Table of Contents December 2005

VIEW POINT

FIRST WORD

• Well Crafted

  When a bridge over the Arno River designed by Michelangelo was destroyed by bombing in World War II, the Italians rebuilt it. Literally. They didn't recreate it or construct an exact replica. They dredged the river to recover the original materials, and re-laid the entire span, stone by stone.

   

News + Notes

• Tax Reform Faces Opposition

  Suggested changes in the tax code have those in the housing industry worried.

   

• Energetic Efforts

  Three governmental agencies have spearheaded an extensive initiative to promote energy efficiency.

   
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  Has the Housing Market Peaked?

  Recent financial activity would indicate that tougher times may lie ahead. Hope is not lost, but increased market awareness must be found.

   

MARKET WATCH

• Figure This

   

• Local Forecast: Neighborhood Watch

  Many communities have a “neighborhood watch” program to ensure the safety of their inhabitants. Michael Staffileno keeps his eye on neighborhoods, too, but for an entirely different reason.

   
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  Consumer Confidence Drops

   

COMMENTARY

LINDA CASE

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  Bonus Time

  If you love to shop, this column might not be for you. But if you're like me, you'll do anything to avoid the malls this holiday season — especially when that excuse allows you to honor the really important people in your life.

   

MARK RICHARDSON

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  Mastering the Sales Game

  There's more to winning at poker than knowing the rank of hands. A great poker player pays close attention to his opponents' behavior. He wins almost regardless of the hand he's holding because he can read his opponents' “tells” — small, almost invisible idiosyncrasies that betray the players' intentions. Depending on what he sees and hears, a great poker player decides to either meet or raise the stakes, or cut his losses and drop out early.

   

GUEST COLUMNIST

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  All for One

  For the first week of October, I found myself working shoulder to shoulder with nine of my competitors and hundreds of trade contractors I'd never met. The job? Tear down a house and build a new one in less than five days. It was simultaneously an act of insanity and one of the greatest experiences of my life.

   

YOUR BUSINESS

Ways + Means

• Delegate to Grow

  Delegating work and responsibility to others is one of the most difficult things about growing and managing a business. Most business owners don't like to cede control to others. After all, being in control of your own destiny was one of the reasons you went into business for yourself.

   

• Process Map

  Wouldn't it be great to be able to track every aspect of a job, whether a work in progress or a potential sale, from the first phone call through the warranty process?

   

• Welcome Back

  During the past few years, Dwight Sailer says, there has been an influx of remodelers in his town of Fort Collins, Colo. “We've seen them disappear as quickly as they pop up.” To set Hight-Craft Builders apart, Sailer began offering a five-year warranty on workmanship.

   

• Learning From Losing

  When the folks at J. Francis Co., Pittsburgh, don't win a job, they don't just shrug it off.

   

• Fresh Feedback

  Once Bill Markt was working in the business, he realized that he didn't have direct interaction with many of the employees of Markt and Company Construction, West Linn, Ore.

   

BOTTOM LINE

• Mostly Free Lunch

  Although similar to a retirement plan, a VEBA is really an IRS-tax-exempt trust, to which a business owner can make discretionary contributions of pre-tax dollars, which in turn reduces the company owner's tax burden. A VEBA differs from a retirement plan in that withdrawals for certain benefits are not taxed, even for beneficiaries, and money can be withdrawn anytime during your life — or that of your beneficiaries —without penalties.

   

Sales & Marketing

• Sales School 101: Bonding Over Culture

  You visit the home of a prospect whose culture is relatively unfamiliar to you. How do you understand the role culture might play in their remodeling needs?

   

• Remodeler Chic

  SawHorse, a 22-person, $6 million design/build company in Atlanta, has always been more fashion-and brand-conscious than your average remodeler. “Every year for 20 years, we've made sure to come out with one unique item of clothing just for our employees,” says president and CEO Jerome Quinn.

   

• Man on the Street

  It's a sales strategy as modern as the industrial age and about as energy-efficient, but George Uhlmann swears by it: spot-canvassing.

   

• Scoring the Lead Sheet

  Ten questions, 20 minutes, and a 1-to-5-point “scoring system” help Winans Construction, Oakland, Calif., identify its best prospects, weed out weak leads, and get the sales process underway.

