By Dana Sleger//
Brandon and Adrienne Elliott are a match made in entrepreneurial heaven. They met at a wakeboarding competition 12 years ago in Canada and have been inseparable ever since. Funny thing is, when looking back at the beginning of their relationship, neither of them could have ever imagined their journey together would lead to being owners of Elliott Homes.
For them, it has been an adventure that just works really well because the priority they place on building their relationship daily with each other has shaped the success of the business.
“We have always put our relationship as a top priority, and the strong foundation we have built as a couple over the last 12 years together has only helped our company grow.” Adrienne says. “Passion is a driving force for what we both do and we acknowledge that we are better together. Additionally, working in different areas of Elliott Homes allows us room to be challenged individually and offer constructive criticism to one another for the benefit of our homeowners. At the end of each day, we both have the same goal in mind and who better to share it with than your spouse.”
They’ve grown Elliott Homes into one of the premier homebuilding companies on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and highly value the opportunity to make careers out of doing what they love, while being open to challenges, and sharing the education and growth that comes with business ownership.
If recognition received in 2015 is any indication of what the future looks like, then plenty more room needs to be added on the award shelf: “Best Commercial Renovation,” “Best Kitchen,” “Best All Around House,” and a national Silver Award for one-of-a-kind design, just to name a few.
With all this recognition, one might think Elliott Homes has been around for decades, but the truth is, it was only established in 2009, which makes the story behind the evolution of the company rather fascinating.
As president of Elliott Homes, to understand Brandon’s appreciation for excellence in homebuilding, the integrity he stands for, and the shaping of his work ethic, we have to go back to the hockey arena. Brandon played for the Mississippi Sea Wolves during the 2007-2008 season, and all the hard work and countless hours of practice on the ice since childhood pointed toward the NHL with a spot on Tampa Bay Lightning team.
However, sometimes fate throws a curve ball at you — or a puck — and alters one’s destiny for the better.
“I retired from hockey and started homebuilding with no background,” Brandon says. The coach from Tampa Bay called wondering what was going on and we got a lot of calls from family members and friends telling us it was a bad decision. But, we really liked the area and saw an opportunity so we wanted to give it a go.”
At this time, Brandon and Adrienne were engaged and she had already moved to the Coast from their hometown of Toronto, Canada, and the adventure of Elliott Homes began. They laugh when recalling the memory of the first house they worked on.
“Adrienne and I put the flooring down, the cabinets in and the fence up,” Brandon says. “We did one house, then we did two, then we did four, then we did six, then we did 10, and it just grew from there.”
Although business was booming by 2012, Brandon says the biggest lesson learned was the company grew too quickly, and because they were not willing to compromise a commitment to excellence, some changes needed to be made to keep the mission of Elliott Homes on course.
“I will never forget sitting in a meeting with Joseph Canizaro, the founder of ‘The Village at Tradition,’ and he said to me, ‘You can never sacrifice quality,’” Brandon says. “That was a turning point for us. We pulled the reins back and ungrew our company from 36 homes a year to 24, and hired the people in place to start growing again sustainably.”
Now equipped with an “incredible” staff of specialists, Elliott Homes operates at full strength, and since 2015 was such a tremendous award-winning year for the company, the building goal for 2016 increased to 52 homes.
“I must give a huge thank you to our staff for their energy and passion for building the company to where it is now,” Brandon says.
Adrienne also is a key asset to the team as the company’s interior designer with an eclectic eye for design and style.
“Adrienne has a sense of creativity, design and intelligence she brings to Elliott Homes that keeps our homes fresh and people interested,” Brandon says. “A lot of the major things we have implemented in Elliott Homes that make us who we are have come from an idea or creative thought that was stemmed from Adrienne.”
Another marking achievement for the company is being asked to build the St. Jude Dream Home for the third year in a row. The 5-bedroom, 3-bath home valued at $350,000 will be raffled on April 10 and is located in Malpass West, an Elliott Homes’ neighborhood in Biloxi off Popps Ferry Road.
“I remember the first time he got asked to build the St. Jude Dream Home and I was just looking at him thinking, ‘Wow, look at where you are now and how far you’ve come,’” Adrienne says. “I’ve watched him go from this hockey player, fighting enforcer on the ice to now watching him give presentations and winning awards. I cheered him on from the stands then and I cheer him on now.”
Brandon and Adrienne have a 17-month-old daughter, Kennedy, who is the light of their lives and bears the name of their award-winning home on Gulfport’s Second Street. As for hobbies, when not traveling or spending time with family and friends, they enjoy working out together, listening to jazz, Netflix binging, and especially driving around their community developments while jotting ideas down to add to the dream list for Elliott Homes.
“Our focus is building communities with amazing homes,” Brandon says. “We want to give people a quality lifestyle, not just a house.”
But, nourishing a quality lifestyle away from the office will always be the strength of the husband-and-wife team behind Elliott Homes.
“Some of the best advice we were given, and both strongly believe in, was given to us on our wedding day,” Adrienne says. “We follow this advice each and every day: 1) Kiss each other everyday; 2) Say I love you every day; 3) Never go to bed angry; 4) Take ‘you always and you never’ out of your vocabulary; 5) Forgive one another.”
Now that’s a winning recipe for a successful marriage and business!
Advice for couples who own a business together
“Conflict builds character and crisis defines it. There may be moments where one or both of you are challenged and at that moment it might seem impossible to find a solution, but that solution is always there. Find it together. Listen. Embrace failure because failure is when you improve — success is just an outcome of improvement. Learn how to hire properly and prepare a business plan together. This is always something people do second and wish it was the thing that they did first.”
Advice for young entrepreneurial dreamers
“The No. 1 most important thing is don’t be afraid to fail. The No. 2 thing you have to do when you fail is never give up and never stop working hard. Like my coach said, be the first one on and the last one off the ice everyday and you’ll surpass people who are better than you because you’re putting in more time and more work. And last thing, listen twice as much as you speak.”
One Comment
Leave a Reply