Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132Estimates The article neglected to tell you that you should expect to pay for an estimate on your project. It takes time to price a project, and many contractors are no longer willing to invest the time and trou- ble to compile an estimate for free. You’ll still see “Free Estimates” here and there, but many con- tractors recognize that they are providing a service when they estimate your project and will ask you to pay for that service. Pricing I wrote the book on pricing jobs for the construction industry, so it was a surprise to read that contrac- tors charge 25%. Let me tell you that if they are only charging 25%, they won’t be in business long. That’s why so many construction businesses fail; they don’t charge enough for their work. Every contractor needs to calcu- late their own markup based on their overhead and profit needs, but to survive, most need to use a markup of at least 1.5 and many general contractors doing remodeling charge a much higher markup. That means they need to be adding at least 50% onto their estimated costs for a project. There are a lot of little tidbits in the article that I question. I’d like to know how the Consumer Reports National Research Center found the 300 general contractors that they interviewed, because I have a hard time believing that a random sampling of general contractors found 20% operating without either a state license or the proper insurance. The printed version of the article includes a graphic that states that one of the most common problems that lead to cost overruns in their survey is getting permits. Someone help me out: how can getting permits lead to a cost overrun? Price should not be the top pri- ority when choosing a contractor; T i l e I n d u s t r y M a r k e t i n g T i p s FREE MARKETING REPORT IN UNDER 30-MINUTES! TILE INDUSTRY AD AGENCY How would you like a to help with everything? What areYOU DOING TO MARKET YOUR COMPANY? REPUTATION MANAGEMENT WEBSITES MOBILE WEBSITES BRANDING VIDEO ON-HOLD MESSAGES 800.789.4619 www.omgnational.com IMAGE IS EVERYTHING, DON’T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING! 101 MARKETING TILE INDUSTRY BUSINESS TIP –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 30 TileLetter | August 2016