Contractor Inspiration Center

The goal of the Contractor Inspiration Center is to pass on to you, the contractor, the many techniques, practices and time saving measures learned and developed during many years in the wood restoration industry.

My company was established in the spring of 1974 for the sole purpose of restoring and preserving wood decks, wood fencing, wood sided homes and log cabins. The company initiated an expansion program in late 1979 utilizing in house employees. Over the next 20 years, the company expanded operations to 28 locations in 19 States. Beginning in mid 1999, many of the owner/managers purchased their respective operations.

The Company has never deviated from the original goal: Restoration and Preservation of exterior wood.

Mark M. Smith

Business Growth Tips

Written by Mark Smith

BUSINESS GROWTH TIP

One of the most productive and cost effective methods of increasing business and building your company and reputation is to become the “Wood Restoration Expert” for homeowner developments.

Almost every home and condominium development has an internal homeowners association and most publish a newsletter (usually on a monthly basis) to keep the residents informed of items of interest.

The first step is to locate the party responsible for the publication of the newsletter. Normally it is the internal homeowners association made up of a group of elected members or an external homeowners association management company that manages the association for the residents. In either case, it is normally a resident or group of residents who gather and compile the data for the newsletter.

The best way to locate the party responsible for the publication of the newsletter is to ask a homeowner that resides in the development (preferably one of your clients if possible). Some developments will have the phone number for the homeowner association listed in the local phone book.

In almost all cases, the cost of publishing and distributing the newsletter is paid out of the homeowner dues.

Here is where you enter the picture. Arrange a meeting with the responsible party.

Ask to place an advertisement in the newsletter. In most cases, this has never been done before since this newsletter is only for the internal use of the residents of the particular development. Offer an amount of money that will defray a large portion of the cost of publishing and distributing the newsletter. We have found a good average is $50.00 to $75.00 since most of the newsletters are of the 8” X 10” format (have an advertisement of this size with you) and are relatively inexpensive to produce. The major cost is usually postage. We have found the back of the last page is the best location.
In smaller developments, you can offer to cover the cost of the newsletter in return for your advertisement.
On rare occasions, in very upscale developments, we have actually offered to take over the responsibility of the publication of the newsletter. This can be accomplished by collecting the desired content from the homeowner representative or the homeowner association, and using a computer or a general purpose printer for the publication (Sir Speedy, Kwik-Copy, etc.). The cost is usually quite reasonable.

If you have a good presence and reputation in the development, placing the advertisement will usually not be a problem. However, in many of cases, the responsible party may express reluctance. In that case, offer to meet with the homeowners association and make a presentation and/or offer to restore the “worst” deck or fence in the development at no charge. (You can then include before/after photographs of this “transformation” in your initial advertisements).

As a result, you become the wood care professional for that development. When any resident in that development needs wood restoration services, they need not look any further than you. You advertise in their newsletter and are “sanctioned” by their association, which gives you credibility. This goes a long way toward eliminating your competition in that development.

The photographs below are of a small section of a 6’ cedar fence almost 2 miles long that surrounds most of a housing development. We originally bid on this fence restoration at the same time as we started to advertise in their newsletter. The homeowners association rejected the bid as being too expensive. After working in the development for the better part of a year, the homeowners association came to us and asked us to submit another bid for this fence. This time, the bid was accepted and we restored both sides of the fence.

When we restored the development fence we also picked up quite a few other fence restoration jobs where the residents had connected to it to build their own privacy fences.

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Endorsements

"I have had the good fortune to know and learn from Mark Smith for the past 6 years. Whether the subject is business or craftsmanship in exterior wood restoration, Mark's advice and guidance has been invaluable and just dead on."

Rick Petry

It has been my great fortune to have been introduced to the 'oldest woody in the world', Mr. Mark Smith. Through his sharing of hard earned experience and insight, my business is able to deliver results my competitiors can only dream of. Mr. Smith has valuable knowledge to share in both the trenches of wood restoration and the sales approach. As he will tell you, you have to follow through with good advice and implement what you learn.

Alan Broom
ShineBrite LLC

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