“Specialize To Be More Effective At Providing Solutions”

Being a “jack-of-all-trades” may seem like a good idea in that we can market ourselves as a little bit of something for everyone – that there’s almost nothing in remodeling or aging-in-place solutions that we can’t implement, conquer, offer, or suggest.

While that might even be true, we don’t want to use this as a marketing approach. Rather, we want people to recognize our abilities and talents in working with certain areas of the home or in dealing with particular types of issues or concerns. We want them to reach out and contact us when their needs align with our business model and what we have chosen to provide.

Because this is an age of specialization rather than that of generalists, we need to narrow our focus in geography, job scope, price point, needs of the client, and type of property. We can’t really be as good serving the entire breadth of a market as we can in being more concentrated.

In deciding to work with a certain age of home (or era), we can become an expert in building styles and methods that were used in the original construction plus common solutions to improve deficiencies, such as wiring, amperage, appliances, doorways, hallways, cabinetry, ceiling heights, fixtures, ventilation, windows, lighting, entrances, stairs, and more.

By choosing certain aspects of the home to excel at renovating or constructing, we can be reasonably confident that we are aware of techniques for creating accessibility, safety, comfort, and convenience in kitchens, baths, bedrooms, or other areas of the home where we choose to focus.

Price point is an area that many people shy away from addressing – preferring to do whatever jobs come their way or avoiding discussing price or budget until the job in well along toward being finalized. Knowing what is comfortable and profitable is a much stronger way of presenting ourselves to potential clients and customers.

Taking the general types of services we want to provide, the price point or budget that we prefer or that is comfortable for us, the general age of the homes we want to work on, and the issues we want to address for our clients and customers, we can begin determining what market area we want to pursue and where we want to perform our services. This can be a relatively compact area such a neighborhood, or it can be a series of neighborhoods or an area. It should not require you to spend a tremendous amount of time driving between them, however, to call on new customers or perform the work already sold.

Then we can concentrate on becoming a specialist for serving the needs of the market area that we have defined and in knowing all we can about that area. This will help us to formulate typical solutions (in advance) that we might recommend for general aging-in-place and safety renovations. Also, we can become more sensitive as to how we might approach specific improvements in the homes where the work might be performed.

In short, becoming an expert on a specific area and go-to resource will help us serve our clientele much more effectively.