turnkey end to end service.

The reason this was such a success for us takes me to the second big lesson I learned. Let me explain. As a tradesman, you (like me) will no doubt spend a lot of time worrying about the building you are doing. Is it plumb, is it level, is it strong enough? These are all very valid concerns but they are not the concerns of your clients. Your clients are probably wondering when will their extension be finished and how much will it cost in the end? The learning here is, yes, the building works are important but equally so is the service you are providing. It is a bit like going to a restaurant, if you call there and the food is great but the service is very poor, you won’t likely go there again. I hear many builders say ‘clients won’t mind if the building is late as long as the quality is good’. A couple of weeks is acceptable perhaps but if it drags on, your clients will not be happy and it will take all the good out of the job for everyone involved.

Another lesson that I learned from the Celtic Tiger crash is that it is at this point that you really see how well you have been running your business. As the famous American Investor Warren Buffet once said: ‘It’s only when the tide goes out that you see who has been swimming in the nude.’

When the crash happened and there was no credit left in the economy, many companies started to fail. Each day it was a question of who’s next? This was the stage where you realise that there is a lot more to running a business than just being a good builder. You need to become good at running a business.

This is something that isn’t really taught in school or university for that matter. How to set up a business, how to market and sell your offering, how to run the operations and set up systems, how to deal with HR and how to manage your finances. In most cases you learn this the hard way as you go. Your greatest learnings will be through your mistakes and but, by adapting and persevering, you’ll get there.

A business is never finished either. You will always be working on improving something. Certainly you will become more established after five to seven years but as you grow the business will have different and more sophisticated needs which you will adapt to as you become more seasoned. A long-term view of your business goals and what problem your business is there to solve, will serve you best. It will also help you navigate the short term ups and downs. Yes, it’s a bumpy ride but I would certainly do it all again if it came to it.

Kieran McCarthy is a building engineer and director of KMC Homes bespoke A-rated new home builder, serving Cork and Limerick. 

He is also a co-presenter of the RTÉ property show Cheap Irish Homes. Check out KMC Homes’ brand new website kmchomes.ie Follow Kieran on Instagram @kierankmc for more home building information, tips and Q&A advice.

You can also follow Kieran on the Built Around You Youtube channel and @kierankmc on TikTok