house better than the builder does.” From there Duayne and his wife developed software that led into another business called QuoteEaze. This business was established due to builders reaching out after attending Duayne’s seminars and seeing what Duayne was posting on social media. They were interested in the documents that he and his wife had developed in their building business. “I’m on a mission to create a building industry where builders, trades and contractors run sustainable and profitable building businesses,” he says. “The reality is, over 80 percent of businesses in the construction industry are close to insolvency. They don’t understand their numbers; they don’t know if they’re making money or not, they don’t understand their role in the industry, they’re not paying themselves a salary. So many parts are broken. We’ve managed to change all that so we now have a business that runs incredibly well.” Duayne has a podcast called ‘Level up with Duayne Pearce’, it is the number one construction podcast in Australia. “We’re doing a lot in the industry to create change and improvement”, he says. Duayne’s purpose is to create a new building industry where everyone involved thrives. He is also the co-founder of ‘Live, Life, Build’ with his business partner, Amelia Lee (also known as ‘Undercover Architect’). Live, Life, Build is a coaching and mentoring program with an online portal, a systems library and seven mentors in the business. “We not only teach the building side of things but we do a lot of personal development,” says Duayne. “We found you can give people in our industry everything they need to run a good building business but if they’re not doing personal development and working on their mindset, the culture they’re creating in their business and their leadership skills, then everything goes in a vicious circle. They win jobs, get a bit of money, lose a job and lose a bit of money and go back downhill again.” One of the big things he is passionate about is teaching people in the industry that they can’t go it alone. “So many people work with their tools all day, then stay up all night pricing and estimating and running the business because they feel they can’t afford to bring people in to help them,” he says. “Our industry is filled with people racing to the bottom. So many people are focused on having to undercut each other to get work. Winning a job shouldn’t be about how cheap you are. It should be about building a personal connection with your clients. They come to you because you are going to deliver to them, not by how much you’re charging.” “We say that we build relationships before we build homes,” says Duayne about D Pearce Constructions. “Our clients pay us to be involved in all the preliminary stages. I go to all the design meetings. By doing that, I get to put costing input into the job prior to it going to contract. I’m always liaising between the client, architect and homeowner about efficiencies and material choice.” With an upcoming average project cost of $1.8 to $2.3 million, the project is king, says Duayne. “Our whole job is to work as a team. The architect does the design. I figure out costings and if and how it can be built. My job is to inform the team on what they want and the cost and it’s up to the client to tell us what they see value in so we can make adjustments to the project.” “Often we have clients come to us with a design in their head but they don’t understand the cost of things,” he continues. “Lots of people tell us they OCTOBER 2024
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