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PRO INSTALLER MARCH 2016
PRO BUSINESS
@proinstaller1
PUSHING UP
THE PROFIT
DIVERSITY IS
THE KEY TO
SUCCESS IN
THE HOUSING
INDUSTRY
The biggest names in Britain’s housing industry joined
Origin, leading manufacturer
of bi-fold doors, windows and
blinds, to discuss the key issues in the housing industry.
The subsequent report, titled
‘Homes of the Future’, cements
the views of some of the nation’s
leading industry thinkers. Barratt
Developments, Grosvenor, URBED,
the Home Builders Federation and
Solidspace, as well as Futurist Dr
Patrick Dixon and Prof. Christine Whitehead from the London
School of Economics, joined Origin and Evan Davis to discuss the
industry’s ‘hot topics’.
The report covers a number of
aspects of the industry. This is not
with the hope of finding a definite
and singular solution, but rather to
find out if the industry and manufacturers should be doing things
differently.
Andrew Halsall, Managing Director at Origin, gives ProInstaller
an insight into the Homes of the
Future report, available to download from www.origin-global.com/
homesofthefuture.
HETEROGENEITY
We have a great emotional attachment to our homes and want
them to be as individual as we
are, while also being a functional
space to live. For the government
to meet the demand of first time
buyers as it aims to build 200,000
new homes by 2020, we must support smaller house builders and
encourage a diverse market.
IS THE WAY WE VALUE
OUR HOMES OUTDATED?
We need to reconsider how we
value homes as the priorities of
the UK housing industry, and consumer demand change. A bigger
focus on sustainable mortgages is
needed as energy efficiency rises
up the agenda.
SPACE, LIGHT AND
OPEN PLAN LIVING
The concept of the ‘two up, two
down’ has been replaced by a
more fluid approach to interior
layout and the creation of an open
living space. Increasingly, homeowners want to maximise the
amount of space and light in their
homes, with a shift towards openplan living.
CONSTRUCTION MATTERS
A need to invest in modern
methods of construction, while
encouraging fresh blood into the
construction industry, must be
top of the government agenda if
Britain is to meet the requirements
of a growing population.
Running a trade business is
hard work and some installers are simply happy to
survive. The problem is that
survival doesn’t leave any
margin for error, nor does it
allow for the growth desired
by more ambitious business
owners. Benjamin Dyer of
Powered Now looks at how
to avoid survival mode and
boost your profits.
Even if your aim in running a
business is simply to do enjoyable
work and make a moderate living,
profit is essential for survival.
That’s because as well as generating a take home wage, you have
to cover the costs of training, tool
purchases, at least one van and
those unfortunate cases where
work has to be re-done.
Also, some business owners are
ambitious to grow their installation businesses and these require
ever larger amounts of working
capital as well as investment in
staff and marketing.
So profit is important for everyone.
DECENT PRICING
Undercharging is the single
biggest problem when it comes to
making a decent profit. I have got
to assume that you do good work
as that is the bedrock of everything
else. But after that the key thing
is to charge a high enough price
to be profitable. That means your
cost should be what you estimate
the job will take to complete, plus
some contingency for anything
going wrong, enough to cover all
of the overheads and finally a clear
profit for the business too.
You may think this is hard to
achieve and you may be right.
But lots of people buy BMWs
and Mercedes. Far fewer buy the
Kia Matiz, even though it’s much
lower priced and Jeremy Clarkson described it as “cheaper than
walking”.
To achieve higher prices you
have to come across as ultra-professional. This includes always
turning up on time, projecting a
smart image and always treating
all customers with respect.
‘lack of profit can
mean little reward for
lots of hard work with
a much higher risk’
EFFICIENCY
After getting pricing right,
comes operating efficiently. I say
efficiently rather than cheaply because there are plenty of instances
where going for the lowest costs
can be a false economy. Several trade companies that I have
spoken to have emphasised how
spending on the best tools can
save time and hence money. Other
areas to invest in are smart, reliable vans and decent staff training.
My final suggestion is to make
sure that you use technology to
full effect.
Atkinsons Joinery is an example
of a firm that is using technology
to improve its business. It uses the
Powered Now (from my company
but there are other suppliers too)
on iPads and iPhones to computerise and streamline paperwork.
MD John Atkinson says: “Powered
Now has made life much easier
for the team here; everything is in
a single place and most importantly it’s easy to see what’s been
sent, and to whom! One of the
by-products of using the software
has been a significant cost saving
of about £5,000 a year in print and
postage.”
COST SAVINGS
My list of areas where you can
make cost savings would i