Remodeling a Remodeling Company

“What happened?”…  “Where are you?”…  “Is everything OK?”…  That’s just a few of the emails I received from some of my online and social media buddies who noticed that I was conspicuously absent from my blog site, Facebook, Twitter…

Well, it seems that the quote by Francois de la Rochefoucauld – “The only thing constant in life is change” – is quite true.  For the last 14 months I have literally been remodeling a remodeling company.  For my social media Friends, Followers and Likers that I left hanging some time ago, I have some splainin to do.  I won’t bore you with all the details, but a brief summary is probably in order.

The most significant change, and the spark for just about everything else, happened back in June-July of last year.  After 17 years together, my business partner and I decided to go our own ways.  While telling all the dirty little stories about our split would make for some good soap opera type blogging, the fact is, there are no dirty little stories to tell.  It was as amicable of a split as you could imagine.  We remain best friends, family, and still work together on some projects.

But, even with a quiet and friendly break-up, I gotta tell you there was just a ton of stuff to do.  Settle all outstanding accounts and issues, new entity, revise marketing, new insurances, financial information, inform customer base…  The list goes on and on and on.

Then, shortly after the break-up, Da Vinci’s main computer (the one in the network that captures everything) went up in smoke – not real smoke, but that warm electrical smell!  And, just in case you were wondering, (read the following while looking at the ground, chin to your chest and mumble) No!  There was no back-up!  Finally, in December, with new laptops, network and yes a back-up system in place, I felt like I had retrieved as much data as possible.

Now I’m ready to get back to blogging and being social – Right?  Well not quite.  It seems that the bright, shiny, new computer system was a little out of place.  Sooo… Let’s remodel the office!

It’s now February, we’ve got new computers and a completely redesigned office, so I’m ready to settle back to life as normal.  Hold on a minute!  Just then a friend and fellow contractor launched his new website – a WordPress site with all the cool stuff.  I immediately said: “I gotta get me one of those!”  After having built two sites on my own, I decided to hire a professional for this one.  With professional help, this can’t take too long – can it?

Well five months after starting on this venture, it is finally up and running!  Understand that the long start-up time was not the website guy’s fault.  In fact, Len (that’s Len Tuma at Geek Specialties) probably could have had the site done in a matter of weeks, (do the eyes, chin and mumble thing again) if someone would just get him the photos and content in a timely fashion.  Remember I do have a day job that has to pay for all this!  BTW, while you’re here, please take a few minutes to tour the new cyber digs and feel free to comment.  We still have some work to do but we feel the foundation is in place.

So here we are.  After a long silence and a completely remodeled remodeling company, I’m ready to merge back onto the posting highway and get reacquainted with some old friends again – if they’ll still have me.

I’ll get started by concluding the post I left many of you hanging with: A Prospective Customer Asks: “How Can Estimates Be So Different?”  The conclusion to this post can be found as a comment at “How Can Estimates Be So Different? (Slight Return)”.

I’ve also posted a new post “A Free Kick in the Shorts”, for those of you who need one.

As always,

Enjoy!