Financial Management Archives - PowerTips Unscripted

Personal Wealth Building for Business Owners with George Kall-[Best of Powertips Unscripted]

August 25, 2022 00:27:25

As a remodeling business owner, building wealth and financial security is something you want to achieve.

Unfortunately, it’s something that many put off because the needs of today are more pressing, especially with the current market.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark talk to George Kall about tips and advice on planning for your future financial security today.

George owns Metro Building and Remodeling Group, a Design-Build firm in Ashburn, VA. George started the company seven years ago and now employs a team of 9 and was recently ranked #107 on this year’s Remodeling Magazines list of largest remodelers.

Victoria, Mark, and George talk more about:

Establishing a company 401k and how you implement it.
Setting aside money for your family.
Planning for uncertain times.
Obtaining financing for the business.

Ep.150: Behavioral Finance: The Psychology of Financial Management with Jay Wheeler

April 29, 2021 00:33:13

It’s not about the money, rather the feelings the money can bring.

In this episode, Jay Wheeler dives into the psychology of financial management and investing in order to provide listeners with the potential reasons behind the way they may manage money.

Whether it’s business or personal finances, Jay describes how to better manage your behavior surrounding spending.

Jay is the President of Wheeler Financial and while he provides traditional financial planning and investment advice, he believes the best value that he provides his clients is helping manage their behavior when it comes to money. He also believes that there is a lot that goes into the decisions we make around our finances and that many of those decisions are based on emotions.

Victoria, Mark and Jay talk more about:

How behavioral finance differs from traditional financial management
Using behavior and emotions as a guide for choosing investments
How behavioral finance applies to investing
And more…

Get on the Waitlist for the 2021 Remodelers Summit in Phoenix

We are very excited to announce that after more than a year of virtual conferences and canceled events, we are holding the Annual 2021 Remodelers Summit LIVE and In-person at the luxurious Arizona Grand Resort & Spa, in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 22, 2021. We will launch registration on May 19, 2021, but if you’d like to join our waitlist, we will guarantee you a spot at this event and offer you the lowest pre-sale special pricing of $500 off the standard registration fee. So, sign up today!

Ep.104: [Unscripted Back-Up] How to Hit Healthy Net Profits in any Economic Climate with Mike Medford Sr.

March 25, 2020 0:33:40

Editor’s note: We’re all working from our homes, away from the friendly confines of the office and its podcasting studio. So we dug into the virtual vault to bring you this episode. We’re in an uncertain time for many remodelers, so here’s some advice that will help you weather any business climate.

One of our core principles is that remodeling companies should make a good net profit, after paying the owners an above-average salary. When the economy’s booming, you can get away with a lot and still hit those goals, sometimes by accident. But the goal is to get those healthy net profits consistently, year after year, even in a downturn.

In this episode, Mike Medford Sr. talks to Victoria and Mark about how to do just that. Before seeing the metrics of the Top Ten Roundtables members a few years ago, Mike says his financials were always in flux. But then he took those figures and made them hard targets.

Mike Medford Sr. has been a home remodeling contractor for over 40 years. In 2007, he partnered with his son, Mike Jr. to form what is now Medford Design Build, with offices in Colleyville and Arlington, TX. Mike Sr. is the president of Medford Design Build.

Mike challenged himself and his team to hit the new fixed targets. He refined their processes and challenged his team to hit those targets. By the next quarterly meeting, the company’s profits were rising. He talks about how he and his team made it happen, including:

Creating a profit-centric culture
How net profits will help you beat the labor shortage
Focusing your staff on gross profit
The importance of open books to the process
Setting up a bonus structure
Building time in to plan
And more…

Mike also talks about getting back to the art of contracting and how important that is to your margins.

Time to Give Back…

After more than 30 years of working with some of the finest Remodelers and Renovators in the business, we are facing new challenges in our industry. We want to give back to an industry that has supported us through good times and bad, and so we’ve created Build Aid, a free event to help support our members, associates, and friends in the remodeling community.

Join us on April 1-2 as we explore various ways your business can navigate these tough times, and position yourselves as a leader when the world begins to recover and re-build.
Click Here to Learn More & Register >>

Ep.100: The Drivers that Make for a Successful Exit with John Warrillow

February 19, 2020 00:26:25

It’s our 100th episode, and to mark the occasion, we’re welcoming back our first guest ever to talk about how to leave your business behind happily.

