The Tim Faller Show

Today on The Tim Faller Show, Aimee Cianfarani discusses how her company has made concierge services (a/k/a handyperson services) a successful part of the overall business.  In this high-failure segment of the industry, Aimee and her team have overcome significant odds to find great success by applying a strategic approach and using marketing as a key part of the process.  Aimee said hiring the right person for this role is also critical.  

Aimee is the Concierge Services Coordinator at Teakwood Builders in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Aimee has helped grow Concierge Services from a one-person operation into significant operations with jobs booked into 2023.

Listen to this episode where Aimee, Tim, and Steve talk about:

Today on the Tim Faller Show, we welcome guest John Vendafreddo to discuss time management. John talks about how to organize jobs based on importance or urgency, and how planning can help with time management. John also discusses how to handle in-office meetings while working on job sites. John finished the show by giving some advice to new project managers.

John has been interested in building since he received his first Fisher-Price toolset. Upon graduating high school there was no question about what field John would enter. John joined the Hogan Design Build team as a laborer but his drive and eye for perfection helped develop him into the company’s head trim carpenter. As Hogan Design Build grew, John’s attention to detail led to him being promoted to Project Manager and now, Senior Project Manager. John is married and has three sons. He lives in a house that he built from the ground up in Batavia.

Tim, Steve, and John talk about:

Listen to this episode and get tips on creating an effective and highly functional relationship between company ownership and the production team.  Clark Harris and Eric Bain of Innovative Construction discuss how they have built an open, trusting, and team-based relationship that allows them to work effectively together while creating a culture for innovation, growth, and change.  

Innovative Construction is a high-end design firm in Atlanta, GA, with the goal of improving lives through design, craftsmanship, and teamwork.  Clark and Eric run their organization with a philosophy of “do it badly and improve.”  They do this with a relationship of openness and trust.

Join Clark, Eric, Tim, and Steve as they discuss:

Raise your hand if you are a salesperson… Maybe a few business owners raised their hands, but most likely, our production people and our Project managers, Lead carpenters, and Production managers all kept their hands down. Not so fast!

In this episode, we step out of our comfort zone a little and talk about your production teams’ impact on sales and marketing. For this discussion, we bring in an expert in the marketing world who has worked with hundreds of remodelers and home builders all over the country, Spencer Powell.

Spencer is the President of Builder Funnel, a Colorado-based firm that provides sales and marketing services for homebuilders, remodelers & contractors. Spencer earned his Inbound Marketing, HubSpot, and HubSpot Partner Certifications in 2010 and has been practicing and teaching inbound marketing to businesses ever since.

Tim, Steve, and Spencer talk more about:

In the interview process, actively listening is key. But how? And how do we change if we “really need someone”? Then, of course, there are all the other times that when we look back at a difficult situation, whether a client or an employee, we see all the signs of the challenge were there, but we did not listen. Guest Christine Miles is here to share some insight and answers on how to avoid that situation.

Christine Miles is the author of What Is It Costing You Not to Listen?: The Power of Understanding to Connect, Influence, Solve & Sell, a professional keynote speaker, consultant, executive coach, thought leader, entrepreneur, and radio show host.  She is the founder and CEO of EQuipt.  Additional information on her may be obtained here. 

Tim, Steve, and Christine talk more about:

On our third episode, in March of 2018, we talked with Mike Barkhouse from Amsted Design Build about achieving “Zero Punch List” production.

We heard from a few listeners about that episode, and the concept of Zero Punch List, so we wanted to revisit it. We are now evangelists pushing to see the term “Punch list” eliminated from the remodeler’s vocabulary.  In a zero punch list scenario, after a project, no items remain to be addressed or “punched” because the items will have been addressed during the project and not at the project’s end.

A punch list is so ingrained within the industry that it is tricky to conceive of not having one. Every blog article about working with a contractor says something about that punch list. Usually, “Don’t pay until it is done.”

Our guest for this episode is Mike Voloschuk, Production Manager at Hurst Design Build Remodel in Westlake, Ohio. Mike is a member of our Roundtables for Production Managers peer group, and when he mentioned how his firm had adopted the Zero Punch strategy, we invited him to join us and discuss it.

Mike has been with Hurst since 2008 and moved from Carpenter to Production Manager.

Tim, Steve, and Mike talk more about:

If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do differently when starting your remodeling business if you only knew then what you know now, you’re not alone. 

Tim and Steve do, too. 

In this episode, the guys talk about what they’ve learned in their time at Remodelers Advantage and from their podcast guests that they wish they knew when they were running their own businesses.

They each identified the five biggest takeaways that make remodeling businesses stronger, more profitable, and built for growth. Learn what they think is important and why, including:

Many remodelers, builders and business owners make resolutions or commitments to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and then they get caught up in the daily grind and it never happens. 

Another challenge for many companies we work with is attracting and hiring people, especially new people to the industry, and getting them trained to “do things our way.”

Our guest today, Nick Slavik, has done an outstanding job of developing SOPs for his company and then implementing training to meet those internally. It turns out he has some other views of the world that are extremely helpful in running a business, as well.

Nick is the Proprietor of the Nick Slavik Painting & Restoration Co., Host of Ask a Painter Live, and contributes to This Old House. He has been a national and international speaker on topics such as entrepreneurship, trades reformation, working with millennials, harnessing technology for trades business, financial benchmarks, and industry standards. Nick has been a craftsman for more than 25 years. His company has been awarded more than 5 National awards for craftsmanship over the last 3 years. He has created a rigorous apprenticeship program where he finds, trains, and mentors young people in his craft. In 2018, he was made a family member at This Old House.

Tim, Steve and Nick talk more about:

When we discuss the labor shortage, we are often talking about how to find or develop good talent.

What we are now hearing from our Roundtables members is that they are finding people, getting them on the team, and then they fail. In many cases, these aren’t catastrophic failures, but slips in net profit or schedules or proper estimates, etc.  We can write this off to “they misrepresented themselves” during the interviews. Or, we can take a closer look at our own onboarding process to ensure we are setting our new hires up for success, not failure.

To dive deeper on this topic, Tim and Steve welcome Chris Beck to the show to talk about how he and his team at Normandy Remodeling handle the onboarding process.

Chris has been with Normandy Remodeling in Hinsdale, IL for 14 years; eight as Superintendent, two as the Production Manager and four as Director of Production. Normandy has added five Superintendents over the past five years to cover increased production and they are on pace to set another annual Produced Sales record, their 5th year in a row.

Tim, Steve and Chris cover:

Howard Prager joins the show to talk about how memorable leadership can help retain good employees, increase productivity and improve customer service.  He outlines his VIP model of leadership, which is easy to apply, proven effective, and will help create a company with which customers will want to do business and employees will want to work.

Howard Prager is president of Advance Learning Group, the author of the book Make Someone’s Day Becoming a Memorable Leader in Work and Life, speaker, executive coach, and consultant who helps managers become memorable leaders.  He has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous small businesses and has won multiple professional awards for his work. 

Tim, Steve, and Howard talk more about: