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Erik Anderson of Winston-Salem, N.C., had only been in business for four years when, he says, “I realized I couldn't continue working at this pace. We thought if we worked hard, we'd earn a good living. We were working really hard and we were hitting a brick wall.” That's when he joined one of the...
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Sound business practices and solid customer relations are key to keeping yourself out of court while still collecting every dime that's owed to you. So, too, is choosing your clients carefully, so that you're working for people who aren't looking to pull one over on you.
The 2,000 square feet of space in this 1967 ranch house had small rooms and an awkward flow. After living with the unsuitable space for 20 years, Mike and Helen Moskal began looking for a new house, but they ultimately decided to stay and remodel.
In June, six design/build remodelers got together to talk about the business. Eavesdrop on their conversation.
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So what if you can't recite your vows after all these years. You remember the gist. “For better or worse. In sickness and in health. In accounts payable and receivable.” Wait. What was that last one? Doesn't sound familiar? Well, if you and your spouse share ownership and management of your company...
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This is the eighteenth anniversary of our Cost vs. Value Report, which compares the cost-to-construct for a selection of 18 common remodeling projects with the added value those projects bring at resale. Read on to learn about the current resale conditions in 60 markets.
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Milestones as goals can be tangible, like moving from being an employee to being self-employed or hiring your first office person or first lead carpenter. But they can also be less tangible, like spending more time with your family, working only 50 hours a week, or taking a two-week vacation...
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Erik Anderson of Winston-Salem, N.C., had only been in business for four years when, he says, “I realized I couldn't continue working at this pace. We thought if we worked hard, we'd earn a good living. We were working really hard and we were hitting a brick wall.” That's when he joined one of the...
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Sound business practices and solid customer relations are key to keeping yourself out of court while still collecting every dime that's owed to you. So, too, is choosing your clients carefully, so that you're working for people who aren't looking to pull one over on you.
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The 2,000 square feet of space in this 1967 ranch house had small rooms and an awkward flow. After living with the unsuitable space for 20 years, Mike and Helen Moskal began looking for a new house, but they ultimately decided to stay and remodel.
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In June, six design/build remodelers got together to talk about the business. Eavesdrop on their conversation.
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So what if you can't recite your vows after all these years. You remember the gist. “For better or worse. In sickness and in health. In accounts payable and receivable.” Wait. What was that last one? Doesn't sound familiar? Well, if you and your spouse share ownership and management of your company...
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This is the eighteenth anniversary of our Cost vs. Value Report, which compares the cost-to-construct for a selection of 18 common remodeling projects with the added value those projects bring at resale. Read on to learn about the current resale conditions in 60 markets.
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Milestones as goals can be tangible, like moving from being an employee to being self-employed or hiring your first office person or first lead carpenter. But they can also be less tangible, like spending more time with your family, working only 50 hours a week, or taking a two-week vacation...
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Flip on your TV on any given night, and you'll no doubt find people eating cockroaches, exchanging family members, and selecting their spouse from a group of complete — but attractive! — strangers.
Third-quarter data compiled by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University indicate that homeowners continue to spend heavily on improving and repairing their homes.
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This is the giving season, and there are ways you, as a remodeler, can play Santa Claus for families in need. You won't get milk and cookies, but you don't have to dress up, either.
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If you cut corners on your scaffolding, it turns out you're not alone; improper scaffolding was the most frequently cited violation of construction and remodeling standards by OSHA.
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The 2004 Remodeling Show, held in October in Chicago, was the best-attended ever, registering a record 12,147 attendees. And if bigger means better, this year's Show was the best in quite a while.
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A remodeling project that fixes up one section of the home can lead homeowners into realizing the rest of the house pales by comparison.
For the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, the Broadway stage and the Met will have to share the Big Apple spotlight with … sculptures made out of canned food.
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Jordan and his wife, Juanita, allege that the moisture caused some $2.6 million worth of damage due to rot and mold.
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Home builders in Arkansas are scrambling after getting word that OSHA will be conducting random inspections at residential construction sites in the coming months.
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The nation's small businesses serve as the engine of our nation's economic growth,” says Michael Strauss, director of legislative communications at the NAHB. “But spiraling health care costs have hit small-business owners disproportionately hard.”
Imagine every one of your jobs has two clients, and that the last thing they planned on doing together is a remodeling project. Imagine also that they can't agree on the scope of work, the budget, or the schedule, and that at your initial meeting, one client is always in a state of extreme...
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It's 5:30 a.m. and your cell phone rings. The last person you want to hear from is a client. Unless you're Norman Gavin. He has a 24-hour answering service that directs calls to his cell phone when no one is in the office. His cell is always with him, he says, “because it's necessary to take care...
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How do I hold my team accountable for specific, measurable results with- out being perceived as overbearing and demanding?
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“We want our carpenters to love their craft and not get bogged down in administration,” says David Amundson, owner of TreHus Builders. Instead of a lead carpenter system, this Minneapolis design/build firm has used a “master carpenter system” for the past 15 years.
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Several years ago, Dale Nikula's Encore Construction laid a tile floor in a client's first-floor entryway. The client had picked out the tile with Nikula, who was then in sales. Construction began, and the client decided on a different tile. She and Nikula spoke about the change but never...
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Very often, the ability to offer financing options to your customers is a significant factor in closing the sale. In part one of this series (September 2004), we reviewed open-end credit and direct closed-end credit. Here, we examine perhaps the most common form of financing a home remodeling sale:...
