It can be. Just change your perspective with IBS pre-show courses from NAHB Education. In a crowded marketplace, consumers expect you to earn their business. See what our courses have to offer—through your clients’ eyes:

• Estimating for Builders and Remodelers: You see a course on how to develop winning bids, with emphasis on insurance and profit, quantity takeoff and labor and productivity issues; your prospective client sees a well-thought out, accurate bid with no surprises.
• Home Technology Integration: You see spending a few hours learning how to incorporate home tech capabilities into your home building or remodeling job; your client sees someone who knows how to bring his family’s home theater dreams to life.
• Customer Service: You see a chance to brush up on your customer service skills and learn new techniques; your clients see a consummate professional who takes the time to cultivate relationships and treats them like gold.

Shift your perspective and see your career from a new angle. Held January 15 – 18, IBS Pre-Show Courses are intensive one- or two-day programs designed to sharpen your skills and increase your professional credibility. In just one trip, you can work on your NAHB designation, earn continuing education credit and get focused, in-depth knowledge in your specific areas of interest.

The Pre-Show schedule also includes courses like these:

• Advanced Green Building: Building Science – NEW!
• Builder Assessment Review
• Business Management for Building Professionals*
• Design/Build Solutions for Aging and Accessibility (CAPS II)
• Green Building for Building Professionals - Newly revised to ANSI-approved National Green Building Standard*
• Financial Management
• Land Acquisition & Development Finance
• Lifestyle Merchandising, Advertising and Promotion Strategies (IRM III)
• Marketing to Active Adults - NEW!
• Professional Remodeler Experience Profile
• Trends & Research Methods to Define the Active Adult Lifestyle
• Understanding Housing Markets and Consumers (IRM I)

For more details, including dates and times, visit www.buildersshow.com/preshow.

Education sessions held during the regular IBS schedule focus on big ideas, successful strategies and making the most of your resources. Get tips and tricks and exchange ideas in sessions like “Ramping Up in a Changing Economic Environment,” “After the Fall: The Return to Operations” and “Negotiating with Your Lender.” You’ll find a full schedule of sessions at www.buildersshow.com/preshow.

*Green Building for Building Professionals and Business Management for Building Professionals are approved by the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems. [return to top]

Sponsored by NAHB’s Business Management and Housing Finance departments, each 90-minute session focuses on a critical component of business recovery and development and features a panel of experts sharing their professional experience and insights. 

• “Home Buyer Tax Credit: Your Questions Answered”
  Wednesday, Jan. 20
  3:30-5:00 p.m.
  South 231
  
  Robert Dietz, NAHB’s assistant vice president for tax and policy Issues, will discuss how to leverage the tax credit with panelists Michael Sivage, of Michael Sivage Homes, and Scott Jagoe, of Jagoe Homes, Inc.  Both home builders have been able to take full advantage of the tax credit when marketing and selling to prospects. Attendees can expect answers to frequently asked questions regarding the application of the tax credit, as well as hear about lessons learned from a builder’s perspective.
  
  
• “Negotiating With Your Lender”
  Thursday, Jan. 21
  1:30-3:00 p.m.
  South 222-223
  
  Finding new financing for land acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) and extending existing credit is the number one issue facing today’s home builder. This session features a frank discussion among builders, lenders and legal experts offering insights into the most pressing issues involving AD&C credit and what builders can do to work with their lenders on mutually beneficial solutions. Attendees will gain an understanding of lenders' concerns as well as legal issues arising from stricter lending requirements and hear effective strategies for positioning their businesses to demonstrate their creditworthiness to current and new lenders.
  
  Moderated by Marty Mitchell, CGP, of Mitchell & Best, panelists include Steve Camp, of Gardere Wynn Sewell LLP; Melissa Hicks, of RBC Bank; Bob Kline, of RW Kline LLC; and D. Rand Roan of Apogee Partners LLC.
  
  
• “Ramping Up in a Changing Economic Environment”
  Thursday, Jan. 21
  3:30-5:00 p.m.
  South 222-223
  
  Moderated by Tammie Smoot, MIRM, CMP, MCSP, CSP, CAPS, CGP, of BDX, and featuring industry veterans who have been through previous housing slowdowns, attendees will get practical advice and ready-to-use strategies for ramping up and strengthening their business in an economic slowdown.
  
