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Every company ought to track change order revenue as a percentage of total job cost. Below-average revenue may signal change orders that are not being processed, and that can cost you.If change orders average 10% of total revenue, a company with $500,000 in total sales is handling $50,000 in...
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By relating owner compensation to total revenue, the Risk Quotient (see Benchmark, January 2003) helps a remodeling company owner balance risk with reward. Making a bad situation worse, a single major change order can easily add 20%, 30%, or more to the original cost.
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Tom Couvillion, BizMat marketing manager, says the self-help tool for small and large businesses is made possible by interactive software. Instead of having to wing it, or go with their gut, they can contact us," says Jason Plotkin of BizMat, who adds that the site also provides resources, such as...
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Prior to becoming a remodeler, I learned selling and hands-on management from a smart carpet merchant in San Diego. In addition to letting the client know how much you appreciated the opportunity to deal with them, let them know you'll also appreciate their prompt payment because you need to meet...
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Whether it be from client-generated change orders, contractor-generated change orders, or unforeseen conditions, the reason doesn't matter. Jill Liptow, of The Remodeling Center, a Pewaukee, Wis., design/build firm, calls it "the final agony."
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A Tennessee Court of Appeals will allow the American Subcontractors Association to submit a brief and include oral arguments in a case against a subcontractor. Cubbage says ASA's Subcontractors Legal Defense Fund (SLDF) is funding ASA's involvement in the appeal.
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Try as we might to eliminate them, change orders are part of the business of remodeling. Even a change with no cost attached (such as a tile color change) should be recorded to prevent misunderstandings later.
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Gary Nash, owner of Nash Construction in Marshall, Va., found out the hard way that his company was giving away work.
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Want to turn your lead carpenters into salespeople and add easy money to already sold projects? Ask Tom Capizzi Jr., president of Capizzi Home Improvement in Cotuit, Mass., how it's done.
Our positive, can-do attitude regularly results in grossly underestimating how long a project is going to take. We either lose money by failing to charge what we're worth, or we work through our guilt about our high margins by playing Mr. Fix-It for our customers without writing up a change order.