Real Talk, Real Growth

On Thursday, April 30th, roughly a dozen folks gathered for DFO313’s third Real Talk at The Brooke on Bagley in Southwest Detroit. This month’s topic: Construction from the Lens of Operations. 

The series, hosted by DFO313, the social arm of AGI Construction, aims to build capacity for Detroit minority contractors in order to scale and access opportunities across the city. But on this night, the conversation kept returning to a quieter theme: The power of showing vulnerability around money.

“People in these spaces are willing to do the work and help others who want to get into this work,” said Tanya Saldivar-Ali, founder of DFO313. 

Saldivar-Ali moderated a fireside chat with Diana Goode, Executive Director of OPS+ at TechTown Detroit and Andres Valbuena, Owner of VR Homes. The three discussed how operational discipline – tracking expenses, managing cash flow, and building the right relationships can determine whether a construction business survives or scales. 

“Vulnerability is a good thing to lean into – especially in regards to finances,” Goode said.

The idea that the built environment and relationships can make an impact in people’s lives resonated throughout the fireside chat as panelist Valbuena shared his journey.  

“My dad’s building plans kept getting rejected, one after another,” Valbuena explained. So his dad pushed him to earn his builder’s license – a decision that eventually led him to start VR Homes in 2019, rehabbing and building new houses across Detroit. 

Five years ago, Detroit began an initiative with the city’s Land Bank to rehabilitate the homes by hiring independent contractors to do the work. “The city has so much work. Once I completed the process to get on their builder’s list, the work just started coming in,” Valbuena added.

Goode and Valbuena met at a session on financial statements hosted by DFO313 ten months ago. 

“Going to a Real Talk, I heard things that I was experiencing myself as I was growing my business and trying to survive day by day. I realized I needed to get control over my accounting, to be more intentional with my contacts, and utilize resources and people who were there to help me figure it out,” Valbuena said. 

Valbuena went on to share how “When we started, we had some seed funding, but we weren’t tracking expenses, income, or even creating timelines for our projects. I learned a lot while renovating the first home under city contract. As we are scaling and growing our businesses sometimes it takes a while.” 

Goode is currently the Executive Director of OPS+ at TechTown Detroit. OPS+ is the administrative “back-office” that supports small businesses, startups, and nonprofits. Previously, she served as the Chief Financial Officer at Techtown where she oversaw programs to help businesses launch. Goode began to notice a trend, and as she said, “By the 10th or 15th time someone was asking me if I knew a good bookkeeper, I realized there was a real need for this kind of knowledge.” 

Goode reviewed five years of Valbuena’s company records, breaking down expenses by category and showing how his gross profit margin had increased while costs held steady. The result: Valbuena increased his bonding capacity from $500,000 to $3.5 million. A credit loan also grew from $100,000 to $500,000.

“I tripled my revenue,” said Valbuena. Last year his company’s annual revenue grew from $600,000 to upwards of $2 million. 

“Events like DFO313’s Real Talk have changed my life,” he added.

This sentiment was echoed by attendees across the room. As attendees arrived for the conversation, they greeted familiar faces, enjoyed catering from Tacos Wuey, and connected with new folks who are in the construction industry. Despite the industry’s reputation as cutthroat and transactional, the room had a notably collaborative energy, with folks networking and connecting beyond just swapping business cards. 

Maxwell Rodriguez from Hamtramck, MI attended DFO’s March Real Talk on affordable housing. “That was the first one we went to- and that sold us. We had to come back and check it out,” Rodriguez said. “All the speakers had really great stories, lots of experience, and helped to break things down that as a builder and carpenter I’m trying to learn more about.” 

Rodriguez has been a carpenter for 10 years, focusing on custom work like cabinetry and built-ins, and is now moving into home renovations and layout changes. All of his work is in Detroit or Hamtramck. When asked what brought him to this month’s Real Talk Rodriguez said, “I’m trying to go all the way to the top! As high as I can go with this.” 

“I don’t just want to be the carpenter, or the project manager. Coming to the first Real Talk made me realize just how much I don’t know. The speakers at these events have been through a lot to get their projects going. I’m learning about everything from insurance and time management, to contract development — it’s a lot to navigate on your own,” Rodriguez said.

These Real Talk sessions provide a chance to meet people with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Many of the attendees echoed the sentiment of “learning from others’ experiences” and taking new terminology or considerations into account as they grow and scale their businesses.  

It was Chauny Sailor’s first time visiting the Brooke on Bagley, but it was not her first Real Talk. “These sessions always are what it says — real talk. It is always an opportunity to learn and grow,” Chauny said. Sailor owns Always Impact LLC, providing general contractor and project management services for residential and small-scale commercial projects. With twenty years in real estate, Sailor has evolved from agent to investor, broker, and now construction. Equipped with her builder’s license, her ultimate goal is to build single family communities. 

“Operations are integral to business,” Sailor said. “Without operations, there is no business, and it’s necessary to scale.” 

“Operations are the backbone to your success. You don’t have to do it alone. There are resources here to help you,” Salivar-Ali emphasized. 

One of those resources highlighted was TechTown’s Ask an Expert program, which offers a free 25- minute consultation to help you take your business to the next level. 

Maria White with Azimuth North Enterprises was among those in attendance who is looking to make the move from the informal building sector to the formal. “Todos los inmigrantes a veces no entendemos, o no le damos importancia al profesionalizarnos porque sabemos hacer el trabajo con las manos. Pero es importante tener las licencias, saber los códigos, y hacer las cosas a lo formal y legal, [Many immigrants sometimes don’t understand, or we don’t give it the importance to professionalize ourselves because we know how to do the work with our hands. But it is important to have the licenses, know the codes, and to do things the legal and formal way]” White said. 

Originally from Guatemala, White emphasized in Spanish how important coming to these events are for her despite not being a fluent English speaker. “Me cuesta entender a veces, pero aunque me pierda, algo agarro y ya investigo bien en mi casa. [Sometimes I struggle to understand, but even if I don’t understand it all, I learn something and then I go and investigate more at home]”, she added.

Valbuena put it more directly: “Connecting to good counsel and building those relationships makes a huge difference when you are growing and scaling your business.”