On average, 75 percent of founders who exit their company have regrets within one year of leaving, and only five percent are actually happy with the net proceeds of their exit.

In this episode, John Warrillow will discuss why this happens with Victoria and Mark, and how business owners can better prepare for an exit that will leave them with no regrets.

John is an entrepreneur and author with more than 20 years of research into the small- and medium-sized business market. He’s the founder of The Value Builder System, which aims to level the playing field for business owners as they approach their exits.

When you sell your company, there are factors that will dictate how happy you are after it’s no longer yours, says John. The first is that the business is ready to sell. The second is a little less clear-cut — the seller has to have done the psychological work that sets them up for success. John talks about what that means, and how to get to the point where you can make a successful exit, including:

Why there can be regrets
Being clear on what’s next
The “push factors” vs. the “pull factors”
Selling and staying or going
Why it’s not about the money
The biggest fears that come with selling
Dealing with private equity groups
The pitfalls of financing your buyer
How to treat your employees during the transition
The top three things that determine if your business is ready to sell
And more …

If you’d like to hear more about the first part of successfully selling your company — getting it ready to sell — listen to Episode 1. And to learn even more, go to John’s website, builttosell.com.

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Ep.96: Tiered Growth: Understanding Metrics and Recognizing Signs to Set Profitable Sales Goals with Michael Hodgin

January 22, 2020 00:25:24

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 hit
Taking deliberate steps
The importance of setting goals
Focusing on hitting those goals
Proving your success
Nailing down all your job costs
Managing slippage
Building the foundation for growth
The metrics that tell you that you’re ready for the next step
Stepping away and delegating
And 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.

Ep.75: Cash Flow: The Silent Killer

August 7, 2019 00:09:41

It’s incredibly busy in the remodeling world at the moment — leads are pouring in, proposals are flying out, and jobs are being scheduled like crazy. We’re seeing businesses with 30 percent growth, year over year.

Yet there’s a silent killer lurking beneath all the fevered growth: insufficient cash flow.

In this episode, Mark’s flying solo and he tackles the phenomenon of “growing broke” — being busier than ever, but running out of cash.

It can happen to the best, most experienced remodelers — times are almost too good, and it’s easy to lose track of your cash flow. Mark shares why you need to control it, and what to do if cash is starting to run out, including:

How to assess your cash flow situation
Why cash flow is king
Long-term planning strategies
What to do when you start feeling the pinch
How to address a problem if you’ve got one
Keeping your customer experience safe
And more …

If you’re concerned about where your cash situation is, set a calendar alert for the all-new RA University, launching Monday, Aug. 12 (the link is still to the older site). You’ll find five new lessons — and one of them is The Importance of Cash Flow. You’ll also find the The 5 Things to Never Do & The 5 Things to Always Do, Running a Paperless Office, Marketing that Works, and Setting Goals and Hitting Them. If you want to go even deeper and you can always reach out to us to help you find the solutions to your cash flow issues.

Ep.50: LIVE from the Extreme Business Makeover in Baltimore

February 6, 2019 00:48:05

For our 50th episode, we gathered a panel of industry experts and took questions from the audience at the Extreme Business Makeover in Baltimore at the the end of January 2019. 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 direct the lively discussions with our panel. We were joined by:

Michael Sauri of TriVistaUSA Design + Build and the 2018 winner of the Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Doug Howard, RA’s director of consulting services
Judith Miller, financial guru
Tim Faller, RA’s master of production

We talk 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, you need to listen to this episode.

Ep.48: How to Hit Healthy Net Profits in any Economic Climate with Mike Medford Sr.

January 23, 2019 00:33:40

Mike challenged himself and his team to hit the new fixed targets. He refined their processes, and challenged his team to hit those targets. By the next quarterly meeting, the company’s profits were rising. He talks about how he and his team made it happen, including:

Creating a profit-centric culture
How net profits will help you beat the labor shortage
Focusing your staff on gross profit
The importance of open books to the process
Setting up a bonus structure
Building time in to plan
And more…

Mike also talks about getting back to the art of contracting and how important that is to your margins.

