Remodelers Reveal the Keys to Their Long-Term Success

A Good Plan & the Right People

The first thing you need to achieve long-term success is a good business plan that identifies your goals. That includes an annual budget based on realistic overhead costs and margins. After that, it’s important to hire people who can continually monitor progress and advance toward accomplishing those goals. You can’t pay too much for the right people; and paying too little typically gets you the wrong people, which leads to bad customer service, poor work, and no referrals.

Rob Levin, President
Statewide Remodeling, Dallas/Fort Worth

Adaptability

I have done a lot of backpacking, and all of the wilderness survival literature is clear on one concept: The forest is neutral. How you react to your situation is what helps or hurts you. Many people who get lost or injured while hiking assume that help will come. Others feel doomed and give up.

I believe our company is what we make it. Our success will depend on our ability to calmly adjust and stay on course through the natural peaks and valleys. Like hikers who emerge from the forest, we will survive, wiser for having had the experience.

Bill Baldwin, CEO
HartmanBaldwin Design/Build, Claremont, Calif.

A Healthy Company

Companies can rally in the short term to achieve a specific goal, but long-term success relies on a healthy organization characterized by the following: a mission, values, goals, and objectives that employees understand and can rally around; key metrics and reports that are clear, concise, and available in real time; an emphasis on the customer experience; an organizational structure that supports continual learning and encourages advancement along cearly defined career paths; employee incentives based on things that they can control; a process-driven approach with repeatable activities; and a work environment in which employees have fun and feel like they are treated well.

Holly Ollier, CEO
American Exteriors, Littleton, Colo.

Communication

Business success depends on strong relationships, and communication is the key to success in any relationship. We aren’t expecting anyone to take us to lunch every week, but a monthly call, a quarterly visit, and an annual sit down is how we communicate.

Emily Lindus, Vice President
Lindus Construction, Baldwin, Wis.

The Professional Remodeler PRIME Advisory Panel

PRIME brings together the best-of-the-best minds in the remodeling industry. This premier council of industry leaders sets the trends in today’s economy for tomorrow’s success.

2015 PRIME Advisory Panel Members:

Bill Baldwin, Hartman Baldwin Design/Build; Jay Cipriani, Cipriani Remodeling Solutions; Chris Edelen, Consultant; Sal Ferro, Alure Home Improvements; Joy Kilgore, EBA PRIME; Rob Levin, Statewide Remodeling; Emily Lindus, Lindus Construction; Gary Marrokal, Marrokal Design & Remodeling; Scott Mosby, Mosby Building Arts; Hollie Ollier, American Exteriors; and Joe Smith, LeafGuard Exteriors of Central Iowa.