PowerTips Unscripted

Jobs are won or lost during the design process. With so much on the line, it’s clear that your design department should be running at peak performance. But there are so many ways the process can get derailed. It all depends on how you structure your design department, and what metrics you use to hold them accountable. In this episode, Chris Landis discusses about how to build and run an efficient design department with Victoria and Mark. Chris is a partner (with his brother Ethan) in Landis Architects/Builders in Washington, DC, and is a longtime Roundtables member. He’s a registered architect in four states (MD, DC, VA, NY). Chris graduated from Vassar College, and earned his M.A. in architecture from Columbia Architecture School. Chris is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and has 28 years of experience in residential architecture. He is a current member of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board and past president of the DC Metro area chapter of NARI. Chris has a design department of nine people after 30 years in the business. When the company got to the point of having three designers, Chris hired a manager for that department to ensure that the work was standardized and high quality. He talks about how to set up your own design department for success and create a quicker process, including: The metrics to gauge successThe designer’s role in his companyRecruiting and hiring for the departmentWorking back from net profitWhen to hire a design managerHis three-phase processHow he charges for themFiguring out a healthy close ratioTaking on a design-only projectWhy to conduct a feasibility study — sometimesWorking with design sub-contractorsAnd more … Design can be a profit center, not a loss-leader, and you have to know how much you should be charging for it — even if you don’t. MasterClass: Design Process You can learn how other successful companies manage their design business, and you’ll go home with new ideas to exceed your clients’ expectations and boosting profits on every job. We’ll be holding our next class here in Baltimore, May 18-19. You can find more details and register here: Building An Effective Design Process. The post Ep.98: How to Structure and Run a Profitable Design Department with Chris Landis appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

If you’ve ever visited any Disney theme park across the globe, you may think nobody does customer service and experience like Disney. Although the execution is complex, the baseline concepts are quite simple.  In this episode, Pete Blank shares customer-service strategies from Disney with Victoria and Mark, and shows you how to apply these lessons to your remodeling company to boost your own team’s customer-service performance.  Pete has been developing leaders and improving service levels of organizations for the past 25 years — 13 of those with the Walt Disney Co. and the past 12 in local government. He loves inspiring others with ways to enhance their organizational culture. You can learn more about Pete Blank at his website: www.peteblank.com, or on his LinkedIn page.  Growing up near Disney World in Orlando, Pete says he knew he always wanted to work there. After a few years as a sportscaster in Alabama, Pete went to Florida and began working at Disney World. He and his wife and family moved back to Alabama and he got what he saw as a temporary job in local government, where he still uses those customer-service strategies. The biggest challenges to providing outstanding customer service and experiences are speed and expectations. Technology has changed the speed and convenience with which goods and services can be delivered. You have to align your clients’ expectations with what you can actually deliver. Pete talks about how you and your team can consistently offer the best service possible, including: The difference between customer service and customer experienceHow social media amplifies all experiences —good and badMaking customer service part of you mission statementLooking for what “above and beyond” looks like in the futureMaking the experience consistent How emotional connections create relationshipsBringing creativity to customer experiencesHow to measure your customer-service successThe power of follow-up surveysAnd more … Pete says remodeling can emulate the magical experiences of Disney — your clients are choosing to transform their spaces, and helping them through that can be a transforming experience for their homes and their lives. The post Ep.97: The Magic of Disney’s Customer-Service Strategies with Pete Blank appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Most people would consider a company jumping from $1.5 million to $3 million in revenue a growing organization. However, when we look beyond gross sales, those numbers don’t necessarily mean it grew. It could even mean the company is less profitable — and ultimately less successful — than it was before.  