Which jobs will benefit your deck business?

Which jobs will benefit a deck builder?

Running from little job to little job may not be the best thing for a deck builder.
Small jobs may be all you can get presently—but booking 5 months in advance and all the jobs being basic in scope may pigeon-hole you as a deck builder that just does “little decks”. This happened to a friend of mine many years ago—and he worked for a long time to dispel this myth.

How about this scenario. You are booked solid for 5 months come May 1’st. You get a lead to do a 5 level deck, 2200 square feet and you know that it will set your deck portfolio apart from all the competition. There’s a healthy budget, but you are booked 5 months doing mediocre work.

Do you drop or postpone a few jobs? Do you squeeze it in? Do you hire another crew? Each of these options could mean unhappy clientele in the months that follow.

Here’s my solution-

Increase prices to make sure you are only booked 6-8 weeks in advance. This maximizes profit and ensures that you will be able to capitalize on those good jobs when they happen.

“He who works for free is always busy”

L

How to Sell Decks and Fences

How to Sell Decks and Fences ( prelude )

Selling decks and fences is 80% preparation and 20% experience.

Here are the absolute basics. ( Prelude to the sale )

1. You need to show people your best work. How will you do this? Creativity counts. We give our builders the best portfolio and display work in the business. 20 years of beautiful projects like half million dollar tennis courts and up-scale trelliswork. This tells our potential clients that we are simply the best.


2. You may not have the car of your dreams-in fact it might be a little rough. Your car should not be as nice as your best clients, it may be slightly better than what you find in your pressure treated clientele’s drive. Showing up in a $100,000 Mercedes S class says the wrong thing for a deck company. The vehicle should be respectable but not ostentatious, well maintained and signs add to credibility. If your vehicle is in obvious need of repair park a couple of doors down as not to call attention to it. If your car leaks fluids, park on the road and plan on upgrading soon.


3. Up-scale clients will expect you to be in office casual. Armani suits may say that you are expensive-but office casual will say that you are a respectable business man. Show up in ripped jeans and people will have reservations about giving you a check. A company shirt with logo will also help confidence.


4. Shoes-believe it or not are very important to high-end clients. They know that $30.00 shoes denote that they out-class you. I know what you are thinking here. That’s ridiculous, and if you went to a public school you may just be thinking that. This is just something you will have to trust me on, until you buy a pair of Browns, Bass, or Geox for $150-250. When you pay attention take a look at how the people in the big house look inside your shoes when you take them off. A little detail like this will actually make it easier to sell to high-end clients. Showing up in office casual clothes, with good shoes and they see you as respectable and valuing quality. If you choose to invest in good shoes you will obviously shop for the best materials for them.


5. Do you have your portfolio, design resources, contracts, brochures, business cards, drawing pad, tape measure, a good pen? You are ready to approach the door. Have a card in your hand… and approach.

Building Decks in your own backyard

A Greek businessman once told me, “ Do Business in your own back yard “. When questioned about it his point to me was to stay local. Create a business that draws clientele to you. Transportation is expensive, and time on the road is time wasted.

This is the most compelling reason for staying local.

In our area here there are a couple of new deck company start-ups attempting to cover the entire area. They are both marketing themselves as the most creative (they are not),and the least expensive (they are). On top of having higher transportation costs, they have the smallest profit margin (if any). I would warrant a guess that both are utilizing illegal labor, (just a hunch) and sub-standard materials.

They are both marketing hard, pay per click advertising, and I know one is a full time student.

Every year there are a hundred or so start up deck companies—every year most of them go broke. Some survive a while—but rarely do they ever succeed.

This is why I am so proud of our crews.

In the 3 year history of our network, one closed his doors (he was trying to run 3 businesses simultaneously—2 lost money, which tapped the business we were helping him with for money).

Another got cancer and closed the doors, and another picked up and moved to Quebec to fulfill his dream of opening a Hungarian restaurant.

Only 3 have left the network in 3 years… this record is far and beyond the normal 75% business failure rate in the first 3 years that is the standard ratio in Ontario.

I really believe we are building our installation network utilizing the best quality people in our areas.

Well done Gents!

L

Landscape Design by Garden Structure .com

Landscape Design by Garden Structure!

Garden Structure.com is now in the Landscape Design Business!

