Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

go through the process with us. I believe in that type of business. We’re not just making a place to live; we’re designing it with them from the very beginning.”That collaborative business model has earned Raykon Construction numerous awards over the last several years, in categories such as: exterior and interior design; landscaping and outdoor space; kitchens, bedrooms, and baths; and overall Favorite Home. THE COMPANY GROWS BUT STAYS L EAN Today, Cloward’s business is small but mighty with only eight employees including himself: five project managers, a director of operations, and a director of finance. But then there are all of the other professionals that must be assembled in order to plan, design, build, and accessorize a custom-built home. “Sometimes, my clients will come to me without a plan,” Cloward says. “Maybe they’ll have a building lot and maybe a vision in mind, or a folder of pictures outlining the direction that they want to go. We’ll help them find a team. I call it the ‘dream team,’ with an architect, the general contractor, the interior designer, and a landscape architect a bit later on. The general contractor is the leader of the team, but I’m aware that I need to stay in my lane. I’m a construction manager; I haven’t been trained on how to design houses; I don’t know how color palettes work or how design boards come together. We rely on our professionals to carry out the vision and to put it all together and that their tools and resources are up to our standards. Then we go out and find the trade partners to execute the vision that they put together with us and the homeowner.” “We’ve had some amazing projects over the last couple of years,” Cloward continues. “And it’s been a treat for us to work with various talented architects and interior designers. We take a diversified approach within the design aspect of construction. We have modern style, we have traditional, we have transitional, farmhouse – there are a lot of opportunities here in Utah and a diverse amount of architectural talent and we don’t target one design over another. We do not do in-house architecture or design; we have partners that we work with, and some of them are on multiple projects for us, but some are not. And if a homeowner already has an architect, we’re very flexible as far as that goes. Of course, we’re going to do our best during the vetting process to make sure they’re a good fit for our systems. But, we welcome our clientele to bring their relationships into the team, as long as we’re working toward a common goal.” THE OWNER EVOLVES Cloward recalls that in Raykon’s early days, he was in charge of all of the many details that go into the construction of expensive, high-end homes. 55 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12 RAYKON CONSTRUCT ION