-
Feb 22, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
6Companies across the nation’s residential renovation and design sectors have higher expectations for business performance in 2024 than they did at the same time last year, with forecasts projecting improved demand despite rising costs for labor, products, and materials.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
4Are your leads slowing down? If not, consider yourself lucky, hard-working or both. Most contractors I know are seeing a lower number of leads and much higher marketing costs. It’s quite a turnaround from the pandemic years, when leads were plentiful, and backlogs grew long. Among contractors, the recent boom in home improvement created a sense of accomplishment. In hindsight, maybe it was a false sense of accomplishment.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
7A critical issue for 2024: Is your company prepared to modify, augment, and update your sales and marketing methods to meet with the changing economy, new regulations which will be implemented, and the major shift in buyers’ attitudes and habits? First, a Yohoism: “Closing the sale is the natural conclusion to the satisfactory completion of each step in a customer-satisfaction, step selling system”.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
3Have you noticed customer service has been tanking to new lows these days? Things have gotten so bad most of us just come to expect poor service from many of our vendors and service providers. Often we have no other better choices in the marketplace. The good news? Many consumers are fed up and are willing to pay more to get what they want and expect. This holds true in the marketplace for remodelers.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
3If you’re the type of owner or manager who works IN the business, the kind of owner who sells jobs, who drafts estimates, who manages field and office staff, who coordinates advertising programs, and who daily interacts with clients, and who, at the end of a given day, might drive to a jobsite to finish up a tile job—our list of 50 trends and change agents for 2024 will certainly get your attention. It starts on page 30.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
5It’s that time of year again! Cue the logoed yardstick giveaway; if you know, you know. I’m talking home shows and—love them or tolerate them—they provide an unfettered opportunity to interact with potential customers. And for your on-site team, they set loads of excellent appointments. There are distinct approaches to take and subtle nuances to note in order to maximize home-show results.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
7In the heart of a Detroit neighborhood, an old firehouse was the ideal project for a local creative. It takes a certain person to see past the immense amount of work in an old building and have the drive to make it the perfect spot for his family and growing business. That person just so happens to be someone whom we have had the opportunity to work with for many years while he has captured our work.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
9The U.S. experienced nearly 7,000 severe hail storms in 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Severe Storm database. This is up from approximately 6,000 severe hail instances reported the year prior, and the nearly 5,000 hail storms reported in 2021. While weather patterns fluctuate — 2020 saw just over six thousand instances while 2019 saw over seven thousand — the trend is toward more storms that can cause damage to roofs.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
9This List was compiled with the help of many remodelers and home improvement pros who responded to emails from the Qualfied Remodeler team. Some of the items have broader implications for all businesses. The aim of the list is to provide a basis for the kind of big-picture thinking and planning that can lead to more proactive and positive steps toward business growth and bigger profits. — The EditorsPresented in alphabetical order.
-
Feb 14, 2024 | 
qualifiedremodeler.com | Emily Blackburn
9As a senior in high school, Andrew MacLaren had a friend who worked for a kitchen dealer that took on additions and other remodeling projects. MacLaren began working in the company and eventually became the lead employee at the business. After five years with the organization, he decided in 1984 to hang out his shingle and establish the first of his own remodeling companies. “I really enjoyed working with my hands, and I enjoyed building things.
