From the desk of Toby Clem (No AI was used in the creation of this blog)

Restoration Businesses share similar challenges no matter the size

I just got back from an amazing week with a company that is growing. They are experiencing some growing pains. They are realizing in real time something Klark has said for a long time, “What got you here, won’t get you there.”

Just want to let you in on a little secret.

$15M problems are bigger (higher impact) than $1M problems. But at their core, the problems are very VERY similar.

Leadership and management are two of the most important components of a successful business, especially when it comes to large teams. These terms are thrown around and often used incorrectly. It's important to understand the terms and learn how to implement them accordingly. 

As companies grow, their problems become more complex and require a different approach to solve them. Recruitment and hiring practices, for example, become...

Let’s have a conversation about certifications. 

The restoration industry loves education. They love all the certifications. Many people chase the prestigious title of “Triple Master”.

Certifications are very popular and some may say pertinent to have to build a strong restoration company.

In our discussion, we will cover some of the following topics:

• Required vs Recommended
• Should vs Shall
• Basic vs advanced
• Certification vs Education
• Licensing
• Specialty Certifications

I want to start by saying that education, knowledge and accuracy on the processes in which you perform restoration and especially mitigation are incredibly important.
Important from a liability standpoint for sure. Improper structural drying, faulty cleaning and skipped steps in the terms of safety, can open you and your entire company up to liability.

Molds, toxins, bacteria, hazards and biological exposures can impact the health of your staff, your client and the surrounding...

Disaster recovery. That's what we do.

Mitigation = prevention

Restoration is a broad term.

We are a very niche specialty more akin to emergency management than construction.

I've said for years...the professionals (technicians) should be a very high caliber. Not sub $20 per hour people.
I think $30 is too low for what they NEED TO BE.

Why do you think we see such a struggle at the hiring at the tech level. No one wants to do all that work plus the documentation for $19 per hour.

Our bill rates should technically be up close to $100 per hour.

But we have allowed an insurance industry dictate our value.

They don't care how a job is performed. If they did, half their vendors would never be allowed in a structure.

They want to pay the least.

Everyone knows but they don't know what to do about it.

An emergency services technician, that doesn't need a supervisor (think medical equipment, AT&T, automobile And other should be making $60,000'plus. That's a good living wage.

For that, a...

A Tale of Two Contractors

Our experience last summer is a sobering reminder that each small business owner and manager should look down the road and muse, "What will each customer be saying about me when we are finished?"

If you own your own small business, or are thinking of starting one, here's something to remember: There is nothing as damaging as a very disappointed customer.

Take me, for instance. Last summer my wife and I hired a young, inexperienced restoration contractor after a quick google search when we had a pipe burst in our upstairs bathroom over the kitchen. We had just purchased a country house on 60 acres and the young contractor seemed like a nice enough fellow, so I hired him on the spot. Our renovation project was off and running -- or so I thought.

My lack of due diligence instantly qualified me for The Bonehead Decision Hall of Fame. I didn't grasp that this guy had been a great carpet cleaner and had recently gone into business for himself as an unproven...

 The title should be 12 signs that you are a great employee. That is of course if we weren’t rebels and we listened to what all marketing professionals say about positioning your content from the affirmative.

We are rebels at heart.

You know this by now. 

Back to normal programming.

Most people will try to show you why you are a good employee. But in the work that we do, where we speak to lots of restoration contractors on the daily, and all we hear about is how hard it is to find GOOD people. 

So we saw this graphic and thought we’d be the bad guys and tell everyone out there who consumes our content about what they are doing wrong, and signs that you should look for to see how can self identify issues. 

Lets jump in:

1 You are not punctual

• This isn’t about showing up for the morning meetings every day. This is about managing your time well. Its about answering the call in the middle of the night, and getting on scene ASAP so you can lock...

Anyone asking how to find new employees or get more business should take a close look at their relationships in the community that they operate their business.

While there are many lanes for marketing your restoration business, and all are very important, almost none can be counted on to be as predictable and resilient as having a very strong network that you built with service and trust.

These are your cheerleaders and when the weather is not ideal, when google changes, when FB ads are not working…..these relationships will provide.

They also have a way of multiplying pretty quickly.

When you are doing things well and serving others, your network splinters off and you continue to be introduced to others.

When you put yourself out there in groups, panels, committees and other involvement, you show the kind of character that people feel trusting enough to be an advocate for.

Make sure you are being smart with your time and investments. Some groups will gladly take and...

The great Albert Einstein has been repeatedly attributed as saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results”.

While we refuse to call anyone insane, we do repeatedly see an industry that does the same thing over and over.

Over and over they plead for a different outcome. 

We have conversations with restoration professionals every day.
It's what we do.
And when I say professional, I emphatically say these people are some of the technically brightest people on the planet in their discipline.
They know how to dry very well. They know how to mitigate impressively.
They started their business because they want to help people. Empathy for others is off the charts. 

Empathy is what gets them in difficult situations. 

They feel the clients pressure so much that they assume the burden of the situation. They cannot separate out what the clients (insured…NOT the insurance company) burden is, and what...

If you happen to be at all aware of the talent development organization of a major league baseball team, the term Farm Team will not be unfamiliar.

But let’s catch those up that might not be clear on principle. 

Branch Rickey was famous for developing and bringing Jackie Robinson to the Majors. But you can read here on how he further strengthened his team(the Cardinals) with a training and growth culture

You have heard, “ No one is self-made”? Well, that is true in sports as well. Infants are not born to slam dunk or run the fastest 100 meters.

That said, MLB baseball players often leave college and enter the “Farm Team” system. This is the start of the journey. 

Some of course fast track and get the majors much quicker. Some never leave the farm. This is what it’s for. See how a player performs over a longer span of time and how they take coaching. Do they improve? Have bad habits? Get along with teammates. 

We can all attest the...

Once you’ve identified the key systems that make your business money, it’s now time to extract them.

But here’s where many business owners get tripped up... they try to create all the systems themselves! And once they’ve been created, then they feel an overwhelming pressure to perform all of the systems themselves. 

As a business owner, you’ll never be free from the day to day operations if you’re always deciding to involve yourself in them.

This is a pivotal decision point where businesses can either remain in the stationary stage and continue to decline, or start systemising the right way so they can move to the scalable and saleable stages.

I had a breakthrough moment with a client this week who has been working hard on breaking free from doing things the way he’s always been doing them. 

His words to me (in a troubled tone) were, “It's almost like I don’t care anymore.” 

On the surface that sounds...

 Contributed by: Robert More’ - BYLT Restoration 

People are the greatest asset a company can have. Good people gravitate to good culture which starts at the top.  

Techs want to be managed. They need to be managed; they will leave if they aren’t being managed. Employees coming into the restoration work force are looking for structure and organization. In the book by KnowHow, “ Why Workers Quit” they say that the new employees coming into a company are looking for high levels of structure on their on-boarding. They also say that today's worker isn’t looking to jump ship right away. They are looking to lay down roots and stay. Give them what they want. Be the company they want to be a part of from the beginning.
Become a process driven company.

People and their environment 

A violinist played 45 minutes on the New York subway. 4 people stopped and one clapped and they managed to raise 20 dollars.

The following...