7 Things Smart Remodelers Will Do in 2027

Kyle: Welcome everybody. It is the Remodelers on the Rise show. Arguably one of your top 100 podcasts. I would hope. I would hope this is in the top 100. Maybe for some of you, the top 10. Maybe for some of you, your kids are in the car and you turn it on and you're like, not this guy again. Or maybe you're out on a job site. Maybe you're driving to a job site. Maybe you're sitting in your office. You need that little jolt of ideas and reminders and teaching. That. Is what we're here for. I'm glad you're listening. Title today: Seven Things Smart Remodelers Will Do in 2027. Seven Things Smart Remodelers Will Do in 2027. As you can imagine, I'm gonna go through seven things. We'll start with the seventh thing and move down David Letterman top, he did top 10, top seven style. Number seven. Smart remodelers in 2027. Are going to set a clear vision for their business. They're going to get very clear for what 2027 looks like. They're also going to do a little bit of dreaming and forecasting of what their three-year vision is, or maybe their five-year vision, or kind of like EOS teaches, a 10-year target. And they're going to plan accordingly. Choose however you want there. As far as I think I kind of like a three-year vision just because it's Out there far enough that it lets you dream a little bit, but it also isn't so far out there that it seems unmanageable. I just did a webinar with Job Tred related to it's December 31st, 2029. What does your business look like? Take a look and think through what your revenue is going to look like, your gross profit margin percent, what your total owner comp goals are. What does your overall org chart look like? What is the type of work that you're focused in on? What is your average project size? Really think through those things and then move back into this upcoming year and say, okay, what needs to happen in 2027 in order to move towards that long-term vision? You can absolutely achieve it. You might be sitting there going, I've been stagnant for the last number of years. I'm feeling stuck in my remodeling business. Creating a bit of a vision of where you're going and then getting super clear on exactly what needs to happen in 2027 is a huge part of that. Your your life and your business that you're aiming for, that you're going for, it's not going to happen on accident. It's going to happen based on making a plan and executing it and being consistent and also being patient. There's a phrase that Gary, Gary V uses and it's it's micro speed macro patience micro speed macro patience meaning in the day in and day out speed implement do respond implement go do etc and in the macro patience i would say for this business owner over here that's been my mo for a long time my business did not grow super quick It was just a slow and steady brick by brick by brick. And something that's that's built in a slow and steady nature, has a little bit more roots, has a little stronger foundation, and it's not so easily blown over in the future. So micro speed, macro patience, and also get clear with your vision. When you think through what your plan is for 2027, think in quarters. In the first quarter, I'm going to achieve the following. In the second quarter, in order to move towards where I want to go, I'm going to achieve the the following more focus on fewer things. Don't try to do it all at once. See things through to completion. One finished thing is better than 50 half finished things. Number seven, set a clear vision for your business and plan accordingly. We're going through the seven things smart remodelers will do in 2027. If you're watching the video, I just disappeared for a second. It's because I got a little fan down here. It's that time in Michigan. Hopefully, that fan you can't pick up on the audio. If not, I'm sure my podcast producers will solve that. but it's that time in Michigan where it's nice and crisp and cool in the morning. And then it kind of warms up into the upper 60s. It's sunny out there. But the heat in my office here just kicked on. So we need to balance the heat with a little bit of of As I was saying, number six, topper modelers are going to track their lead sources. Track their lead sources. We are not going to throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. We're not just going to throw a bunch of marketing out there and see what sticks. We are going to track our leads very, very closely and identify where our top leads are coming from and then put more focus and intention around that. Track your leads. Make sure that you can run a report that shows me for the first six months of 2027 exactly how many raw leads that you generated, how many marketing qualified leads that could be defined as they are interested in a service that we offer and they're in our trade area. And then sales qualified leads. It actually led to an initial appointment. They have made it through your initial conversation over the phone and track exactly where those leads have come from. And as you look at that, then put more focus, whether it's time or dollars or playing with the ad copy or whatever the case might be to produce more out of those top lead sources. For a lot of you, repeat and referral work from previous clients is a top lead source. What can you do to initiate more of that? How do we stay