Production Archives - Page 2 of 3 - PowerTips Unscripted

Using the Financial Review to Pivot to Profitability with Michael Hodgin – [PowerTips Unscripted S4 E9]

January 12, 2023 00:38:49

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.

Victoria, Mark, and Michael talk more about:

When is it best to review financials
What should be getting reviewed
What is the next step after reviewing
And more…

Fighting the Labor Shortage with In-house Training with Dan Hurst – [Best of PowerTips Unscripted]

December 22, 2022 00:27:59

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

Strategy Isn’t Enough with Brian Gottlieb – [Best of PowerTips Unscripted]

November 17, 2022 00:30:45

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
How realizing potential depends on others
Examples of the wrong strategies
And more …

Why The Design-to-Production Handoff is Worth Measuring – [Powertips Unscripted] S4 E3

October 13, 2022 00:34:31

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.

Victoria, Mark, and Dan talk more about:

Team handoff meetings
3 core project deliverables
How these core deliverables can improve standards
And more…….

Gauging Your Designers’ Workload Effectively With Jeff Talmadge-[PowerTips Unscripted] S4 E1

September 29, 2022 00:21:24

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
And more…

The Delicate Art of Qualifying Remodeling Leads with Chip Doyle- [Best of Powertips Unscripted]

September 15, 2022 00:32:56

Leads! Lead! Leads! Business is good, leads are coming in. But are you over-qualifying, under-qualifying, or doing it just right?

Chip Doyle’s got research that says 30-60 percent of business is lost because the initial phone call is handled incorrectly. So if you’re not doing it just right, you’re leaving money behind.

In this episode, Chip’s back with Victoria and Mark to break down the best practices for lead evaluation over the phone, and what to leave for the salesperson to handle in the prospect’s home.

Chip Doyle wrote Selling to Homeowners — The Sandler Way, a best-selling industry book, and has been offering Sandler training for 20 years. He has worked with hundreds of remodeling companies across North America — including many of our Roundtables members and RA University members, and many other RA programs.

The most fundamental mistake many remodeling companies make — especially in this hot market — is mismanaging leads over the phone. Over-qualifying leads mean you’re actually losing money, says Chip. He says the salesperson’s job is to go out and get “no”s. Getting into the home is key, but too many owners wear too many hats and don’t have enough time to devote to sales calls. The result is being too stringent during the initial phone calls. Chip talks about how to qualify your prospects the right way, including:

Predictive qualifying
How long the initial call should take
Who should do the qualifying
Training the qualifier, or LIP
Ensuring that the homeowner has a positive experience on that first call
Finding out the client’s pain points while on the phone
Making and confirming appointments
And more …

Growing a High Volume Remodeling Business with Jake Schloegel- [Best of Powertips Unscrpited]

September 1, 2022 00:24:49

Many remodelers dream of one day building a high-volume remodeling company. Others aren’t sure it’s worth the effort.

In this episode, we talk to Jake Schloegel about what it takes to grow a high-volume remodeling business. Why build it? Who should be involved? What are the expectations?

Jake is the Founder of Schloegel Design Remodel, an award-winning Design/Build firm in Kansas City. He started in 1980 as a one-person company and has grown it, with the help of his team, to an operation exceeding $14 million in revenue annually. The company is now managed by Jake’s son, Charlie Schlegel, and his business partner, Chris Peterson.

Jake has been a facilitator and instructor for Remodelers Advantage for years and is very active in the remodeling community, having served as president of NARI from 1990 through 1992.

Victoria, Mark, and Jake talk more about:

Jake’s business and what prepared him for growth.
Who helped Jake in building the company?
The key components necessary for sustainable growth.
Why Jake wanted to achieve high volume.
What Jake would do differently if he could have some do-overs.

Ep.90: Inside the Design-Build Movement with David Supple

November 27, 2019 00:27:26

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 be
The historical apprenticeship process
How the industry separated into architects and builders
What social status had to do with it
Why design-build almost went away
The efficiencies of design-build as a process
How to position design-build with consumers
Design-build vs. design-bid-build
And 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.

Ep.82: What Can Be Learned from Success with Wayne Rivers

October 2, 2019 00:16:44

We’re just back from the 2019 Remodelers Excellence Week, Remodelers Summit, and Roundtables meetings, and our opening video was about thinking like a child, and allowing yourself to fail so that you can learn from what went wrong. It’s all a part of evolving as a business, as a person, and the art of growth.

Then we came across the latest video blog from our friend Wayne Rivers.

It dovetailed nicely with our main takeaways, while also turning the concept of learning from failure on its head. It’s devoted to learning from your successes, and then building on them.

So in this episode, we’re picking up the audio of his blog. If you’d like to watch the video, you can find it here.

Wayne is the co-founder and president of The Family Business Institute Inc. He has authored four books on the subject of family businesses, and is part of the peer group Victoria and Mark attend. Wayne has appeared on the Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, BusinessWeek: WEEKEND, and on the Retirement Living Network.

Wayne talks about how overlooked, yet powerful, success can be as a teaching tool. Instead of always concentrating on what didn’t go right, he tells you how to learn from the good, including:

What you can learn from the Blue Angels
Why to focus on the process more than the outcome
Conducting a post-mortem on every project, good and bad
Analyze for successes and failures
Realizing that success is almost always a team effort
Why to benchmark in every department and process
Getting an outside perspective and objective opinion
And more …

There are opportunities for learning and improving everywhere — you have to look for them and then build on them.

Click here to take a look at our Summit kick-off video.

Ep.79: Helping Veterans Remodel with SAH Grants with Jay Latona

September 4, 2019 00:23:43

Caring for our veterans should be a national priority when they come back home. The Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) program offers grants to service members and veterans who have certain severe service-connected disabilities. The grants assist with building, remodeling, or purchasing an adapted home, but the program needs remodelers and builders to make it work.

Most people in the remodeling industry don’t know these grant programs and projects exist.

In this episode, Jay Latona tells Victoria and Mark about this incredible program, and how it can enable remodelers and builders to provide a great service to our nation’s veterans, while also making a profit.

Jay is the chief, specially adapted housing at the Veterans Benefits Administration, and has worked as a remodeler and builder. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Jay will be at the Remodelers Summit 2019 in Orlando, Sept. 24-25, to talk more about the program.

The SAH program began in 1948 as part of the G.I. Bill of Rights. It provides funding to veterans to enter a contractual relationship with builders or remodelers to make homes more accessible to assist with independent living. The SAH program is funding more than 2,000 projects a year with more than $100 million paid out. Jay talks about how the program works, how you can get involved, and what it can do for your business, including:

What you need to do to register
Help with marketing it
The separate compliance inspections and who does them
How funds are dispersed
Connecting with veterans
Opportunities for new remodelers
The minimum adaptations you need to do
Other grant opportunities veterans can get
And more …

Jay says the registration process is simple, and can be life-changing for veterans. To get more information, and to download the handbook he mentions, go to: https://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/adaptedhousing.asp. And if you want more assistance, send an email to sahinfo.vbaco@va.gov.

Jay Will be a Guest Presenter at Summit… Don’t Miss it!

Jay Latona will be joining us at Summit and will give a brief presentation on how his organization is supporting veterans. If you haven’t registered for Summit, there’s still plenty of time to register and arrange your travel for the biggest and best Summit we’ve ever had!
Click Here for More information >>

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