In this episode of Design Build Central, hosts Bruce Case and Bill Milholland continue their series on uncertainty in the remodeling industry, focusing this time on the critical importance of mitigating risk. As more clients defer home remodeling projects due to economic or personal hesitation, it’s never been more important for design-build firms to take a proactive approach to managing both general business risks and project-specific vulnerabilities.

Bruce and Bill explore the layers of risk that remodeling businesses face today—from financial liabilities and shifting regulations to safety protocols and brand reputation. They also dive into how remodeling companies can stay agile in the face of fluctuating material costs, tariffs, and changing scopes of work. With practical insights on everything from detailed specifications to avoiding single points of failure in your processes, this episode is packed with strategies to help you lead with confidence in uncertain times.

In this episode of Design Build Central Bill, Bruce and their guest Maddie Millholland dive into the most effective strategies for remodeling businesses to generate business through collaboration with their teams and clients. 

We’ll explore how we use social media and email marketing to reach new clients as well as how to nurture relationships with past and existing clients.    Learn how educational seminars can position your business as an expert in the field, and discover creative ways to turn your job sites into marketing opportunities. 

Join us as we share actionable insights that will help you and your team drive more leads and grow your business.

In this episode, Bruce and Bill dive into the topic of Navigating Uncertainty in the remodeling industry. While the long-term outlook remains strong, economic uncertainty in the short term is creating challenges for some remodelers, particularly when clients feeling uncertain choose to slow down or defer their projects.

Bruce and Bill share strategies for addressing this, including breaking annual goals into smaller quarterly or monthly targets for easier tracking, focusing on what you can control, and ramping up proactive communication with clients. They also touch on several other approaches to manage client uncertainty. Stay tuned for follow-up episodes where they'll explore these strategies in more depth.

In this episode, Bruce and Bill tackle a trend making waves in the remodeling industry: homeowners hitting the pause button on renovation projects. They explore the reasons behind this slowdown, from economic uncertainty and busy schedules to expectations of lower interest rates in the future and other big-picture trends.

The conversation doesn’t stop at the “why”—they also share actionable ideas for navigating these challenges. Learn how to build value for your clients, adapt your approach, and keep your business moving forward even when getting to “yes” is more challenging.

In this episode, Bruce and Bill explore the cyclical nature of the remodeling business and how shifts in consumer confidence, real estate values, and other macroeconomic trends impact the industry. Drawing on decades of experience since 1961, they highlight how fluctuations in average job size play a significant role in these cycles.

The discussion dives into the ripple effects of changing job sizes, touching on how they influence sales and design processes, affect margins and estimating strategies, and even alter production workflows. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the industry, this episode offers valuable insights into adapting your business to thrive in a constantly shifting market.

In Episode #12, Bruce and Bill are joined by Sr. Vice President, Rick Matus for a conversation on hiring new salespeople. It's a wide ranging discussion and touches on many areas to consider if you're thinking about growing your team.

  First: Hiring and Recruiting - Where do you find new Project Developers? - What attributes or traits do you look for?  - How important is “fit” in deciding to hire a new employee?   Bruce, Bill and Rick discuss onboarding and training a new hire. Finding the right candidate is critical, but much of their success will come from a comprehensive training program: - Start big picture with a broad overview of the organization, it’s history, culture, policies, and process - Expose them to systems within the business- estimating, CAD, CRM, etc. - it’s tales daily interaction for some period of time and it will be 6- 12 months before this person is working on their own - Leverage the team, have others share their expertise and start to build a relationship. Shadowing other salespeople and observing what they do is very helpful - Set expectations, give homework, establish deadlines- develop lots of small hurdles to get a read on their progress/ ability to do the job   Case is a big company with  tools and resources that aren't available to everyone. They discuss ideas about how a firm with fewer resources might think about hiring a new salesperson: - Be patient! This is going to take 6- 12 months. Are you prepared for this investment of time and money? - Have a timeline for specific milestones just like a remodeling project - Spend the time to document your process or have the new hire do it. You have to have a repeatable process to get predictable results. - Have a chart or document that outlines roles & responsibilities for various “client facing” roles can also be very helpful   As the episode wraps up, They share lessons learned along the way: - Allow this person to fail, they will not get everything right the first time.  - You learn through practice. - Some training needs to be self directed. They need to be actively engaged and search out answers to their questions. - They need confidence in sales! If a new person knows what to do, when to do it, fits with the team, has empathy for the client, and understands your process, they're going to do just fine.    If you have questions, comments, or thoughts, send them to us at [email protected]

