Turning the Page Toward a Successful New Year

Before you start rebuilding your organization, map out a plan of what kinds of businesses you think will be the most beneficial to you and your organization in the future. Once you have made those decisions, you can project an organization chart that will best suit that market.

Finally, as the economy starts to move forward, you will be faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, you don’t want to get ahead of the economic growth with your hiring and, on the other, at the early stages of recovery, the most talented people will be available to add to your staff.

Customer Expectations

Over the past year and a half, most of the population has learned that their investments, particularly their homes, do not always go up in value. Many homeowners bet that home values only went up when they borrowed 100%, or more, of their home’s equity. They have since watched a major asset turn into a liability. For this reason, our customers will be much more careful about spending money on their homes than we were all used to.

There is still a large portion of the population made up of those who have owned their homes for some time, or made substantial down payments when they purchased them. Those who have owned their homes for some time are going to be the most likely customer base for remodelers, both because of the equity they enjoy in these homes and the fact that the homes, appliances and fixtures are wearing out and dated. Expect this group of customers to be extremely careful about receiving value for any investment that they make in their homes.

While there will probably always be a group of remodeling customers who are in a position to spend any amount for the things they want, most of our clients are likely not in this position right now. Therefore, we will need to listen carefully to what is important to them (hint: Have a note pad and take notes when they talk). Be prepared to explain why a certain product or design solution is going to be of more value to them and will enhance the value of their most significant asset.