I started TRG Home Concepts when I was 23 years old. Truth be told, I thought it would be easier than working for someone. I thought the money would be better, the schedule would be less demanding, and I would not have to deal with the political red tape that comes along with a corporate job. I wanted to work hard, and be compensated for my time. Holy crap, was I wrong!!!! My first 8-9 years in business were a struggle. I made very little money, I worked twice as much as I would have had I gone to work for someone, I had no idea what I was doing, and I truly was not getting compensated for my time.
The worst part about struggling to figure out my business was that it not only affected my work life, but it affected my personal life, my family, and my health. I was enjoying working with my hands, but I was not enjoying the stress, the financial pressures, and literally working around the clock. There would be times that I would not sleep in order to try and “catch up.” Although I felt as if I was making headway in my business, it was not consistent or substantial enough.
The first time I worked myself into the hospital was right after Covid. The stress of work, lack of sleep, and physical rigors that I put myself and my body through, caused me to go into anaphylactic shock. It was a Saturday evening, my wife and kids were hanging outside with the neighbors, and I had been working in my shop building cabinets all day. The second time that I worked myself into a hospital trip was the day before Christmas Eve the same year. My kids literally witnessed me get carted out of the house on a stretcher by men in full respirators and suits to protect themselves from Covid. Again, I had depleted all the natural adrenaline in my body, and a minor allergy to something turned into full-blown, life-threatening anaphalaxis. It was at this time that I truly recognized the need for change.
I had a fair amount of work on the books at this point, but I realized the structure of my business was not ideal. I was unable to pinpoint my ideal client, sell a proper design, capture any of my back-end hours, budget my jobs correctly, or be compensated for my time. I was running around handing out free estimates, entertaining all of my leads, and selling what I thought was profitable work. The problem was that incomplete designs, undefined scopes, and open-ended schedules married with a personality where good enough was never good enough created unrelenting hours and unprofitable work. I was a slave to my customers, I was a slave to my work, and I was literally and figuratively being buried.
So, what changed? Nothing immediately. I had to climb my way out of the hole I had dug for myself. As I was doing that, I started scrupulously analyzing my numbers. I realized that most of my time was not being captured on the back end, and a fair amount of time was not being captured during the project. Whether it was time I spent managing the project, time I was over-investing/over-executing, or time I had not accounted for; I was putting more time and equity into the projects than my customers had agreed to or were willing to fund. My budgets were off, my leads were not ideal, and my margins were inadequate. I started working on my budget, I started tracking all of my hours, all of my expenses, and I did a deep dive into my operational costs as a small business owner, what lifestyle I wanted for myself and my family, and what financial backing we needed to support this. I put the work in, held myself accountable, and vowed to be honest with myself about my business and my numbers.
The second step was to determine the profile of my ideal client. Who they were, what they did for a living, what was important to them, where they lived, how I could serve them, and why they needed me. I needed to develop a proper value proposition that clearly articulated who I was, what I did differently, why my services were unique, and why they should not look elsewhere when they needed a contractor. How could I differentiate myself in a way that I did not have to compete with anyone else? That is the goal…..to not have to compete. To position your business and your services in a manner that you are the only option for your clients if they want what you do. How would I do that? The two biggest factors in the success of my business the last five years have been switching to a time and material or cost-plus style of contract, and implementing a proper and comprehensive preconstruction services package that dovetailed with this new style of contract. The results, accountability, and profitability were substantial and immediate.
I finally had a system that not only compensated me for my time, but saved me the effort associated with competitively bidding projects for all those years. I had conceded hours and hours each and every week for the previous almost ten years to clients who did not value what I did, or more importantly what I did differently. I had spent hours and hours each week selling to clients who were not the ideal client for my business setup. I had spent years devoting my time and efforts on the wrong clients, the wrong work, and with the wrong systems. I was marketing and selling a product to clients who I had to convince wanted my offerings. This led to costs and fees that I could not capture, over-committing to clients who didn’t appreciate or value what I did, and relying on differentiation to land projects rather than be compensated properly. I was delivering an above-average service and a product at a competitive rate to the wrong client….a recipe for disaster, financial ruin, and incredible levels of stress.
