Avia Homes Managing Director Tom Egan turned a near empty bank account and a new laptop into one of Queensland’s biggest building companies, delivering over 300 homes in their second financial year. 

With this impressive number of homes, they have managed a near-perfect customer satisfaction score and over 150 5.0 star Google reviews. 

We sat down with Tom to get the story behind his meteoric rise, and we will give you the full interview in the coming weeks.

Before then we bring you Tom’s advice on why creating a good culture in your business is the best investment you can make – and the three things that have helped him to achieve that at Avia Homes.

Make meetings matter

“I’ve been in other businesses, where we come around for a team meeting once a month, everyone says a bunch of things about the company and culture, but they show no action,” Mr Egan said.

“Staff just walk away and go this is just another wasted meeting. Nothing is implemented. Nothing’s followed up, nothing’s done.

“For us, we put effort into making sure what we say is what we do.”

“If culture is important to us, what actions are we taking? Not many businesses actually do that. They say it, but what do they actually do?

“We actually care about our customer. What are we doing? What steps are we taking? What have we put in place? So, that’s a very big difference between saying it and doing it.

Value feedback, and you’ll get more of it

“This is where staff feel putting their effort in is worth it – their feedback is actually listened to because I want to hear what they think.

“Don’t copy everyone else, either. I want them to have their own ideas.”

They’ve got great ideas. And guess what? They’re going to be listened to. They’re going to be heard. We’re going to trial it.

Set your standards and expectations

“It’s really important for me, maintaining a standard. And just like any business, every business has their own standard, so you have to be very clear on what that standard is.

“You actually have to spend time with them on what the standard is.

“We’re very big on the process and systems. Due to the growth, it was very challenging to keep training standards up to scratch. We had to make it very clear what their expectations were, what ours were, and make sure we were managing that proactively.

“Don’t just leave your team out there by themselves, but you don’t need to micromanage either. Just go check on how they’re going and how everyone’s going every month, just see where things are at.

“You need to tell them this is our expectation. I just think sometimes it’s not clear enough for them. And again, it’s good to get what’s their expectation of the role? What are the time frames, what are the KPIs? Or what do you expect out of the role? Actually let them tell you, sometimes there could be some confusion. 

“Let’s make this clear together and make sure you’re happy and I’m happy, because at the end, if I’ve misled you in some capacity, if I haven’t managed your expectations correctly, then one, you’re either going to leave, or two, you’re not going to perform very well.”

Author: Peter Love

Pete was the General Manager of one of Australia’s largest home builders for six years, before starting his own business as a buyers’ advocate, building over 200 homes in five years across South East Queensland and working with over 20 builders to deliver them. Across this time he has seen most facets of the industry, the good, the bad, and the beautiful.