Registration fees:

• FREE BPI certified contractors participating in the Northern Virginia Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® program
• $395 BPI accredited, EGIA member contractors, and National Capital Contractor Forum registrants
• $595 all others

Workshop fee includes: Workshop manuals, financial statement templates, 2 lunches and 1 continental breakfast.

By registering to participate in this first workshop in the series, your contracting firm will be invited to participate in the follow-up workshops in the series at a significant registration fee discount when you complete all pre-work and homework. Learn more about follow-up workshops CLICK HERE
 

Workshop Overview

To succeed in business today, contracting business owners and managers need to be skilled in a number of areas. This workshop assumes that your contracting firm has the technical expertise to succeed, but needs to development fundamental business skills. “Before you can really start setting financial goals, you need to determine where you stand financially.” David Bach.

This two-day workshop is designed to teach HVAC and other home improvement contractors how to understand financial terminology and utilize information from financial statement to enhance the accountability and profitability of their business. The course focuses on those aspects of the financial statement that are key to profitable day-to-day management of a contracting firm.

This workshop will also address how to improve the key drivers of business profitability. The materials used in this interactive workshop include the key ratios for managing a contracting business and the tools for improving these ratios. You will leave this workshop with a grass roots understanding of contracting business management and the practical knowledge to improve profitability. 

All the financial templates a contracting firm owner would need will be provided to make it easy and painless to implement. All registrants will receive an MS Excel workbook with financial statement templates for an example residential and commercial new construction and improvement installation and service contracting firm that includes:
   • Proforma
   • Break Even Worksheets
   • Monthly Cash Flow Analysis Worksheet

Skills and insights gained:
   • Developing your financial statement
   • Departmentalizing your financial statement
   • Using your financial statement to price profitably
   • Effective job costing
   • Calculating breakeven
   • Understanding the critical ratios
   • Forecasting and Budgeting

Presented by: John Garofalo, Partner, John N. Garofalo & Associates.

John Garofalo has 30 years of industry and consulting experience. Starting out at Southern Bell in the early 1970s, John began his dual career focusing on marketing and leadership development, with stints in sales and sales management, as well as serving as an instructor and manager for their Executive Learning Center. Throughout his career, John has leveraged these experiences serving as marketing manager for Lennox Industries, as general manager for an HVAC service business in Mobile, Alabama, as Operations Manager of GroupMAC’s Residential Group, and later as President for Encompass Residential Services. At Encompass, he was responsible for 35 acquired businesses generating $350 million in annual revenue and $35 million in free cash flow. John’s innovative marketing programs focused attention on building sales in the coveted maintenance and replacement markets. Interspersed throughout this career, John has served the HVAC and other industries in a consulting and leadership development capacity, clocking over eight years in this rewarding arena.

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Workshop 2
Dynamics of Leadership 
Northern Virginia location to be determined by workshop series participants

Leadership is the one most critical behavioral aspect that can make or break a business.  It is a myth to believe that a person is born with Leadership skills. They are learned behavioral traits.  “Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people.” Brian Tracy

In the past, leaders were identified by company position and/or title.  So, changes occurred whenever the “boss” said so. In today’s world, leaders are defined as people who have the skills to make their team members willingly do what the leader expects of them. This highly interactive two-day workshop teaches you how to develop and implement the critical skills necessary to become a great leader in your business and in your personal life.

Skills and insights Gained:
   •  Understand why positive leadership equals positive change
   •  Recognize the qualities and characteristics of a leader
   •  Learn the misconceptions of leadership…what leadership is not
   •  Realize the importance of leading with a clear vision
   •  Learn how to successfully execute the vision
   •  Recognize that leadership instills strength in others
   •  Know the importance of praise and celebration
   •  Develop a personalized leadership plan:
          - To energize your business
          - To implement successful team building
          - To satisfy your customers
          - To surpass the competition

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Workshop 3
21^st Century Customer Service Manager

