Q&A

April and Mike Nagy, owners of Pinnacle Custom Homes in Orange NSW.

Tell me a bit about yourselves and your family.

April: Mike and I are both 30, and we have three children - Huxley, 5, Florence, 3, and Jarvis, 7 months.

Both Mike and myself (April) were born and bred in Orange, NSW. It is a stunning regional town known for great food and wine.

We both attended local schools but did not meet until the year after we both finished year 12 (2011) when I was studying primary school teaching at university and Mike had started his carpentry apprenticeship.

We dated and travelled for a number of years while completing our training/studies and in 2016 we married. During the year of our wedding we started to build our very first home. Mike did as much on the home as possible to keep the build cost as cheap as possible. Would you believe we were able to build the home for just over $200,000?

I continued working as a primary school teacher and Mike studied to get his builder’s licence.

We had our first son in 2018 and the same year we sold our first home and began building our second home. This has been a pattern that we followed over the years and what got us into becoming builders for clients. A friend approached us after looking through one of our homes and asked if we would build their home. Nervous about the leap we were taking, we said yes. Flash forward and we now build high-end homes for multiple clients a year. It has certainly come with highs and lows but we take all the challenges we have faced as an opportunity to learn and do better.

Do you have hobbies/interests outside of work (either together or separately)?

Mike: We love travelling Australia with our kids and each year try to take them somewhere special. Our most recent trips being Central Australia through the Simpson Desert and Cape York. We also enjoy spending weekends at April’s dad’s property, which is an hour’s drive from where we live.

April: The kids love riding motorbikes, Mike takes them fishing and it is a really nice way to take a break. When we aren’t doing that, we love to eat and drink at all the beautiful food and wine venues that Orange has to offer. We are big foodies.

Tell me about your business, Pinnacle Custom Homes.

April: We are high-end residential builders. We favour design and construct as we both have a passion for design and love being involved with our clients from the very beginning. We also do a bit of architectural work as well. The high-end builds came about from Mike’s extreme attention to detail and perfectionist attitude for the homes that he builds.

Mike: We find that what draws clients to us is the fact that we are a team and April is heavily involved. The wives/girlfriends find it comforting having April (who is super bubbly, easy going and supportive) as the main point of contact throughout the build.

What is it like owning and running your own business with your partner?

April: We love working together. We certainly are each other’s ‘better halves’ in the business and in our personal lives; skills where Mike lacks, I pick up and vice versa. We really are the perfect team. We also bounce really well off each other and have the same passion for building well-built and beautiful homes.

What is it about being a family business that you enjoy (for both of you)?

April: When I was teaching, Mike never understood the high and lows of the job or the stresses that came with it. Now that we work in the business together we go through the highs and lows together and we always know exactly what one is feeling because we are in it together. It’s one of the blessings that come with working with your spouse.

What is it about being a family business that you find challenging (for both of you)?

April: The flexibility that allows us to have with our kids. We are working all the time and sometimes at crazy hours but it also allows us to be there for our kids when we need too. The kids have such an equal experience with both parents and Mike can be so much more hands-on because of our work situation. It means that kids get dragged to work meetings and site visits and they are familiar with the jobs we do and what Mummy and Daddy do for work.

It does mean that we never get a decent break. For example, when Jarvis was born I was literally in the hospital, in labour, making work phone calls and responding to emails. That is probably the main downside.

What is it about your roles in the business that you enjoy (for both of you)?

April: I LOVE design, love seeing our ideas come together, and I love supporting our clients through their build journey. Building is full of so many ups and downs and I feel their feelings with them.

Mike: I still love being on the tools as much as I can and seeing a pile of dirt become the clients’ dream home!

What is it about your roles in the business that you find challenging (for both of you)?

April: We are a small business with a young family and a mortgage like everyone else and have copped quite a lot of price rises being in fixed price contracts. It is scary when you see so many building companies in the media collapse and it’s so sad to see and you just pray that it won’t happen to you. So I suppose the worry never leaves you, it’s a constant state of worry about meeting deadlines, worry about weather, worry about the workload, worry about ensuring both the clients and your trades are happy. You can’t switch off, ever, even if you want to. And in building some things are just out of your control.

How do you balance home (family) and work life? Is this hard to achieve?

April: It is so hard. There is always a phone call to take or an email to answer. Our poor children are used to it. I still think we are trying to figure this part out to be honest. We do value balance and feel it is important. Mike is better at prioritising it than I am. In this day we have access to our phones all the time and people expect you to be on call 24/7, so I think having some boundaries in place would be a good start. I am yet to implement that though.

What advice would you like to offer to people in a family business?

April: Ride the wave, there are highs and lows and it is just a part of life. You are always learning and can always be better. Celebrate the wins and always be kind.

What was the best piece of advice you have received?

April: Gosh that is a hard one. I think delegate. If you are not good at something, pay someone who is.

What’s been some of your proudest moments?

April: One of our builds won a National Master Builders Award last year which was such an honour. I was having a baby at the time so we sent the clients but it was so amazing to be recognized for our hard work.