Managing Your Restoration Business

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Eric Sprague and Larry Wilberton used many books to help build their cleaning and restoration business, but these four are the ones that impacted them the most. Regardless of what books you choose for yourself, Sprague’s call to action for anyone reading this article is to commit to reading to improve your skills.

Inevitably, if you are a restoration company, sooner or later you will run into situations where the adjuster won’t pay for work you completed or only a fraction of what you have estimated the cost to be. In these situations, restorers have a few options, which depend in large part as to how far you’re willing to go, how much you’re willing to spend and if the risk is worth the reward.

Even if you don’t believe millennials are ready for the business of restoration, realize that they are already opening businesses and that many restorers are retiring. Consider millennials your peers and help the industry transition well into the future by helping them to succeed in business.

To pay homage to an eventful 2021 and help restorers ring in a prosperous 2022, R&R decided to go beyond the standard year-in-review piece. We asked leaders from across the industry to share what they consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. With those perspectives, we curated a comprehensive, long-form collection of restoration industry SWOT analyses for your exploration.

Remember, good is the enemy of great. You might pay little attention to accountability standards and still find a way to grow a good company. But especially at a time when customers and employees have more choices than ever, and margins continue to grow thinner, becoming a truly great company in the long term requires 100% accountability throughout your entire organization, Scott Severe writes.

We asked restoration industry professionals to answer one question as we close out the year: What is your biggest takeaway from 2021?

Bart Meador is vice president of operations, residential storm, with PuroClean. His division specializes in mobilizing teams following CAT events. Here, he shares the experience of over 50 PuroClean franchises responding to Hurricane Ida devastation. 

The motivation paradigm is described as the reasons we do the things we do in the manner we do them. Over the years, I have taken the position that money does not motivate, nor is it necessarily an effective tool that creates desired outcomes. Appreciation ranks higher than money, believe it or not, when it comes to motivation, Lisa Lavender writes.

Les Cunningham shares 13 reflections and predictions for restoration business owners to consider as they plan for 2022, from working with TPAs, to increasing labor and material prices, to COVID-19 effects.