At the high end of the market, the concept of “custom” all too often has many interpretations that fall short of the true meaning of the word. “Personalized,” “customizable” products and designs that pretend to be one-of-a-kind seem to proliferate, offering only a taste of what truly unique...
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Andrew Shore did all the selling for his company, Sea Pointe Construction, for the first decade or so that it was open for business. That changed, the Irvine, Calif., remodeler says, when “I realized that the size of the company was dependent on me doing sales forever — and that there's a finite...
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The notion that a survey can accurately describe a person and predict his or her behavior is nothing new. An early assessment tool, the Personal Data Sheet, was created during World War I to measure the mental stability of new recruits — who would be susceptible, for example, to shell shock or to...
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The day that Jim Fisher met and hired Pete Valentino — the man who would ultimately buy his remodeling business — came about as a result of two factors: analysis and enterprise. The analysis was done by Fisher in the mid-1990s after he observed the manner in which most contractors retired: by...
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Design/build remodeler Chris Repp, in Buffalo, N.Y., had the feeling that something wasn't quite right. The selections stage of a large job was running too smoothly. “I eventually said to the client, ‘You don't seem to understand what we're talking about here,' and she nodded timidly. When I...
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In a survey of more than 1,000 luxury consumers (average income $149,100, average age 43.4 years) conducted by Unity Marketing, a consulting company in Stevens, Pa., 52% of respondents reported that enjoyment and pleasure were important factors when making their most recent purchases of luxury...
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Attrition is always a concern for business owners, but the risk is even greater when proprietary secrets are at stake. To help guard against talent drain, some companies use legal documents such as noncompete, nonrecruit, or nondisclosure contracts to prohibit exiting employees from taking their...
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Key to understanding clients' remodeling needs is understanding their use of space.
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More remodelers are tapping recruiting companies for help with hiring.
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Short of hovering over every employee interaction, it's difficult to get an objective, big-picture sense of your business. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis comes pretty close.
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The $400,000 Blackview Ranch remodeling job looked great from the cockpit of Bruce Merrell's two-seater Cessna airplane. As the owner of Laredo Construction in Sisters, Ore., Merrell took to the skies several times during the project, which included adding a second story to the already impressive...
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Building Better Homes is a program that explains basic building science practices to meet five key elements: energy efficiency, durability, affordability, and the health and safety of occupants. The information is presented on three CD-ROMs.
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Remodeler and client working together to make the completion date means fewer delays.
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For homeowners looking to remodel, zoning and architectural regulations can be an awful burden, delaying a project's start by weeks or even months until compliance issues are addressed and designs are approved by local officials. Working in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., where notorious bureaucracies...