We also have been working hard on getting Paul Corsetti set up as our first Landscape Designer who will be operating in the Greater Toronto Area. He’s a trained Architect—but since the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects has rigid specifications as to who can refer to themselves as a Landscape Architect, he can only refer to himself as a Landscape Designer. Even though he has been trained as a Landscape Architect—With a diploma in Landscape Architecture and a B.A. in Landscape Architecture from Ryerson—Unless he has put in his time working for tiny wages for a Registered Landscape Architect and has paid his fees to the OALA, he cannot legally refer to himself as a Landscape Architect.

We at Garden Structure.com believe that people should be judged on merit—He’s finished his school, and the rules simply are not right. We have always backed the talented underdog—that’s just part of our Culture here at Garden Structure.com.

There are good and bad Landscape Architects in every area. Paul is backing up his abilities with a satisfaction guarantee—It’s part of our arrangement.
Further, we are arming Paul with the best architectural woodwork details going.

Welcome to the Team Paul!

It's A New Age for Deck Builders

A New Age for the Service Industry

Remember the old days? Nobody wanted to be a carpenter, electrician, janitor, plumber.

These are apparently tough jobs and the pay wasn’t great. Last year I met a couple of guys running a janitorial company and it seems they both make over $125,000 a year working no more than 40 hours a week.

If janitors now make that kind of money what are carpenters worth?

For many years carpentry and all service businesses simply weren’t attractive to kids coming out of school. This trend is still firmly in place but perceptions are changing quickly as pay rates rise. I say—let the exodus from the trades continue, it means more money for the rest of us..

Even with an estimated 35,000 illegal workers in the Toronto area (100,000 illegal aliens), the price of hiring a carpenter is rising. I hear that even the illegal workers are charging out at over $20/hour.

That means legitimate carpenters and specialists (like us), can charge upwards of $30-$70/hour.

I believe that in the very near future this shortage of skilled professional tradesmen will result in more respect for and much better pay for all of us.

I’ve had Lawyers and numerous other professionals like project managers and teachers approaching me to get into the trades full time—this is the trend. They know that the writing is on the wall.

People will be getting very wealthy in the next decades from trade careers.

L

Business Plans for Builders of Decks and Fences

Business Plans for Builders of Decks and Fences.
Business plans are a necessity for any business, whether it is retail or a builder of decks and fences. Here are a few elements we coach our licensees to include in their business plans:
Marketing Plan, even if it is primarily word of mouth/networking. We ask them to treat even those activities as a job--with goals and quotas.
Include an analysis of your competition. (Critique of their business from an outsider).
Perform a realistic analysis of your challenges and advantages. The entire business plan should utilize feedback and opinions from people not connected, related to or dependent upon your business. Important to get impartial advice when hatching a plan.
Address Economic Expectations. What if interest rates shoot to 15% (a reality not that long ago), or a prolonged war were to happen, or terrorists attacked your city? How would your business cope and thrive? Disaster scenarios are a useful exercise. Things like that will go a long way towards tightening up your strategy and increasing your confidence as well as your lenders.
A business plan will help you identify goals—this enables you to do away with activities in business that don’t help you achieve those goals.
Your business plan can contain many things that most other folks don't include... get creative.
L

Designing decks and fences

Where do designs for decks and fences come from?

Designing decks and fences is a challenge in the beginning.

Any art—has to be developed. I don’t believe anyone is “born to be great”, skills are developed, challenges are met, practice makes it easy. If I were born a great designer my childhood first lean to structure in the woods would have looked more like a castle than the pile of sticks that ended up falling down.

I can remember Bob Bateman (my HS art teacher) asking me not to return to his art class since I just had no natural talent. Cheers Bob— and thanks.

We all start out the same way—copying, emulating and building our skills. Eventually, your own style will evolve. Some are very different than the norm—some are closer to the normal in appearance.

I was fortunate that my designs had to be toned down 90% in the early days. People simply wouldn’t take the chance. Not much call for driveway gates that resemble Angel’s wings anyhow.

L

The Environment and your Deck Business

Choose your Deck Business location carefully. You will be at the mercy of your environment both weather wise, economic and even phone service is a factor.

I am located in a little oasis of houses in the middle of farmer's fields to the south east of georgian bay. For about 500 miles cold wind over open (warmer water) picks up moisture and dumps it here in the form of snow. Add 50-60 mph wind and outside our little cluster of houses you can see 3-5' or- looking out your propped open car door you may be able to see the line on the pavement in spots.

