Our New Logo

Our New Logo



This is a long story. It started many years ago. We hired numerous guys for a couple or a few hundred dollars each, and just never created what we loved for a logo.

I believe that nearly 10 people tried… and failed—or just plain gave up trying.

Through our Landscape Designer – Paul Corsetti, we met Ben. Ben is an “artist” who is extremely creative. He sells his time in $500.00 blocks. It took us 5 blocks of time to get here, but we have something that works perfectly and it all happened inside 3 weeks.

He actually created 5 different variants that can be used for other applications.

Ben is a Genius—a creative Guru—and we are grateful for his creativity.

We are pleased enough that we intend to do a showcase of his logo work within our site, so keep an eye peeled in the coming weeks.

If you need a logo—just get in touch with me by email and I’ll give you his number.
( plans@gardenstructure.com ).


L

Salesmanship Standing out in a Sea of Deck Builders

Salesmanship – Standing Out in a Sea of Deck Builders

When you are arriving at a home to give your “Free Estimate” to build a deck or fence for someone… and you arrive early to see your competition being ushered out the door—and when you get rushed out the door after giving your best bid only to find 2 more competitors parked a few doors down the street you know that you are playing by someone else’s rules.

“Average Joe Builder” from “Dun Already Decks”, will tell you that this is the way to do it.

Do free estimates—That is your penance for gaining access to prospective clients.
Keep your prices low so that you get the most jobs.
Build what people want… or what you think they want based on what you see being built.
Build what you make the most money doing.
Use all the new products—whether tested or not. If other people have spent money marketing it—It must be good right?
Call all your competitors to find out what they are charging… and set your prices slightly cheaper to corner the market.

Average Joe Builder will always be Mediocre because he follows the crowd. He will be edged out of the trough because he is simply not built to discover or develop anything.

Free Estimates benefit the client… the 10 contractors that jump the shopper’s hoops or get them to come in and design their project right in their home are working for free—worse than slaves. The homeowner gets benefit of professional advice without paying a dime. There are ways to filter out price shoppers… and it takes 10 seconds on the phone.

The lowest prices will get you out of business fast. Low prices—less profit—less marketing—less success. Sell service—not a commodity.

Lots of contractors get their ideas out of magazines—that’s why they never get their work in magazines. (We’ve been featured in 30-40 magazines and newspapers so far). Nowadays folks want something designed specifically for them… not what the other guy up the street has. Listen to the client.

Value your client—and your client’s resources. Don’t supply something that will not make the client happy in the future. Be sure of what you are selling.

Basing your prices on what your competitors are doing works well for commodities… but when you are selling your creativity and talent—you need to base your pricing on needs for future prosperity. When you can’t get enough for your services to thrive it’s time to move to somewhere that you can.
L

Servitude

Is worry about the future holding you back? I look upon my entering the business world as a necessary challenge and schooling. 18 years in business I can’t imagine placing my future in the hands of others. They just don’t have a bested interest in my well being.

Look at what you earn now. A salary of 720 per week, That’s $18 per hour right? Good money right? But then it takes you an hour a day to get to work and you are actually working 70 hours on average a week for $720. Oops, you inadvertently took a pay cut back to $10.28/hour. If you include your traveling time… $9.35/hour.

Ouch. I’d have a tough time getting out of bed for that, in fact I was making more than that in high school working part time in a muffler shop—but we’re not talking about me right now.

So… when you take deductions(252$ / wk if you are Canadian) off your $9.35/hour you see about $468/wk. If you are average you will be sliding into debt and living on consolidations at present rate. Forget retirement… unless you are counting on a lottery win, who knows, it could happen.

The average Joe has a mortgage of $1000/month, car payment, insurance and repairs, lets not forget about what the kids have, hydro, heat, phone… how do you do that on $1800/month, ($21,600/year take home pay).

I don’t normally advise someone without assets or a credit rating behind them to go into business… but someone in this situation requires drastic action to get out of debt and really has nothing to lose.

