Today on PowerTips Unscripted, Lauren Campuzano joins the show to discuss outsourcing 3-Dimensional (3-D) Design. 3-D designs can help remodelers sell their plans, but finding the right talent can take time and effort. Lauren found that 3-D designs were great communication tools within the design department, construction department, and sometimes with clients. Creating 3-D models in-house was difficult for Lauren, so she outsourced them.
Lauren is the Principal Designer at New Market Builders LLC. After working within the Design- Build industry, and many years teaching Interior Design at The Art Institute of Philadelphia, Lauren joined her husband, Michael, at New Market Builders to launch and oversee the Design portion of the company.
In this episode, Jeff Talmadge discusses how he and his team created a point system for his design staff to spread their workload. Each designer is assigned a predetermined number of points, weighted by criteria such as permitting, scope, and complexity of the job. The team tracks points weekly and has found that designers are less stressed, customers are given more accurate timelines, and production can plan their workload better.
Jeff Talmadge is the president of Talmadge Construction, a large, premium design-build firm based in Aptos, CA. Jeff and his team pride themselves on their commitment to customer service, quality workmanship, and a strong team culture.
Jeff’s five words of wisdom – patience, persistence, never give up.
Listen as Jeff, Victoria, and Mark discuss:
Increasing job satisfaction across the company by managing designer workloads
Improving customer service by managing expectations with accurate timelines
Learning the best way to work with purchasing managers can help create great outcomes for both sides of the remodeling business. With over a decade of experience in operations and purchasing for a national homebuilder, Bradley Hartmann has researched and found the importance of having purchasing sales teams devote their time exclusively focused on the specific needs and opportunities for remodelers.
Bradley, founder and CEO of The Behind Your Back Sales Co., goes in depth about what suppliers really say behind your back on this episode of PowerTips Unscripted.
Mark, Victoria and Bradley talk more about:
Why it may feel like Remodelers are second-class citizens in the eyes of lumber and building material dealers
What suppliers are saying behind remodelers backs
The sales fundamentals missing from most remodelers
How Remodelers can best position themselves to get the best pricing and service from dealers
Questions Remodelers should ask to determine if they are the best fit for a specific supplier
Current events have created an environment of incredible stress for homeowners across the globe. Remodelers have an opportunity to tap into their dissatisfaction with their home environments by using an empathy-based marketing approach to make an emotional connection.
On this episode of Best of Powertips Unscripted, Tanya Bamford joins Victoria and Mark to share how using the right messaging, imagery, and delivery channels can allow remodelers to present themselves as conduits for creating retreats from stress at home. These tips can help them fill their pipelines with homeowners who are hungry for a reprieve.
Tanya Bamford is the Managing Director of R/A Marketing–a full-service agency providing creative, yet straightforward marketing solutions for remodeling companies across the United States.
This episode will cover:
What empathy marketing is.
Practical ways to incorporate empathy into your marketing messages.
How this is this different than leveraging “pain points.”
The challenge of making an emotional connection with a stranger and how empathy marketing bridges that gap.
How remodeling companies can begin to incorporate empathy into their marketing.
Today on PowerTips Unscripted, Lane Cooper joins the show to discuss the large project sales process. Price is a process like design. Setting our clients up for a successful pricing process is critical to large remodeling projects moving forward through design into construction. Lane walks us through his pricing process to manage clients’ price expectations.
Lane Cooper is the President and founder of COOPER Design Build in Portland, OR., and is a valued Roundtables member. COOPER Design Build specializes in large remodeling and addition projects.
Victoria, Mark, and Lane talk more about…
Scope Creep
Challenges of selling and pricing major additions and whole house remodels
Determining if the project is suitable for your company
Today on PowerTips Unscripted, Mark and Victoria are joined by Michael Hodgin to discuss using the financial review to pivot to profitability. A complete understanding and review of your company’s financials is a practice that requires a disciplined effort. However, with this practice in place, an owner will be able to use the information from these reviews to pivot when and where necessary to be more profitable year over year. Using his expertise as a former business owner and a business coach, Michael talks about how he examines a company’s financial statements, including what KPIs to review and whom to review the financials with.
Michael was an owner of a successful remodeling company for over 22 years. He has since left and is the owner of Maestro’s Toolbox, where he works with owners of design-build companies across the country to help them build better companies and, therefore, better lives. In addition, Michael has been part of the roundtables as an owner, a facilitator for roundtables meetings, and part of the Remodelers Advantage Business Coaching team.
The demand and absence of skilled labor is a huge challenge for remodelers across North America. We hear it from our Roundtables Members as well as from our associates, sponsors and Podcast guests.
In this episode Victoria and Mark explore different ways to tackle the issue, and welcome Dan Hurst to the show to talk about how his firm effectively creates a culture and career path that provides opportunities for his staff to learn and develop new skills.
Dan is the President / General Manager of Hurst Design Build Remodel in Westlake, OH and is actively involved in NARI as well as a Master Certified Remodeler and Certified Lead Carpenter.
Dan, Victoria and Mark talk more about:
Things you can do to create a culture and provide a path to grow your own skilled workforce
Why there is a need to develop your own staff vs. hiring
Creating opportunities for your employees to learn and develop new skills
What a typical career path might look like
Managing and helping your staff achieve their career goals
The fear of investing time and energy into developing someone, only to have them leave
A successful remodeling business isn’t only dependent on tactics or the larger strategy behind them. A company’s culture plays a crucial role in executing any business strategy.
In this episode, Brian Gottlieb discusses the key steps needed for a business to implement their desired strategy with Victoria and Mark.
Brian Gottlieb is the founder and CEO of Tundraland Home Improvements, which serves all of Wisconsin. He started his business on a plastic folding table, with just $3,000 in cash. Today, Tundraland employs more than 220 people, and revenues are in excess of $42 million.
He defines strategy as an integrated set of choices an organization makes to position against the competition, add value to their customers, and add value to the company. Brian’s “a-ha” moment came last summer, when he understood that when a community is at its full potential, we’re all in a better place; and when an organization is at its full potential, we’re all in a better place.
He calls Tundraland a training organization — developing an employee to his or her full potential is a key point of the company’s strategy. Brian describes the four ways to define your culture, and how to make it stronger, including:
How building a strong culture is like building a ship
Today on Powertips Unscripted, Dan Hurst joins the show to discuss the handoff from design to production. Dan talks about how to define the minimum standard of completeness and quality for each function or role involved in preparing the handoff packet. Dan also discusses how to use checklists for each role to ensure that quality standards are met.
Dan Hurst is the COO and part owner of Hurst Design Build Remodel in Cleveland Ohio. Dan and his brother Pat have been a part of Roundtables since 2006. Dan was also on a panel at the 2022 summit at the Gaylord in the National Harbor.
In this episode, Jeff Talmadge discusses how he and his team created a point system for his design staff to spread their workload. Each designer is assigned a predetermined number of points, weighted by criteria such as permitting, scope, and complexity of the job. The team tracks points weekly and has found that designers are less stressed, customers are given more accurate timelines, and production can plan their workload better.
Jeff Talmadge is the president of Talmadge Construction, a large, premium design-build firm based in Aptos, CA. Jeff and his team pride themselves on their commitment to customer service, quality workmanship, and a strong team culture.
Jeff’s five words of wisdom – patience, persistence, never give up.
Listen as Jeff, Victoria, and Mark discuss:
Increasing job satisfaction across the company by managing designer workloads
Improving customer service by managing expectations with accurate timelines