Long story short guys .... We're growing and becomming very busy. If anyone in here is thinking of moving to the North Idaho area we would be happy to talk.

Hope all are well out there. Been almost a year since my last post. It has been a good year. NOT slowing down for winter.

Would love to hear from at least one seriously interrested sanding mechanic and perhaps one experienced installer.

Send an email or chat right here. Heck, how bout a little chit-chat about how all y'all are doin' before the winter hits (for those of you in Florida ... winter time is a magical place filled with wonder and awe that can impose its will upon any unsuspectiong floor man that forgets his tire chains ... )

Cheers,
William

Nice to see you back William

Tell us why your business is doing so well. There has been a considerable slowdown in activity all over the US from what I am seeing with the exception of Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, and naturally Las Vegas. Oops, can't forget the Katrina hit areas either.

We live in a "retirement hot-spot" Custom homes have not slowed down at all. We have worked pretty hard to become a business that plans for growth. Most of my competitors are one-man-bands and early on in starting my busines I noticed that their average age was abot 50 yrs.old. So ... I'm out marketing, out serving, and out living them mostly. Our little town has gone from 39,000 pop. in surrounding 60miles to about 80,000 in surrounding 60 miles in the last 5 years ....OUCH! But we never majored in going after tract home builders. Now whenever a large project comes to town (PGA Golf clubhouse on the lake Google "Gozzer Ranch") We get a call for an estimate for the same project from around 4-6 diffrent floor stores or designers. I give that credit to my excellent commissioned sales staff.

When things in new houses slowed down we went after insurance companies and appliance companies that were "in-the-know" about damaged wood floors. Because we use a common sense and honest approach to repairing water damaged floors instead of the guy that insists tear out is the ONLY way, our name began to make its way through all of those venues.

I'm sanding 840ft. today from a flooded floor. I kept them calm, monitored the moisture for about 6 weeks untill all was normal again and now going to resand rather than replace. If I am less expensive to the insurance broker, guess who they will insist on using later ....

Honesty and persistance have been paying off.

We also use work agreements and non-compete agreements when hireing so as not to introduce new competition to us and our worthy competitors....and yes, we do enforce them.

We have lurked around town looking for qulity remodels underway in good neighborhoods and cold approached and had success.

And finally we have searched (for free) online in the local county records for any new building/remodel permits being pulled and cold called the numbers to see if their project includes wood floors and mailed our glossy 6x9 postcard to those addresses.

Out side of spending commission money on a salesman/estimator I think doing these things cost less than $100/month...

If you're slow ... contact insurance companies and appliance dealers .. friges always are leaking somewhere no matter what the economy, and insurance companies (though a bit touchy at times) will always have to find someone to repair damage ... they might as well pay me to do it.

Biggest challenge ... deciding I'm not too good to sink down to the level of insurance work. It's amazing how the 300ft repair we do is for a family that has some rich realative building a home at the lake that gets to hear about us ....

And MOST of all ... it doesn't hurt to put some trust in a very big God who doesn't want to see his own starve ....

Must be why no feed back yet.....

William:

Don't feel left out. Flooring installers in general don't use the internet. I interviewed a dozen or so about two months ago and only two knew anything about the web. I seem to hear "...my wife is all over the internet, I'll ask her to look into it"

Guys are hungry for work in my area. The RE market really took a beating in this area(SW Florida) but it was over heated. An example of the boom and bust:

Lee County Florida(pop 570,000 +-) issued over 900 building permits in one month at the peak of the boom early '05. A recent news article showed only 48 issued in June or July of this year.

I placed a local ad for ten days and got about 45 calls. Only eight could answer my basic question to weed out the good and bad:

What kind of moisture meter do you use?

It may be a little cheesey, but we use the Lignetics digital. Best bang for the budget.

When I first moved here ('93) there were 400-500 permits for the year in about a 50 mile radius ... Post Falls (where I live next to CDA) did 700 this last Spring

CDA has slowed but not custom dream homes. Many movie stars and Hollywood types abound.

Spokane is now called SpokAngeles!

Hi Will,

Glad to see you're back. But I was wondering, what is a
"We also use work agreements and non-compete agreements when hireing so as not to introduce new competition to us and our worthy competitors....and yes, we do enforce them."

I am unaware of these agreements. Are they legal?

Hey Gary! Non compete agreements are legal if they are used reasonably and fairly. Many times we ask that one be signed after at least 30 days so that the new hire can experience for themselves that we are a fair couple a' righteous dudes to work for.

