I am often asked what is the best way for occupational therapists to work with builders. I'm not sure of what works for everyone but I can tell you what works for me and what I've heard from other OTs that are working with builders. Of course every OT that has answered this question will have a different point of view.
I started my company Functional Homes, Inc. as a construction company. I was a single mom of three and was looking for a business opportunity to bring in additional income to allow me to take my children traveling. I was also a competitive sailor. One of the other crew members on the sailboat owned a construction company and was renting wheelchair ramps which was quite lucrative. We started talking and he told me he'd give me 25% of the take of every wheelchair ramp job I brought in. At the time I thought, well I know plenty of people with handicaps so I started referring clients to him. After a while he got a job remodeling a home for accessibility but did not know how to make a home accessible, So we agreed on a 25/75 split and I did the design, chose the materials, and hired a few subcontractors and he did the construction.
During this process we worked with a case manager. The builder I was working with did not plan on keeping in touch with the case manager and didn't care if I kept in touch since he was doing all the construction work anyway. So I filled out a 'doing business as' and spent a summer calling and leaving messages for as many case managers as I could locate and Functional Homes, Inc. was born.
Functional Homes, Inc. is a full-service construction company that has occupational therapists and builders, and architects working together throughout the state of Michigan. For me this was a good fit since I paid my way through OT school by buying apartment houses fixing them up and renting them out.
The original question that sparked this blog post was 'How are people working with contractors?' I hire contractors to subcontract through Functional Homes, Inc. and then Functional Homes, Inc. does the marketing, gets the jobs, and myself, one of our OTs or our ergonomic specialist works with the builder/architect on the design phase. Functional Homes, Inc. choses the materials and sends them to the job site then we work closely with the builders on grab bar placement, space requirements etc. When the client pays, they pay Functional Homes, Inc. and Functional Homes, Inc. pays the builders.
I think it is important that the OTs are paying the builders and the builders are working through the OTs. If the OT is paying the builder the builder looks at the OT as a source of income. I have spoken with many OTs who work with builders and the builders are paying the OT but then after awhile the builder feels they know accessibility and then cuts the OT out. The OT seems to them like an extra expense that takes away from their bottom line. That said there are many OT project managers out there, I'm not sure how their business model works.
The other reason I think the OTs would be best off to be the headliner with the builder working for them is because the headliner is building their business. There are many builders out there but there are very few OTs with home modification expertise. We are worth what we charge and we do bring value to the project, by helping to get things right the first time.
The last reason I think OTs should be hiring builders and be a part of the whole process is because it is very difficult to make a living on just doing evaluations, at least it would be for me. By being the builder, providing the materials required for accessibility (i.e. sinks, faucets, adaptive equipment) you create an additional stream of income for yourself not to mention the percentage of the costs to build. Not being the builder leaves money on the table, which as a business person that's not what you want to do.
I love working with builders, the builders I like working with know the building code and can build whatever needs to be built. I find the more we work together the greater the respect I have for them and their craft and am grateful for the strong relationships that develop.
This is my business model. I am comfortable utilizing tools and did have to get my builder's license but it is all worth it. In fact the beauty of getting my builder's license (although it was an excessive amount of work) is I learned the building code which helps me to be better at running Functional Homes, Inc.
How are other therapists running businesses with builders? What business models do you use?
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