Obviously, I'm going nowhere today.

This happens about 10-12 days a year. It's just part of living here and I don't mind. Clients you have to cancel or delay appts for often do--but in this kind of situation they will have to understand.

This is a fairly healthy community with plenty of work for a deck builder within an hour. Barrie and Collingwood are 1/2 hour away, but you have to factor in traveling time to your pricing.

Locating in a depressed economy will mean low prices for what you do--and likely considerable competition.

Here's another quirk to my location. I have 2 phone lines--that's all I can get. I am also on a dialup internet connection. No phone or cable company can help. Even sattelites don't work 5 or 6 days a year. They have no plans to install the equipment to enable high speed here.

With 2-3,000 emails coming in a day, and a site getting 10,000 visits a day staying is an impossibility.

There are many considerations to locating your deck business.

L

Confidence and your deck company.

It takes confidence to build a better deck company.

This morning my 3 year old woke up and informed us that “I’m 5 now”. In his mind—he can do anything. We are not born with a defeatist attitude.

Back in grade school I had numerous teachers along with my parents line up to clear any thoughts from my head of doing anything outside their believed field of reach.

“You Can’t Do That!”, “You’ll never be able to achieve that!—Don’t even think about trying to do that”.

It’s not their fault. That’s what they were taught—and that’s what they teach us.

If you attended a public school (like I did), you may just require some de-programming.

Think up 5 things you can’t do…. The fastest things to come to their mind.

You can’t become the president

You can’t become the best mathematician

You can’t be an investment mogul

You can’t become a senator

Or maybe it looks like this… You can’t do _______, You don’t or Never Will have enough money, power or invluence to do something like _________.

Good… Take your mental chalk brush… wipe it away. Those truths as you know it no longer exist.

There is nothing you cannot do.
Accept it--believe it--live by it.

Here is a truth.

The public school system’s purpose in the early days was to “Create better workers for the factory owners”. This is why—quite inadvertently, the public school system still strips the students of confidence and positive mental attitude.

There are many great teachers in the public system—who normally didn’t attend a private school. Without attending private school the belief in one’s own abilities is missing or dampened somewhat. If they have not got the “private education attitude”, they simply cannot transfer that attitude to the students.

Once you recognize this fact your perception of reality changes radically.

L

Search Directories for Deck and Fence Builders

Deck, Fence and Renovation Directories

There are millions of directories for numerous subjects and headings. I am not mentioning any—they don’t need marketing from my little blog. What I can say is that competition is good—to a point.

The infiltration into Google, MSN and Yahoo (the three major search engines) by thousands of directories is negating the whole reason the web was created.

Even the phone companies are getting in on the act. That should tell you something.
When the phone directories are creating on-line directories it means that the internet has reached a critical mass.

Check out Boston Decks as an example. 7 directory sites, a british deck builder and two cruise lines. Not a single deck builder there. (check it again in a week or so and we’ll have top position). That’s where our newest associate is and we’ll put him near the top in short order.

Soon enough the search engines will change things up enough to get those directories scrambling to get back on the list.

That’s the thing about subscribing to the directory sites—they may have good ranking today, but they may not be anywhere to be found very soon.

Go Pro .ca was one of the big shots in the directory business—building and selling websites and driving plenty of traffic.

Check out their stats. This is like a study of when Google changes the rules. Every time the search engines changed the rules—their traffic tumbled.

Go Pro Stats here

The other downside of directories—just like the phone book, they attract shoppers. Shoppers will use up your time, and a few other contractors while they dig for the lowest possible price. These folks will cost you production time and plenty of money when you are selling against 10 other Contractors.

Whenever you are bidding against numerous other companies for the same job your sales ratio will plummet. That’s where marketing comes in. When you have more leads you get to choose which are the best opportunities to invest your time in.

Spend Carefully—

L

Honorability-crediting Designers and Builders

Credit Designers-- It's only fair!



Designers, Builders, photographers and contractors all have a stake in and claim credit to their work. At times--the lines of protocol are a little fuzzy.

It goes something like this normally.

If you designed it or contracted the design and your crews installed it you can claim it as your own work. If you designed it... claim the design-- If you built it... Claim the installation--if you contracted it... Claim the contract.

But not...

If you were the landscape contractor--you can claim the entire job as your own--even if you didn't contract, design or pay for the design of the project or even install all the elements.

