Blogs

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Lean Design

As I travel the country working with builders I am always on the lookout for emerging trends. There is a hot one cooking right now...

Building Operations

5 Keys to Being a Good Salesman by Jerry Jones

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones offers tips for successful selling

Building Operations

Catalog ideas; don’t shoot them

Yesterday I attended a Construction and Safety Expo outside Chicago. General contractors, Sub-contractors and Safety Suppliers were dishing...

The Design Side

Mason City, Iowa, has the Wright stuff

A little off the beaten path—but well worth the drive—is Mason City, Iowa, home to the last standing Frank Lloyd Wright hotel. My partner...

Customer Satisfaction

Do You Communicate Efficiently or Effectively?

Consumers now receive 81 pieces of email for every one piece of U.S. Mail, and some experts believe email is becoming increasingly less effective

Phone, email, or mail options for reaching customers

Quality Management

Sustaining quality: Underlying causes for failure

A question that regularly arises is how to sustain quality management or to put it another way, what are the reasons for quality management...

The Design Side

Seeking FLW: The Historic Park Inn

As a self-confessed Frank Lloyd Wright dork, you would think I already knew about the Historic Park Inn in Mason City, Iowa—the last...

Remodeling Insider

It’s 2013, what do you expect?

As we closed the books on 2012, many readers reported to Professional Remodeler that business has been picking up steam, according to a...

Remodeling Insider

The long-term impact of Sandy

In late October, Hurricane Sandy destroyed much of the Eastern Seaboard. In the days following the superstorm, Professional Remodeler was on...

Remodeling Insider

The value of relationships

A good friend of mine who is also a 40-year veteran of the construction industry has taught me a lot about relationships over the past few...

Remodeling Insider

Award programs worth time and effort

This past summer, staff members of Professional Remodeler convened in a conference room on the outskirts of Chicago to review this year’s...

Remodeling Insider

A new endeavor

Many of you are looking at this editorial page and probably wondering: Where’s Jonathan? And who is this new guy? Recently, long-time...

Building Operations

What’s your moon shot?

You probably missed it. Nearly everyone did. At the end of last year Kansas City quietly became the first metro area to be wired with...

Lean Design

Have master tubs jumped the shark?

Sept. 20, 1977, was the day that I breathlessly awaited the conclusion of the shark-jumping episode of "Happy Days." All week long I had...

Building Operations

How to be an instant conversation starter

In your personal and professional life, being easy to talk to is a skill worth developing. But good conversationalists are rare. There are...

Great Solutions for Builders

3 lessons I learned from you

As you may have noticed by now, I am a flat-out junkie for lessons. Nearly every article I have written for Professional Builder,...

Quality Management

Quality and risk management

Standards provide crucial communication, alignment and compatibility at an international, national, industry and individual organizational...

The Design Side

The bungalow: An icon of American architecture

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times this past Sunday featured the Chicago bungalow, an architectural style much beloved in the Windy City....

Building Operations

4 tips for the coming labor crunch

A CNN Money article this week elaborated on what many construction firms already know: good labor is now hard to find. Some find this news...

Remodeling Insider

The power of saying “No”

To a remodeling contractor, saying “no” to a potential client could possibly be the best decision you make for your company. A few years...

Quality Management

Call for entries for the 2014 National Housing Quality Award

For over 20 years, the National Housing Quality Award has been helping some of America’s best home builders improve their operations and...

The Design Side

Great America, meet MainStreet America

A new theme park just opened in Houston, and it’s not Six Flags. MainStreet America is a collection of 12 show homes, ranging from 1,800...

Customer Satisfaction

Find Your Special 007 Sales Agents

You'd be amazed at the number of referrals a satisfied homeowner can refer to their home builder

home sales_sales agent_home with magnifying glass

Building Operations

How to use information to become indispensable

This thing will change your life. It may appear to be another timemarking commodity. It’s not. This clock not only gathers...

Building Operations

Socialize this

There’s a new business buzzword spreading like Strep Throat. I’m betting it’s still in the early adoption phase, but these viral epidemics ...

Home Builders Institute's Schools to Skills Grant Application Open Through December

As Mortgage Rates Rise, Buyers Lose Purchasing Power

Renters Are Choosing Single-Family Homes for These Features