Business growth and knowledge sharing: the future of Hawes

In June, our MD Sarra Hawes was invited to be a guest on Matthew Cox Enterprises’ podcast. Matthew was keen to hear from Sarra about the work of Hawes Construction Group and ambitions for the future, and how they both align with business values.  

Sarra began by sharing with Matthew and his listener what Hawes Construction Group does: a niche Matthew described as a ‘bridge between the charter surveyors with the knowledge and the builders with the skillsets, bringing the qualifications and the hands-on approach together’. Sarra agreed, and stressed the important of business values, qualifications, and CIOB membership to create the full picture of the business. 

Shaping the construction of tomorrow 

As always, there’s a lot to learn from Sarra, not just about Hawes Construction Group but about business growth and career development in the sector. She shared some of this wisdom with Matthew in the podcast, with wonderful honesty about personal and professional plans for the future and learnings from the past. 

We won’t give away too much – have a listen for yourself! – but some key snippets from the subjects Sarra and Matthew discussed include: 

• Whether Hawes Construction Group makes more money on commercial big-name projects, or smaller residential ones. (Yes, we like to be transparent in everything we say and do!) 

• How that honesty over the costs builds better client relationships 

• Managing clients who have poor cost awareness, perhaps having taken bad advice in the past 

• Why CIOB memberships and other accreditations are important to stand out to the right people as the business grows 

• The importance of a business model that doesn’t put “all our eggs in one basket”, and leaves space for growth 

• The ‘risk and reward’ trade off with buying land and securing planning 

• Learnings from tough processes when client payments don’t land on time 

• Sharing tips about how to get past the ‘tricky bits’ of land acquisition to build beautifully in challenging spots 

• Why it’s so important, but sometimes difficult, to find young people with the right attitude to teach trade skills to. 

What’s next for Hawes Construction Group? 

Sarra stressed that, while business growth is important to support company ambitions and client operations, it’s not about stretching Hawes Construction Group and its people beyond limits. Instead, it’s about delivering that quality and integrity, and encouraging people to be the best they can be at all time.  

With that, Sarra revealed her biggest goals for the next few years, including: 

• Supporting her team (this remains Hawes Construction Group’s primary goal for the coming year, and always) 

• Purchasing more properties to refurbishment, for example into HMOs: a process researched and led by our new full-time team member, Jake. 

• Furthering her ongoing passion for bringing more people into construction to fill the huge sector skills gap, in turn helping the business grow. 

In ten years? Sarra would love to have more people in place in the team as she steps back from the day-to-day when she and Bruce near retirement age. But, that’s a long way off – and there’s plenty to come from Sarra and the team in the decade ahead.  

Listen to the podcast yourself here. 

If there’s anything Sarra’s raised in the discussion with Matthew that’s sparked a project idea, or you’re keen to find out how you can become part of the Hawes Construction Group team, please do get in touch.