There’s a million jobs out there right now for the same money… they can always go back. At minimum they must limit the time they work at this salaried position and start making positive steps by doing freelance work on the side.

In this modern time in history—Slaves must be Fed, Clothed and Housed. This guy’s Master is shirking responsibility to his Servent.

What does Servitude feel like? It’s that sinking feeling you get when you work 70 hours a week and still can’t pay the bills.

L

Springtime for deck builders.

Leaves are finally appearing on trees in Ontario. Ads are hitting the magazines, sun is shining and it’s 70 degrees….

Springtime is here for deck builders—

No time for posting, I’ll be introducing our 3 new builders soon, Niagara, Burlington and London are set up and running. Mississauga-Brampton is coming soon.

The design work crush is on. Phones ring non stop. Life is good.

The work happening is gorgeous.

L

Hourly Rates for Deck Builders

Basics.
Deck Builders need about $20,000 worth of tools, Liability Insurance, Business Licenses (in some areas), Workman’s comp, A decent vehicle and of course insurance on that vehicle, associated repairs and maintenance.

You need an office, likely an answering service; you need to pay to do bookkeeping and accounting. You need a lawyer on retainer.

You need to do sales and marketing. You need flyers, letterhead, and business cards.

Deck builders require similar overhead expenses to any renovation company.

Here’s a hint. Union Carpenters make about $37/hour here in the Toronto Area. They get 10% vacation pay, dental and medical benefits. So, each man-hour costs the company about $45-50.00 per hour.

That means the company—to cover their overhead and make a small profit has to charge those guys out at $80+ per hour.

Will your rate be $35/ hour?

Are you only worth $12/hour after covering overhead?

Chinese Proverb: “He who works for free is always busy”.Don’t miss out on profitable jobs because you are too altruistic to turn away unprofitable work.

L

Do you love being a deck builder?

Do you love being a deck builder?

What is it that you love to do? We all know that the most successful people we know enjoy what they do—the question is how to get there?

Is it the building that you enjoy? Designing? Selling?

In the early days of a business you have to wear a number of hats, but there should be a goal in mind, that you consistently work towards. How do we move toward doing only what we love?

If you like the building side, you have to hire and train managers and salesmen. This is difficult. Front line people have the most dramatic effect on the business. If you are building all day—you can’t be available to observe what these people are doing for you. You see the results, and experience them when crews flee, and clients complain (hopefully). In fact, being a builder and allowing other people to run your deck company is dangerous.

Enjoying the management aspects—being the juggler is more typical for our crews. Most of the guys will pitch in when necessary, but normally they have their lead hands who run day to day installations. Management of your deck company is where profitable decisions are made and where the greatest impact on company persona is made.

Sales is one of the major 3 tasks—No deck company can survive or thrive without it. It’s where profit is made or left at the table, and it is also your PR . It is the front line representation for your company—the face of your company.

Hire well—and watch your deck company thrive!

L

Amateur Deck Building--How to spot it!

I won’t often link to a competitor’s website, but in this case I make an exception.
(I don’t see them as realistic competition anyhow).

http://www.royaldecks.ca/Images/1002.jpg (another photo of cleat type steps and climbable rails)

Here’s a photo of their best work. (it’s on most main pages-it rotates with a few others--java tricks)


Stairs made with cleats rather than cut stringers. It’s dangerous, Illegal and shows that they are not serious enough about what they do to bother learning how to do it right.

“Our structures are properly designed, structurally sound and built to perfection. Safety should always be on top of the list of every decking company. You can rest assured safety is a top priority at ROYAL Decks Co.” ( this quote is on their portfolio page)

I haven’t dug very deep into their site past the first page of their portfolio, but if you look at the first photo… there are balusters spaced more than 4” apart—close to 6” by my eye.

If they don’t know the absolute basics like these things, how will they ever survive?

They will get sued, they will lose clients as these poor techniques become their reputation, and soon, they will cease to exist.

This is a preliminary post to Tuesday’s Topic… ‘How to tell when a project is built by an amateur.’
L

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