Have you given any thought to your exit strategy? How are you going to leave your business when you’re ready to retire and enjoy your remaining years?
It is never too early to start, and you should really be planning for that day, no matter how many years you have left.
There are many options when it comes to planning a successful exit and our guest, Dave Leff, joins us to talk more about his process, one that he is closing on within the next few weeks.
Dave, President/CEO of Leff Construction – Design/Build, explored a number of different options over the past five years and ultimately determined that an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was the direction that provided the best outcome.
Victoria, Mark and Dave talk more about:
When Dave first started thinking about exiting his company.
The main things Dave did to prepare his exit strategy.
The main options Dave considered for your exiting and the pros and cons of each option.
The decision to go with the ESOP option.
How an ESOP works and the benefits and challenges.
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 success
The designer’s role in his company
Recruiting and hiring for the department
Working back from net profit
When to hire a design manager
His three-phase process
How he charges for them
Figuring out a healthy close ratio
Taking on a design-only project
Why to conduct a feasibility study — sometimes
Working with design sub-contractors
And 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.
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 hownot 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 recently retired but before that she 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.
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
Are you worried about your business being the next victim of a cyberattack? Today on PowerTips Unscripted, Charles Hammett joins the show to give some advice on how to protect your business from cyberattacks. Charles breaks down some of the types of cyberattacks and how remodelers could be affected. He also talks about some of the benefits of having cybersecurity and the protection it brings to your business.
For over 25 years, Charles Hammett has managed IT and cyber security initiatives for several businesses throughout the US. He has worked closely at the federal level, building secure data centers and at the public level protecting businesses of all types.
Victoria, Mark, and Charles talk more about:
Are small businesses at risk?
How does this impact the remodeling industry?
How can you protect your business from cyberattacks?
The Kaizen practice focuses on improving existing, standardized processes by eliminating waste and was first practiced in Japanese businesses after World War II. Kaizen translates to “Change for Good,” and that can mean many great things for your growing remodeling company. The process of constant improvement, with every team member participating, allows your company to constantly raise the bar on its target metrics.
In this episode, Victoria and Mark learn more about the Kaizen practice of process improvement by welcoming Michael Sauri, CEO of TriVista USA, to the show.
Michael and his wife Deborah started TriVistaUSA in 2005 with the goal of providing an outlet for creativity and a Ritz Carlton-level client experience. “Our Thoughtful Design Builds Fine Living,” is their mission statement and their mantra as they bring phenomenal, award-winning design to the Design/Build community in the Washington DC area.
Victoria, Mark and Michael talk more about:
The background of Kaizen and how TriVista got involved
Hiring and developing a team within the Kaizen structure
The differences between Kaizen and other process improvement practices
Do you remove your shoes when you visit a customer’s home? How do I control others’ first impressions of me? Is it ever appropriate to begin eating before everyone is served? Find the answers to these questions and more when Daniel Post Senning joins the show.
Daniel is the great-great-grandson of Emily Post and discusses the importance of etiquette and how you can use it while interacting with affluent clients who expect a certain standard of conduct. He explains that etiquette is really a combination of manners (language), plus principles (consideration, respect, and honesty), and how they guide behavior and how that behavior impacts others.
Daniel Post Senning is from the Emily Post Institute, which is a fifth-generation family business that promotes etiquette tips and techniques based on consideration, respect, and honesty. Daniel is also an author and co-host of the Awesome Etiquette podcast.
In this informative and fun podcast, Victoria, Mark, and Daniel talk more about:
Table etiquette for any setting
Business advice that can help you control customer impressions
SCRUM is a workflow management technique that accelerates projects, and while it is mostly used by software development teams, its principles and lessons can be applied to all kinds of industries.
Guest Dean Tompkins is here to explain how SCRUM is useful in his remodeling business, and how it can benefit you as well.
Dean Tompkins is the owner and Vice President of Payne and Payne Renovations and Design, a firm that specializes in renovation and design projects in the Greater Cleveland area. Dean was also named president of The Greater Cleveland Home Builders Association in 2019 and is dedicated to providing a full scope of services to his clients.
In this episode, we take a closer look at the sales process. We are always looking for fresh ideas and concepts that apply specifically to remodelers and those in the building community.
Our guest Jen Neige is adamant that you should be selling to design, NOT designing to sell, and she shares how you can improve your closing ratio, gain more control of the sales cycle and earn a design fee within two hours.
Jan Neiges is a National Kitchen and Bath certified Kitchen Designer and on the nine-member board for NKBA. Jan brings her 20 years of experience as a kitchen and bath designer and her 40 years of sales experience to share the selling process that she has developed.
Victoria, Mark and Jan talk more about:
Background on how Jan began working on this process.
Why this process is so important for remodelers to consider.
What some of the issues are within the industry faces that drives the need for using this process.
Are you looking for innovative tax strategies to reduce you or your clients’ tax burden?
Or, simply sick of paying more than you need to in taxes? Then tune into this episode to hear vital information that you won’t want to miss! Guest Shauna Wekherlien, CPA provides proven, legal, effective, and easy strategies that any audience member can implement to keep more of their hard-earned money.
Shauna is the founder and business owner of Tax Goddess, a company ranked in the top 1% of all tax strategists in the USA. The team at Tax Goddess is committed to helping clients reduce their tax burden to the bare legal minimum with proven strategies that are guaranteed to save thousands off of tax bills each year.
Victoria, Mark, and Shauna talk more about:
The difference between a CPA and a Tax Strategist
The most commonly missed deductions
The types of business owners that can benefit from a Strategic Tax Coaching Program
As a distinguished author and CEO, David brings his knowledge of world-class sales, sales management tactics and actionable strategies into this episode.