Now, I want to get this right. Photography and Stone work by Markville Landscaping, plantings by Markville Landscaping. The original Concept designs were by Elizabeth Tschoppe Garden Design and the woodwork detailing, shop drawings and installation was by Winterburn Group (GardenStructure.com--before the web site was developed).
I can tell you that this company featured our work on the cover of their brochures for a few years--without credit.


We chatted about numerous jobs over the years--however the owner always wanted credit--as he assumed it on this job, which simply wasn't right. Since I knew he wasn't giving us credit for the work we did, we simply refused to do any more work for him.



This job is about 10 years old now. Water under a very old bridge. Nowadays we would shut someone down for just that kind of thing... but it doesn't seem this guy has made millions from claiming our work was his own--likely just barely stayed in business. In our original area of operations we are likely one of the most emulated of companies... we are happy to be so well respected by our competition.


L

Pricing Decks Fences and Pergolas

Pricing Decks, Fences and Pergolas is easy right?

Just collect the flyers that come to your door, call all your competition in the phone book and have them out for a free estimate at your house… Then put your price in the middle of the pack.
Or… Not.

Look—Some of the guys in the Deck and Fence business don’t have a clue. Some of them are con artists that collect deposits and never come back. Some are part time pressure treated jockeys and have regular jobs—some are on employment insurance and only have to make $5.00 per hour.

Would you compete with someone working for free?

Do you think that those guys working for free will actually honor warranty service on something that was lacking structurally?

Apples should not be compared to rotten apples.

Every time a factory closes there are 50 new contractors with shiny new trucks, business cards and cool logos. No business training—little sales ability—they are all competing and selling on price alone.

Without profit the business is doomed.

Try Calculating a price based on your costs, your pay and profit calculated in.

I’m not going to include pricing here—since we help all our builders set their pricing so that they make profit—Real profit so that they can build a real business.

L

Sabotaging Sales of Decks and Fences

Top 10 ways to sabotage Sales ( Selling Decks and Fences)

1. Miss the appointment (then don’t call for a week or two—or ever)


2. Arrive late.


3. Arrive intoxicated—worse still if you choose to partake in a beverage if offered during the estimate.


4. Close talking—Loud Talking—Arrogance, Ignorance or generally abrasive attitude.


5. Arrive at the quote without a portfolio—or use an unimpressive collection of photos.


6. Smell of cigarettes.


7. Try to sell a plastic deck to someone who knows too much about it.


8. Arrive in a truck that is an obvious state of disrepair. (Park a few houses away—better to just fix the truck or lease a newer vehicle)


9. Get into discussion of political or religious nature with the clients.


10. Arrive unprepared to sell—no contracts, no design materials, no tape measure.

There are hundreds of ways to minimize your chances of making the sale. When you make a mistake or don’t get the sale simply ask the client why. 90% of the time they will be brutally honest. It is a task well worth doing. It will help you grow thick skin and give you a road map for future estimates.

L

Business Mentors

Business Mentors

Whether involved in a similar business or not—A mentor will keep us grounded, cause us to question things we assume and offer advice that will save us potential losses later.

A couple of my mentors early on (most important time);

Steven (an entrepreneur I built a restaurant for when I was 19. We both lived about an hour away at the time—so we had 2 hours a day to talk business. He was Greek businessman who started with $5000 of borrowed money in 1971 and by the time I met up with him he had a couple of hundred houses and 2-70 unit apartment buildings and 5 restaurants. The guy was self made and trained in the Greek hard fought business academy.

Bill White was the president of the Amex Bank of Canada for a few years in the 80’s. Started his business having to do with setting up large retail chains with credit cards. He was the one who imparted to me the need to market constantly. He was actually a client in the early days—Very generous for sharing his knowledge.

Any company—large or small needs mentors and friendly folks to help steer and make decisions for your company. One guy making all the decisions is bound to make errors that the collective would catch early. In corporations it is the Board of Directors and or the Steering Committee.

Time must be taken to consider the important questions having to do with strategy and direction. Skip this portion of planning at your peril.

L

Decks and Fences for Cash?

Decks and Fences for Cash?

The first thing you have to ask yourself—Are you building your business for the future or for short term gain?

If you are serious about building your business or are you just augmenting your income at your regular job?

If your business loses money year upon year you will not be able to borrow money for expansion or a mortgage or to buy equipment.

