How BIASC & Advocacy Improved My Business

Southern California Builder: Tell us a bit about your company.

Laer Pearce: We like to say, “If it’s regulated, we can communicate it.” We use our skills as communicators to build the local support that’s needed to navigate a new development through the CEQA process, or to get revisions made to a proposed regulation that will hurt the industry, or whatever else is needed to help homebuilders and developers succeed in California’s highly regulated environment.

SCB: How important has BIA membership been to your firm?

LP: It has been at the core of our growth strategy. In the early 1990s, when I was a new BIA member, the California gnatcatcher was proposed for listing as an endangered species. I saw that this posed an existential threat to the industry, so I worked with the Orange County Chapter to form an Environment Committee, which I chaired, and put out a monthly environmental newsletter, which I wrote. That directly led to a decade of work managing the industry’s successful campaigns against the state and federal listings of the bird, and then in support of the Natural Communities Conservation Plans that were the industry’s path forward through this and all subsequent species listing efforts. That gave Laer Pearce & Associates a high profile, which led to dozens of additional jobs helping new developments secure approvals and in support of the industry’s position on various regulatory or legislative proposals.

SCB: Has involvement in BIA’s committees been helpful to your business?

LP: Absolutely. As just one example, some of the people I worked with while serving on the BIASC Board as Communications Chair in the mid-2000s are still clients today or are still referring me to their business associates. That’s the best thing about BIA – the friendships and business relationships that grow out of BIA involvement are there for the long-term, bearing business and personal benefits not just for years, but for decades.

SCB: As someone who has been involved in advocacy for years, how would you characterize BIASC’s role in protecting the industry in Southern California?

LP: BIASC and its chapters are highly effective advocates. Whenever I’m working on an entitlement project, for example, I want to get a support letter and public hearing testimony from BIA because electeds throughout the region know and respect our Association. In the last few years, the Association’s promotion of digital advocacy and its educational outreach to the employees of its member companies have been game-changers. The challenges have never been greater, but thankfully BIA’s engagement has never been stronger or more effective.

SCB: What advice would you give to new members?

LP: Don’t underestimate what BIA membership can do for your company. Think big, make big commitments, and you will be rewarded. 

Go to a business marketing seminar and you will be advised to build your business during down markets. Here are profiles of four new BIASC member companies that have a common thread: Everyone interviewed has a positive and optimistic outlook and believes that now is a great time to join BIASC.