How Stonewood Grew 5X Without Adding Staff
A fourth-generation builder scaled from $5M to $25M using BuildTools
The Challenge
As a fourth-generation builder growing rapidly, Stonewood faced increasing complexity in managing multiple custom home projects simultaneously. Their existing processes couldn't scale, and hiring more staff wasn't sustainable.
The Result
With BuildTools, Stonewood grew revenue from $5M to $25M annually without adding a single new hire. By streamlining operations and improving efficiency, they achieved 5X growth with their existing team.
About Stonewood, LLC
Stonewood is a fourth-generation custom home builder with deep roots in quality craftsmanship and client satisfaction. Building on decades of family experience, they've established themselves as a trusted name in custom residential construction.
As the business grew, they faced a critical decision: continue adding staff to manage increasing complexity, or find a better way to scale operations. They chose the latter, implementing BuildTools to transform how they manage projects.
Today, Stonewood operates at 5X their previous scale, handling multiple high-end custom home projects simultaneously while maintaining the personalized service and attention to detail that made them successful.
The Challenge: Growing Pains
As project volume increased, Stonewood encountered serious operational bottlenecks:
Overwhelming Project Complexity
Managing 5X more projects with the same team meant juggling schedules, budgets, subcontractors, and client communications across multiple systems. Information was scattered and hard to track.
Budget Tracking Chaos
With revenue growing from $5M to $25M, budget oversight became critical. Spreadsheets couldn't keep up, leading to delays in identifying cost overruns and making it difficult to maintain profitability across projects.
Communication Breakdown
With more projects came more stakeholders—clients, subcontractors, suppliers, and team members. Keeping everyone aligned without a central communication hub led to missed messages and duplicated efforts.
Unsustainable Hiring Costs
The traditional solution—hiring more staff—would have significantly impacted profitability. They needed to find a way to scale operations without proportionally scaling headcount.
The Solution: BuildTools as the Growth Engine
BuildTools provided the comprehensive project management platform Stonewood needed to scale efficiently. By centralizing operations and automating key processes, they achieved extraordinary growth without adding overhead.
Unified Project Management
BuildTools replaced multiple disconnected systems with a single platform for scheduling, budgeting, communication, and document management. Every project detail became instantly accessible to the right people at the right time.
The Impact:
Team productivity soared as staff could manage 5X more projects without feeling overwhelmed. Information was always at their fingertips.
Real-Time Budget Control
BuildTools' budget tracking gave Stonewood real-time visibility into project finances across their entire portfolio. They could instantly see which projects were on track and which needed attention.
Automated cost tracking and change order management ensured nothing slipped through the cracks, protecting profitability even as project volume increased.
Streamlined Communication
With BuildTools' centralized communication system, every conversation, decision, and approval was documented and accessible. Clients could log in to see project progress, reducing "where are we?" calls and emails.
Subcontractors received clear instructions and timely updates, reducing delays and rework. The entire project ecosystem stayed aligned.
Efficient Resource Allocation
BuildTools' scheduling tools helped Stonewood optimize resource allocation across multiple concurrent projects. They could see at a glance where team members and subcontractors were deployed and identify potential conflicts.
The Results
5X Revenue Growth Without New Hires
Stonewood scaled from $5M to $25M in annual revenue with their existing team. BuildTools' efficiency gains eliminated the need for proportional headcount growth.
Dramatically Improved Profitability
By scaling revenue without scaling overhead, Stonewood achieved significantly better profit margins. Real-time budget tracking also helped prevent cost overruns on individual projects.
Enhanced Client Satisfaction
Client portal access and better communication led to higher satisfaction scores and more referrals. Clients appreciated the transparency and responsiveness enabled by BuildTools.
Reduced Stress and Errors
Team members reported less stress despite handling more projects. Automated processes and centralized information reduced errors and the time spent searching for documents or answers.
Faster Project Completion
Better coordination and communication led to fewer delays. Projects stayed on schedule more consistently, improving cash flow and client satisfaction.
Competitive Advantage
The professionalism and transparency enabled by BuildTools became a key differentiator in winning new business. Potential clients were impressed by the level of organization and visibility offered.
Impact at a Glance
Revenue Growth
From $5M to $25M annually
New Hires Needed
Same team, 5X the output
Team Adoption
Universal platform usage
Key Takeaways
Process efficiency beats hiring.
Stonewood proved that investing in the right systems can eliminate the need for proportional headcount growth, dramatically improving profitability.
Centralization enables scale.
By bringing all project information into a single platform, Stonewood made it possible for their team to manage significantly more complexity without losing control.
Real-time visibility protects profits.
BuildTools' budget tracking helped Stonewood maintain profitability across a much larger portfolio by identifying and addressing issues before they became expensive problems.
Client transparency drives growth.
The professionalism and visibility enabled by BuildTools became a competitive advantage that helped Stonewood win more business and generate more referrals.
Ready to Scale Without Limits?
See how BuildTools can help you grow your business like Stonewood did—without the overhead.