Carlton's Corner : Decorative Dilemma

I have to guess some, maybe even most, of Concrete Decor’s readers enjoy the benefits of the decorative business as only a part of their contracting services. You may very well be one of the many who are wondering if you should make the leap to specialize in decorative work full time or simply offer it as one of many services. Before you burn the ships and take this leap of faith let me show you the pros and cons of both. It really wasn’t long ago that I asked myself this question, so I can completely relate to your concerns. Let me say this: There is nothing wrong with running decorative work in a supplemental fashion. Your volume or percentage of decorative work should be dictated by your local market. Let me be perfectly clear. Please don’t go out and purchase thousands of dollars worth of equipment and product with a “Field of Dreams” illusion. A build-it-and-they-will-come attitude is asking a lot of any market. Talk with any business owner that has 36 locations around the state and he will tell you the importance of market timing. I can assure you he only opened a second location after hundreds of folks complained about driving from across the county to shop at his store. We will talk more about this later.

Pros

I try to see the bright side, so let’s look at the “pros” first.

It is very possible you may be in a market that simply doesn’t have anyone installing decorative concrete. If you’re building homes or doing remodeling projects, the only way to incorporate decorative concrete may be to train your crew to do the work..
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