So how did changing my contract style and offering a proper preconstruction services package transform my business? I developed a process and system that pinpointed my ideal client, helped me develop a proper client avatar, enabled better client vetting, allowed me to spend the necessary time getting paid for planning, developing a scope, building a schedule, establishing a comprehensive budget, and negotiating a contract. Not only was I now getting paid a substantial fee to plan the project, but I was being paid to value engineer the job, negotiate the contract, and coordinate the plan with all project stakeholders. This preconstruction package coupled with my new contract style guarantees profitability on the back end of a project. I have an actual game plan and cheat code that I can use to manage the project on a daily basis to ensure efficiency and avoid over-delivering on a project. I can track daily tasks, costs, timelines, and scope, to ensure we are remaining on budget and schedule and if we are not, we have all the documentation and backing in order to access change orders and contingency. I can manage a job to budget, schedule, and expectations that align with the clients wants and needs and afford me the profitability I assumed when we planned the project.
How has implementing preconstruction services, differentiating, and selling to my ideal client transformed my life? First off and foremost, I actually have a life now. I am not a slave to my clients, a slave to potential clients, a slave to my employees, a slave to my subcontractors, and a slave to my business. I no longer competitively bid projects, which means not only do I get paid for my time, but I am not having to meet potential clients after work and on the weekend. I no longer provide free estimates, design advice, and budgeting to clients that never return my calls or thank me for my time. I am not stressed constantly wondering if I will make money on any particular project. I know that if I am working with my toolbelt on or in the office, I am working against a budget and billable hours that are profitable for me and my business. I no longer have to stay on the job until 8pm or 10pm trying to make headway because I cannot afford to pay employees any more money on a project. I no longer run out of money at the end of a project and have to pay my subcontractors and vendors out of my own pocket. I no longer lose sleep at night wondering how we will afford life, vacation, college, cars, and a future for our family. I no longer stay home and work while my family takes a vacation or spends a week at my wife’s family cabin. I no longer am working and stressing myself into anaphylaxis.
Through these systems I have created profitability, efficiency, peace, and happiness. I have avoided the stress and demands of a saturated and hyper-competitive market. I have added enough value to my business to not have to rely on price to sell my work. My business has never had better margins, my personal life has never been better, and my marriage has never been better. Guaranteed profit, being paid to plan, and capturing all of my costs for each and every project has created a business and lifestyle that I never thought possible. For years I struggled to see a way out. I was executing at an extremely high-level, my clients were thrilled, my subcontractors, and employees were all well-compensated, but I was struggling to disconnect from work due to inefficiencies and financial hardships. I was squeezing ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag and getting paid for two pounds of that shit. I cannot say that I have it all figured out, but I have a lot of it figured out. At this point I have a healthy relationship with my work, I have great clients who value what I do and pay for it, I have boundaries, I have hobbies, I have financial stability, and I have free time! What more could I want?!
If you are interested in learning how I integrate preconstruction services into my business, how I avoid competitively bidding projects, or how I get paid to plan a project, please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me. Nick and I have spent nearly five months creating a course that walks you through our process step by step. It teaches you how to differentiate your business and create value for your clients all while getting paid. You will not only recoup the cost on the FIRST project, but you should 5-10x it within your first handful of leads. At this point I charge roughly $6,500.00 and up for preconstruction on a kitchen remodel, $2,500.00 and up for preconstruction on cabinetry and built ins, and $8-10,000.00 for preconstruction on first floor renovations. Preconstruction has been a money printing machine for me. I get paid to plan the project, value engineer the project, negotiate the project, and then guarantee my profitability on the back end of the project. It is a no-brainer.
Check out our courses here.