Restoration Rewind

Delta Development Group Monthly Newsletter

September 2014

Nice Trailer

The fleet of vehicles sporting the Delta Disaster Services logo has just gotten bigger. Delta Disaster

Services of Northern Colorado just unveiled their brand new construction trailer. This trailer will help to keep their construction jobs flowing smoothly by being able to hook on to any one of their vehicles and go with them anywhere. The trailer can even remain on jobsites for extended jobs. By being a

slightly smaller operation, employees find themselves on both mitigation and construction job

sites within any given day. Being able to pack a truck with one set of equipment and this fancy trailer with a whole other set of equipment will help them to be more efficient on jobs. The solid red color also wins extra brownie points as well! See you on the

road!

Day-to-Day Relationship Building Combined with Quality Work is Building

the Delta Brand.

It’s safe to say that Delta Disaster Services franchisees are some of the best contractors and restorers in the industry. However, without effectively communicating that to the marketplace, we are simply a good service with no business. When you combine quality service with an effective marketing approach, you build a very powerful brand.

In the short time that many of our offices have been operating, they have built and are continuing to build a trusting relationship in their marketplaces. Without naming names, here are some exciting things happening within our franchise community.

One of our offices, after having an established reputation as a builder in their area, took their presence to a higher level with highly effective marketing and just secured a restoration project in excess of $500,000.

Another one of our offices, located in a very competitive market, is dominating that marketplace by consistently providing quality work and delivering effective communication to both his homeowners and referral sources. This particular operator has no holds on going after his competition. In speaking with him recently, he had over 100 pieces of equipment actively working in his franchise area. If you do the math, that’s an excellent return on investment. That same operator makes it a point to meet all adjusters on all jobsites whenever possible. Because of this, many adjusters refer directly to him in turn helping build his business.

Another office, a newer one, has taken on anything and everything that has come through their doors. From an extremely complex construction project, to an equally complex environmental remediation project that has required a tremendous amount of direction from an industrial hygienist. The same operator is now being challenged by the established restoration firms in his marketplace. However, key employees from the competition now want to work for his operation.

What many of you are realizing, is that you stand out in an industry where the professional standards are nowhere near to those that are within the Delta brand. We have selected and are surrounded with some incredible people.

One thing to always remember is that you are not just representing your office, but you are representing THE ENTIRE BRAND in every interaction you have and with every

project you take on. For many years, while building the prototype office in Denver, we took on many challenging insurance relationships. If we were only interested in the Denver location, we would have told some of these relationships to go fly a kite! However, we realized very early that every decision that every franchise makes in how they treat a referral source and a customer, could potentially affect the brand regionally and nationally.

If you look at everything from a high-level, there are only so many referral sources that you will

get work from in any given marketplace. In the Denver market for example, we feel 13 carriers control 90% of our business. If you burn a bridge with one of those carriers, you can never go back! Always remember that you stand above your competition because of the quality of individual you are and the organization that is the Delta brand.

Delta Management Systems. (D.M.S) There has been a lot of recent activity in the Denver office as it relates to our shared software platform, Delta Management Systems. The Delta Disaster Services of Denver office has been working very closely with Dan Long, the President of Service Software, to administer these changes. We will be implementing numerous and large changes in our overall management system and job flow over the next 3 to 6 months. Items that we are going to be working on:

• Utilizing DMS as a document management system • Loading all job photographs on DMS • Creating key performance

indicators as reminders for activities to be done.

• Creating specific task lists assigned to certain job types so things do not get dropped or forgotten

• Templates of documents that can be standardized and sent out to customers and referral sources. Both as a form of communication and as updates on projects.

Many of you have already gotten or will very soon be getting to the point in your business development where you need to utilize DMS in order to manage and grow your operation. (Recently some of our fastest-growing operations have come to us specifically for more DMS training.) Stay tuned, we are going to continue to grow our software platform to make it easier to manage your operation, grow your business and make more money!

Changes are coming to our industry’s standards.

ANSI/IICRC S500 Water Damage Restoration Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration (2006)

Substantive changes made to the draft Standard since the last public review were available for the third round of public review and comment from August 01 to 31, 2014. The public review period is now over, and the S500 Consensus Body is reviewing and addressing comments.

Note: The Standard and Reference Guide are DRAFT documents and could be changed considerably over the next few months so please do not cite, circulate, copy, or reference the Standard and Reference Guide till it is in final approved version and published by IICRC.

Click here to view the S500 Consensus Body White paper on Air mover Calculations in Structural Drying Projects. This paper assists in understanding the value of area-method air mover sizing calculations to achieve appropriate airflow on water damage restoration projects.

