How busy are you moving into the final quarter of 2022? 

I’ve spoken to hundreds of decorators in the groups that I both manage and involved with about their business growth. I run a few polls, asking how busy it is out there moving into 2023, I was surprised by how mixed the response was. Some decorators are busy for the next month or two, whilst others commented about being busy for almost all of next year.

But what is your gut feeling about next year? 

Do you think it’s going to stay busy or slow down? Have you already seen a slow down in enquiries and/or jobs being accepted? Does that make you nervous? What are you planning, what measures are you putting in place, and how do you think this will affect you? I know that we need to focus on an action plan of identifying the possible problems before they happen and then work on solutions. 

The Bank of England has not technically predicted a recession, however, it does expect a huge downturn towards the end of the year, with a contraction of almost 1 per cent between October and December.

For the following year, according to the Guardian, GDP is forecast to remain below 2022 levels throughout the whole of 2023, with growth expected to average at zero across the twelve months. Construction usually manages to avoid a recession but that usually only helps the more prominent players, rather than the smaller decorating businesses as we market to different clients.

Common sense should prevail. Even if everything turns out rosy, shouldn’t we at least be prepared for a POTENTIAL problem ahead, and do what we can to protect ourselves & our businesses over the coming 12-18 months? I feel so many decorators live in the short term and that the big picture sometimes alludes to them. They get their timings wrong when making good decisions for their business and family. Granted, I am trying to stir up a reaction here that might piss people off, maybe even upset or offend few, but maybe it might be enough to shake those hanging back into action, no matter how small. You are my fellow decorators, and I want as many of you guys & girls to be prepared for the “what If”!

  

I’m booked up for months so it won’t affect me.

I’ve often heard good decorators say that it’s all scaremongering and media manipulation, so stop worrying. Many Decorators feel nice and secure knowing they have months of work in front of them, with new enquiries coming in all the time. What a fantastic position to find yourself in. All the talk about an economic downturn ‘won’t affect me as I’m booked up for ages’. ‘I will sail through with no problems at all’. 

I genuinely hope you do, but personally, I will be planning for the off chance that I’m wrong. 

So, why don’t we have a look at a few things that might happen which would affect your current client base? 

• How secure are your client’s jobs?
• How will your clients’ finances be affected over the next few months?
• How is the building trade going to be affected overall? 
• And is decorating a luxury service or a necessity?

 

Security over Profits. 

Why do we as decorators, prefer to be busy for months on end rather than take fewer jobs that create more profitable? For years, I’ve been guilty of this attitude towards my own business think i was focusing on business growth, but I’ve paid the price like all of us. I loved the feeling of having jobs booked in for months, making me feel secure and less panicky. But, looking back, I now see that my relaxed, safe attitude made every job a good payer but not a great earner, definitely not a fantastically profitable job.

So why do we focus on booking work months ahead instead of focusing on how much we charge for the projects we have in front of ourselves. Why don’t we focus on making those jobs incredible profitable?

I’ve written another blog, filmed a video and recorded a podcast on this subject in detail, as it’s a common flaw in all of us and needs to be addressed.

Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity.

Let me ask you a simple question that I ask lots of decorators; “Which job will make the most profit?”

• A three-day job
• A three-week job
• A three-month job 

Most decorators say – “A 3-month job every day of the week”

That’s what I thought until I started breaking down each of my projects, recording the figures in both time & money. I was shocked at how much turnover we could make on the big jobs and how those huge numbers made me feel. It felt like life was good, and I was finally hitting the big time with the work I had coming in! Then the job finished, and I was even more shocked at how little money was left going into my account after everyone, and everything was paid for.

Something was wrong, very wrong! How can I not make big money on the big jobs? 

It’s because I was looking at the turnover and not the profit.

Let’s look at the three examples above:

A three day job

If you start a job on Monday, I guarantee you will finish it by Wednesday night, even if it’s a late on. You will get it handed over and get paid.

A three week job

Now, this has a higher price and plenty of time to get the job done. The first week goes well, and it’s running nicely. The second week is on track, and we’re doing ok. The third week is full of bloody long days and a fight to get it over the line on time.

A three month job

This job has a ton of time in it. If the first few weeks don’t go quite right, it’s ok because we will pick it up over the coming months, so it’s not a problem. But then the weeks drag on, and so does the job. But because you have three months, both you and the team feel like it’s all going ok, and there is no panic. 

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks, now you’re running out of time and money, and you’ve even had to work the last few weekends plus late nights. You lost so much time at the start of the job, and now you’re playing catch up.

The profits get eaten into on the bigger jobs, and unless you have a rigorous working practice and a client that works with you, it’s hard to stay on track. I found that the bigger jobs always hurt me more in both the wallet and my well-being. That’s when I changed my focus to time & profits.

 

When prices go down, profits go up. 

That’s just crazy, I hear you say, particlly when considering business growth. How can profits go up when prices go down? They have to; otherwise, your business will die. If you don’t start finding ways to increase your profits with all these price increases, you won’t survive. Prices are going up weekly on everything across the country, and it is affecting every customer and business alike. It’s not going to slow down or stop for the foreseeable future.

So what are you planning to do to protect yourself, your family and your business? 

This takes me back to my first question, what measures are you going to focus on, and who else is around to help you protect your business? We are working really hard on every aspect of our business to reduce costs and increase profits because PROFIT is the lifeblood of every business, and is where all the attention should be focused. So, consider

• How can we change the way we work?
• Can we change the way we charge?
• Is there a better way we get paid?
• Are we able to find better materials and suppliers?
• Can we negotiate better terms for paying suppliers?
• How do we outsource parts of our business we are rubbish at?
• What can we do to gather back the much-needed time?
• How do we raise productivity in every aspect of the job we do?
• How do we make our business the most efficient it could be?

 

Conclusion. 

Let’s make 2023 “The Year of Profit.”

Our sole focus needs to be on business growth, and making next year our most profitable year ever, not in the value of turnover but in the percentage of profit obtained by making clever changes and better decisions.

We are working on a plan to squeeze every penny of profit from every aspect of our business to ensure the rising costs don’t strangle us. We will make every job the most efficient while using our time and materials wisely.

We will look at our costings and rates, making adjustments to raise the profits where possible. We will double our efforts on attracting better customers and work harder to increase our conversion rate, adjusting our prices whilst watching the market for signals to ensure we always get the best rates possible.

If you want to work with us on ‘”The Profit Project”, then let us know, and we can put our collective minds & passion together to make a start.

The Decorators Growth Club Pro Members, is where all the action will be taking place. Get involved and let’s get busy.

If you would like to know more about growing your business, the best thing I could advise is to join the Pro Members group of The Decorators Growth Club for just £25 per month. I’ll be walking you through how to set up everything that I discuss in this blog, plus a lot more on social media in 2022 and beyond.