Growth requires a healthy culture, good systems, and critical awareness. This course takes a look at the key ingredients to growing your remodeling business. Michael will examine some core philosophies, critical decision making tools, how to differentiate your business, and how to better estimate and identify your cost of project execution, overhead, and potential profit.

Course Outline

• Introduction to four core tenants of business development
  • Why are you in business
  • What are in business for
  • What are your values
  • What are your parameters
  • Getting clarity on the purpose of the business
  • Understanding what motivates employees and trade partners
  • Building a healthy culture
• Six powerful rules to govern your business
  • Hire slow fire fast
  • Be open to change and new ways of doing things
  • Hire those who are better than you are
  • Make changes based on performance and need, not on what you’ve invested in
  • Look to other industries to set your bar for performance and culture
  • This is a service industry (not a commodity industry)
• Estimating, transparency, and improving trust
  • Estimate using the COPE method
  • Earn the trust of your clients through transparency
  • Don’t pin your profits to materials or trades costs
  • Estimate overhead using the Capacity method
• Problem solving and culture building
  • The four way test as a tool for problem solving
  • Applying the questions to every aspect of the business
  • Remove business detractors
  • Estimating should be compensated
  • Bids are a low return on value
  • Commission breaks down social structures and damages community
  • Seniority and long term growth as a salary benchmarking tool
  • Market trends as a mechanism for growth
  • Observing market trends in larger companies in outside industries
  • Green economy growth outpaces general economy growth
  • Set aside politics and opinion for data
  • Growing trends: Transparency, Resilience

Learner Objectives

Students will learn about the following:

• The value of developing mission, vision, values, and ethics statements
• The value of adaptation in business development
• A more precise and accurate method of estimating for remodeling
• The importance of monitoring other industries and larger market indicators

Testimonials

"Growing Your Remodeling Business and Transparency Estimating in the Modern Era have been the most interesting and helpful of any class I've taken over the last seven years since starting my business. For people like me who learned construction but not business, these courses are incredibly helpful in becoming better at what we do." Corey Schroeder, Schroeder Carpentry LLC

"This is a great introduction into building your business. Very easy to navigate and take the course." Wade Olker, Accessibility 101

"Excellent view on how valuable a qualified remodeling company is." Jim Davis, SES Renovations    

“Michael Anschel is cutting edge thinking forward thinking.  The world is a better place because of Michael's passion and attitude.  It not about knowing more and doing more it is about BEING more.” 

"Taking this on-demand course was affordable, easy to navigate, helpful with straight-forward information, and has truly given me insight into how I am currently managing my remodeling business. I will definitely be taking more continuing ed courses through Contractor University.  Thank you!" Adam Maxwell, Maxwell Construction Services, LLC

"This was a refreshing course; the material was applicable to any size remodeling firm and Michael had a positive way to message ethics + forward thinking = success." Meg Jaeger, Mega Remodel

"The class provided useful information to help remodelers grow." Carolyn Johnson, Satoree Kitchen and Bath

"This course really opened my eyes to the importance of valuing my time and energy in the right places. Very informative." Kristian LeCapitaine, GreenLight Builders

"This was an excellent course. Highly recommend." Randy Heuer, TruBlue

"Nice work." J. Sven Gustafson, Stonewood LLC

"The instructor was articulate and spoke at a good pace. The course was well formatted and easy to follow. It also created inspiration and practical instruction on how to implement changes for growth in my company. Thank you." Jeri Pasbrig, Tom and Jeri's Construction

"Very helpful course." Michael Waring, MW Build LLC

"I've seen and been part of how effective being upfront and honest will change the projects' flow of efficiency." Trenton Weber, Carpenter

"The course was very good. I learned a lot." Thomas Carlisle, Sherco Construction, Inc.

Quiz Info

In order to receive continuing education credit(s), you will need to take a 10-question quiz following the course. To pass the quiz, you will need to achieve a score of 70% or higher. If you are unsuccessful, you will have an opportunity to repeat the quiz. Once you have successfully completed the quiz, you can download your continuing education certificate(s) showing the credit(s) that you have earned.

Credit Info

This course has been approved for one hour of MN residential contractor and remodeler credit by the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry and is approved for the required business management credit. This course is also approved for one hour of WI Dwelling Contractor Qualifier CE by the Wisconsin Dept. of Safety & Professional Services.

If you are eligible to receive continuing education credits, your information will be electronically reported to the appropriate agency within 3 business days of course completion.

Access Info

Your online course is accessible 24/7. The course will be available to you for 180 days from purchase date.

Questions and Comments

Questions and comments related to the curriculum for this course may be submitted to the instructor at education@housingfirstmn.org.