Article taken from June Professional Builder Magazine

Meet the Hendersons

When customers are prepared to wait upto eleven months for you to start work on their extension or loft conversion then you know you are doing something right.

That’s exactly the situation Stuart Henderson finds himself in as he looks forward to, and plans, a busy year for his business in the Weston-Super-Mare area of Somerset.

But for Stuart it hasn’t always been plain sailing. During the recession in the nineties, when the bottom fell out of the business market, Stuarts fledging building business found it hard to cope, resulting in him shutting shop and going to work for a bigger company.

However, having got a ‘taste’ of being his own boss and running his own business, Stuart soon got fed up and decided to go it alone for the second time in 1996, setting up SDH builders.

Eleven years on things are looking good for Stuart and his five full time members of staff, with recommendations coming in think and fast through word of mouth alone. The level of enquiries have been so great that Stuart has had to take out an ad in the local directory just so people can get hold of his number.

For Stuart, the success of the business is due to a number of factors including attention to detail, transparency of estimates and, most importantly, being on site from start to finish. its this availability to discuss the building plans that, according to Stuart, has helped build his reputation in the area.

Stuart said “It’s vital customers can ask you questions anytime during the project. That way you can allay any worries they may have and show them where their money is being spent. I’ve found that having a constant rapport with the customer and being totally upfront about the cost really helps cement that trust.”

“Being available lets you build a real understanding with the client and allows you to explain what’s going on without any inhibitions.”

And it’s through his hard work and dedication to succeed, attention to detail and excellent rapport with his customers that Stuart is the winner of the June Xcellence Award. Stuart added “The building industry does get a raw deal sometimes in terms of its image so it’s great to receive recognition like this. The reality is however very different with the vast majority of builders doing a good job. I hope more are nominated for this prize and look forward to reading about them in the magazine.”

How to enter the competition:

Previous Winners:

Janauary Winner - Richard Vincent, R V Carpentry & Building in Wiltshire

February Winner - Nick Fell, The Fell Partnership in Taverstock

March Winner - Jeff Goodyer, Artbuild Kent Ltd

April winner - Malcolm Wiggins, Lichfield Deisgn & Construct Ltd in Lichfield

May Winner - Martin Proctor, One Call Services in Kent