more in touch with those folks, top of mind with those folks? Making sure they know all the different services that we offer. Maybe they're strategic partners, architects, designers, realtors, high-end landscapers, people who share the same ideal client as you do. How can you be much more purposeful and strategic with developing those relationships? Track your top lead sources closely and then execute more and more against those. Seven things smart remodelers will do in 2027. Number five. They're going to track their average cycle time. Cycle time. There's a lot of different ways we can measure it. One of the most important would be from the time, let's say, design and development agreement is signed to the time the contract is signed. Or from the time somebody reaches out to the time that we have our first appointment with them. There's a few different ways to measure it. That first one is the one that I zero in on the most. Time kills deals, and if a Project is lingering in the estimating phase or in design and development. As that project lingers, the close rate on that also lingers and kind of finds its way down. There's this energy and excitement that clients have about keeping their project moving forward. And part of your job is to keep that energy high and keep that project moving. Time kills deals. Book your next meeting before you leave that current meeting. Everybody works off of deadlines better. That designer of yours, that estimator of yours, you, you need to give yourself deadlines on when you're going to get back with that next design iteration or that next estimate. This is an incredibly important part of your remodeling business. I don't like to, I don't I don't like to flex very often. If I flex, partially because if I flex literally my shirt sleeves rip and tear. Because of the bulging biceps. So that's part of the reason I don't want to flex. But what I'm really talking about is flexing a little bit of my coaching knowledge. Folks, I'm getting older. I'm 40 in 2027, I'm gonna be 44. I have done this now for 19 years, coached and ran my run my own business for remodelers and coaching them to improve. And I just want to say I'm not the top dog, I'm not the best of all, I'm not the goat, I'm not whatever. But when I share some of these ideas, I do want you, especially if I've built some no, and trust with you, if you've listened to me and you resonate with what I'm saying, you have to understand that the things that I'm saying have been siphoned and filtered through and experienced with hundreds of remodelers at this point. So when I say, number seven, get super clear with your vision, track your lead sources, fight for that time to make sure that you're getting super clear with that and more focus on fewer things and double down on that. When I'm telling you to take tracking your average cycle time seriously, that comes with some weight behind it. This isn't, this isn't something I'm just dreaming up. I'm like, that sounds like a good idea. No, no, no. I've watched hundreds of remodelers become remodelers on the rise and improve their business with this type of practical coaching. That was my flex. So I just want to say if I'm resonating with you, if if everything I say, not everything, but a lot of what I say resonates with you, then take it serious. It's coming with a lot of experience and watching people improve their business and improve their life as a result. Yeah, that felt that felt felt that felt a little icky. That felt a little icky to flex like that. But maybe I need to do that a little bit more. I guard against it. But there you go. Boom. Track your cycle time. If it's taking you 82 days to get through design and development. If you're doing super complicated projects, you may be okay with that. If it's taking you 82 days and it ought to take you 40, then you need to fix that. We need to start taking our design and development phase in particular, because I'm focusing on that, and start treating that like we do our production schedule. You make sure you don't take on too many projects at once in production. You need to do that same thing in design development. You go into JobTread and you update that schedule. Multiple times a week to make sure everything's moving through production. You need to do that in design development. Create a design development schedule, deadlines of when things are gonna happen. Give your clients deadlines on when you need responses back to them. Manage that more actively. Top remodelers, smart remodelers in 2027, I'm gonna do that. The fourth one, number four, number four, it's here in the middle of the seven, seven things smart remodelers will do. They're gonna watch their slippage. And grippage on each and every project. I've already fired up, so I had to take a breath because I don't want to be too fired up. But this one gets me fired up. I'm gonna simply say this. Smart remodelers are able to look at that kitchen project. And number one, they're able to say, my expected cost for the demo phase is X amount. My expected cost for the plumbing is X amount. My expected cost for cabinetry install is the following. They're able to see exactly what their cost and frankly their gross profit on that portion is going to be. And then smart remodelers are also able to see my actual for demo is the following. My actual of what