Before she opened her own company, Cora Johnston was with Mercedes Homes for 16 years.
She started in sales and then became the outside sales manager. She went back to sales for a bit and then became the vice president of sales for four years before running the division for the next nine years. For her last three years there, she went to corporate and left Jacksonville with Mercedes homes and traveled the Eastern United States and did growth for Mercedes Homes.
“I worked on trying to buy or put together a homebuilding company in the D.C. area and then worked with the company’s Charlotte division to help them get reorganized and back on track,” said Johnston. “I came back to Florida and traveled the whole state and worked with the individual divisions helping them re-position their neighborhoods because of the downturn.”
She was tired of traveling so she decided to open her own business.
“I spent the next nine months going door to door to banks and working with the Small Business Administration trying to find working capital to start my business,” said Johnston. “Because I am a homebuilder, it is not available.”
Finally, she cashed in her retirement accounts and opened Generation Homes last October.
“We started from scratch,” said Johnston. “We didn’t copy or use anyone else’s house plans. In early 2009, I traveled all over Northeast Florida, every market and every sub market. I visited all the other builders’ models and because people really didn’t know me, I could really shop the other builders.
“I found two things. I found that there was absolutely no new product in our market. What everyone was selling was exactly what was on the resale market. The builders were competing against themselves. Also, the sales people, really through no fault of their own, had been beaten up so badly that they forgot how to sell through relationship selling.”
Johnston decided the key was to bring something fresh to the market in the way of “Grow Homes.”
“A ‘Grow Home’ is a house that can expand as the family lives in it,” said Johnston. “If a family today can afford a home that is 1,700 square feet, we have already pre-planned, pre-engineered and pre-designed how the house can grow with the family. So, whether you suddenly work at home and need an office or your children become teenagers and they need their own separate space or a family member moves in with you or you just need more space.”
Johnston’s years of experience has helped her immensely in her new venture.
“I think the benefit for me is that I understood that you really have to do something different out there if you are going to be successful,” said Johnston. “My sales and marketing background, networking and traveling gave me an insight into the fact that no matter where people live, they really are looking for the same thing: a home.
“I did a lot of e-mail focus groups. They helped me pick the name of my company, design my product, choose my marketing style and branding. If I was going to appeal to a certain consumer group, why would I assume what they want? My experience gave the knowledge to know to never assume what someone wants, always ask.”