Happy Tuesday, Reader.
And - for those of you in the United States - Happy Thanksgiving to you!
As you get ready to fill your bellies with good food and your eyes with football, Home Builders are thinking about budgeting for their company's operations for the new year (if, ahem, they haven't done so already).
I've found that many homebuilding executives have sort of "fallen into" their roles from within the industry. As such, they haven't really learned how to do things like "budgeting" for their operations.
When I was tasked with doing this, I used a very unofficial process. And, by "unofficial," I mean not-good-at-all.
I took the Sales Revenue and Expenses from the most recent few years and used that as my guide. Then, I simply guessed at Sales Numbers and "tweaked" the expenses to be what I "hoped/wished" they'd be for the new year.
Yep. Pretty basic - and - not real effective.
It wasn't my fault. I was never taught the "best practices" in doing this - as you may not have either.
If you're thinking you'd like to hear how the best homebuilders budget for their operations, I'll be talking with Patti Sorensen, CFO of French Brothers Homes of Alamogordo, New Mexico this afternoon at 3:00 pm Eastern time in my episode of The Homebuilding Hot Seat.
This is a no-sales-allowed monthly webinar that I host where I have one primary person in "The Hot Seat" where we discuss homebuilding industry items. I surround the virtual table with other professionals in the industry to have a fun and informative discussion.
OH - I also encourage YOU to ask questions live (as I want these to be interactive and not just a bunch of talking heads on the screen).
Hope you'll join us today. Even if you can't make it live, you can always register and you'll be sent a recording of the episode to watch whenever it suits you.
If not, enjoy a day or two off this week!
-Brad