the plumber actually came in at, the cost versus the actual, I can tell you down to the stinking penny what that is. My cost, expected cost, my estimated cost for the cabinet install, and what my actual cost for the cabinet install is. I can tell you exactly what it is. And if you're able to do that, that granular, you will absolutely make more money in your remodeling business. By the way, you're not working your ever-loving face off in this business and taking on the risk and taking on the stress and taking on the workload and all the things that come and with building a business so that you can sit there with a pi pitily little net profit at the end of the year after not taking much owner draw or salary. You're doing this so that you can make Minimum six figures into the 150, into the 200, into the 250, into the 300. We just did a benchmarking report for our 49 peer group members, and it's well over $300,000 in total owner comp is the average, is the average. The median's just slightly below that. We nerd out on numbers with that benchmarking. But you watch your slippage and grippage on each and every project. And if you have slippage, you identify what it is. You identify: is it because you didn't get a fixed price from the plumber? Is it because your plans and what you gave to the plumber to get that quote originally was a little loosey-goosey? Is it because you didn't actually charge for the change order that you ought to have charged for the change order? Is it because fill in the blank? Each one will have a reason. And if you can get that granular and you can analyze it, you're gonna fix your estimating, your project management, you're gonna fix your job costing, and you're gonna hold on to more of your gross profit dollars, which allows you to make more money. This is not rocket science, but it ain't easy either. There's a lot of things we're juggling. The a remodeling, if you're wondering why a remodeling company is so hard to wrangle and manage, it's because it's a hard business. It's a hard business. There are a lot of other businesses that are a lot simpler and easier than a remodeling business. But is it so rewarding as well? And you guys and gals are passionate about the work you do and the service that you deliver, but it's hard. It gets a lot easier when we know where the dollars are going and we know if we're holding on to the full gross profit margin, where slippage is happening, where grippage is happening. Do that. Watch your slippage and grippage on each and every project. Seven things smart remodelers will do in 2027. Number three, you will know your team's capacity. Let's say you have eight team members. Let's say three of them are in the office. Let's say you have an office manager, you have a designer, and you have an estimator. or you have an office manager and kind of a designer estimator and a project manager. And you have yourself. We need to get better as business owners and smart remodelers in 2027 will do this to know your team's capacity. We do not want them to be running at 110% workload all the time. We want them more at that 80, 85% on average. Now that is going to ebb and flow. I can speak for my myself. I have two full-time employees. I am consistently asking and talking to them about their overall capacity. How's your workload? What do we see coming up this week and next week? doing almost a two-week look ahead. Is there anything that we need to shift from one of you to the other or that I need to take on? What is your overall work stress level and personal stress level? We do that in our level 10 EOS meetings. And based on that proactive talking about it, we are making adjustments. I can say, hey Bailey, I know that we talked about that initiative being priority. But given your capacity of giving, of getting, let's say, our in-person peer group retreats organized over the next week or two, let's just put that on ice for a minute. Let's pick that up on November 1st, and then we'll get back at it. To me, that is good leadership on my end to know my team's capacity. That's leadership. That's leadership. And it's your job as a leader to be, to be poking around at that, to know that, to be asking about that. To be helping them adjust their priorities based on that. We cannot have our team or yourself running way over capacity, meaning I've got more work to get done than I know what to do with it. I see this very consistently with project managers, where a project manager that is over capacity, that project manager will be able to keep the project moving and anticipate things pretty well, but and and communicate with the client. But the things that aren't happening because they're over capacity, they have too much work on their plate, is they're not updating the schedule nearly enough. They're not watching the job costing, which project manager should be watching the job costing. They're not writing up the change order right when it happens and getting that processed. they're not just kind of checking in with team members. They're not anticipating changes to the schedule in advance because they're just kind of getting just enough done each day. So it it rears its head with project managers quite a bit, but we can absolutely manage and lead and guard against that if we're paying attention to it. Know your team's capacity. Seven things smart