  Panelists include Nicole Goolsby, CGP of Rion Homes; Jean Ewell, MIRM, CMP, CAASH, MCSP, CSP, CRS, of Keller Williams Realty; Erik Anderson, CGA, CGP of Lutron; and Jenna Hamilton of NAHB’s Government Affairs Department.
  
  An encore program will be conducted from 10:00-11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 22, in South 232.
  
  
• “Equity Partnerships 101: Options for Small and Medium-sized Builders”
  Thursday, Jan. 21
  3:30-5:00 p.m.
  South 219
  
  Because many traditional sources of capital for projects — such as banks and insurance companies — can no longer be relied upon, this session will provide key tips for establishing beneficial relationships, as well as insights regarding required returns, project profiles and the risks and rewards of alternative approaches. Attendees will gain valuable insights into locating other funding sources and learn how to identify and attract local equity investors. Speakers will also explore options in structuring financing packages for land development, single-family and multifamily housing production.

For more information on these sessions, visit www.buildersshow.com. [return to top]

To cut costs and increase efficiency, especially in these difficult times, builders would do well to examine and consider integrating up-to-date technology into their business processes.

Integrating the technology available today will help builders do more with less.

Processes that once required several employees can now be completed by one person using technology. Increasing efficiency with building process technology will free up time and resources to tackle critical tasks that require constant human intervention.

Technology promotes efficiency in four main areas:

• Accounting and financial systems
• Project management
• Estimating
• Purchasing and inventory tracking

Accounting and Financial Management

Nothing is more tedious for a builder than inputting accounts payable, completing progressive invoices, making periodic draw requests and performing general bookkeeping. But all of these functions are necessary for healthy business operations.

With accounting and financial management software, you can systematically monitor the information your accounting system generates to gauge the overall health of your home building business. Regular monitoring will help you spot troubled areas before they do irreparable harm to your company.

When times are good and cash is flowing, business owners tend to ignore key benchmarks. On the other hand, when business is bad, they watch every number.

The best business practice is to establish key benchmarks and then monitor them regularly — in good times and bad. Technology will expedite gathering accurate financial information for this purpose.

Key benchmarks to watch are:

• Current ratio — the ratio of assets to liabilities.
  
  If the ratio goes up, it is a good sign. If it is going down, it could indicate that jobs are not profitable, which means you must examine job cost reports to ferret out areas of potential cost savings; that jobs are taking too long and overhead is outpacing its recovery per job; or that sales are not keeping the projected pace, or closings are taking too long.
  
  
• Gross margin and net margin — the balances left after subtracting construction costs from revenue (gross margin) and construction costs and overhead from revenue (net margin)
  
  Pay more attention to these percentages than to overall revenues. Although you may be building more jobs and generating more revenue, you could actually be losing money.
  
  
• Accounts payable and receivable turns — indicators of cash flow
  
  How quickly do you receive money owed and how long does it take to pay bills that are due?

Project Management Systems

To successfully manage a project, you must manage information flow to your entire team.

Everyone on your team will need information about customer selections, dates for draw requests, how to answer requests for information and the appropriate process for managing change orders. To successfully manage a project, you must provide this information promptly and accurately.

Successful builders deploy information technology that allows information to be:

• Entered into a system once
• Viewed by multiple users
• Archived for easy retrieval
• Transmitted from the client to the field, from the office to the field and back again

Technology solutions for project management include:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software systems
• Scheduling software
• Internet-based technology
• Change-order management systems
• Job-cost review and tracking software

Estimating

In a business environment where profits are squeezed it is imperative for builders to know what their costs will be before taking on a project. To price a project competitively and still attain the desired profit margin, builders must know as precisely as possible how much it will cost them to build.

A well-integrated estimating program is the first step to maintaining strict controls over a project’s costs and profits. Today’s estimating programs provide accurate pricing quickly and efficiently.

For example, with assembly-based estimating, an estimator gets quantities for plates, studs, sheathing, siding, insulation, drywall, base trim, electrical outlets and paint by merely entering the linear footage of the walls.