Michael Hodgin says planning for, and implementing, tiered advances are a better strategy for deliberate, healthy growth. In this episode, Michael discusses his tiered increase growth strategy with Victoria and Mark. For healthy growth, he says you have to set and meet certain goals for sales, job costs, systems and performance before taking the next step. Michael is a general contractor and business consultant living in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. He started his first construction company as a one-man-show in 2000, eventually growing Coleman Creek Construction to include a successful team of 15. Michael joined Remodeler’s Advantage in 2016 in an effort to deliver the greatest possible value to his clients. Investing in the development of efficient systems for his own business inspired the creation of his consulting agency, Maestro’s Toolbox.  Micheal says that your company’s gross sales should bump up to the next milestone only once your teams have mastered sales, pre-construction, and production systems at their current revenue level. That puts a company in a stronger position to handle the inevitable increase in workload. He talks about how to accomplish healthy, tiered growth for you remodeling company, including: The infrastructure milestones to hitTaking deliberate stepsThe importance of setting goals Focusing on hitting those goalsProving your success Nailing down all your job costsManaging slippageBuilding the foundation for growthThe metrics that tell you that you’re ready for the next stepStepping away and delegatingAnd more … Planning your growth, setting targets, and understanding why and how you hit them will spur the right kind of growth for you and your company. The post Ep.96: Tiered Growth: Understanding Metrics and Recognizing Signs to Set Profitable Sales Goals with Michael Hodgin appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Honesty is truly the best policy when it comes to your website and social media presence. In a sharing economy, your prospects want to know everything about your company before they even pick up the phone.  We’re breaking down why transparency online is important, and how it can lead to more jobs. In this episode, Taylor Rennick discusses the importance of being honest and transparent online with Victoria and Mark, and tells you how it can create more leads, and eventually more revenue.  Taylor is an inbound marketing strategist at Builder Funnel — one of our partners here at Remodelers Advantage. As part of her job, Taylor spends hours every day looking at remodeling company websites. Some are good, some not so much. And some seem a little shady, using project photos that aren’t theirs or lying about project pricing. Remodeling is intensely personal, and has to be sold as a service, not a product, Taylor says. Being transparent is the key. Taylor talks about the information prospects want to know, and how they want to find it, and why you’ll get more prospects, including: Developing content to educate your audienceExplaining your processTalk about cost on your websiteWhat you should offer on your blogWhat audience data can tell youPositioning your company as a thought leaderUpdating information to stay accurateReaching people where they are in their buying processAnd more … Taylor says you can find free resources to help you in all your online marketing on Builder Funnel’s site. The post Ep.95: Being Honest Online with Taylor Rennick appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Many of your customers will pay more for items that improve the health, comfort, and efficiency of their homes. As one of the few things that pay for themselves over time, green upgrades can also boost your average project revenue and make you stand out in your market. In this episode, Doug Selby talks to Victoria and Mark about how green upgrades can improve your remodeling company’s bottom line. Doug is a co-founder of Meadowlark Design+Build in Ann Arbor, MI, and recently graduated from the CEO role to to focus on long-term strategy and act as the company’s sustainability director. Doug is a building science expert and helped Meadowlark build a reputation in its community for quality of construction and leadership in ecological housing issues.  Meadowlark was started with an ecological focus from its very beginning. Doug and his business partner, Kirk Brandon, studied primitive living and how to survive off the grid. While they may cost a little bit more upfront, green upgrades pay for themselves over time, he says, and focusing on ecologically conscious remodeling and construction can be a great business decision. He talks about what it means to Meadowlark’s business and clients, including: How it helped the company grow during the recessionGetting media attention naturallyLosing less, using less, and then producingInsulation and systemsWhy solar’s literally the last thing he looks atAir-quality issuesTalking to homeowners about green tactics and methodsPresenting it the right wayAnd more … Including the benefits of going where other businesses aren’t, and how ecologically conscious building and remodeling can set you apart in your own market. The post Ep.94: Improving Your Bottom Line with Green Upgrades with Doug Selby appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

