Business Management · August 20, 2024
My Business Turnaround Strategy: From Bankruptcy to a Multi-Million Dollar Company
A first venture into home building ended in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Here's what went wrong, and how a rebuilt partnership turned it into a thriving company.
Jumping into home building with no real construction experience, backed only by a marketing background, seemed manageable at first. Chasewood Homes had a strong opening run, building semi-custom homes and even landing an invitation to a local Street of Dreams showcase, with a pre-sale to a small-town mayor along the way.
The business unraveled over something deceptively basic: with roughly 22 custom homes in progress, the person responsible for ordering lumber and trusses failed to keep up, causing massive construction delays, furious customers, and banks pulling financing. Revenue collapsed, and the business ultimately closed with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing.
Rather than walk away, the response was to take responsibility: meeting personally with affected customers, helping them navigate completion plans, and eventually co-founding a new company, Stanbrooke Custom Homes, with a CPA partner who handled finance and operations while marketing and sales stayed the focus. That division of strengths, and real financial discipline from day one, is what let the second attempt actually work.