This is a pretty personal post, but the honest truth is that in our lives, as with many small business owners, it is impossible to disentangle the personal from the business. This business was built by our family and even Allen (employee of the year) is family--literally. Our kids spend many hours riding in the truck to job sites, looking at houses, and sacrificing play time because their daddy has to work. All of this is to say that the Journal called the other day and told Adam that he had won Best of the Black Hills in the builder category. To be completely honest, I’m not sure if we should be more or less excited, if it’s a big deal that will impact our business or not. Regardless, we are humbled and super grateful for the kind soul who thought of us as they nominated a builder.
Five years ago Boden was at a crossroads: how could we continue to build spec homes with the rising costs of building materials and the relatively stable cost of homes? I get it, many have this idea that homebuilders are making money hand over fist, but that wasn’t the case and it was time to decide how to keep the business alive. Then we lost Jon and amidst our grief and living in my dad’s basement and building our own house we had to navigate taking on a business. It was a disheartening time: we were scared and overwhelmed and surrounded by family who didn’t need the added burden of our second-guessing. And so we just took it a day at a time and we created a plan in which we could take Boden from spec homes to custom homes. And by “we” I mean, Adam.
He did it.
He worked from dawn ‘til long after dusk, on weekends, holidays, birthdays, vacations. And he did it with patience and kindness and honesty which earned the respect of both our clients and the guys on the job. This is what you have to do to build a business, and he did it.
SO... despite the actual significance of the award itself, it means something to us. It means that all he has worked toward is recognized beyond our family and in our community, however small or large that scope of recognition may be. And we are thankful: for Allen who stood with us as we figured this out, for the support of our families, for being able to live and work and raise our kiddos in a place that we love, and for the people who actually live in those beautiful homes. The people who come to us with a vision and who ask Adam to execute it. Those homes you see are a collaboration, a melding of two dreams- those of our clients and those of a guy who wants to spend his life building houses.
It isn’t always easy, but Adam loves it.
And we love him.