When you are fudging the books the government knows. If you think you are smarter than the auditors you should re-examine your perceptions. Many people think that audits are doled out by lottery. This is a serious misnomer. What the government auditors don’t advertise is that they have a brilliant system for discerning who is cheating and who is not.

When people make up numbers they tend to (always) choose larger numbers than naturally occur. Look at the price of everything you buy. Large numbers. $19.99, $299.95, $27,999. Now… look at the number of 9’s. Multiply the first number x 2 , second number by 3, third number by 4… 39.98 , 899.85, 111 996, total it up
112,935.83. Use any made up numbers you like… in the end there should be a certain percentage of 1’s, 2’s, 3’s etc in your numbers. When cheaters get caught again and again they think it is a conspiracy--

There exists a formula in the main computer—when your numbers are inputted, they are compared to natural numbers. + Or - a certain percent and they know you have fudged the numbers. When you fudge the numbers you get audited so it simply is not worth the risk.

Secondly—Cash price is a method used by some people to get a better price—trimming your profit margin. If you were satisfied with a lower profit margin why not lower your prices and market your lower prices. You may be able to start another couple of crews who work for a smaller profit.

The third and most compelling reason not to do cash work is the fact that you are doing damage to your reputation. The majority of people see cash work as shady and underhanded. If you want your company to be seen this way—go right ahead.

We recently had a campaign manager for a prominent politician ask one of our licensees to do work for cash—You can bet I voted against his political party in this recent election.

L

PVC -Vinyl or Composite Pergolas?

PVC -Vinyl or Composite Pergolas?

People are writing and calling wanting Vinyl and Composite Pergolas. People see the beautiful photos on GardenStructure.com and for some reason assume that they are made of Maintenance Free Materials. This is because our pergolas are often solid color stain on wood finishes. We use an upgraded (good cut) of materials and normally it is red cedar which cracks little and the knots don’t bleed through the finish.
When we pre-finish the materials the first application on pergolas can last between 5-7 years. At which time you can re-finish and it will look new again.

Vinyl Materials= Poly Vinyl Chloride—plumbing materials.
They made eves trough out of it… (Didn’t work), fencing (photo)-early designs didn’t work-but later versions look much better. I suspect there is some metal inside the vinyl shell to prevent sagging. The PVC arbor’s I see look fine—but they are likely a bit wobbly when tested.

One thing to remember is that PVC gets brittle over time when exposed to UV. It’s not a product that was originally designed for exterior use. When it gets elderly it will begin to get weak and eventually shatter when tested.

Vinyl and composites will also discolor where it comes in contact with grass, dirt splash, rust or hard water and pollution in general. It will not remain the original color and look new forever. It will need a chemical wash to alleviate these stains every year or two. After the chemical wash it won’t quite look like the original-there will be a bit of a milky looking residue and the finish will appear a bit washed out.

Due to numerous law suits which proved that the materials being marketed as maintenance free materials were not in fact Maintenance free—most companies are now calling their materials “Low Maintenance” and advising people that it will need yearly cleaning. These materials are also not known or recognized to be structurally suitable materials.

These PVC—Vinyl—and Composite Materials are still in the development stage. They seem to have some promise, however GardenStructure.com is only recommending and supplying products we know you will be happy with for a 10 year duration.

Our opinion is that Vinyl, PVC and Composite Pergolas are not ready for our endorsement yet.

If your company offers any type of warranty and you are considering carrying these composite, vinyl or pvc products-consider carefully.

L

Design Insights—Pergolas and Pools

Every month I get people asking for 20’ plus spans incorporated in pergolas.

Here’s an email from yesterday.

My question is that I want to build a pergola on part of my pool, my pool, the pergola would cover only ¼ of the pool, the problem is that the width of the pergola would have to be about 20 feet long across the pool and therefore we cannot place a column in the pool, would it be possible to not have a column in the middle on one side (the side that goes over the pool) of the pergola and still have the structure be safe? I would like to have the pergola made out of a non maintenance free material.

Thank you

Parul

People are constantly insisting that they want a pergola—but they don’t want to have posts obstructing the view. I am sure you will all agree that this kind of pergola structure and support for climbing vines is just messy and horrible. If I had to wake up every day and see this wood obstructing my view every day I don’t know if I would want to go on.

I am sure you will agree that this frames the pool, accents the view and just plain looks fabulous.

