Networking is the key to visibility and increasing your circle of friends

Anyone who has been in this business long enough knows that remodeling is not a product business, it is a service business. It is not just that we do our jobs but how we do our job that makes or breaks a client's experience and satisfaction.

In business, like in our personal life, we have to find the silver lining in the forecast and how we might benefit from it.

In 1979, I was a skinny 16-year-old working for my brother-in-law's small, suburban Chicago remodeling company. During most of that summer and many weekends, I was Ray's main gofer, push-broom mechanic and carpenter-in-training.

Water conservation and drought make a good toilet a must have. The water supply system is under significant stress. Reservoirs and aquifers have limited capacity and are difficult to expand due to the cost and fragile ecosystems.

Until recently, it wasn't that hard for most remodelers to find work. With home prices soaring and equity growing, homeowners everywhere were eager to improve and remodel their homes. And Sacramento was no different.

Homeowners wanted the remodeled master bathroom to make a bold statement; art deco proved the way to go.

A small bland kitchen's floor plan flips to create the perfect space for old-European style. The owner, a real-estate agent, had been inside scores of houses in the area and was determined to make her remodeled kitchen and family area different from the norm.

Most remodelers struggle to know how they measure up against other firms. Are you charging enough? How does your average job size match up? Are you paying yourself a big enough salary? Finding the answers to those questions is the idea behind our annual Business Results Survey, now in its sixth year.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a specialty or full-service remodeling company during a market slowdown? How does that affect your approach to marketing, sales and financing?