PowerTips Unscripted

Research proves referred clients cost less to acquire, are easier to close, and are more valuable to your business over time.

So why don’t more companies ask for them?

In this episode, Tanya Bamford joins Victoria and Mark to share ways to help you fire up your referral engine, and get more business without spinning your wheels. And it’s backed by hard, verifiable research.

Tanya Bamford is the managing director of R/A Marketing, a sister company to Remodelers Advantage. Prior to joining R/A Marketing, Tanya owned an award-winning marketing firm serving small and mid-size businesses. A sought-after speaker, Tanya has presented more than 20 seminars on marketing-related topics ranging from strategic planning to social-media marketing.

You can’t take referrals for granted — you have to maintain regular communication with your past clients. You can take charge of it by nurturing your relationship with your clients over time. Tanya says you have to remind them, and give them the tools to spur those referrals, including:

To take a deeper dive into referral marketing, here are two resources Tanya referenced:

The post Ep.63: How To Fire Up Your Referral Engine with Tanya Bamford appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We’re introducing a new feature — the Unscripted Back-Up. It’s a chance to revisit some of our best and most informative episodes. They’re jam-packed with information you can use — so if you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance to catch up.

In this episode, we revisit the good, bad, and downright scary elements hidden in employment law. If you’re like most business owners, you don’t think about employment law until you’re faced with a complaint or potential lawsuit from a current or former employee. It’s inevitable …  as you add employees and grow your company, the likelihood of facing a legal employment issue will increase as well.

When it comes to hiring, terminating, and disciplining members of your team, there’ s so much to know and keep track of. You not only have state or territory regulations, but federal as well.

Our guest this week will tell you that any time you run into a legal situation regarding an employee, the best course of action is to consult an expert — and that’s just what we did for Episode 11.

Guest Jen Cornell is an attorney who represents companies in litigation involving employees, including lawsuits, charges brought to government agencies, and investigations from government auditors.

Jen also specializes in preventive workplace audits and policy implementation, such as preparing employee handbooks, wage and hour audits, and immigration compliance.

Victoria, Mark and Jen uncovered so many different aspects of employment law in this episode, including:

Don’t wait until you get that notice in the mail — listen to this episode and get familiar with some of the issues that may arise and derail the success you worked so hard for.

The post Ep.62: [Unscripted Back-Up] Employment Law: The Good, Bad and Downright Scary, with Jen Cornell appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Systems and processes rarely scale when your business grows. So you have to go back and create new ones that will — at least for now. Your design process is no different.

When hiring a new or additional designer, it may be time to revamp your process in preparation for that new team member.

In this episode, Chris Fox talks to Victoria and Mark about what he found when he dove deep into his company’s design process. He learned so much from his examination that he created a new self-guided training plan for designers that doesn’t require constant oversight and management by supervisors.

Chris is the founder of Fox Home Innovations in Manhattan, KS. Chris started this company during his junior year of college and ran multiple projects and crews while completing his degree in entrepreneurship from Kansas State University. In school, he met Matt Carlson, who later bought into the company. Today, they both run the organization with Chris focusing on sales and design, while Matt is the general manager.

The old design process was often on the fly and not totally repeatable at all times. They had nothing to train to or repeat when it came time to hire another designer. There was no time to train, either, because everyone was so busy. Chris details what they did and how they did it, including:

The process is working well, so Chris plans to use it as a model for onboarding and training new hires for other roles throughout the organization as it grows.

The post Ep.61: How I Revamped My Design Process with Chris Fox appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Your reputation is your most valuable business asset — but don’t think for a minute that doing high-quality work and providing top-notch service is enough to make and keep it spotless. The Internet has made it all too easy for people to publicly tarnish your good name — quickly.

Take the initiative, and manage your reputation proactively. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark talk online reviews with Russell Fuller. Russell concentrates on the power of Google reviews, discusses how to get great ones, and what it all means to his business.

Russell owns Fuller Living Construction in Seattle, WA. He’s passionate about small business and marketing. Fuller Living Construction is Google’s highest-rated construction company in Seattle.

Russell starts laying the foundation for reviews during the Sales process, sends a mid-project survey to head off problems that may have cropped up, and systematically follows up after the job is finished to get consistent five-star Google reviews. He explains how he settled on Google, what it means to his business, and how he does it, including:

Building and managing your online reputation is more important than ever. Planting the seeds early for great reviews and making the most of them will lay the foundation for a successful business for years to come.

The post Ep.60: How to Manage Your Online Reputation Using Google Reviews with Russell Fuller appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

If you’re going to build something — a building, a company, a team — you owe it to the world to build something great. Identify what makes you exceptional and empower your team to help you build a great business.

In this episode, Jason Blenker tells Victoria and Mark about how and why he put his organization on the path to greatness, how he defines the term, and inspiring your team to carry out that mission.

Jason is the president of Blenker Companies Inc., a Midwest provider of housing solutions designed to make the building process easier, faster, and better with one mission — to Build Something Great® — great buildings, great communities, great companies, great leaders, and great team members.

