says. He started doing contracting work for a developer and then built that up to a point where the developer couldn’t keep Duayne and another carpenter busy enough. “At that point I went further afield searching for builders I could sub-contract with. My company ended up being Queensland’s largest subcontract carpentry business while I was in my 20s. At our peak we had 40 carpenters working for us, turning over millions of dollars,” he says. Duayne’s goal to be a builder never changed, so as soon as he had enough experience, he got his builders license at age 29 and started out working with the developers he had already been working with. “In a few years we were building multimillion-dollar homes, but behind the scenes was terrible,” he says. “We were great builders but we didn’t know how to run a building business. We kept going on this roller coaster ride because I didn’t understand contracts, client management and all the other aspects of a building company.” “Between 2010 and 2014 we were one of Brisbane’s most awarded builders with 10 of our homes in the top 100 homes in Brisbane,” says Duayne. “We won over 20 awards in that period, but the business wasn’t working.” The stress got to a point that he was prepared to shut the business down and walk away from it because of the pressure. “We’d been working with a client for three or four years on our biggest project to date – valued at approximately $3 million – and they gave us the go-ahead for that job. At that point we made a commitment to keep the business going but we OCTOBER 2024
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