Related Articles

• Good as Gold
  Four years ago, Austin Foster's Atlanta, design/build firm, Construction Ahead, was averaging about $400,000 per year in installed sales volume. Last year, following steadily increasing annual sales, the firm's volume reached a hefty $1.7 million. Although a number of factors contributed to this rise in business, Foster places the majority of the credit on his company's ability to satisfy custo...
• Leading the Way to Better Customer Service
  Many home builders invest in customer service training for their staff with the goal of providing an outstanding experience at every phase of the home-building process. As commendable as these efforts are, they will always fall short if the company's leadership doesn't model attitudes and behavior.
• Making a Superintendent: Nature vs. Nurture
  Are great site superintendents born or made? Many building firms now hire based on character; not experience.
• Cleaning Up the Clean Water Act
  Two initiatives are in the works that would streamline the Environmental Protection Agency's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System of the Clean Water Act, which regulates storm water pollution on construction sites.
• The Power of Meetings
  So what's the big deal with meetings anyway? You meet with your subcontractor/carpenter to start a new project. Depending on the size of your company, you also meet with your office manager, sales people, production manager and possibly your staff accountant, marketing manager or even your general manager.
• Maintaining Good Tradespeople
  Whether your craftsmen are employees or trade partners, it's always a challenge to find and keep talented, reliable people. Tom: One of the top challenges we have today is how to maintain good craftsmen. Mostly we're going to talk about production people and today's challenges of labor, whether or not they're employees or subcontractors.
• Managing Happiness
  The larger a remodeling company becomes, the more difficult it is to achieve customer satisfaction, right? Dave Bryan, president of Blackdog Builders in Salem, N.H., showed me anything is possible, no matter what your company's size and volume. Bryan's $5.5 million firm employs 35 people and produces 43 percent gross profit on 70 annual jobs.
• Your Choice in Cost Control
   
• Reining in Runaway Costs
   
• Where the Money Is
   
• Streamline Your Business
   
• Control Sales, Marketing Costs
  Sales and marketing costs should be held to 6% of home building revenue, but builders have a hard time hitting that target.
• Targeting Financial Ratios
   
• Is That Your Slip Showing?
   
• Fool's Gold for Improving Profit
  

« Previous    Next »