In this listener Q&A episode, Bruce and Bill tackle crucial questions for remodeling businesses at various stages:

1. Starting a new remodeling business: They highlight creating opportunities, gaining industry knowledge, starting small, and understanding financials.
2. Growing a 5-year-old business: Hiring priorities (sales, production, or design), emphasizing process documentation and financial preparedness for team expansion.
3. Managing homeowner involvement: While ideally minimal, Bruce and Bill share practical guidelines for handling client participation in projects.
4. Sales management and top performers: They outline meeting strategies and propose a holistic performance scorecard beyond just sales figures.

For feedback or questions, reach out to [email protected].

In this episode, we break down five critical elements that are essential for building a robust business plan for the coming year.  First, we’ll discuss the importance of taking inventory—assessing your business performance, the state of the economy, competitor positioning, and even a personal reflection on your leadership. Next, we’ll dive into defining strategic initiatives for the year, understanding their budget impact, and getting your team to executive on these initiatives.   

From there, we move into the nuts and bolts of drafting a comprehensive budget—covering sales forecasts, lead generation targets, gross profit margins, and anticipated expenses. Then, we’ll explore how to secure buy-in from your leadership and the broader team, ensuring alignment and accountability. Finally, we’ll wrap up by talking about the importance of ongoing monitoring to ensure your plan stays on track, with regular check-ins and adjustments to respond to any shifts during the year.

In Episode 9 we discuss a listener question related to employee retention (shout out to Steve Nash at Upscale Remodeling!). We think retention is closely tied to culture so we brought in an expert- Allison DeLand. Allison is the VP of Administration at Case and has worn many hats for the organization during her 20 years with the business. The conversation is wide ranging and addresses what we do in our business to retain employees and foster a healthy company culture: - events: company picnic, lunches, happy hours, Annual Meeting - engaging the team in Case Cares, giving back to our community - celebrations: quarter century club, milestone anniversaries  - employee surveys: what do they think and the importance of responding to these issues - fair compensation packages - Personal Growth Fund- $500/ year to spend on education, fitness, technology, etc. - recognizing personal events: birthdays, marriages, babies, someone close passing away, etc. - just spending time with people getting to know them - understanding that employees go through an evolution: want to be told what to do when new, want you out of their way as they mature in the role - emphasize “fit” in the hiring process and onboarding new hires to have a holistic understanding of the business   We also spend some time discussing how much more difficult this can be with members of the field team. They are not in the office everyday and may not feel as connected. We try to address this by making them feel part of the team rather than out on an island by themselves. In our case, the Project Manager, regular job site visits, regular communication and inclusion are all part of these efforts.    We wrap up by highlighting the “Can Do” award. Anyone can recommend someone for this award that is given to an individual the goes above and beyond in helping a client or team mate. The award is $100 and being recognized in company wide email and newsletter communications. 15-20 individuals are typically recognized each month.   If you have an idea for a future topic, or questions about this episode, please contact us at [email protected]

At Case, we’re big believers in the design-build approach to residential remodeling. Our definition of design-build is design, development, project management, and much of the construction of the project is done in house by Case employees.

As outlined in previous episodes, we have a carefully developed process to move a client from an initial conversation through the completion of the project. It’s a relay race where the baton is passed back and forth between development, design, and production.

As well developed as our process is, we still have challenges. These challenges are typically related to the joints between steps in the process. The areas where we pass the baton from one role to another or pass through a transfer. Every once in a while, we drop the baton…

In this episode we discuss details of the various steps in our process and some of the gates we have implemented along the way to ensure successful transfers of responsibility and information.

We start by outlining how we conduct a trade walk through and introduce a Project Manager to a client. Next up is a contract review where a PM has 48 hours to review a project before a contract is presented. Can there be some conflicts in this step? You bet, but better now than after we’re in production.

We continue to move through the process- package pass, expectations letter, pre-construction walk through, electrical walk through, mid job huddle, and substantial completion. We touch on compensation issues and how this helps align members of our team. We also touch on the importance of regular communication with all parties involved. We wrap up with some thoughts on surveys and project celebrations.