The Tom Trout name has become synonymous with custom home building in the Jacksonville area and have developed a reputation over the past 60 years since they have been in business.
Sixty years is a long time to be around and successful for any business, and there are certain factors that Tom Trout III believes have played a large role in their longevity.
First and foremost is the fact that it has remained a family business throughout the six-plus decades, and it is not something they plan to change any time soon.
In fact, most recently Trout III’s son Tommy, or T4 as he is also known, decided to take a more expanded role within the business after serving in the U.S. Navy the past 12 years, where he had earned the rank of chief.
He is just the latest in a long line of Trouts dating back to his grandfather Tom Trout Jr., who founded the business in 1962.
This year not only marked a “trifecta” as Trout III calls it, because not only are they celebrating 60 years of being in business and a growing role for Trout IV, but Trout Jr. also recently celebrated his 95th birthday.
According to Trout III, having his dad around to continue to experience the continued growth of the business firsthand has been exciting to see.
“We did a lot of talking and a lot of praying and he made the decision that this is what he wanted to do,” Trout III said. “He loves to build stuff and he’s been around it his whole life, so I think it’s going to be a great fit.”
Although it has only been a little more than a month since rejoining the family business and transitioning to working in the private sector again, it has been a smooth change so far.
“I worked in a few different trades before my military service, such as electrical and did some concrete as well as various other things,” Trout IV.
Even though Trout IV was not always hands-on in the business in recent years, the conversations still managed to eventually find their way to the family’s venture in some way or another.
“Every day we would talk on the phone about personal stuff, but we would always end up talking about business as well,” Trout IV. “I’ve always had an interest in construction, so I was always interested to hear how it was going. You want nothing more than to help family, and that has always been there.”
That family aspect is something they pride themselves in and in many ways is evident in how they approach their day-to-day business.
Seeing his son be more involved in the family business brings back memories for Trout III of the time when he was first starting out in 1980 and getting to be more of an entrenched member of the company.
“I remember we had an unexpected management change at the time and my dad was leaving for three months to go on his boat,” Trout III chuckled. “He told me to basically be the eyes and ears of the client and it worked out because we finished up a big custom home. I learned that in our business project management means more than just managing projects, because you’ve also got to sell the jobs and design the projects. Pretty much be involved in all aspects of precuring business.”
“They say that passion is something you would do even if you weren’t getting paid for it, and I feel like that’s the kind of passion we have here,” Trout IV said.
That passion is something he believes is evident when they interact with clients, because they seek to treat each project they take on as if they were doing it for a member of their family.
The approach with their clients is nothing new for the business and has been there from the very beginning thanks to Tom Trout Jr., who was a people person at heart.
“One of my grandfather’s greatest attributes was just pure integrity and sincerity,” Trout IV said. “I remember times when it would just be grandad and I, and we would pull into the gas station and he said he’d be back in five minutes, but 45 minutes later, here he comes and he’d be like ‘T4, I just met the greatest guy who works in the gas station,’ and would then continue to tell the whole life story about this guy. He just cares about people more than anybody I have met in my entire life.”
One of the ways the business has become part of the Jacksonville culture over the years is with its billboard, which stands behind its main office located at 5569 Bowden Road, Suite 1 in Jacksonville, and can be viewed by travelers going both directions on Interstate-95.
Various inspirational and thought-provoking messages are placed on the board with a new one put up every week the sign was first put up in the mid to late 1980s.
Trout IV has experienced firsthand the impression the billboards can make on people, as he even met people when he was stationed in Virginia that mentioned the billboards and how they used to love reading them when they lived in Jacksonville.
“It’s just another way to connect with the community and hopefully brighten people’s day,” Trout IV said.
One thing that has never gotten old after all these years in the business, and that is seeing the facial expressions and waves of excitement that hit a client and their family when they see a project in all its finished glory.
“It’s a wonderful thing to see the clients that you work closely with get all excited when they start to really see the project come together,” Trout III said. “When you’re doing framing and concrete or windows and doors that’s all nice, but once you start putting cabinets and flooring in, that’s the stuff that really pops and their enthusiasm starts to go up and up from there.”
