In May, CREW Boston’s Entrepreneur Exchange Group was joined by Molly Pidgeon, CREW Boston’s 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year and owner of PIDGEON & Co.|House of Dietrich, two entities that serve her two passions: construction and design.
In an engaging conversation, Molly shared her path to the creation of this practice, with the goal of integrating and better serving designers, contractors, and owners involved with commercial construction projects.
It’s noteworthy that she understood the disconnect between these roles and could liaison between them, and she noted her biggest challenge is making sure “my people understand” that disconnect and how to translate between these role players. It’s important to identify the limitations in communication amongst the project’s team members: “What is your capacity to understand. What is THEIR capacity?”
“That’s not the way we’ve always done it. That’s the scariest thing you could say to me.”
With a zoom full of contractors and designers, we had a great discussion of integrated project delivery, the challenges of technology, and a huge roadblock for all: the withholding of information. The team is so afraid to share information when there’s a delay, price increase, or unknown. It’s critical to dive in early and get it on the table. “If it changes in three days, you revisit in three days.” Ultimately the client must make the decision. Deliver the information to them as quickly as possible.
Members discussed the challenges of learning to decide what’s a bad client, what to do for “free.” We shared strategies for educating clients on extra work, change orders, favors, reframing “freebies” as “marketing,” or “business development.”
When asked about her biggest challenge, Molly noted that there are so many elements: “staffing currently keeps me up at night… Growing my team the right way, having the right structure in place for my team to go out there and be their best, and cultivating the team to be the type of service providers that I want us to be.”
With a backlog of more work than she’s ever had in 15 years – “A big win for me: our pipeline is about a year out right now” -- she still wonders, “Am I enough… to get out there and get this work.”
She’s learned to adapt her business by asking a dream client what’s working or not with their consultants.
Virginia Weida, CREW Pittsburgh member, summed up the group’s sentiment, remarking: “I love the space you’re creating for yourself and your market.”