Ep.39: How NOT to Grow Your Remodeling Business with Judith Miller

November 7, 2018 00:28:31

The Great Recession gobbled up a whole slew of remodeling companies, but more of them fail during an economic expansion than during a contraction. Growth is great, but it’s risky, and knowing how not to grow will put you ahead of the game.

In this hot market, there are so many opportunities, you can get ahead of yourself too quickly for the health of your company. And that’s where remodeling company owners get into trouble by growing the wrong way. There are potential downsides, and to avoid them, you have to keep you basic best practices — and customer satisfaction and net profits lie at the center, says Judith Miller.

In this episode, Judith joins Victoria and Mark to talk about the ways to grow your company the right way.

Judith has been a facilitator for Remodelers Advantage Roundtables for more than 15 years. She’s a QuickBooks expert, the author of The Remodeler’s Ultimate Guide to QuickBooks, and has been a columnist for Remodeling magazine for more than 10 years. Judith isn’t just a financial guru, she’s a high-level strategist who understands that numbers prove your strategy. She loves the challenge of helping good remodelers become better every day.

When trying to grow, the biggest stumbling block is a lack of control, preparation, and not focusing on the best practices. Judith tells you what those best practices are, and how to grow the right way, while explaining the details, including:

The critical need for leadership
Why your financials have to be in order
The Top 5 things you need to do to build a strong, profitable company
The predictable stages of growth — and which is best to grow in
How large you can get
Why hiring a sales force is the riskiest transition
How to build a company you can sell
Why growing over 20% may be crazy
And more…

You’ll also learn why “The Whale” projects takes too many remodelers down. Click here to go to the Growth Sustainability Calculator we discussed in the episode.

And if you need QuickBooks help, or want bring in Judith as a consultant for your business, you can email her at jfmiller@remodelservices.com.

Want More Ways to Improve Your Business in 2019 and Beyond?

We are excited to announce that we are re-launching and re-branding our annual January event, formerly known as the Master Your Remodeling Business Workshop. The Extreme Makeover: Business Edition Event has been re-tooled and re-focused on providing growing remodelers and renovators with the tools necessary to improve their businesses in 2019 and beyond.

In addition to Judith Miller, this 2-day event will feature well-known speakers such as Victoria Downing, Tim Faller and Mark Harari and bring in new faces like Doug Howard and the 2018 Fred Case Award Winner, Michael Sauri. For more information and to grab Super Early Bird discounts, CLICK HERE.

Ep.32: Industry Insights with Rick Strachan

September 5, 2018 00:33:16

If you’re curious as to where the remodeling industry is going and the key opportunities for the future, Rick Strachan of Hanley Wood has your answers.

In this episode, Rick breaks it all down with Victoria and Mark, telling you what will drive growth, and how to face the coming challenges. You’ll get the big picture, detailed information to help you make strategic decisions for your future, and more numbers than you can shake a stick at.

Rick has worked in the media and information business serving the construction industry for 35 years, and for the last 26 years has been with Hanley Wood’s Remodeling Group. He is a founding member of the Harvard Joint Center Remodeling Futures Program, and is a past board member and former chairman of the Home Improvement Research Institutes Remodeling Professional Committee. He has also received NARI’s President’s Award for service to the industry.

The biggest drivers of remodeling, now and for the near term, are the Baby Boomers. Rick tells you what you need to know about this generation’s buying power and habits, as well as:

The predicted habits of Millennials in the remodeling space
The phenomenal growth in the industry and why the future looks bright
How to address your labor shortage
Why product and materials costs will escalate, and how to deal with it
Why HGTV isn’t all bad for business
What our aging housing stock means for you
And much more…

This episode is as close to fortune-telling as we can get. If you have any questions for Rick, you can email him at rstrachan@hanleywood.com. For more information about Hanley Wood and its news and information about the remodeling industry, go to their website.

Summit Partners

We are proud to partner with Rick and his team at Hanley Wood on producing the Remodelers Summit and we’re excited to get down to New Orleans for this year’s event. We only have 5 seats left for Summit so if you haven’t registered yet, please do so ASAP. You do NOT want to miss this year’s event!

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