remodelers will do in twenty twenty seven. You know what's coming next. Number two. Number two. I need a little sip of coffee. nice lukewarm coffee. I don't like lukewarm coffee. But it's better than no coffee. You know what I'm saying? It's 9 48 a.m. when I'm recording this. I've already I I got this at let's say 7 30, a little scooter's coffee on my way to my office. I've been going to I've been in a little rut where I'm going to Tim Hortons on my way after I drop the kids off on my way to the office. And then what happens when I swing through Tim Horton's is I might get an English muffin with sausage, egg, and cheese. It's not too heavy. It's very good and quite delicious. But what ends up happening for me anyway is then I'll eat lunch at 11 30 and then I'll have dinner. And at the end of the day, what I recognize is I think I may have ate too many calories. But if I'm able to kind of lock in in the morning and and do a little almost quasi fast from the night before to lunchtime, I just I got more energy. I feel better. I'm definitely hungry at lunch. So I held off there this morning, and I my car I was my car really was trying to pull into Tim Morton's. I'm like, no, no, no. We're going to scooters, we're just getting a quick little coffee, and we're getting to the office, and we'll be hungry at 1110 and just deal with it. But energy level, lethargicness, all of that is better because I'm watching what I'm fueling my body with. There's a little bonus, there's a little bonus tip and reminder. Number two, find community. Smart remodelers. In 2027, we'll do what a lot of the remodelers that are remodelers on the rise clients have done for the last number of years. They won't go it alone. They'll have other business owners who know the unique burdens and joys that come with running a remodeling company, and they're going to have encouragement and motivation and some inspiration. Some of you listening to this need community in your life. Even this week. As of as of twenty minutes ago, as a matter of fact. Our Thrive group is up in Milwaukee with their fearless leader, Curtis Lawson. And there is a group of remodelers from around the country that are sitting around a table right now. They've all submitted their financials, they've all submitted their hot seat topics, they've all submitted their marketing and sales results. they've all studied each other's information. Frankly, they've known each other for the last 18 months, as they've been in this group, and they're gonna spend the next two and a half days. Solving problems, helping each other, giving each other encouragement, giving each other clarity, and they're gonna leave on Wednesday afternoon with very clear commitments that they're going to make and execute and do in the coming months. And they're gonna leave there fired up, refueled. It is very draining to run a company, and we need to refuel ourselves as leaders, as business owners. Smart room modelers in 2027 are going to recognize that. Investing in community, whether it's what I just described, our peer groups, whether it's one-on-one coaching, whether it is our VIP club, which is more designed for companies that are, in that million and under, there's a 700 and 600 and 800 and a million dollar type of revenue companies where you get your foundation in place. They're going to find community. Also, maybe you're not in a position to pay a dime towards coaching right now. But guess what? Locally through that home builder association, through that Neri group or Nari group, whether it's through your own network of that plumbing company, that owner that you know, and just saying, hey, could I just buy you a nice lunch and just hear a little bit more about your story, what's working for you guys, and just learn from you. Finding some mentorship opportunities locally, there's all kinds of opportunities. You don't have to go down this entrepreneur path alone. Seek out and find community. Seven things. Number seven was set a clear vision for your business and get real clear what that what that next year looks like, 2027. How are you going to execute towards that long-term vision? Number six, you're going to track your top lead sources so that you can focus on the things that are working and execute at a higher level to generate more qualified leads. Number five, you're going to track your average cycle time, time kills deals, and what gets measured gets improved. Number four, you're gonna watch your slippage and grippage on each and every project. Get granular and stop making excuses as to why your job costing is not locked in. It is pivotal and it is the biggest onlock to profits. Jeez, Kyle. Number three, know your team's capacity. We do not want them running at 110% all the time. Lead against that. Number two, find community. You don't have to go it alone. And number one, Smart remodelers in 2027 are going to build a business around their life, not a life around their business. You are going to be, me with you, more purposeful in 2027 about recognizing that business does not need the great, great majority of our lives. It is our work. It is it's gonna take a good chunk of our of our life, but it is not going to be the biggest thing in your life. That means some of you need to get locked in on hobbies and do things that you love doing. Go into your calendar in 2027 and grab five