Lou Amiano’s first job at his father’s company was building a deck. His father is all but retired now and Amiano, who formally joined in 2000, and wife Wendy aim to be the best remodeling company in the South Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia. 

Joining peer group-driven Remodelers Advantage helped the Amianos focus on cost control, both job by job and company-wide. “Every day I am tracking what our sales and profits are,” Lou says. That’s in addition to conducting a job autopsy with the company bookkeeper and the project manager. “We know what we’re going to make as it’s actually being built, not what we hope we’re going to make,” he says.

Where other remodelers provide allowances, Amiano provides a complete design and all selections down to cabinet knobs. That helps avoid cost surprises.

Takeaways

  • Have detailed sales tracking “so every day I am tracking what our sales and profits are,” Lou Amiano says, which is in addition to conducting a job autopsy with the company bookkeeper and the project manager on every job. “We know what we’re going to make as it’s actually being built,” Amiano says, “not what we hope what we’re going to make when it’s finished.”
  • Achieves efficiencies in selection by use of its amply stocked showroom, where 95% of clients pick everything from what’s on offer there, and steps clients through selections using a plan generated by Chief Architect and a large screen TV where designers move from supplier to supplier with clients picking products as they go, Amiano eliminates last minute sticker shock by price conditioning clients at each step in the product selection process. “When they upgrade their selections,” he says,”they need to be told” what it’s adding to the final cost. “So say: okay, you’re upgrading from ceramic to marble, which will look great and cost an additional…” Clients quickly forget that number, he says, but when you arrive at the final cost, it’s a price they’re expecting to pay.
  • After determining that the company wasn’t getting the right level of client satisfaction, Amiano required project managers to meet weekly with clients to update them on the project, and file a report on the meeting. “That changed things.”
Listen: Lou Amiano on not leaving anything to the unknown, from Big50 Bites:

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