Survive a Slowdown, Compete with the “Giants”
Building industry experts will show you how in 18 sessions sponsored by NAHB’s Business Management and Information Technology Committee at the International Builders’ Show.

Survive a slow market; compete with the “giants”; take your head out of the filing cabinet and go paperless. Building industry experts will show you how to accomplish all of this and more in 18 educational sessions sponsored by NAHB’s Business Management and Information Technology Committee at the International Builders’ Show, Jan. 11-14, in Orlando, Fla.

Featuring the wisdom, practical advice, and cutting-edge knowledge of building industry experts, these sessions were chosen from more than 200 proposals to NAHB’s Business Management and Information Technology Committee. 

“The education is selected by builders for builders,” said John Barrows, of J. Barrows, Inc., who led the selection committee. “We tried to incorporate a broad array of topics that builders would be interested in learning about. Then we chose the most dynamic speakers with the greatest expertise in each of those areas,” he said.

To view a complete list of business management educational sessions, go online to http://www.buildershow.com/. From there, you can use the My Show Planner tool to add specific sessions to an electronic calendar created just for you!

Following are just a few of the business management educational sessions that you can attend at IBS:

• Survival of the Fittest—Can the Local Builder Still Compete? In this session, Scott Sedam of TrueNorth Development Inc., will debunk the myth that local and smaller regional builders are destined to be swallowed up by the “giants” and will give attendees tips for improving their operations and increasing their competitive edge. 
• Process Your Company and Compete With the Giants. Bill Jagoe of Jagoe Homes will show builders who are building 50 to 200 units a year to earn better margins. 
• Thinking Outside the Filing Cabinet, Builders Doing More Paperless. Here, you can learn how builders are using document management to improve their systems, provide superior customer service, and manage capital and financial operations. 
• 25 Sure Ways to Improve Profitability. Chuck Shinn of Lee Evans Group will give you 25 practical and understandable steps to improving your bottom line. 
• Surviving a Slowing Market. This program will give you the inside scoop from two builders who decided to expand their geographical reach because of saturated local markets or economic slowdowns and job losses. 
• Effectively Managing the Three Types of Teams. Marylee Putnam of Greater Atlanta HBA will discuss the best ways to manage new, temporary, and transitional teams. 
• Insurance Roundtable: Meet the Underwriters. The nation’s top underwriters will address critical issues facing home builders, such as escalating insurance costs, market trends, risk transfer, and quality assurance measures to reduce your insurance risk. 

For more information, contact Wil Heslop at 800-368-5242 x8472 or Marcia Childs at 800-368-5242 x8388.

Look for another Business of Building e/Source newsletter in early January with a preview of other Business Management activities at the International Builders' Show.

Make Your Building Business More Profitable
Whether you build two homes a year or more than 1,000, the National Association of Home Builders’ Cost of Doing Business Study is the most important book you’ll read this year. This one-of-a-kind resource gives you the unique opportunity to compare yourself and other builders across the country. See how you measure up with industry-wide averages in these important areas:

• Gross margin and net profit
• Cost of goods sold
• Financial ratios (Current Ratio, Debt-to-Equity Ratio, and more)

The Cost of Doing Business Study has the data, analyses, and guidance you need to boost profitability, increase efficiency, set realistic budget targets, and improve your business practices.

To order the Cost of Doing Business Study visit http://www.builderbooks.com or call 800-223-2665. [return to top]

Bankruptcy Law Offers Relief to Products Manufacturers, Suppliers
For suppliers who delivered goods within 20 days of a bankruptcy filing, a new law grants a priority in payment without following the formal reclamation procedures and fighting with the retailer’s lender. Since they would rather have a payment than return of product, this new legislation should be an improvement as far as suppliers are concerned.

To read more about new bankruptcy legislation, click here. [return to top]

Creating Customers for Life—Part 2: Manage the Brand Experience
By Steven Lewkowitz, Professional Services Director, Homebuilder & Real Estate Group, Pivotal Corp.
A brand, it is important to remember, is not simply a name, a jingle, or a logo that the public associates with a company. A brand is the totality of a customer’s impressions of a firm—an aggregate of every experience, interaction, and association the consumer has with the company. Likewise, brand strength is not a function of flashy big-budget advertising.

Attending to the fundamentals and orchestrating the entire customer experience with your company can help you develop a strong brand. Find out how here. [return to top]

Builder-tested Contracts and Forms Boost Efficiency
The most successful home builders are those who develop standard processes for managing their day-to-day business operations. Systemizing your business can make you more efficient, productive, and profitable. Using the resources in Home Builder Contracts & Construction Management Forms is a major step forward in saving time and money and streamlining your business operation.

Home Builder Contracts & Construction Management Forms, Second Edition, contains 95 documents of specific use in residential construction. You will find various contracts, specifications, change orders, and many more forms and checklists that will improve your ability to manage your building business. These documents are a compilation of business resources that were generously donated by successful builders across the country.

To order Home Builder Contracts & Construction Management Forms visit http://www.builderbooks.com or call 1-800-223-2665. [return to top]

Six-Month Extensions Available to Most Taxpayers in 2006
Taxpayers will be able to request an automatic, six-month tax-filing extension for most common individual and business returns under regulations released today by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A tax-filing extension does not extend the tax-payment deadline.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2006, most individuals and businesses will be able to request a full six-month tax-filing extension, without a reason or even a signature, using form 4868. The new procedures will replace the existing two-step process under which non-corporate taxpayers could only get a six-month extension by first obtaining an extension, usually automatic, for part of that period and then requesting a discretionary extension for the remainder.

