At a recent Remodelers Advantage conference, I asked the room full of remodeling company owners about hiring. 75% of those in the room indicated that they would be hiring new people within the next 6 months. This was exciting news because it indicates an optimistic outlook toward the future! Growth! Yes!
One of the most important elements determining a company’s success is the quality of the employees. In my 25+ years in the renovation industry, I’ve seen this business principle played out again and again. Those companies who place significant importance on the hiring, training and retention of great employees have happier clients, more loyal trade
Savvy remodelers monitor ongoing design contracts for a clue to future work. But monitoring backlog—a sure thing—is also crucial. Backlog is simply work under contract but not yet done. It may be the as-yet-not-produced fraction of a job in construction or it may be a job you haven’t started yet. Don’t count a job as
We’re two full months into 2013 and of course you’ve got a plan in place for maximizing your company’s success this year. Hopefully that plan is on paper. Hopefully it was designed with the help of your staff. Hopefully you rolled it out before the year began, in an all-company meeting with action points developed for how
We know that many company-owners face the challenge of getting the best out of their employees. Linda Case provides helps you can hone your leadership skills with volunteer employees. At a recent Remodelers Executive Roundtable meeting 12 highly successful remodelers were discussing how they could hone their leadership skills. I asked each attendee to think
Business owners might sometimes feel they need to hire more workers to meet the steady flow of work that is coming in and because they do not want to lose projects, they look to take on more employees. However, you can meet the demands by following some simple guidelines about how to increase efficiency and
Do you automatically turn to the classified ads when you have a new job opening? Unfortunately everyone else in town is doing the same. Most applicants reached through the classified ads are currently unemployed or already have an agreement to leave their firms at a specified time. Thus the classified ad pool of workers
Bench Strength — Definition: The competence and number of employees ready to fill vacant leadership and other positions. Do you have employees in the wings to take on more leadership if the business needs it? This need could develop because the company has grown and needs additional skilled managers . . . or because an
I was reading an interesting report by the temp employee people, Robert Half, when a statistic stopped me. They say that, 45 percent of workers say they plan to change employees, careers, or industry’s when the economy improves. Wow! If that’s true, our small businesses could really be left in the lurch. We all know
When you think of your company and how it’s doing today, you have a picture in your mind of what you want it to look like tomorrow. Whether that picture shows additional employees, a bigger building or more efficient systems, one thing is constant; it is something better than what exists today. Making that progression