Pergolas get their strength from support posts and diagonal bracing. The more braces, the more wind it will resist and the longer the pergola will last. More posts, more braces, more strength, more durability.

Clustering posts in areas can create a feature as well as hide unsightly structures and elements in your neighbor’s yard.

By the way—the pergola project above is based on details included in this plan at GardenStructure.com. Here's the link "Pergola Plans" $17.99 + ($3.00 S&H) It is Pergola Plan T005 pro.


So, in conclusion Parul,

No, you don’t want to leave posts out—celebrate your posts… make them beautiful and plentiful. Give them recessed panels and decorative braces, frame your view and create more points of interest with your pergolas.

Secondly, why do you want a pergola over your pool? Is it for avoiding a sun tan while using your floatation devices in your pool? Frame the pool, keep the space functional, traditional and build something gorgeous rather than a perched pergola that will blow over the first windy day.

L

Dealing with Clients--Politics, Religion and Decks

Building decks is in fact a popularity contest.

Say nothing, express no strong opinions about anything but construction techniques, materials, design and non-inflammatory subjects.

Disagreements and ill perceptions must be avoided at all costs.

Politics and religion are not subjects that you want to get into unless you are prepared to only work within your chosen groups. If you want to be a large and successful company you must work for all ethnic groups, religions and political persuasions.

People’s beliefs are core to them. It is who they are. What they respect. If they are republican and you have democratic bumper stickers—you don’t get the job. Do not get lulled into political or religious discussions. Figure out a casual way of worming out of that prickly situation.

So, in summary here’s a list of words not to use in the presence of clients.

Regime Change (if you happen to be Canadian),
Politics,
Religion, Religious, Church, Bible, Allah, Koran,
Liberal, Conservative, Neo Con, Republican, Democrat, Communists
Sweeping generalizations against politicians, tax collectors, lawyers and mechanics.

No Incendiary Subjects!!!

Keep everything positive; keep it moving in the direction of the sale. Don’t give an excuse not to deal with you.

By all means—be involved politically. Any associations or groups will be the source of additional business and many of us do have strong beliefs and views. I think it is part of the entrepreneurial personality. Exercise your need for association—just don’t use your business as a soapbox.

L

Where do people look to find a Deck Builder.

Where do people look to find a Deck Builder?

Yellow pages—is often the first stop. Talking to Scott Stevens of Outdoor Style (A deck builder currently being set up with us in Newmarket Ontario), these leads are mostly price based. They are looking for competitive quotes. They want quality too, however they seem to assume that everyone building decks were trained at the same school and that decks are a commodity—rather than art.

Adding a website to a yellow pages ad can go a long way to qualifying your prospects—and even convincing them that you are the guy to deal with.

The Internet is quickly becoming the choice of more educated buyers. People want to see a bit of what the contractors do. A site that shows up where the people expect to find you and then wows the people with high quality and creative work tends to develop quality prospects

Sites that promise top quality—lowest price—free estimates and we’ll even water your plants and take out your garbage tend to develop more leads—that rarely end up translating to profit for the contractor.

Direct Mail is often a waste of time since normally they consist of a black and white sheet of paper with Best Deckbuilder in Kansas—and a phone number. Most subdivisions will get 20 deck company flyers delivered to their door every spring. This is a great opportunity for a company to upstage the competition. Show them far better work on a better brochure and you will demand a better price and walk away with the job whenever the people have a budget. Further directing them to a great website will also improve response.

Referrals are fabulous—but remember they don’t happen nearly enough. These leads must be cultivated. Keep in touch and become friends with all your clients—they will remember you whenever the occasion to plug your services arrives.

Lawn Signs tell people that your current customer is happy—and since you are already working in their area you are the company for them. Again—website displayed on the sign to offer more information and you are pre-selling for the future.
I can remember my first sign guy saying—“A good Sign is a Sign of Good Business”

L

What do Deck Builders do in Winter Months?

Do Deck Builders Work in the Winter?

We have actually dispensed dozens of leads in the last 3 weeks so this warm weather has people in the mood to build. I think we are also seeing people planning further ahead due to the building skilled trade shortage all across North America.

We are building—planning—selling—and designing already for spring work. Our spring magazine ads are getting booked in the next 2 weeks and flyers are already printed for the spring season. They are being boxed and distributed this week.

The web site is being updated in the next month to show off all our best work in the last year.

Time to get Busy!

L