Estimating software also integrates with computer-aided design (CAD) programs to coordinate takeoff quantities from the drawings.

These programs eliminate mistakes caused by human error that can eat into profit margins.

Once the customer accepts the estimate, anyone in the company can order the necessary materials and labor — allowing the builder to delegate this task to an employee. This frees up the builder’s and project manager’s time so they can focus on managing other construction, customers and labor issues.

Purchasing

An integrated purchase order (PO) system helps control project costs in 10 ways:

• Labor and materials are ordered exactly as stated in the estimate.
  
  
• The system links procurement to the estimate to validate the estimate and for future reference.
  
  
• When invoices are used, they reflect the same unit pricing as in the estimate.
  
  
• POs obviate the need for invoices because payments can be made on a PO number.
  
  
• When invoices are used, they can be checked against POs.
  
  
• Verification by PO eliminates the need for builders and their project managers to handle each invoice.
  
  
• POs derived directly from estimates allow better advance reporting and job tracking.
  
  
• Tracking variances that occur between the purchase order and actual job costs helps improve future estimating.
  
  
• POs enable just-in-time delivery, simplifying staging and reducing materials theft, loss and damage.
  
  
• POs reduce waste with details that help organize materials according to the areas where they will be used on the job site.

Information technology offers tools builders can use to handle routine tasks and systematize operations and frees them to concentrate their oversight in critical areas.

Successful technology deployment expedites operations, aggregates and coordinates information, enables delegation and accountability and ultimately provides users with the information they need to make sound business decisions.

John Barrows is president of J. Barrows Inc., a custom home builder and consultant based in Wainscott, N.Y. Barrows serves on the board of directors of The NAHB University of Housing, the executive board of the New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation and the executive board of the Long Island Builders Institute. For more information, e-mail Barrows, call him at 631-537-8734, or visit the J. Barrows Web site at www.buildersite.com.

The article will be featured in the latest “Cost of Doing Business Study” to be released at the 2010 International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas next month. The study enables builders to compare their balance sheets with other builders around the country. It can be purchased through Builder Books.com. [return to top]

For the 2011 IBS Education Session Proposal General Guidelines click here.

For a list of the 2010 International Builders' Show educational seminars, visit www.buildersshow.com/education.

If you have any questions or would like to recommend a topic or speaker, please contact NAHB at ibsedu@nahb.org. [return to top]

By taking the Home Technology Integration course, being held Jan. 18 at Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, you’ll be able to:

• Identify home technology product categories, features and benefits 
• Describe methods used to evaluate, select and collaborate with electronic systems contractors and other building industry professionals 
• Describe basic installation processes for home technology within new and existing construction 
• Describe how to profitably market and sell home technology and its value within new and existing construction

Clearly, consumers want installed technology to enhance comfort, security, entertainment and energy efficiency in their homes.  How you address these needs will differentiate you from your competition. This course provides builders with an overview of what home technology is, trends, how it fits into the construction schedule, the installation process, and most of all…how to get it done right, present it intelligently to your client and make a profit.

To register, visit www.buildersshow.com.  For more information, visit http://ibs10.mapyourshow.com/ibs10/sessions/session.cfm?ScheduledSessionID=228 [return to top]

The House earlier this month passed H.R. 4154, legislation that would make permanent the 2009 estate tax provisions.  Senate Republicans failed to agree to this approach, even on a temporary basis. Instead, they called for a more generous permanent change that would increase the exemption to $5 million per individual and $10 million per couple, at a 35 percent tax rate above those levels. As a result, it is uncertain whether lawmakers will move to retroactively resurrect some type of estate tax in 2010 or look for a permanent fix to take place in 2011. For more information, contact Greg Brown at ext. 8421.

The previous article first appeared in NAHB's Washington Upadate. [return to top]

Here’s how to win. Stop by booths C1845 and N24, fill out a simple survey (in booth C1845), then have a special promotional postcard stamped by a booth representative!  Drop off your stamped postcard in booth C1845 and you will be eligible to win a flat panel TV!  The drawing will be at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 22. Registrants must be present to win.

E-mail Dave Chic, CEDIA Director of Industry Outreach or call 800-669-5329, x174. [return to top]