PowerTips Unscripted

When it comes to the employees who are responsible for onboarding and managing your clients, providing consistent coaching and training to your team is crucial for achieving success. One of the most effective techniques for training your team is through the ‘ride along’ or shadowing method. Although this process can be time-consuming, Jef Forward has introduced a new approach to the ride-along. Additionally, he discusses how he employs AI during training and the sales process to help improve the effectiveness of their sales team.

Jef is the Owner of Forward Design Build located in Ann Arbor, MI. He has been a facilitator for Remodelers Advantage Roundtables for numerous years and has been a member of the Roundtables family for even longer. Jef is known as a visionary, an idea guy, and ahead of the curve in most things tech.

Victoria, Mark, and Jef talk more about:

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Worried about a steady flow of leads? If referrals are your main source of business, a structured, reliable process for generating them is essential! Many companies claim their top leads come from referrals, yet few have a formal strategy in place. In today’s episode of PowerTips Unscripted, Doug Howard shares a proven method for building a consistent referral system that works.

Doug Howard, a senior consultant with Remodelers Advantage since 2017, brings a wealth of experience to the table. Having facilitated over 8 Roundtables meetings each year, Doug has worked with hundreds of remodeling clients to help them master their financials, refine processes, and boost profitability.

Doug, Victoria, and Mark talk more about:

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Today on PowerTips Unscripted, we’re excited to welcome Bjorn Johnson to the show! As General Manager at TraVek Remodeling and Roofing, Bjorn shares insights into the company’s journey as one of Arizona’s most trusted leaders in remodeling and roofing. Tune in to hear about TraVek’s dedication to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction, which has cemented its strong reputation in the industry.

Bjorn, who is passionate about sales and supporting his team’s growth both in and out of the office, joined TraVek for its solid foundation, core values, and great culture. He finds fulfillment in helping others succeed and is committed to making a meaningful impact on people’s lives. Join us as he unpacks the challenges, successes, and secrets behind TraVek’s top-tier service!

Bjorn, Victoria, and Mark talk more about:

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Successful organizations rely on accurate financial information to make informed decisions. But what sets great organizations apart is having a formal month-end close process in place. This ensures that financials are completed, reviewed, corrected, and ready for leaders and managers to use confidently in decision-making. In this episode of PowerTips Unscripted, Doug Howard joins us to break down what a strong month-end close process looks like and how to implement it effectively.

Doug Howard, a senior consultant with Remodelers Advantage since 2017, brings a wealth of experience to the table. Having facilitated over 8 Roundtables meetings each year, Doug has worked with hundreds of remodeling clients to help them master their financials, refine processes, and boost profitability.

Doug, Victoria, and Mark talk more about:

The post A Month-End Close You Can Actually Make Business Decisions From with Doug Howard – [PowerTips Unscripted] S6 E2 appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We’re big believers in the power of blogging to generate interest and business. Today we’re talking to someone in the trenches who’s also a believer, because it’s helped him in growing his business, gaining credibility, elevating customer loyalty, and  — most importantly — generating cost-effective, exclusive leads.

In this episode, Mike Foti discusses his business case for blogging with Victoria and Mark, and tells you how you can do the same.

Mike is president of Innovate Building Solutions of Cleveland, OH, a regional remodeling and nationwide wholesaler of grout-free shower and tub wall panels, wet room systems and glass floors, and also of Innovate Home Org, a designer and installer of custom home organization systems. In the eight years he’s been blogging on his News from the Block blog, it’s grown to 85,000 visitors per month and 19,000 email subscribers — and he has two other blogs. Mike is a self-described DMG (Digital Marketing Geek) and loves learning how to increase traffic and leads without forking over big bucks to “Mr. Google.” He’s also a crazy one-hour-a-day runner – even after suffering two heart attacks over the last two years. Finally, Mike is a reinvigorated Cleveland Browns fan and says (just like Baker Mayfield) he’s feeling a little dangerous today.

Mike started blogging after a digital marketing consultant told him how it would help his business, and he admits his first attempts weren’t so good. Mike shares his five reasons to blog, tips for finding the time to do it, and the benefits, including:

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Season 6 of PowerTips is here!

Every business owner knows that the road to growth is filled with challenges—some of which can feel overwhelming. But in this episode, we’re talking to an entrepreneur who’s not only faced those obstacles but has led his business to remarkable success.

