Allan Lutes is a big-picture kind of guy. He likes to know what's coming down the road. So the owner of Alpha Remodeling in Ann Arbor, Mich., created this worksheet. More
Today, roughly $850,000 of Alpha Contracting's $3.6 million in volume comes from exterior renovations. But much has changed. Originally a separate division, siding's been folded back into the company. Lutes found that because so many contractors were installing vinyl siding, he needed to differentiate on product and quality. Today 85% of his siding jobs are fiber cement, installed under the supervision of an Alpha Contracting lead carpenter. Siding and window salespeople are cross-trained to sell other projects. And a siding job is often sold along with a porch, deck, or windows. More
Training yourself, your managers, and your field crews will turn your chaotic circus into a well-orchestrated troop. More
The thought of a remodeling project often overwhelms clients, especially first-timers. So three years ago, Alpha Remodeling, a design/build company in Ann Arbor, Mich., broke its design process down into "bite-sized" pieces. More
Allan Lutes knows the basic fact about teams: "If it's a team," says Lutes, owner of Alpha Contracting in Ann Arbor, Mich., "you've got to have more than one person on it." More
