It seems like almost weekly we turn on the news and hear of some type of natural disaster. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, severe weather event, or a wildfire seem to be causing devastation in some part of the world. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives are affected every year.

Doing CAT work doesn’t mean you have to pack up and run across the country. Sometimes the work shows up in your own back yard. What if a CAT event happened tomorrow in your own community? Is your company ready and able to respond? If not, you will miss out on an incredible opportunity to serve your community, be there for your current clients and add huge profits to your bottom line.

There has never been a greater need for restoration contractors to step up to the plate and use their knowledge, equipment, and expertise to respond when this devastation occurs. The industry and your community need good companies that are properly trained, have the right equipment, and know how to use it. And companies doing the work for the right reasons.

So what are the right reasons?

I’m sure you would get a wide spectrum of responses to that question depending on who you ask, but at its core I really feel there are three top reasons most would agree with.

1.  Making Money

It is honorable to want to make a lot of money and profit.

Wait what??!! Isn’t money the root of all evil? Absolutely not.

Making money in your business allows you to hire more people, provide more services, buy the best equipment, pay for top notch training, and thus allows you to help more people in a much bigger way providing them with the ultimate client experience. When done right, there is a lot of money to be made doing CAT work.

At R&R’s Preparing to Respond last year, we did a work shop where we went through a case study, step by step, on how we made $100,000 in just 10 days.

Can you imagine making $100,000 in just 10 days? Can you imagine making $500,000 in 30 days? You can serve a lot of clients with that kind of money and profit. And that is a good thing.

Those are the kind of numbers you can make doing CAT work. But only if you are prepared and understand what you need to have in place such as training, systems, resources, etc. If you aren’t prepared, you can wreak havoc on your business and yourself.

Contents Cleaning

2.  Humanity

If you are familiar with any of my articles or follow my Ask Annissa videos, you know how I feel about this topic. It is always at the core of the best (notice I didn’t say biggest) restoration companies in our industry that have the biggest impact on their communities.

The devastation our clients are experiencing during and after a CAT has many facets. Not only are they going through their loss and emotions, everyone around them is going through it as well, which magnifies the situation. Emotions range from fear, lack of hope, desperation, uncertainty, financial stress, and loss of trust to full-blown depression. Sadly, sometimes they are also dealing with death.

I often compare restorers to ER doctors. We save lives via memories. We put lives back together via rebuilding homes. And we give hope by showing them that someone who knows what to do is here to help. During times like this people need us more than ever.

3.  A Great Need

Catastrophe losses totaled $350 billion in 2017, one of the highest years ever recorded for CAT losses. That is a lot of work, requiring restoration contractors to clean, rebuild, demo, inventory, remediate, and bill properly.

There is a great need for more restoration contractors to help handle these types of losses the right way. As we know all too well, storms and disasters bring out a number of unqualified contractors trying to make a quick buck who either take money and never return, only do some of the work then leave, or do the work incorrectly leaving the property owner with worse problems down the road.

This work is not just for large companies. Whether you are a team of 20, 10 or even five, you can make a difference and have an impact. Ours is an industry unlike any other. Our hours are not for bankers. But the profits can be fantastic and the work is some of the most rewarding.

So let me ask you a question…are you prepared to respond?