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Ken Kumph, owner of Premier Builders, was disturbed by the subjectivity in his company's yearly employee review process. “We'd sit down and talk using boiler plate questions,” he says, which would “prompt discussion about things like reliability and quality. And [employees would] get a raise based...
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The good news is there are a thousand options. The bad news is there are a thousand options,” is what Tricia Sinn tells her clients in regard to product selection. That bit of news, from the customers' perspective, might be enough to send them over the edge. Luckily, for Sinn Construction and...
Direct mail helps maximize leads, and, later, sales. While 81% of Americans read newspapers, 96% have phones, and 98% have TVs, everyone has a mailbox.
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The time to ask is the third or fourth day of an eight-day project. That's when the homeowners see things coming together — things you promised to do. I
Critique courtesy of Ruth Lozner, M.F.A., who has been an associate professor of design and marketing at the University of Maryland in College Park for 18 years.
A card deck service that targets owners of homes valued at more than $500,000 has returned solid leads for Washington, D.C.–area remodelers.
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Looking for a way to close sales or spur salespeople on to closing more business? Consider MVI Marketing's “Mini Vacations”
Architects are intrigued by origami. And by high-profile architects. Contractor David Adams discovered that with a unique marketing gimmick that has roots in the sixth-century Asian art of paper folding. It helps that the gimmick also depicts the work of some renowned architects, among them New...
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Working with diverse cultures requires understanding how individuals in those cultures make decisions. If you don't, you risk losing business and turning off prospects. Here's how I've worked with people of diverse cultures.
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Construction companies do not spend enough money on safety incentive programs. That's according to Greg Perricone, a safety specialist for Aon, a national construction-based insurance company in Pasadena, Calif. “If they take a small portion of what they are putting into capital projects and put it...
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Change orders rarely come neatly wrapped. At my company, we complete a form in the office based on information we receive over the phone, estimate the cost of the change, and then present it to the client. We try to respond within one day, but our other work often takes precedence.
A carpenter at DeCiantis Construction had his tools stolen from his truck while it was parked in his driveway. His vehicle insurance didn't cover the loss because he had not specified the tools in his policy. His coworkers came to the rescue, donating their tool allowances to help him replace what...
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Upper-level field staff should be included in the hiring process for a new employee who will become part of their team. Most lead carpenters are not familiar with hiring. Here are a few tips to help them evaluate potential employees during an interview.
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The Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) recently launched the National Future Builders of America (FBA) construction education program. “Through the FBA program, we can identify students interested in construction and provide them leadership and training skills necessary to help ensure the...
Three years ago, the city of Kensington, Md., stopped allowing Dumpsters on streets. In nearby Rockville, a $1,500 bond for Dumpsters on the street is now required. Contractors must also submit a plan to the city review committee to explain traffic flow around the receptacle.
Chaden Halfhill is both a sculptor and a remodeler, so it's only appropriate that his residential designs reflect his artistic side. For this master suite bathroom, the owner of Silent Rivers in Urbandale, Iowa, created an elegant and eye-catching central tower to hold the sink and tub.
From the minute Dan Luck took over Modern Kitchen in 1989, the name of the company bothered him. The family-owned company had been around since 1963, and the moniker had limited it ever since. “It says modern and it says kitchen,” Luck says. “People would ask if we did entertainment centers and...
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Industry experts at the Color Marketing Group have selected the color palette for homes in 2005 — colors that “convey a respectful, serious nature, yet touch the soul.” CMG's color professionals noted that the “spa” experience adds a spiritual nature to color and refreshes, rejuvenates, and...
Kitchen remodeling is expected to increase by 9.8% in 2004, to a total of $10.57 billion. High-end kitchen remodeling (more than $15,000) will drop slightly to 118,796 jobs, but spending on those jobs will increase to $4.09 billion.
Remodeler Byron Ledworowski installed a combination radiator/towel warmer to bring heat and comfort to a client's kitchen. The owner of Li'L American Builders, Middleton, Wis., was originally going to use radiant floor heat, but the floor construction would have made it a complicated task. His HVAC...
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We've covered prospecting, the initial contact, qualifying the client, the presentation, and meeting objections and concern. The final two steps of the seven-step selling cycle are closing the sale and referrals.
Regarded as the fastest-growing segment of the concrete industry, decorative concrete now is making its way into projects of all sizes and budgets as color and texture experimentation has revived interest in the category. Once only found in high-end homes, colorful concrete can be molded into any...
Baby boomers spend more money on remodeling projects than any other segment of the population, according to a report by Harvard University's Remodeling Futures Program. Adding universal design features, however, is usually not on their agenda, nor do many remodelers think of it as a priority.
Could propane be the saving grace for homeowners who want to save energy and money? “Heating water is about 20% [of a home's] annual energy cost. Switching to propane or gas can save homeowners money,” says Jim Hitzemann, chairman of the Propane Education & Research Council's Homebuilder...
The race toward the energy-efficient home is on, and it looks like SIPs are gaining ground. Structural insulated panels consist of an expanded polystyrene core sandwiched between two OSB panels. According to a survey conducted by the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA), 12,000 mostly...
When it comes to remodeling an entryway, it's unlikely that a homeowner will want to replace an old wood door with a new wood door. According to research conducted by Therma-Tru, wood doors are replaced by steel or fiberglass doors 58% of the time. Of those who chose a fiberglass replacement, 62%...