HOW IT WORKS
The Right Work, in the Right Order
Design Build Success begins by understanding the company as a whole, defining what success actually means, and identifying the work that will make the greatest difference.
A CLEARER PATH
A Path Others Spend Decades Discovering
Across the remodeling industry, successful companies often arrive at integrated design-build through years of trial, error, and expensive lessons.
Sales cannot make promises design cannot fulfill. Design cannot develop solutions disconnected from budget. Estimating cannot wait until every important decision has already been made. Production cannot reliably deliver work it did not help prepare.
Sales, design, estimating, production, financial performance, leadership, and client communication must function as one connected system.
The Design Build Success model was learned by building and leading a design-build company and refined through work with—and teaching—remodeling professionals across the industry. The goal is not to give every company the same answer. It is to provide a clearer path so companies do not have to discover every lesson the hard way.
Is design-build the next step?
GROWTH HAPPENS IN LIFTS
Growth changes the machine while it is still running.
Revenue is only one marker of a company’s development. Firms reach transition points at different sizes depending on their market, project type, pricing, team, and business model. But the challenges tend to follow a recognizable pattern.
At Design Build Success, we think of these transitions as lifts: periods when the operating model that got the company this far has reached its limit, but the next one has not yet been fully built.
The company still has to sell work, serve clients, manage cash, and deliver projects while simultaneously developing new roles, systems, leadership capacity, and ways of making decisions. That is why growth can feel worse before it feels better.
THE FIRST LIFT
Often around $250K–$1M
From Owner Expertise to a Scalable Company
The owner is often selling, designing, estimating, producing, solving problems, and carrying most of the company’s knowledge. Progress requires a sound financial model, repeatable processes, clearer roles, and the beginning of a team that can carry meaningful responsibility.
THE SECOND LIFT
Often around $1M–$5M
From a Company to a Capable Organization
Growth exposes weak management, unclear roles, broken handoffs, unreliable financial information, inconsistent scheduling, and dependence on the founder. Progress requires leadership capacity, financial control, organizational structure, reliable systems, clear decision authority, and a team capable of producing consistent results without waiting for the founder to solve every problem.
THE NEXT LIFT
Often begins around $5M+
From Owner-Led to Executive-Led
The systems that created a successful smaller company can strain under greater complexity. Departments need stronger leadership, forecasting matters more, and communication must travel through the organization rather than through one person. At this level, Design Build Success can assemble the right combination of advisors and specialists around the company’s needs while maintaining one connected path forward.
Talk through your current lift
SEE THE WHOLE COMPANY
Every engagement considers Leadership, Financial Performance, Team & Culture, The Design-Build Operating System, and Marketing as connected parts of one business. Weak cash flow may begin in sales and design. Team frustration may be caused by unclear roles or broken processes. More marketing may simply overwhelm a company not prepared to deliver.
The whole company must be understood before the right work can be prescribed.
DEFINE SUCCESS. BUILD THE PATH.
The right path depends on the destination.
More revenue is not always success. Success may mean stronger profit, reliable cash flow, projects finishing when promised, better client experiences, a capable leadership team, more meaningful work, or a company that no longer depends on the owner for every important decision. Before developing a program, success must be clearly defined—for the company, its clients, its team, and its owner.
Once the destination and constraints are understood, the work can be put in sequence. Custom does not mean vague. The work should have a clear purpose, an intentional sequence, and visible measures of progress.
THE FOUNDRY
The Foundry is the deepest and most intensive Design Build Success program—built for companies ready to create significant change at an accelerated pace. Deep work. Fast progress. Lasting capability. The entire team participates as The Design-Build Operating System, Leadership, Team & Culture, Financial Performance, and Marketing are pressure-tested and strengthened as parts of one connected company.
Explore The Foundry
Start with a focused conversation about your company, what you want from it, and what may be getting in the way. Your first conversation will be with Forrest. Expect careful listening, pointed questions, and an honest discussion about whether Design Build Success is the right resource for the work ahead.
DESIGN BUILD SUCCESS
Residential Design Build Remodeling Advisory