We turned this one over to the APA. 

Guess where it went from there?! 

Here is the scenario.
Comment at the end and let us know what you think! 

1. Invoice for complete (agreed upon) services. 
2. Packout from fire.
3. Liberty Mutual.
4. QuickBooks invoice sent to insured.
5. Liberty RECREATED the invoice, with contractor logo and all, with lowered unit rates.

Can you imagine the STONES?

Of Course their reasoning is inaccurate, but that's beside the point.

We posted a letter on Facebook and tagged the company that the adjuster was referring to.
We thought we’d share it here… but we’d love to hear your perspective.
Be sure to drop us a comment below. 

“Greetings Liberty Mutual Insurance, I'd like to extend my knowledge base and services to you and your organization.

I will actually do this once at NO FEE, as I think the overall Net Gain will help and impact endless parties.

From a factual standpoint, I'd like to clear up...

I don’t expect you to believe everything I say, but you have to know I wouldn’t lie to you. 

I have some unique and great experiences. 

I have been very fortunate to have some amazing mentors and peers bring me into their universe and grant me the opportunity to see things I may have never otherwise seen. 

I have always gone against the grain, like cutting a big juicy Texas brisket. 

Do things others have and certainly do things people say can’t be done. 

One of those is the current trail I have been on the last few years. I have been on a path to showcase what we (in this restoration/ emergency services industry) have come to accept as truth. And that is that somehow, our process and direction is owned by and steered by insurance carriers. 

I am not a fool and recognize how large  they (insurance carriers) are and the power they yield…..but being righteous is a super power.

Education and confidence is the...

Everyone is talking about what to do about fuel. 

What are you doing in your company to compensate for the added cost?

Costs are up. 

Adjusters are still resisting invoices. 

So what will you do… what are you doing?

How can you run a profitable business with inflation, and rising fuel prices?

Was 10/10 good enough to cover fuel costs last year? Is it good enough to cover costs now? 

“Add a line item for fuel surcharge.”

That's what everyone is saying you should do. Even the mothership of Xactimate (Verisk) has empowered the contractors to bill for increased fuel cost. (Don't take our word for it.)

So Xactimate says its ok to bill... but we are getting feedback that adjusters are stalling. It seems to have caught a lot of adjusters off guard. They don’t have a copy & paste argument for that one… yet. 

But they will. They got knocked back on their laurels, but they work for massive...

This is Part 3 of a series taken from the our new E-Course "show notes"
 45 Days to build a STRONG restoration company. 

Profit is your FUEL

Let's talk about my favorite topic. 

PROFIT 

I have a sign in my office that says:

Gross revenue is vanity

Net Profit is Sanity

Cash is KING. 

It’s true!

Profit is your everything and I stand on mountain tops screaming that if you are not truly profitable you put a terrible strain on the engines, your wings and sometimes force the plane to land (to use the metaphor of your business being like an airplane).

The number 1 reason a business fails is CASH FLOW. Cash Flow, as we have discussed all along in this section is affected by a combination of many things.

 

Your marketing gets your product/ service noticed and entices people to buy from you.
Your sales effort to ensure that you are selling enough of a service to meet the financial needs of your company.

Then your control of the...

This is Part 2 of a series taken from the our new E-Course "show notes"
 45 Days to build a STRONG restoration company. 

Planning: Identifying your business goals?

From the desk of Sir Klark Brown.

Our big 2022 goal is in this blog. You don’t want to miss it… we don’t want you to. We need your help to accomplish our BHAG (BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS GOAL)

You decided to start a mitigation company. Based on your experience and exposure you may have some lofty goals. 

Goals of money… Hopefully an emphasis on profit. 

Ideas of free nights and weekends. 

It is possible you feel like this recession proof business will provide endless quality leads. 

These are valuable in building your company. 

Let’s bring things back to reality and set short term and long term goals

In the world of setting goals, this sentiment is shared by many without being discussed as it should:

The crash of overwhelming failure felt when unrealized...

Is the day coming when having equipment on the job is “the cost of doing business”? Is the day coming where you can’t charge for equipment?

We had quite a discussion in the Restoration Advisers Official Group on Facebook. If you aren’t in the group we highly encourage you to jump in there for some zero BS discussion. No outside advertising. No belittling. Just real, raw, and professional discussion. Join here.

The insurance company is always evolving in their arguments and creativity to drive their costs down so they can reinvest the premiums. In the book Delay Deny Defend, the author describes insurance companies as investment companies. They invest the premiums and drive down costs by negotiating claims. *

They are claiming that more and more standard practices are part of “the cost of doing business”. Supervisor hours, etc. So why wouldn’t they say that equipment is part of the cost of doing business?*

Those who believe the notion that...

We often hear of insurance companies and third party adjusters claiming that restorers overcharged them for work. The claim is usually that the “restoration industry standard” is “10/10”, or that overhead and profit (O&P) cannot be included in the invoice.

Let’s be clear here, there is no such industry standard. There never has been and there never will be (unless you are on a program, then you have to play by the rules that you agreed to). If you have read the book that we talk about in Disaster Podcaster EP 22 Restoration Markup and Margin, you know that few restorers can run a business and breakeven at 10/10, let alone make a profit. The idea that a restoration company can survive at a low markup defies the mathematics of basic business and common sense.

Our experience in the industry tells us that “industry standard” of 10/10 is a old benchmark that has been propagated by insurance companies and TPAs that are trying to keep their...