BSR-IICRC S500 draft Standard and Reference Guide was available for the first public review from March 29 to May 13, 2013, for the second public review from December 06, 2013 to January 20, 2014, and for the third public review from August o1 to 31, 2014. All comments submitted as part of the first and second public review periods have been reviewed and addressed by the Consensus Body, and responses have been sent out.

ANSI/IICRC S500-2006 Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration is a procedural standard. It is based on reliable restoration principles, research and practical experience. In addition, there has been extensive consultation and information obtained from numerous sources. These sources include, but are not necessarily limited to the scientific community, international, national and regional trade associations serving the professional restoration industry, chemical formulators and equipment manufacturers, cleaning and restoration training schools, restoration service companies, the insurance industry, allied trades

persons and others with specialized experience. It is subject to further revision as developments occur in technology, testing and processing procedures.

ANSI/IICRC S500-2006 Standard and Reference Guide chapters and sections include: Building and Material Science; Psychometric by Definition; Psychometric and the Science of Drying; Limitations, Complexities, Complications and Conflicts; Structural Restoration; HVAC; Contents Evaluation Restoration and Remediation; and Large or Catastrophic Restoration. Also, note that Carpet Disengagement and Reinstallation has been moved back into the Appendix.

ANSI/IICRC S500-2006 provides a specific set of practical standards for water damage restoration. It does not attempt to teach comprehensive water damage restoration procedures; rather, it provides the foundation for basic principles of proper restoration practices. ANSI/IICRC S500-2006 does not attempt to include exhaustive performance characteristics or standards for the manufacture or installation of structural components, materials and contents (personal property).

ANSI/IICRC S500-2006 Standard and Reference Guide is presented using a two-part format: the standard itself and a supplementary reference guide. The procedural standard is featured in this first section, supported by the reference guide in the second section. The intent is to use the principles outlined in the reference guide as a tool to better understand and apply the standard itself. However, the reference guide is not considered part of this standard.

The S500 Consensus Body Chair is Mickey Lee, and Vice Chair is Chris Taylor.

Close-Out Pricing on S500: IICRC is offering the ANSI/IICRC S500: 2006 Standard and Reference Guide on Professional Water Damage Restoration at a discounted price of $65 per copy till such time as the revised Standard is approved and published. To purchase IICRC Standards click here. Standards can also be ordered by e-mailing supplies@iicrc.org.

Stuff to Measure and Where to find the information!

Every month you are asked to submit a few reports to us based on the work you brought in, performed, and got paid for throughout the prior month. Frequently we get questions about where to get this information, or what figures we are actually asking for. Hopefully this quick breakdown will assist you in understanding how to put your monthly reports together.

The figures that we are looking for are all based off of information that is entered into QuickBooks and DMS and the reports that you can pull from those programs. All of the information that you need is there, you just have to know where to find it. You will also have to make certain the information was and/or is being entered correctly in both DMS and QuickBooks. The down side is that it takes time to make sure all of this is being done for every job, but trust us the benefits are invaluable! Once you have the processes in place for effective data entry you have truly made your life as a business owner that much easier. You will have the accurate information that you need, others in the office also have the information and in the end it will save everyone time. You also have the documentation needed for any future problems that may arise.

Below are some of the required figures that we get the most questions about:

Sales/Production: This is your “pipeline” of business. Your sales or production for the month would be the Sales Orders entered in QuickBooks for that month.

Once a job has an approved Xactimate Estimate (by either the home owner or the insurance company) those dollars are booked as a Sales Order in QuickBooks.

Work in Process (WIP): This is your Open Sales Orders.

Referrals for the Month: This information is available on your Estimates and Sales Orders in QuickBooks. If there are a lot, you may want to consider an export to an Excel spreadsheet. Otherwise, the information is all there – assuming the fields have been completed when the customer was set-up in QuickBooks.

Outstanding Receivables: This is your CASH or the money that will be coming in within the next 30-60 days (hopefully). This figure is from your “Open Invoices” in QuickBooks.

Once the job is complete, you will convert the Sales Order to an Invoice. This is your Completed Work; the money you can collect or Outstanding Receivables.

You can also run an “Accounts Receivable Aging” report. This will tell you which invoices are current, are at 30 days, 60 days, etc.

Total Work Completed This Year: On your P&L is it the “Total Income” line, this is the amount of work completed this year. (This is assuming you are not entering work as Invoices until the work is complete.)

Tracking all of this for your purposes and for your CPA are both very important to operating your business. If anyone needs help with any of these reports, please contact Dixie Feld. If there is enough interest, we can also schedule a Wednesday Webinar to discuss.

And We Will Leave You With This:

Confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s a result of something…

hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.

Roger Thomas Staubach (former NFL quarterback and businessman)