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MW: How do you diversify your offering, adapting to your clients' needs, what they want? DW: We've found that a lot of the jobs we were building had a lot of custom cabinetry and millwork in them. For years, we had subbed that out to dif- ferent mill shops, and our clients are buying cabinets from other shops. So, we decided to open up our own cabinet shop. That was a slow and very expensive process, but we did it and I think it turned out well. We made a lot of mistakes, it cost me a ton of money at the outset, but it was a great learning experience and really helps us offer a lot of vari- ety to our clients. AS: We're probably one of the only guys in our area that offers concrete counters. So we've got this real small niche that people know us in the area for. If they want that done they come to us. So it's not so much that we have a way to diversify what we offer, it's just that we find a way to give the client what they want. BD: I keep my eyes open. If there are other items, like small and simple maintenance items, I just take care of it at no charge; just as something to give to the customer. If it's something a lit- tle more substantial, I'll tell the client I can do it while I'm there and save them some money with the efficiency of being in the house already. Adding some of these change orders helped out with being able to diversify and pick up a little extra business. MW: Are there any tools that help you to be leaner and meaner? BD: Over the last two years, we're really invested in tools with dust-collection capabilities. It's just something that we hated doing at the end of the day. Now, we just save a ton of time, and it makes our customers a whole lot happier. DW: Yeah, I have to agree 100 percent. We've invested a few thousand dollars over the past decade on a negative air machine. It keeps our cleanup costs way down, plus it creates such good will with the customer. AG: Dust collection is huge. It's a factor that I never even considered five years ago. It was like, oh great, a sander's got a dust port on it; I'm never going to use that. And now it's one of my main focuses when I look at a tool. AS: I have a number of Festool tools that are part of the dust collection system and other tools that I use person- ally. On site, it can be difficult to implement some of those tools sometimes, because my part-timers don't know how to care for a sander that costs three times more than the one they're used to. But man, from a sales proposition, dust collection is so important. The client will tell their friends about how clean we keep the site, and after a while, like culture, it starts to set in that we're the cleanest crew around. MW: So you'd agree that investing in proper tools is important for the long run? AS: For repeatability, it's just a lot easier. My guys were never outwardly excited about using the tools. They'd just do the job and not say anything. Now, they're smiling, they're laughing about how awesome the features are. AG: I've always felt like I wanted to put stickers all over my truck, telling people how much I love Festool, but then the other part of me thinks that then people will just break into the van and steal them all. MW: Let's talk about the dif- ficult clients, particularly during tough economic times. Have you ever had to step away from work because of the client's attitude, or because the job would be unprofitable? AS: That's something I've struggled with. When the recession hit, I took a couple jobs [including one client in particular], which was just miserable about going after the spreadsheet, trying to get all the lowest bidders, and then forcing me to use these subcontractors. I learned a hard lesson there, so now I stick to my guns and will only approach it on a time-and- materials basis, within reason. AG: It's taken years to nip out those clients, and I'm better at finding them early on and avoid- ing them. But if you're continu- ing to reach for those big kitch- ens, big baths, the ones you see in the magazines, it comes with the territory. You just have to learn how to deal with it. If you shy away from every client that may be difficult, you might not end up with any work. DW: What I like to do is extend the interviewing process a little bit longer than most. I find if I can give my clients some home- work, some assignments, then I can gauge their cooperation right upfront. If they don't have the interest in calling my referrals, chances are they're probably not going to end up a client. BD: It happens quite a bit. You can get a feeling. And I would agree that you take some time with the people, and you try to get to know them a bit better, and at least they can give you a better gauge as to what they're going to be like to work with. MW: And lastly, now that we're slowly climbing out of this recession, more people are building homes, having more work done, and so on. How do you retain that same sense of urgency, whether with yourself or your employees, that you had during the recession, when it's make-or-break? DW: My sense is, if your guys don't have a sense of urgency now, they're probably not going to have that sense of urgency when things get hot again. I push my guys, and it's all based on the schedules I write. AS: One of my favorite philosophies in any type of business is setting up a franchise prototype. Even if you never have the intention of franchising your business, just the fact that you have systems in place is the key to having freedom from your business and streamlines the job in good and bad times. QR Brian Drumm Andrew Gregor David West Anthony Schwaller Meet the remodelers ForResidentialPros.com QR April 2014 43 QUR_42-43_Festool414.indd 43 3/28/14 10:32 AM