As 2019 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of our more popular episodes, and this episode explains how LEAN principles really work in a remodeling company. Perfect for any company looking to improve their business in 2020. In this episode, Paul Kowalski shares his experiences in applying LEAN in his business with Victoria and Mark. His company recently implemented the process, and he says the results have already been eye-opening. Paul owns PK Builders in Charlotte, NC, and is a member of our Remodelers Advantage Roundtables group. PK Builders has a team of eight, including Paul, with four project Managers, an estimator, and a draftsman. When PK Builders was experiencing growing pains in 2018 — bottlenecks in the design-build process, some cash-flow issues, higher overhead — Paul called in Doug Howard for help. Paul says it was intimidating at first, but soon becomes second nature to look for ways to speed up processes. It started with 16 feet of paper festooned with sticky notes detailing steps in the design process. Hear how they implemented LEAN, including: Explaining it to your staffSharing in chunksFinding the hiccupsWhy the people closest to the work have the best feedbackGetting over the intimidation factorTimelines and swim lanesNot including time for revisionsBuilding in collaboration up frontUnintended consequencesAnd more … Paul and his team are deep in the LEAN process, and excited to see what their future brings, including how it affects their positive cash flow. See the video Paul talks about outlining LEAN principles from the Food Bank For New York City on YouTube. And here’s that 16-ft. chart Paul talks about: Are You Getting the Full Force of the PowerTips Content System? If you are not a Subscriber, you are missing out on our knowledge-sharing network of Articles, Podcasts, Videos and More! In addition to this podcast we have the Tim Faller Show podcast every Monday, informative blog posts on Tuesdays and access to other great resources like the PowerTips TV channel on YouTube with more than 60 educational videos. Click Here to Subscribe and get notified every time we post, as well as receiving alerts and special pricing on all of our events throughout the year! The post Ep.93: [Unscripted Back-Up] How LEAN Principles Have Improved My Business with Paul Kowalski appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

No matter how well your remodeling company is doing, how well organized you are, life can get hectic at times. You work through it all, but this can leave you vulnerable to burnout. Which can lead to an avalanche of problems. In this episode, Marian Faller discusses burnout with Victoria and Mark, sharing its causes, the signs to look for in yourself and others, and how you can promote resiliency within your company.  Marian is a psychotherapist, and owns Cornerstone Consulting and Cornerstone Counseling in Westerly, RI. She also serves as a consultant for individuals, families, and companies wanting to address mental health concerns. She also happens to be married to our own Tim Faller. Burnout happens gradually, says Marian, and so gradually that you may not notice it until it’s too late. People experiencing burnout can be irritable, miss days of work, and can even get to the point of clinical depression. Burnout can affect individuals as well as entire organizations. Marian talks about what to know to keep yourself and your employees mentally healthy, including: The signs and symptoms of burnoutHow physical health can cause burnoutHow burnout can spread from one individualWhy ignoring the causes of burnout won’t make it go awayThe genetic and chemical components of mental healthWhat folic acid has to do with itPromoting resilience in yourself and othersFocusing on what went right vs. what went wrongWhat we can learn from Winnie the Pooh and CleopatraModeling good habits and behaviorsSetting the right toneUsing hardships to promote resiliencyAnd more … Knowing the signs and symptoms of burnout — and how to help yourself and others through it — can make a big difference in your own happiness and your team’s job satisfaction. The post Ep.92: The Dangers of Burnout and How To Promote Individual Resiliency with Marian Faller appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

As we wrap up 2019, we’re looking back at some of our more popular episodes and this one was a huge hit. For our 50th episode in January, we gathered a panel of industry experts and took questions from the audience at the Extreme Business Makeover event. It capped off an intense two days of learning, sharing, and networking among the remodelers attending and our Remodelers Advantage team. In this episode, Victoria and Mark directed the lively discussions with our panel. Panelists included: Michael Sauri of TriVistaUSA Design + Build and the 2018 winner of the Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award.Doug Howard, RA’s CFO and Director of Consulting Services, a.k.a. “The Fixer”Judith Miller, Financial and QuickBooks “Guru”Tim Faller, RA’s Senior Consultant and “Master of Production” We