There’s an old adage that says, “If you want something done right, call a busy person.” That would mean calling someone like Inspiration Homes owner, Jonathan Knudsen.
He doesn’t worry about problems; he solves them. He doesn’t ponder opportunities; he seizes them. In fact, you get the idea that if there were a 25th hour in the day, he’d find something constructive to do with it. It’s a mentality that has served him well, personally and professionally, throughout his life. “I’m a workaholic; I don’t play video games and I feel as though I have to actively be making something happen,” he says.
Knudsen, 53, has been making things happen in a positive way since he was a youngster living in Idaho where he, “grew up on the arts side of the house.” He dabbled in dance, sang, and played tenor sax and oboe. He was set on attending The Juilliard School until, “someone convinced me that, unless I was fabulous, it would be unbelievably difficult to break into that field,” he says.
That prompted a shift in focus to business. He earned his MBA with an emphasis on international business from Marquette University, then spent the first part of his career working with tech startups from his adopted hometown of Brookfield in suburban Milwaukee. Eventually, he transitioned to the corporate side, specifically to sales roles for a global technology leader, where he led a division that was noted for consistently outperforming its goals and expectations.
But along the way he began sowing the seeds for another pivot that was as far removed from technology sales as tech was from the arts. “In 1998 I started flipping homes and rental properties in Wisconsin,” says Knudsen. “I did rentals and remodels as well as buy/sells just to have more play money, and I enjoyed it. My kids thought it was odd that I couldn’t sit still, but it wasn’t work to me.”
By 2015, Jonathan and Erin, his wife of 29 years, moved their family to Middle Tennessee where the next chapter of his corporate life would unfold. But he already was enjoying a good deal of success flipping and remodeling property. “We bought a small house in Spring Hill to live in while we were building a new one,” he says. “And that’s when I realized that the process of building a home and everything that goes into it, the positives and the negatives, was more fulfilling than my corporate life. That was the first time I began to think seriously about doing this full-time.”
Much as he did decades earlier when he set aside arts in favor of business, Knudsen began studying for his general contractor license which he received in the spring of 2022. The timing couldn’t have been better as, despite the success, his corporate supervisors began dissolving divisions. Even though he was not directly affected, seeing colleagues excel at their jobs, only to have their livelihoods upended, was unsettling for this man of faith. “I’m a strong Christian. I did right by my team, but I didn’t see the reciprocity from my supervisors,” says Knudsen. “But I can only control my destiny and no one else’s.”
Knudsen reached out to people he trusted and began the formal process of forming a business. Everything, including the marketing plans, was considered. The result was Inspiration Homes, a Thompson’s Station-based provider of custom home builds and large-scale remodels. The company opened for business in January 2022, before Knudsen officially stepped away from his decades-long run in the corporate world.
“We began with the goal of working 3-5 years before transitioning into a full-time enterprise but by January of 2023 we were ready to go and decided to go all in,” says Knudsen. “We’ve done production builds, a custom home and we’ve completely finished three remodels with four more nearing completion.”
Today, Inspiration Homes is a thriving small business. Jonathan handles the design, build and execution of the project, while Erin manages administrative and vendor management functions. “About 90 percent of our jobs have been remodels with the remaining 10 percent being custom builds,” says Knudsen. “I enjoy them both. I like working with the customer, solving problems, and moving them through their challenges.”
With its A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, Inspiration Homes is popular with those who are looking for custom builds or remodels with the hands-on attention that can only come from a boutique builder. “What people tell me the most is that they appreciate communication and transparency,” says Knudsen. “That means working with a general contractor who returns calls promptly and lives up to their word. Everyone can get supplies, but do they have teams and processes in place that enable them to
work efficiently? That’s the question that we take pride in answering to our client’s satisfaction. We keep projects on track and we don’t cut corners.”
It’s the type of attention to detail you’d expect from someone who understands the value of solving problems and seizing opportunities. BuildWithInspiration.com