Northern Virginia location to be determined by workshop series participants

Having the key people to assist in running a contracting company is critical for sustainability. The firm’s Customer Service Manager is one of those key people.  If your firm doesn’t have a Customer Service Manager, this will instruct you on whom to hire.  If you have a Customer Service Manager on board now, this will help you and the Manager lay out the path to becoming the business manager rather than just the technical guru. “The moment of truth in the customer’s view of the world is a sense of discrepancy between what is expected or desired and what is occurring.” Murgatroyd and Morgan

This two-day workshop provides participants with an understanding of the fundamental building blocks for delivering services in the contracting industry.  You will learn how to organize for effective business delivery and avoid the trap of the traditional organization. The materials used in the workshop will allow contractors to chart the flow of their business, assign responsibility and hold the management team accountable for their decisions. You will also add metrics to your business delivery.  Contractors will be able to share the results of this exercise with their customers with the goal of improving business delivery. 

Skills and insights gained:

   •  Understand the 4 phases of business delivery
   •  Recognize the true values of your organizational chart
   •  Learn how to make your internal organization invisible to your customer
   •  Detail the building blocks of work flow in your company
   •  Develop metrics for improving service delivery
   •  Understand the importance of customer surveys

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Workshop 4
The Quality Contractor
Northern Virginia location to be determined by workshop series participants

Understanding what Quality is today is the key to satisfying our customers. Today, customers will not tolerate anything but being treated in an exemplary fashion. The definition of Quality is “100% conformance to customer’s requirements, 100% of the time.” When your company gets to that point, amazing things happen. Most importantly, profitability goes up! “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” Aristotle

During this two-day interactive workshop, you will discover the proven methods of delivering consistently superior customer service. By studying and using the Quality Improvement Process (QIP), participants learn how to satisfy their customers the first time, every time. Learn how to create customer testimonials and referrals that will drive your business in the future while other contractors aggressively advertise to reach new prospects because of their reputation among past customers.

The true value of this two-day Workshop lies in understanding the proven methods of delivering consistently superior customer service. By studying and using the Quality Improvement Process (QIP), participants learn how to satisfy their customers the first time, every time for ages.

Skills and insights gained:
   • Discover why QIP is a survival issue in every company
   • Learn the true definition of Quality
   • Identify the basic principles (absolutes) of Quality
   • Understand the true meaning of customer expectations
   • Determine how to set realistic goals and performance standards
   • Learn how to measure performance and the real Cost of Quality
   • Understand the process of implementing QIP in an organization

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Workshop 5
Team Building and Problem Solving

Northern Virginia location to be determined by workshop series participants

It’s a myth that the owner has to do EVERYTHING. First, there is not enough time to do that, and more importantly, no one is that smart in all the areas needed. That is why the Super Bowl is won by a team rather than an individual. Teams make better decisions, safer decisions, and more decisions than a lone individual. The Leader of the company needs the time to Lead the company rather than putting fires out all day, and doing “grunt” work. The Leader needs time to determine how to take the business from where it is now to where he wants it to be 5 years from now. “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Henry Ford.

This two-day Workshop offers attendees an opportunity to establish a solid foundation in those team building and problem solving skills that are a critical part of the Quality Improvement Process (“QIP”). The principles taught in this interactive session are key to moving the employees in your company from a “group” of unfocused individuals to a “team” of excited, motivated and loyal team members determined to solve their own problems in order to reach and exceed your company’s customer-focused goals.

Skills and insights gained:

   • Understand what motivates employees to accomplish your company’s goals

   • Learn the skills necessary to effectively facilitate teams

   • Discover how to clarify the objectives of the team and the responsibilities of each team member

   • Identify problems preventing team effectiveness

·  • Determine a preferred style of teamwork

   • Learn to fully utilize the potential resource of each team member

   • Identify the steps to permanently eliminate problems, and enable others within the organization to become problem solvers

   • See how you can eliminate one of the most time-consuming and frustrating parts of your job  

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