Typically they will state that upon termination of employment (whether we let 'em go or they quit) that they agree to not seek employment or business ownership that is in direct competition with our company for a surrounding radius and a specific amount of time. Typically within 60 mile radius for 3 years or 5years.

This will help protect your assets. We all have stories of how we invest our time training and teaching and exposing guys to our trade protocols and specifics such as how and what we charge ultimately to be personally responsible for training our future competitors. Not to mention flooding our local market with more wood floor guys driving our trade price further down.

I wish all of my competitors here used them. I'm tired of all the fresh meat out there who fancies himself a floorman after 6months employment with 'em creating hacks and taking jobs out of our market.

Trick is to be an honorable person yourself. If you are fair and honest with your journeymen they will reward with loyalty. (at least it looks good on paper )

Also you need to include a penalty clause about what your recourse is should they be caught working for your competitor or becoming your competitor. Some use a penalty per job instance or a percentage of profits to go to you (and your lawyer )

There was an article on the subject in HWFloors Magazine 6 months to a year ago.

FYI - there are several places in California where they do not allow certain types of Non compete agreements so please check your local district (call a local attorney)

I have to say if this intrests you I would recommend spending a little dough and having an attorney draft one for your company. I'm looking into having the one we spent ten bucks on Legal Zoom.com revamped by a lawyer to include a prety stiff recourse and make sure the local laws are cool with it. We had a guy who signed an agreement then a few months later quit (I knew all along his desire was to become self employed) and go after sq. ft. dollars as a pre-fin installer and has approached a couple of our clients

We haven't made any moves yet but they are comming. He had mentioned that he wanted to move to Denver and have a trade to help him earn money when he gets there .... well he hasn't moved yet and he just installed a pre-fin for a builder we worked for last Summer (I did a drive by on the site and sure 'nuff he was rackin' and whackin') ... I think its about time for him to get a letter (cease and desist) from an attorney or move out of my work area and stop taking dinner off my table. I hear Denver is lovely this time of year...

Check 'em out if you wish I hope you fend them helpfull.

Will

Thanks for the explanation. I could see both good and bad in that sort of arrangement. For instance, a guy works for a company where he signed that agreement. After a year or so (maybe more), the company stops any pay increases and in fact, cuts benefits and pay, due to any number of reasons. Now that guy finds himself in a bad spot. If he quits, he must get work much further from home or move. Good for the company; maybe not so good for an employee. Having been on both sides of that fence, I'd probably opt not to have employees at all and sub-contract only, which is what I do when I need to. I have subbed out work to certain installers and finishers I trust. I make it clear the job must meet a certain degree of quality and that they, the sub, are not paid till the job passes inspection. Any "repairs" will be made by them at their cost and that they will warranty the work for one year minimum. Everyone is pretty cool with this arrangement. Most all the larger shops have gone this way on pre fin and laminates. Finish in place is harder to sub but I have a couple of guys I can call if I need.

I guess I should explain ... just 'cause I have 'em sign it don't mean I'm mandated to enforce it.

I wouldn't fault a guy I trust to do what he had to do to feed his family, especially if I just wasn't getting it done running the company he works for.

But, if a guy has an intention of learning from me for the purpose of starting his own business right next to me then I find him targeting my clients, and then I find him "selling" my ideas to his new boss or "selling" information on a perticular style of handscraped floor and how we do it ... then all bets are off and I'll do what I gotta do to protect what is rightfully mine.....short of fitting the guy for cement loafers.

There are just some things a young punk should learn NOT to do as far as messing with a man's income and livlihood. If I can discourage the ill intended then all the better.

My daddy use to say that locks are used to keep honest people honest...

I figure if a guy don't want to sign one ... maybe there is a reason.

I'm just sayin...

Do you still work for the person that taught you? And if not, did you have to "not compete" with them when you left?

I am not in this business (I am a DIY'er), but that policy would never fly in my area of work (computer/engineering), at least not in my state. In other states they have tried, but almost always failed to pull it off.

I can understand you not wanting to give away the skills transfer for free, but can't you just pay them a -lot- less money while you need to teach them? Not allowing one to apply the skills they have learned for their own business seems wrong, even if it is in the same area.

Sorry if I seem sour on this. You seem like a very talented craftsman, and I hope your business continues to flourish.

When I was an apprentice I was in North Va. and had a 5 year break in the Navy. I'm no where near where I started. What an adventure...
I'm not too concerned much about how I think people "feel" about it. The next time in corprate America you find yourself training your replacement you'll remember that feeling as you look for ways to be self employed ... the man signing the front of the paycheck may not have it much better but he does have a few more choices...