   

FIELD NOTES

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  The On-the-Job Guarantee

  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but not when it's the remodeler who's absent from the jobsite. Edward Rudloff promises clients that either he or his brother, Stephen, his partner and fellow lead carpenter at Rudloff Custom Builders, West Chester, Pa., will be on site every day of the project, from beginning to end. This guarantee provides peace of mind for clients, distinguishes the company from the competition, and ensures that projects adhere to high quality and scheduling standards.

   

• Andy Hannan: Educating the Future

  Education is a bare necessity in today's remodeling market. Yet with public schools phasing out shop classes, colleges dropping the construction discipline, and vocational schools focusing on high-tech training, the educational system is failing our industry.

   

Tech@Work

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  Easy Excel Estimators

  Almost every remodeler I've run into dislikes estimating, especially if it takes time away from the family to make some demanding tire-kicker happy.

   
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  Whiteboard Wow

  When Denny Conner wants to impress his customers, he uses an LCD projector to project slide show images onto a screen. When he really wants to wow them, he projects the images onto an interactive whiteboard. But there's more to this electronic toy than just impressing a client. Using TeamBoard Suite software, the whiteboard is connected to a computer, and everything Conner projects and annotates can be stored as data.

   

GOOD FORM

• Feedback Form

  All remodelers lose jobs from time to time. J. Francis Co., in Pittsburgh, uses these lost contracts as an opportunity for self-evaluation

   

FEATURES

• Overworked or Over-Lifed?

  Overworking in the remodeling industry is a familiar story. Although there are no statistics on remodeler burnout and family trouble specifically, Clay Nelson, who has been a business and life coach in the remodeling industry for the past 25 years, says that compared with other industries, remodelers seem to “consume themselves the quickest.”

   
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  Elusive Equality

  Rodney Webb isn't your typical home improvement salesman. He boasts a 91% close rate. He has sold $3.6 million of replacement windows and siding in a single year. He's also black, and that sets him apart in the industry almost as much as his varied work history and remarkable accomplishments as a salesman. People may have come a long way toward accepting different ethnicities, but minorities still face discrimination and additional challenges in the remodeling industry.

   

Before & After

• Before+After: Ranch Dressing

   

BIG50

CLOSE UP

• 

  Profile: Mark Sass

  After running Sass Construction for 25 years, Mark Sass (Big50 2002) decided that he needed to create better balance between his work and his life.

   

SECOND LOOK

• 

  Second Look: Allan Lutes

   

SOLUTIONS

• Making It Legal

  How do you help foreign-born employees and subcontractors work legally in this country?

   

KITCHEN + BATH

DESIGN CLINIC

• Design Tips

   
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  Task Master

   
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  More Than Just Mud

  Though they are referred to as mudrooms, if designed correctly, these small spaces can serve multiple purposes. Architect George Myers says that any family with children knows how coats and toys and books can accumulate throughout the house.

   

Management

• Class in Session

  Three years ago Vailes Brothers built a new showroom that included a working kitchen and an open room in the back for future expansion. When Robert Vailes, owner of the Fishersville, Va., remodeling company was approached by a former client who worked at a local community college about using the spaces for adult education classes, he knew it would be a good match.

   

SPEC BOOK

• 

  Toilets

  From industrial-chic to updated traditional styles, manufacturers have been busy introducing stylish components for the modern, personalized bathroom. Dual-flush options offer flexibility for conservation-minded consumers, while enhanced bowl designs make for easy cleaning and maintenance.

   

PRODUCTS

TRENDS

• Heavy Hitters

   
• 

  Added Detail

   
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  New Products Pavilion Winners

  The second annual New Products Pavilion was a big hit at the 2005 Remodeling Show in Baltimore. A batch of new and innovative products — 37 in all — had a showcase all to itself on the show floor, where attendees could browse and vote on their favorites.

   

IN FOCUS

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  Safety Equipment

   
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  Green Products

   
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  Trucks & Accessories

  The latest specialty work trucks go beyond just transport and tool-box. With hefty payload capacity and plenty of towing power these trucks also feature four-wheel drive, super-cargo capacity, extended cabs, and GPS navigation — not to mention interior comfort.

   

LAST WORD

Benchmark

• Getting Backlog Just Right

  Backlog is essential to a healthy company, but it needs to be predictable and dependable. Too little and you'll spend all your time focused on selling the next job; too much and you risk making clients on the wait list unhappy. The trick is determining the amount of backlog that is “just right” for your company.