Fridays, please, or three Fridays and two Mondays, and go do something that brings you joy. If you plan for it in advance, you can absolutely do it. Slash, you're a business owner. Use that time. Set aside that time. I find that when I do carve that out, that's some of my best business thinking time to separate it. Go into your calendar and make sure that you have a monthly lunch date with your spouse or evening date multiple times a month. Go in there and figure out how are you going to be more present with your kids this upcoming year. Go in there and figure out what you need to do related to your faith or spiritual side to be more invested on that side. Set a goal around just reading a fun non-business book if that turns your crank. Whatever it is, build a business around the life that you want. Carve out time so that you can exercise and move your body instead of sit behind that desk and get fat. I'm sorry. That was mean of me. But I'm talking to myself too. If I'm if I'm just sitting there eating because I'm busy and then I don't move my body, I'm going to put on pounds and then I'm going to feel more lethargic and then I'm going to have other just health concerns. We've got to prioritize our health. Build a business around your what you want your life to look like. Let's get clear with that. What would be a successful life in 2027? What do you need more of in your life? What do you need less of in your life? For the great majority of us, we need to rein in our business a little bit and not let it creep so much into our life. And we'll have more joy as a result of that. Smart remodelers in 2027 build a business around their life, not a life around their business. I guarantee that example I just gave of those gentlemen, that's a group that has all guys, all our other four peer groups have. Ladies in it, but for some reason the Thrive Group's just a bunch of guys. Those guys, when they leave on Wednesday, are not going to just have business related goals. They're going have some life and lifestyle and outside of work goals and commitments as well. Wonderful. Hey, remodelers on the rise. What we do is we offer coaching for remodelers. We help you take a business that's murky, that's clunky, that's a little overwhelming, and we help make it an engine and a well-running machine. We are going to figure out and help you with your numbers. You're going to know your numbers, which is going to give you tremendous confidence in where everything is going and way more control in your business and flat out more profit in your business. We're going to help you on the marketing side, craft a marketing plan that produces the qualified, consistent leads that you need and teach you how to do that. We're going to help you. With your sales process that's going to differentiate you from others, to give you confidence on how to charge for design and project development, to have a true sales process and system that works and that turns more of those leads and projects into pain clients. And we're also going to help you on the leadership side. We're going to make sure that instead of you saying, I'm not that great of a leader, you're going to lead and build a company culture that people want to stay with. And that people are thrilled to work for. That's what we do at Remodelers on the Rise. And we do it through one-on-one coaching, we do it through group programs, and we're good at it. And we'd love for you to reach out and be a part of it. RemodelersOntherise.com. Bam, there we go. On my notes that Bailey queued up my seven items and let me riff on them. She goes, end with how Remodelers on the Rise can help them in these areas. And that's what came out. That's what came out is a passionate plea to say, hey, implement, do, learn this stuff. But if you're in a position to invest in coaching, we'd love to be the people that you choose to do that. Maybe in 2027, it's your year to do that. Reach out, remodelers on the rise.com, click on contact. You'll see a cute little video of me going, hey everybody, when you fill out this contact form, here's what happens. Best practice, by the way. When you go to your contact us form, create a little video so that when your homeowners are filling that out, they know exactly what's going to happen after they click that submit button. It's a really nice best practice. And you'll see that on Ramalersontherize.com. Enjoy. Enjoy your day. Make sure your business is important to you, but not owning you. Reach out anytime. Talk to you guys.

Kyle Hunt: Thanks for tuning into the Remodelers on the Rise show. Whether you're listening or watching, I appreciate you being here. If this was helpful, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss the next one. We're putting out new episodes every single week focused on helping you build a better remodeling business with real stories, practical ideas, and things you can actually take and use. If you're on YouTube, hit that like button and turn on notifications so you know when new episodes drop. If you're listening on a podcast app, a five-star review goes a long way and helps more remodelers find the show. We've got great links below or in the show notes where you can connect with us, check out our remodelers community and learn more about our coaching and resources. Appreciate you very much. See you on the next episode.