covered profits and payroll, cash flow, the owner’s role in a growing business, margins, staying top-of-mind in your marketing, smart lead qualifying, planning and making decisions on your job sites, and the power of asking “why?” It’s an insightful and all-encompassing discussion of how to run your business to get bigger margins, more profits, and creating a real life/work balance. If you missed it back in January, you need to listen to this episode. And Don’t Miss THIS Year’s Extreme Business Makeover Event;New Content, Fresh Ideas On January 28-29, 2020 we will gather once again at the BWI Westin and present 2 days of interactive presentations, breakouts and expert panels (like the one featured in today’s podcast). We have Super Early Bird pricing in place until 12/15/19 so Click here for more information and Register Today! The post EP.91: [Unscripted Back-up] Expert Panel at Extreme Business Makeover Shares Insight appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

You may have thought that the design-build business model is a recent phenomenon. But years ago, all builders practiced design-build, but something happened along the way to create separate industries. In this episode, David Supple takes Victoria and Mark on a deep dive into the history of the design-build model, the truths about it, and why it’s been around as long as buildings have. David is the founder and CEO of New England Design & Construction in Boston. He’s grown NEDC to be a leader in design-build excellence, winning more than 30 awards and being written about in more than 30 publications over the past 14 years. In addition to expanding the company, David has started the DesignBuild Movement, a forum with the purpose of educating the public on this topic with the end goal of creating better buildings.  David has had a fascination with creating buildings since his art history teacher in high school showed the class slides of landmarks in Europe like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel. He decided he wanted to build those types of spaces, and was steered into architecture. He graduated from college with an architecture degree, and started practicing. Then, he says, he realized he didn’t know what he was doing. So he went to work as a carpenter to get a foundation in actual building before he opened NEDC. David talks about the history of architects and builders, and how the industry got to where we are now, including: What an architect used to beThe historical apprenticeship processHow the industry separated into architects and buildersWhat social status had to do with itWhy design-build almost went awayThe efficiencies of design-build as a processHow to position design-build with consumersDesign-build vs. design-bid-buildAnd more … It’s a fascinating look at the history of building, architecture, and remodeling, and will make you better prepared to discuss what design build really means. To learn more about the DesignBuild Movement, check out the pages on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The post Ep.90: Inside the Design-Build Movement with David Supple appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We’re under an almost-constant barrage of information from every angle. As leaders in our business, it’s imperative that our messages are clearly understood. But it’s equally important, if not more so, that we get messages clearly.  Looking ahead to 2020, Jeremy Steinruck is focusing on clarity in communication and cutting through the white noise.   In this episode, Jeremy discusses how to make your communication skills better with Victoria and Mark, what it will take, and how it will help your business and your life. Jeremy is co-owner and vice president of Axis Construction in Wichita Falls, TX, a company he and partner Jeff Miller started 13 years ago. Jeremy holds a master’s degree in human resource management, but he is most thankful for the influence of incredible mentors and friends who have shared their wisdom freely.  Learning to be a better communicator is possible, even if it’s not in your native skillset. Jeremy says the first part, for him, was getting rid of his “head trash.” He had to get rid of limiting beliefs, only hang on to ideas that could be proven true, eliminate his assumptions of what someone else believes, and not let any of those things influence his decisions. He talks about how to get past that, and boost your communication and listening skills, including: The basic rules of engagementFacing fearsPlacing yourself in someone else’s comfort zoneHow to plan your conversationsUnderstanding you can’t convince someone elseAsking questions to get to others’ needsSetting goals at the beginning of the conversationCommunicating with intentThe four things to do before having a tough conversationAnd more … Two of the biggest barriers to effective communication are distraction and selfishness, and Jeremy says that recentering and concentrating on your core values will help you get over them. The post Ep.89: Focusing on Clarity in Communication with Jeremy Steinruck appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.