The world's foremost resource on decorative concrete
Todd Scharich was recently appointed decorative concrete specialist for the American Society of Concrete Contractors and its Decorative Concrete Council. The ASCC already had a concrete hotline, but with Scharich aboard since October 2012, it now has a dedicated Decorative Concrete Hotline available to members on a 24/7 basis.
Business strategy is the conscience you need for effective decision-making as you wade through the ambiguous waters of entrepreneurship. You face a lot of uncertainty as a decorative concrete business owner, and having a coherent business strategy is fundamental to minimizing that uncertainty.
Marketing activities exist in multiple forms. In 1960, marketer E. Jerome McCarthy identified four distinctive types of marketing, often referred to as the “four P’s”: product, price, place and promotion. This marketing mix provides a standard framework for a decorative concrete professional to communicate and deliver lasting value to customers.
Some things in life a person can bluff their way through but, unfortunately, decorative concrete is not one. When a previous customer called asking to add more decorative stamping, I learned the hard way. She loved the work previously installed, and now wanted to add a pool deck to match, right down to the colors and pattern. No problem, right? Wrong.
When business is slow and credit is tight, you must do all you can do to preserve working capital, also referred to as operating capital. It’s an important financial metric calculated as current assets minus current liabilities. It’s the difference between the money you’ve been paid and the cash you owe.
There’s a lot riding on your price. It’s a reflection of your brand value and the perceived quality of your work. Customers will even use heuristics to determine if your price per square foot is consistent with what they would expect to gain from hiring you.
A “punch list” is the final review of a project. It is usually completed by the project architect and is most often completed after the project has reached a milestone called “substantial completion.” And for a decorative concrete contractor, the punch list is probably the single largest money-losing piece of a project.
In the free enterprise system, competition selects out businesses that don’t adapt to change or events they can’t plan on. To thrive within this system, your decorative concrete business must maintain a high degree of flexibility.
There is a big hairy monster lurking around your business. He’s not easy to detect and he has a real nasty habit of stealing from you. The monster I speak of is called “slack.”
The value to your business is best determined on a per-unit basis. However, many contractors don’t exactly make widgets for their customers. So if your primary business is something like concrete staining, polishing or stamping, I recommend you calculate your margins on a per-square-foot or per-project basis.
