Work is extra fun when you’re learning something new every minute, and so it was for me when I edited the reports on this year’s Big50. In profile after profile, I found myself making mental notes to remember creative ways to bring in revenue, operate more efficiently, find potential customers, and assure those clients will become customers for life. The Big50’s ways of doing business are sure to help you tune up your operation as the weather warms and business quickens. Here’s my list of ideas worth embracing.

  • Buresh Home Solutions owner Brian Buresh talks to suppliers to find potential new hires. Re-Bath of Tucson uses interns from the local business college.
  • Crescent Builds has implemented a $250 charge for preliminary estimates. This helps screen out ambiguous leads. The fee is deducted if the client signs.
  • Distinctive Design Remodeling’s Jonathan Penn re-measures every job himself after it’s sold, but not because he mistrusts his team. This way, new customers get to meet the company owner. In addition, Penn says, “I want to know what was sold and to make sure that everybody understands” exactly what is in the contract.
  • DreamMaker of Bakersfield offers two-hour seminars on kitchen remodeling and what to look for in a remodeler. The company provides dinner, wine, and dessert, which one of the owners makes herself.
  • The handyman service at Get Dwell charges every client a “day fee” of $45 to cover transportation, and the fee is included regardless of whether the project manager is at the house all day or just part of it.
  • Last fall, Majestic Exteriors called past customers in select markets to offer them a free gutter cleaning in return for allowing the company to post its yard sign. Forty people responded in one town.
  • Messier Construction’s Rick Messier personally delivers employees’ paychecks each Friday. “It forces me to visit the jobsites,” he says.
  • Once a home project is complete, Outback Decks hosts a party there, where it invites neighbors to view the company’s work.
  • Re-Bath of Illinois offers clients a lifetime supply of its proprietary cleaning product. Each quarter, clients can come into one of the franchise’s offices to get a free bottle. It keeps the company on the customer’s mind.
  • A popular event for past, existing, and prospective clients of Tenhulzen Residential is “cooking without a kitchen.” A professional chef visits the showroom and demonstrates how to prepare meals with just a microwave oven, refrigerator, and sink—handy for those in the middle of a kitchen remodel.
  • All employees at West Construction take the DISC personality profiling test. It helps match team members to prospective clients.
  • Salespeople at Window World of Baton Rouge don’t get their checks until the company gets paid.
  • Yankee Home Improvement’s marketing takes homeowners by surprise in order to get their attention. For instance: Instead of a letter or a postcard, the company mailed out bottles with messages inside them