Iris Harrell began Harrell Remodeling in 1985 and retired in 2014. She is a Fred Case Award winner and admired by the JLC and RM staff for her 10 Business Commandments, which she lives by and models so well for others.
Once reserved for teens and techies, podcasts are becoming a hot marketing trend for some remodelers. Riggs Construction and Design, in St. Louis, launched a series of podcasts last year hoping to reach young homeowners.
According to experts, how much to spend on advertising can range from 2% to 16% of gross revenue depending on where you put your dollars ó print, yard signs, Internet, TV. Knowing where to advertise means knowing which market to target, what differentiates your company from another, and what type of work you do best. Figuring all that out, of course, costs money.
How do you control costs in a down market, or when job costs run over budget? What's the hardest part about growing your company? How do you motivate production staff? What's your opinion of cost-plus pricing? In a "town hall meeting" for remodelers, the owners of three successful but very different remodeling companies answered these and other questions from a capacity crowd of hundreds of attendees of the 2007 Remodeling Show in Las Vegas.
What can we learn about accountability in business from The Apprentice, Donald Trump's televised search for his next executive? In Trump's version, you're on a team where you avoid taking responsibility and sometimes even undermine team performance to protect yourself. To survive, you may have to throw teammates under the bus. Most importantly, a small mistake will get you called on the carpet for public humiliation, and probably will get you fired.