About five years ago, he set out to grow his business and build a leadership team around him to make it happen. Jason looked at what world-class companies do, reached out to mentors and coaches, and got to work. A great organization is one that people want to work with and for, and is active in the communities it serves, he says. Getting everyone on the same page is the first step, and he talks about how he did that, including:

Taking the time to invest in yourself may mean taking time away from working in your business, Jason says, but it’s the only way to propel your organization forward.

As you can see by the logo on the right, PowerTips Unscripted is now available on Spotify for those of you who might be using that app on your mobile device. Enjoy!

The post Ep.59: Empower Your Team to Help You Build a Great Business with Jason Blenker appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We’ve talked about LEAN before on the show with our own experts, but you may wonder what it looks like in the real world. Today we’ll hear about using LEAN in the remodeling business from an award-winning design-build company that focuses on residential remodeling.

In this episode, Paul Kowalski shares his experiences in applying LEAN in his business with Victoria and Mark. His company recently implemented the process, and he says the results have already been eye-opening.

Paul Kowalski is the owner of PK Builders in Charlotte, NC, and a member of our Remodelers Advantage Roundtables group. PK Builders has a team of eight, including Paul, with four Project Managers, an Estimator, and a Draftsman.

PK Builders was experiencing growing pains in 2018 — bottlenecks in the design-build process, some cash-flow issues, higher overhead, so they called in Doug Howard for help. Paul says it was intimidating at first, but soon becomes second nature to look for ways to speed up processes. It started with 16 feet of paper festooned with sticky notes detailing steps in the design process. They began by diving into the design process, and he discusses how they did it, including:

Paul and his team are deep in the LEAN process, and excited to see what their future brings, including how it affects their positive cash flow. They’ll be looking at the Production process as their experience with LEAN continues. We’ll check in with Paul on how it’s going in the future.

Here’s that 16-ft. piece of paper!

See the video Paul talks about outlining LEAN principles from the Food Bank For New York City on YouTube.

If you want to learn more about LEAN, and download the free process mapping tool, go to leanremodeling.com.

The post Ep.58: How LEAN Principles Have Improved My Business with Paul Kowalski 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:

Including Mike and Mark talking the Odell Beckham trade, while Victoria stares at the ceiling. Also, for all those wondering, capers are flower buds that are pickled in brine. It’s a wide-ranging and high-energy conversation that will convince you to start blogging if you’re not doing it already — or make you better at it if you are.

The post Ep.57: How to Capture Cost-Effective, Exclusive Leads by Blogging with Mike Foti appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

When it comes to performance reviews, the times, they are a-changin’. Though some managers and employees might still like a good old-fashioned numeric ranking, most prefer to take charge of their destinies — working with together to set goals and spur professional development.

Allison Iantosca talks to Victoria and Mark about why we all need performance reviews and using them to create an engaged and developmental relationship with your employees.

Allison is the second-generation owner of 40-year-old F.H. Perry Builder, a Boston-area custom remodeling firm focused on building homes and relationships of lasting value.

What happens on the inside of your organization reflects on what happens outside — with your clients and Trade Partners, says Alison. Taking care of your team’s experiences is a strategic step to making the client experience better. She leads you through the most important parts of a successful review process, including:

There can be so much anxiety and fear about performance reviews, but there doesn’t need to be. By presenting them as opportunities for growth and positive change, you can create a better culture and a stronger company.

The post Ep.56: The Secret to Successful Employee Reviews with Allison Iantosca appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

In an extremely meta podcast today, we talk about podcasting — and the top reasons you should start your own. We were prompted by an email from a Roundtables member asking why and how to do it.

Podcasting is growing by leaps and bounds — 51% of the population has listened to a podcast. Of those listening, 45% are likely to have an income of $250,000 or more — the kind of affluent demographic you want.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark kick around the reasons you should start your own podcast, with some tips on how to get started.

First thing, don’t get swayed by the idea that a podcast is too global to target your own local area. You don’t even have to cover remodeling in your podcast, as long as it’s sponsored by your company. Other things to consider include:

Including Mark springing the lightning round on Victoria (completely ignoring what he just said about preparing guests, but whatever). If you start a podcast, or are already doing one, let us know in the comments below!

The post Ep.55: Why and How to Start Your Own Podcast appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Regional remodeling companies are desperate for more good labor. Regional carpentry programs are constantly on the lookout for good jobs for their students. How do you bring these groups together effectively?

In this episode, Paul Eldrenkamp talks to Victoria and Mark about the program he and his local NARI chapter have developed to bring students and remodeling companies together,  and what you can do in your area.

Paul works for Byggmeister, a design-build remodeling firm based in Newton, MA. He’s working closely with his NARI chapter to build better connections to carpentry students and teachers at local high schools and vocational schools.

His first outreach experience stemmed from a talk he did at a Boston-area high school about green building practices. The school reached out for help in preparing their students who weren’t going to college to enter the workforce with those building skills.

It grew from there. At first, Paul tried building an outreach program through the company, but it was overwhelming their resources. Working through other NARI with other interested member companies, a workforce committee was born. He talks about how they did it, and the benefits, including:

The future for the Boston program is bright, filling open jobs with candidates who might not be seen otherwise. If you’d like to reach out to Paul about your initiative or for help starting a program near you, send him an email at [email protected].

The post Ep.54: Solving the Labor Shortage with Paul Eldrenkamp appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.