Extension procedures also will be streamlined for business taxpayers, thus eliminating three existing forms. Under existing procedures, only corporations can request an automatic six-month tax-filing extension. The new regulations also will make this option available to most noncorporate business taxpayers, including partnerships and trusts.

Starting Jan. 1, eligible business taxpayers will use form 7004 to request an automatic six-month extension of time to file. In the past, eligible noncorporate business taxpayers had to request an initial three-month extension and, if more time was needed, then request another three months.

More information on Treasury Decision 9229, announcing the changes, is available at www.irs.gov. [return to top]

The Do's and Don'ts of Hiring Quality Trade Contractors
The old adage, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link," is an apt metaphor for looking at home building today: Just one poorly performing trade contractor in a builder’s production crew can undermine the integrity of the finished product, opening the door to revenue-threatening delays such as increased cycle time, callbacks, and poor customer satisfaction ratings.

Worst of all, sub-standard practices by trades can increase the potential for defect litigation. To avoid all this, read The Do’s and Don’ts of Hiring Trade Contractors. [return to top]

Quality Builders Focus on Improving Housing
The NAHB Research Center will be hosting focus group sessions during the 2006 International Builders' Show in Orlando. Builders of all types are welcome—including production, custom, and luxury, and are encouraged to participate to voice much needed opinions on various building materials. Participating builders will receive monetary incentives in appreciation for their time. Focus group discussions will be held at varying times from Jan. 11, 2006 though Jan. 14, 2006, at the Rosen Centre Hotel. Advance registration is required. To reserve your space, contact Ronda Oglesby at 800-638-8556, x6262 as soon as possible. [return to top]

Clearinghouse Aims at Affordable Housing Barriers
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse provides builders, organizations, and individuals with resources that can help overcome state and local regulatory barriers to affordable housing.

The clearinghouse offers free:

• Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse newsletter, Breakthroughs
• Regulatory Barriers ‘Strategy-of-the-Month club’

For more information, go online to http://www.regbarriers.org or phone 800-245-2691, option 4. The clearinghouse will be in booth S10889 at the International Builder’s Show. [return to top]

NAHB to Coordinate Building Material Donations
NAHB members can donate materials to hurricane reconstruction efforts through Gifts In Kind International. Coordinating product donations industry-wide will enable NAHB to aggregate the generosity of members and enable the federation to shine a positive light on the industry’s philanthropy.

Gifts In Kind serves as a donation conduit between for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations in order to benefit communities in need worldwide. The charity takes donations from companies, including 44 percent of the Fortune 500, and matches those donations to a network of 200,000+ registered charities worldwide so the specific help and material gets to where it is needed most.

Not only will you be able to help others by meeting specific needs, you and your company gain positive recognition from your donation. In addition, you also could earn a tax deduction of up to twice the value of the merchandise donated.

Gifts In Kind is seeking plumbing and electrical materials, sheet rock, roofing, insulation, 2x4 framing, doors, windows, cabinets, sinks and toilets. All building materials can be used and are being accepted.

Several NAHB members, including Sears and Maytag, already are working with Gifts in Kind. However the charity can accept product donations both large and small.

Your Donations Will Reach the Gulf Coast

Now focused on Katrina relief, Gifts In Kind has developed a coordinated donation process by assessing needs not only in areas affected by Katrina but in areas servicing evacuees. More than 30 distribution centers managed by local Gifts in Kind programs are accepting product donations and distributing them to local agencies. So far, more than 150 truckloads of products have been distributed.

Why You Should Donate Through Gifts In Kind

NAHB members have the ability to work with Gifts in Kind not only to donate materials to the Gulf Coast region, but also locally or regionally based on need, goals of the donor company or future disasters.

Donate Now

To donate, complete Gifts In Kind’s Product Donation Agreement and fax it to Doyle Delph at Gifts In Kind, 877-798-3192. For more information about Gifts In Kind International’s efforts, visit www.giftsinkind.org/katrina.asp or e-mail Kym Kilbourne at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.

Please Note: During times of natural disaster, Gifts In Kind International requests that donors cover the shipping costs of their donated products in order to eliminate any fees involved in serving communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. [return to top]

House Approves Katrina Housing Relief/Recovery Bill
The House of Representatives in December passed a tax bill specifically focused on assisting the recovery and rebuilding of areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina.  The "Gulf Opportunity Zone Act," H.R. 4440, provides authority for tax-exempt bonds to rebuild infrastructure, authorizes additional Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) authority, creates new deductions and credits for cleanup of the region and authorizes federal guarantees of up to $3 billion in bonds to assist local governments in their recovery efforts.  Several of these provisions were suggested by NAHB when the association testified before the House Financial Services Committee in September on how to respond to the hurricane disaster.

The House bill also specifically bars the use of any tax benefit for casinos, liquor stores, country clubs and hot tub facilities, among others.  There appears to be little or no support for this provision in the Senate and it is questionable as to whether it will survive a House/Senate conference committee.  Senate action on this bill is likely to be an amendment to include the Katrina tax incentives already passed by the Senate before the Thanksgiving recess as part of the budget reconciliation bill.  A quick compromise in conference seems highly probable and both chambers are expected to act on the bill before they depart for the holiday recess. To view the legislation, click here and type the bill number in the box in the center page. For more information, contact Jim Tobin at 800-368-5242 x8470. [return to top]