Join hosts Victoria and Mark as they sit down with Greg Harth, president of Harth Builders—a nationally recognized, award-winning design-build firm in Greater Philadelphia. Recorded live from the 2024 Remodelers Summit, Greg, a longtime Roundtables member since 2012 and second-generation owner, shares his journey of taking the reins from his father Allyn and building on the company’s legacy.

Victoria, Mark, and Greg talk more about:

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Victoria and Mark are just back from their own peer group meeting, and were inspired by what they learned. In particular, they were excited by something they heard from another member, Wayne Rivers.

Wayne has a video blog, and we’re picking up one of his episodes about leadership. He says leaders tolerate bad behaviors in their organizations too often, and it can cost you money and time. The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate. You may hear some things that hit home for you in his talk.

Wayne Rivers, the co-founder and President of Performance Construction Advisors, and celebrated for his four influential books. He’s a sought-after media figure, appearing on Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, and “BusinessWeek: WEEKEND,” and serves as a Wall Street Journal Expert Panelist. In addition, Wayne’s wisdom is featured in Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times. With a wealth of articles, a 15-year blog, and workshops for prestigious organizations like Harley-Davidson and YPO, he brings a wealth of experience to PCA. Honored as a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute, Wayne’s dedication reflects his passion for building better contractors.

Wayne gives examples of toxic employee behavior in his talk today, and tells you how you can curb them, including:

The post A Leader’s Inactions Are Just as Important as Actions with Wayne Rivers – [Best of PowerTips Unscripted] appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Small business owners spend a lifetime building a company and have one shot at getting their exit right.

Yet waiting to pounce on this unsuspecting group is a legion of financial mercenaries, private equity predators and corporate giants set up to prey on owner’s lack of experience when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.

These financial engineers use sleazy tactics like “strategic pacing,” “re-trading,” and “proprietary deal flow” to dupe owners into selling their life’s work for pennies on the dollar.

Our guest in this episode, John Warrillow, passionately advocates owners reframe how they approach their company from thinking of it as a job to building a transferable and valuable asset.

John is the founder of The Value Builder System, a simple software for building the value of a company used by thousands of businesses worldwide. He is a past Keynote Speaker at our Remodelers Summit and has been a guest here on PowerTips Unscripted in milestone episodes 01 and 100.

Victoria, Mark and John talk more about:

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Toyota pioneered the LEAN manufacturing system, and we know — houses aren’t cars. But neither are people, and the LEAN concept of continuous improvement is used by hospitals too. 

So even if remodeling isn’t brain surgery, we can learn a lot from how LEAN has been applied in healthcare. You can get some of the best help with your business by looking at how other industries use continuous improvement.

In this episode, Liz Moisan talks to Victoria and Mark about using LEAN principles in healthcare and how it can be applied to remodeling. She says Kaizen or LEAN principles give you a common language for things we already know, creating a foundation to move forward.

Liz is a product innovation specialist at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, and has been a practitioner of the Virginia Mason Production System since 2008. She teaches, facilitates, and works to continually evolve how Kaizen is applied in a health-care setting. She’s married to R/A Roundtables member Matt Moisan.

The hospital employs daily Kaizen, so even the smallest roadblock can be eliminated, as well as  higher-level applications. She shares some real-world examples, including cutting down on waiting times for patients (yay!), working with vendors to get what the hospital needs when it needs it, The Five Ss, and how to look at a particular process to improve it, including:

Here are those two books Liz recommends for getting started understanding the Kaizen principles:

The post What Healthcare Can Teach Remodeling about LEAN with Liz Moisan – [Best of PowerTips Unscripted] appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

The concept behind developing a customer persona is pretty simple – get to know your audience better so that you can build a more meaningful relationship with them, both as a client and a prospect.

The output of that analysis is inevitable company growth and client retention. So how do firms, of all sizes, build meaningful personas to shape the way they go to market?

In this episode, Aimee Pagano talks with Victoria and Mark about the process of building these vital tools and what a remodeling firm can do with them.

Aimee is the Director of Programming at HighRoad Solutions, a smartech data integration company for associations. She has 20 years of marketing and communications experience and her specialties include persona development, content strategy and generation, lead gen, and website development / optimization.

Victoria, Mark and Aimee talk more about:

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