When REMODELING asked Craig Durosko of Sun Design Remodeling Specialists, Burke, Va., what the employees at his company think about when eyeing a big job, they compiled this list:
Don't discount a job because it's large or has a big price tag. “If you're not used to selling at a certain price point, you might have a hard time selling a job at [a high price] and might discount it. Don't. The money earned doing a small job has the same value as money earned doing a big job.”
Make sure your estimator breaks out the job and checks to see if it's worth selling five little jobs instead of one big one in terms of gross profit.
Have a system in place for tracking change orders — of which there may be many more than you're used to — and get payment as you do them. “You don't want to [have] such a large sum at the end that a client will bicker over it.”
Never start a project until all selections have been made.
Be prepared for the “extreme emotional roller coaster” your clients will be on. “There are higher highs and lower lows” in a long project. Put extra money into the project to be used to send the client out to dinner or a movie, or to hire a house cleaner.
Think about back-up assistance for your carpenters. There's a good chance your carpenter will get burned out on the project before it's finished. Having someone assist him near the end of the project will “make the close-out period shorter and give him a bit of refreshing energy.”
Do a debrief halfway through a three- to five-month project and create a log that all the people in the project can put information in.
Don't slack off on marketing and selling or you won't have anything on deck when the large job is finished.
