We must resist the subconscious urge to hire people in which we see ourselves — the full gamut of self from physical appearance to hard skills — and instead, map talent acquisition strategies to our deficiencies. This begins with an objective evaluation of your teams’ strengths and weaknesses, and from their hiring to resources that fill the empty spaces on your mantle.

In this installment of “7 Lessons Learned from $500 Million in Restoration Transactions,” Gokul talks about identifying what is important and understanding the leverage you have as you sell your business.

Annissa Coy answers a question she’s never been asked before: “Would you ever use clean bric-a-brac heavy clean, high density line item…?” In her response Coy shares her approach to efficient billing.

Gokul Padmanabhan predicts the tidal wave of restoration mergers and acquisitions will continue for the next four to five years as more Baby Boomers look to retire and sell their businesses. However, he sees a big opportunity gap that not enough restoration business owners are seizing on.

Lisa Lavender's passion for “checking your work,” on an individual and company level, comes from the consequences she has observed when this discipline is lacking. Here, she offers ideas for creating a culture of minimal errors. 

Annissa Coy discusses pre-communication with adjusters, before the job is complete and the invoice is sent. She also explains why she does not prioritize communication with third parties during review.

Joining a new industry is humbling. Being an outsider in an environment teeming with insiders who’ve been engrained for years and know it like the back of their hand is humbling. But to flip challenge into opportunity, I believe that just as growing up in this industry or spending decades here brings irrefutable value, an outside-in lens does.

What’s new and notable with the IICRC as we embark on a new year? We invited CEO Michael Dakduk to share key IICRC accomplishments, goals, challenges and more in this Ask the Expert episode.

From talent and culture, to greenfield investment, to renovation services, Daniel O’Brien and Mark Neirynck highlight their views on the most important items for restoration business growth in 2022 based on their 55 years of industry experience. 

Does your mission inspire people to come to work? Does the vision tell people where you want the business to go? Are your core values really the guiding principles that the business uses to manage internal and external relationships? Beyond these, and as an alternative to simply paying significantly higher wages to outbid the competition, elements to consider in creating the differentiation, that uniqueness, are non-traditional benefits.