Rob Reich | Jobs for ADU Builders

Alright alright, it's time to start posting on Twitter again. I still feel weird calling it X. Name's Rob, based here in St. Cloud, Florida, which is just outside of Orlando. Running a marketing agency, scaling past six figures MRR. We only work with remodelers and ADU builders. Below-average golfer yet. I pay to play every week. Married with two kids and juggling agency life and family life. I use my Traeger way too much, and my wife is tired of the "smokey flavor."

The free favor is never free. One quick thing turns into three unpaid hours and a customer who now expects it. Being nice is good. A boundary is nicer.

If I'm a GC starting today, I'm not touching custom homes. Building 10 ADUs a year beats building 1 custom home and I don't have to babysit a $2M client for 14 months.

Nobody warns you the first few years of owning a business don't have balance. You're building the thing that buys the balance later. Just don't mistake the season you're in for the whole story.

Every so often I think about the version of me who was scared to send his first real invoice. He'd lose his mind at this week. Worth remembering on the days that feel heavy.

Telling somebody they don't need you yet feels like leaving money on the table. It's also the fastest way to become the person they call when they finally do.

The calmest person in the room usually wins the deal. They're not scared of hearing no, so they don't push. The pushing is what scares people off.

Big respect for anybody who builds something with their hands and stands behind it for ten years. Harder than anything that's ever happened on my laptop.

Every business I've watched stall was doing five things okay instead of one thing great. Growth usually hides in what you're brave enough to drop, not in what you add.

Half of being great at service is just telling people what's happening. Still waiting on the permit, here's where we are beats silence every single time.

My to-do list has said clean out the garage for nine months. In that same stretch I rebuilt my whole sales process twice. We'll do the hard thing to dodge the annoying one.

You can't fix what you won't look at. Plenty of owners dodge their numbers like a bathroom scale, then wonder why nothing changes. Go look. It's almost never as bad as the avoiding.

Lifting taught me more about running a business than most books did. Show up when you don't feel like it, and add a little more than last time. That's basically the whole game. Nbd.

Hiring somebody doesn't give you time back right away. It takes time first. A lot of owners quit before they reach the other side of that and write it off as a bad hire.

Low and slow is the trick with brisket and with a business. Rush the temp and you ruin it. Nobody believes that until they've ruined a couple.

Reviews are just proof you did what you said you'd do. Do the work right and they stack up on their own. Try to shortcut them and everybody can tell.

Motivation is overrated. Some of my best work happened on days I didn't feel like doing anything. You don't rise to the mood. You fall back on the habit.

This is awesome.

If I'm a GC right now, I'm not chasing custom homes. I'm building ADUs. Smaller ticket, cleaner scope, 22% margin, and nobody in my market is advertising for them yet.

What's a business book that actually changed how you run things, not just one you finished and shelved? I've read a hundred. Maybe four stuck.

The point of building the thing is so the thing serves the life, not the other way around. Easy to forget on a Sunday night with the laptop still open.