Remodelers On The Rise

A little thought on how music can help you run a better remodeling business. I promise, I don't sing in this video, but you'll hear some decent music...

I enjoyed this lively chat with Vicki Suiter. Learn from her expertise as I ask her and we discuss:   1. What are the biggest mistakes you see contractors make in pricing? 2. How do you suggest people overcome pricing objections? 3. There are only two ways to increase profitability - what are they? 4. What process do you recommend contractors have in place in order to make sure they are bidding to meet their gross profit margin goals? 5. What is ONE thing every person listening to this podcast can do right now, that is super simple, to get a better handle on their numbers?   Enjoy and be sure to pick up a copy of Vicki's new book at www.TheProfitBleed.com   

What is the 5P? How can it impact your business? Find out in this episode!

Where did the money go? We aren't making any money on this project! Maybe I need to sub out more of my work and cut back on my self-performed/in-house labor? These are questions and thoughts one of my remodeling clients was saying on the phone the other day. He had a lot of hypotheses. A lot of, 'Maybe it's this? Maybe it's that?' What he was lacking is a hard look at his Job Cost Reports.

This isn't specifically related to your remodeling business, but, if you're like me, it might be something that is a good message for you to hear or something to forward onto a friend or family member. Reach out anytime if you want to chat – about topics like this, your remodeling business, or life in general. I'm here and available. 

Here are some questions to think about over this weekend: 1. You started the year with some clarity and big plans. When you think of your business – What's working? What's not working? Pull out a sheet of paper, slow down for a minute, and write some things out. 2. Your work/life balance – what is your plan for the next 30 days to improve it? 3. How's the financial side of the business? Are there any expenses to cut? What are you going to invest in this fall? Read all 10 questions here. 

REMEMBER: If you don't do anything about it, nothing changes. Maybe this means you need to drop and knock out 20 pushups Maybe you need to go for a walk and clear your head Maybe you need to immediately text your spouse and set up a date Maybe you need to call your employee and set-up a time to meet Maybe you need to talk to me about getting involved in Remodelers Circle so that you have a business group to belong to Maybe you need to order a salad for lunch today If you don't do anything about it, nothing changes. Remember that and do something about it.

I'm working on a new website for my Remodelers Circle program. Like any website project – it has a lot of moving parts. I need to figure out the pages to include, how I want it designed, and lots of content writing. Last week I worked on it for about an hour. What did I have to show for my hour of dedicated work? Absolutely nothing. I started writing some content. Then switched to making an outline of the menu and what pages I wanted to create. Bounced over to my main website to see what blog posts I would move over to the new website. Tinkered with a testimonial that one of my clients sent over. I was sporadic and jumping all over the place. The next day before I sat down to work on the project again, I thought for a minute and picked ONE thing. Just one thing related to the project to focus on and move forward. At the end of that hour, I had one piece of content written out and completed. I was able to check something off! —— A lot of your remodeling projects for clients are like what I described above. A lot of the 'working on the business' items you long to focus on are like this as well. They're projects that have a lot of moving parts and pieces and a ton of things that you have to do. Let this be a reminder to break your work and tasks down to bite-sized chunks. Decide on what ONE thing you're going to grab and drive through to completion vs. dabbling on five different things and not getting anything actually done. Like a lot of my blog posts, I write them as a reminder to me as much as I do to you  I hope you found this helpful. —— I'm excited to be launching two new Remodelers Circle Mastermind Groups in September! Until I get the new and snazzy website done, you can get the details on Remodelers Circle here. Let me know if you'd like to talk more about this transformational group. It's powerful to be in a professionally facilitated and organized group with like-minded, similar sized remodelers who are eager to learn and to share ideas, templates, and best practices with each other. —— Remember: Focus, pick one thing, and complete it!

Imagine that you have the ideal prospect and project come into your remodeling business. The project is exactly what your team excels at and the homeowners are wonderful. They have a realistic budget and everything is looking great. What are you going to do to reel that project in? You're going to pull out all the stops with your sales process! I bet you'll ask a lot of great questions so you truly understand what they're looking for and what they value. You're going to send them a professional appointment confirmation email between the initial phone call and in-person meeting. You'll show up on-time for the in-person appointment – looking sharp and with a smile on your face. You'll bring your A game to that first appointment and work hard to connect and build trust with them. You'll explain your process in crystal clear detail and share great design ideas. That handwritten thank you note will hit the mail the day after the initial meeting. You'll pull out all the stops. The same level of effort, planning, and differentiating your company from others needs to go into your employee recruiting. If you're like most of your colleagues in the remodeling industry, a huge pain point is finding quality, skilled help. It's an employee's market out there and supply and demand are in the skilled tradesperson's corner. If you're going to convince that new lead carpenter to sign on with you, chances are he or she (and their spouse a lot of the time) are going to need to be convinced that it's worth leaving their current company to come over to your team. Be sure to explain to them how you can help them. Let them know that your employee's health and happiness are a top priority and that you offer a great work environment. Sell every little point of difference and benefit that you have. Reach out to them quickly when they submit their resume and follow-up in a personal and solid way. Look at your employee recruiting in a new way: Recruit your team members with the same effort and tenacity that you would the perfect remodeling prospect.

"I've known Kyle for years and have been impressed by his work AND even more impressed with HOW he works. He is a person of such deep faith and it comes across in his business in a humble, serving, very human way. Beautiful. I asked him to speak with me about how his faith influences his work. Then he quickly turned the tables on me! And agreed - BUT only if we made it a co-interview and he could ask me about my faith and how it influences my work. So here we are... sharing our different faiths and many common practices for bringing this to life in a business environment." - Jayme Dill