Business Advisor

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 7 of a 7-part series

7. Stay connected with your customers

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 5 of a 7-part series

5. Update your website

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 6 of a 7-part series

6. Embrace technology

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 4 of a 7-part series

4. Get organized with a homeowner's manual

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 3 of a 7-part series

3. Listen to your customers

Rapid changes in the residential construction industry are providing new profit and diversification opportunities for builders. Those who see and understand these opportunities can position themselves as experts in the field and provide exemplary service to gain an important edge in the marketplace. Knowing where you stand in relation to your competition is paramount. Educating and communicating that position to prospective customers is equally important.

Part 2 of a 7-part series

2: Deliver great value

Introduction

I’ve been working in the trades for 35 years and have taken a few injuries along the way: four nail gun accidents—two through the bone; quite a memorable fall from a roof while working alone; tablesaw up the center of my middle finger (SawStop would have been nice right about then).

So it didn’t surprise me much when my incessant coughing during a recent movie date with my wife led to a doctor’s visit and the diagnosis of “industrial bronchitis,” aka white lung, or in the words of Mark Knopfler, “industrial disease."

Your website is your online storefront. We live in an Internet-driven society. One of the huge benefits that we all love and enjoy is instant access to all sorts of information. According to the Domain Name Industry Brief by VeriSign, Inc., the Internet now has more than 183 million domain names (1Q 2009). This is a 12% increase compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

In my last blog, I proposed that when building green we follow a variation of the 2,400-year-old Hippocratic Oath, Primum non nocere (“Above all else, do no harm”), as our 1st Commandment. I reinterpreted that oath from a business perspective as “Above all else, do not leave any money on the table building green.” Like a good doctor, I believe that before we can make things better, we have to agree not to make things worse. And if we are going to start out losing money when building green, we will definitely be making things worse.