We were lucky to catch up with Allison Lyons recently and have shared our conversation below.
Allison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
My parents David & Cherryl Sammons kept me pointed in the right direction… toward Jesus and my identity in Him. Their spiritual and practical leadership greatly impacted my success in all aspects of life. Through adolescence, I was encouraged to exercise the talents God gave me whether it be sports, music, writing, public speaking, or entrepreneurship. But whatever I did, it always pointed back to God. When I played sports, I had P4H on my shoes reminding me to ‘Play for Him.’ When I discovered piano and saxophone, I played in church. My public speaking led me to act in skits with my youth group long before I was VP of Marketing for Ohio’s first FDIC insured school bank at Mason High School or as a recruiter for the nation’s largest concrete contractor. My mom and dad taught me through their own actions that a relationship with God is not a subculture of one’s life but the very culture of one’s life, incapable of being compartmentalized or tucked away. I think it’s this realization that has made me so bold. I’m not fearless. I’m not a huge risk taker. But I am bold. I have a strong spine and through my 30s I’ve taken bigger steps of faith than ever before… House in a Box being one of them!
Allison, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am Co-Founder of House in a Box LLC, a shipping container dwelling builder based in Cincinnati, OH. Our mission is to make housing affordable and attainable again with efficient floor plans, beautiful finishes, and practical thinking. Everyone has to check the box of ‘somewhere to live’ but does it need to cost the national average of $415,000?? No! We’re shifting folks’ thinking to putting less under roof so they can have more time out in the world! Shipping containers are a durable, storm-ready, rodent-resistent solution for quick and safe construction! The ideas don’t stop with just homes… shipping containers are easily converted into affordable rental properties, storage facilities, restaurants / concessions, gig or studio spaces, pool cabanas, in-law suites, he sheds / she sheds, and more!
This dream became reality after nearly a decade of begging my HGTV-contractor Aunt Sandra to move home from Georgia. It finally happened in part, due to the unexpected passing of my dad (her older brother). With 10 other siblings and dozens of nieces/nephews still around, Sandra finally caved to the Cincinnati cold with the goal of reconnecting with family.
I’ve spent the last 25 years in marketing & customer engagement in the industries of construction, residential homebuilding, sports apparel, granite monuments and public safety technology. Sandra built an impressive 22+ year construction career after serving in the Air Force as a jet engine mechanic. In August 2023, she called together some family members and pitched House in a Box. Within a week we had a logo and not much else. But by October, we pulled together enough money to build our proof of concept, The Jackson. It’s a 40×8 high cube container converted to a 1 bed / 1 bath home. We have floor plans ranging from (1) to (6) 40′ containers all available for viewing on our website.
What I’m most proud of is that we’re not trying to get rich off the backs of others. This is most evident in our ‘Stuff & Ship’ offer… if you are a handy man or woman wanting to tackle the interior finishes of your home (cabinets, drywall, flooring), we’ll get your 1-2 container model completely roughed in with framing, electric and plumbing then ship the rest to you inside. This saves THOUSANDS in labor costs and offers you the adventure if putting in some sweat equity! Show us another builder who gives up $10-20k in income just so their buyer can stay in budget!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective stragety for growing our base of followers and generating leads, I believe, is just being transparent and real. Being a startup, we are financially strapped… so marketing is predominately organic, viral or shared by friends/family. We’re not paying for followers, we’re earning them. Our content is not buttoned up or scripted. As we built our prototype, I strapped a GoPro to my head to capture more content than necessary. I posted photos, GoPro hype reels and walk-throughs of the progress. Our cart was REALLY before our horse as we hadn’t yet proven these container homes could go to market. But just days into finishing the inside, leads were coming in from people around the country wanting their own House in a Box. Now notice… we built it in a borrowed barn of a contractor friend. We had/have no headquarters. We didn’t even have a hoodie with our logo yet. But we had interest and tons of support! People seemed fascinated by two women launching a construction company who happened to be an aunt and a niece. two women who both chose male dominated industries their entire careers. We know we’re not your typical construction C-suite leaders but we don’t want to be. We want to relate to our customers more than other executives. We underpromise and overdeliver. We find ways to save money then pass it on to our customers.
Just being real has worked so far!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Our initial capital came from the three people you see on our website: Sandra, Allison and Ian. We pooled just enough money to buy the materials for The Jackson prototype plus some business cards, embroidered hoodies, a website domain and some networking affiliations. We want to avoid loans or debt as much as possible and trust that the right investors will come along. We know it means we’ll grow slow but slow and steady wins the race… if we were in a race. We’re entertaining some investment models that focus on equity over debt as we want partners who share our vision! We anticipate building a headquarters (HIAB HQ) where our smaller models can be built out prior to shipping or our larger models can get rough framed before making way to the homesite. It’d also allow us to build models for showing prospective customers. Too many ‘tiny home’ and container home builders are online only… we’re humans in the real world and want to meet you in person!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.houseinaboxllc.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/houseinaboxllc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/houseinaboxllc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/house-in-a-box-llc
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@houseinaboxllc
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/house-in-a-box-fairfield-2
Image Credits
Allison Lyons