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Recent Blog Posts

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Six Field-Tested Tips to Retaining Valuable Employees

If anything is a more important attribute for a small builder than the ability to identify, admit, and address personal shortcomings, I haven’t found it. Whether stemming from client feedback, or self-evaluation, the ability and willingness to improve based on best available information –...

Want Remodeling Success? Learn--and Live--These Four Ds

The success of a business depends significantly on how effective the owner is. Being effective as an owner is a challenge because the owner usually fulfills several other roles, such as being the salesperson or production manager. What does the business need from the owner, regardless of what else...

Sell More Jobs by Getting the Most Out of Your Just-Finished Work

Ask any remodeler to tell you the best source for their leads and the answer is always “referrals” and “word of mouth.” A referral is a proactive suggestion from a past client who connects a friend or family member directly to you by saying, “You ought to call Acme. These guys did our work and were...

8 Steps for Turning Appointments into Jobs

Contractors spend a lot of time getting leads. But unless they can convert those leads into appointments—and paying customers—they’re dead in the water. That’s why having a proven appointment setting sales script is so crucial. Yet many contractors lack this basic sales tool, said Randall Soules in...

How to Repair Your Wood Siding

Wood siding, for all of its classic elegance and historical significance, can require a lot of upkeep. Beyond the usual scraping and painting, there will be times when it needs a little more than just a fresh coat to hide its blemishes. The good news is that regardless of the type of wood or style...

How to Choose a Remodeling Contractor

At first glance, it would seem like the easiest way to find a remodeling contractor would be to just Google them. Of course if you did so, you’ll probably find more than enough candidates to choose from. And surely they must be the right ones for the job, because their website says so, right? Truth...

The Five Secrets to Success in a Service Business

As a business owner and a customer/client of other businesses, I am always paying attention to what makes me feel well-served. Sometimes I feel that way because things went well throughout the whole relationship. Other times it is because of how the service provider responded to a problem. Here are...

How to Transition from Employee to Effective Owner-Leader

With many baby boomer business owners looking to be living the next stage of their lives, there are a number of companies with one or more employees moving into the owner-leader role. Over the last few years, I have worked with several companies going through this phase. Recently, while talking...

Contractor Tips to Improving Productivity in Their Employees

Improving the productivity of employees in the contractor business can mean a couple different things. From project planning to employee morale, productivity can be affected by many factors. These hold true for large construction companies as well as individually owned local contractors. But the...

Why You Shouldn't be Afraid to Say No to a Sale

Remodelers are trained to say yes from the day they start in the industry. “Yes, I can complete the job. Yes, we can come in at that time. Yes, we can add that change order.” “Yes” is an important word, but perhaps a better word to keep in your vocabulary is “no.” Specifically when it comes to...

How To Respond To Bad Reviews

About two years ago a California window contractor who was not a regular visitor to Yelp became curious. He went to his company’s page and found ten reviews. “Eight were by people we’d never sold windows to,” he says. That is, without having ever had windows installed, those homeowners had gone on...

Three Free—but Priceless—Items You Should Add to Your Company’s Benefits

When an employee’s compensation is being calculated, the owner typically thinks about the wage or salary. More often than not, so does the employee. “Show me the money,” as Cuba Gooding’s character in the movie Jerry Maguire liked to say, is the focus, as it should be. Both the owner and the...

Sales Mistakes

I am a fan of baseball, especially the science of the game. Winning in baseball is more about not making mistakes than beating the opponent. If you give up fewer walks as a pitcher, you will generally do well. If you make fewer errors as a fielder, the other team will score less. If you avoid...

Four Ways to Keep Workers from Wrecking Your Company

One of the most devastating things that can happen to a business owner is being disappointed by a trusted employee. What does this look like? Here’s one scenario: A person whom the employer feels good about is hired. The usual steps are taken to verify that the employee is what the employer is...

Lack of Permit Could Come Back to Haunt

Ron Roen had a problem. He wanted to put his Bellevue, Wash., home on the market and move to a house on the water. But inspection of the roof in the course of preparing the house for sale revealed numerous code violations including lack of ice-and-water shield, improper chimney flashing, and...

How To Have a Difficult Conversation with an Employee

I was talking to one of our sons about a work situation he was dealing with. He’s a manager at an online retail company that is not too big but has grown over the last few years. There had been an ongoing issue with the shipping manager. Both our son and one of the owners were going to have a reset...

4 Ways to Exceed Expectations

Many years ago, I began thinking about the subject of exceeding expectations. I would field phone calls from upset clients or listen to team members’ frustrations and I found that most of the time the root of the problem lay in expectations that were set but not met. Because of this dynamic, I...

Who Is Liable for Injured Subcontractors?

Here’s the scenario: A homeowner looking to replace his roof solicits estimates from several roofing companies. The company he hires is the least expensive one and uses subcontractors to do the labor. The salesperson for that company shows him the company’s state license and current certificates of...

Using Strategic Relationships To Grow Your Business

Eighty percent of your success in business today and in the future will come from your business acumen — not your product or service knowledge. This is probably counter to why you went into business in the first place. Like many custom home builders, your passion likely still lies in the sawdust in...

Are You Doing Enough to Build Your Brand?

Building a brand is as essential to a business as building character is to a person. As with character, the process involves balancing nature and nurture, reality and perception, planning and improvisation. It requires self-awareness, commitment to growth, and patience. Design/build remodelers have...

Where To Start When Redoing your Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen remodels are always interesting as they encompass so many moving parts and different materials. Kitchens themselves are unique in that it’s the one place in your home where the spaces tend to become as old as the appliances within it over time. It’s easy to tell the difference between a new...

Winter Home Improvement Tips to Help Save you Money and Energy

Just because every year there’s always talks about Global Warming, the warmest winter in years, and the sweaty hot summer we just had doesn’t mean winter is going to be some cake walk where no one slips, steps in the black slush, and wakes up in the middle of night to crank up the heat. When I look...

Seven Reasons Why Your Next Truck Should Not Be a Pickup Truck

Tradespeople are relentlessly hit with higher prices, but find it hard to raise their own pricing structure. Thus it becomes imperative to find ways to save money so as to preserve your profitability. By the time that you are finished reading this article, I believe that you will agree with me that...

What Sales + Marketing Problem Are You Trying to Solve?

In any given week, plenty of marketing problems need your attention. You’re stretched thin by numerous demands on your energy and focus, and it’s tempting to seek an easy solution. But easy solutions rarely turn out as we expect. They run over budget, extend past deadline, or cause added chaos and...

Homeowners Splurge on Primary Bath Shower Features, Study Finds

Although primary bathrooms continue to be one of the most popular rooms to renovate, the features within the spaces have evolved over the years. According to the 2017 Houzz Bathroom Trends Study, released today, statement showers with more square footage, high-end features, such as rainfall...