Remodelers Who Should (and Should Not) Take on Big Projects
Job Title: President and Founder
Larger projects carry significant advantages as well as big downsides. If you’re considering bigger jobs, here’s what you should know.
I founded Craft Design + Build in 2021 and for the first couple of years we took on both large and small projects. Today our average job size is $460,000, and we’re projecting $5 million in revenue for 2025. Larger projects carry significant advantages as well as big downsides. If you’re considering bigger jobs, here’s what you should know.
What is a “Large Project”?
Although there are different ways to define “large,” we use scope of work as the deciding factor. We've done a few jobs this past year where the total dollar volume is high, but the actual build is a laundry list of smaller things. To me that equals a group of more minor projects that add up to a bigger ticket.
Pros and Cons of Bigger Remodeling Jobs
I prefer larger projects. I’d rather have our $5 million revenue goal come in eight to ten larger jobs than 55 smaller ones. Managing fewer builds is easier for operations, customer service, and overall efficiency. It also reduces overhead.
But there’s a lot more risk.
Margins tend to be lower on bigger jobs, and they leave the company more vulnerable. We convert about 80% of clients from design into build, and we have projects at the design stage right now that range from $250,000 all the way up to $1.8 million. It makes forecasting difficult because each of those clients represent a much larger percentage of overall revenue than happens with smaller projects.
Conversely, if your average project size is $200,000 you can forecast business based on past data fairly accurately. You can say, “Hey, we have 10 projects at $200K, and we know that two or three will drop out. So, we'll probably end up with $1.7 million.”
That scenario becomes trickier when it's eight projects made up of four at $300,000, two at $800,000, and two at $1.6 million.
How Does JobTread Help With Large Projects?
It’s super important to know your numbers before accepting any big projects, and JobTread is a great tool for that. Go through your project costing and look for patterns. Are there trends? You might notice that when you do full bathrooms your margins are better than they are for decks. Or any project larger than a certain amount of work always goes over budget. The data we have in JobTread has really helped us.
How Do You Get Large Projects?
We’ve used a number of methods to successfully win bigger jobs over the past few years.
- Branding: We are very intentional about creating the right brand image, and never put anything into the market unless it’s polished and professional. We hire photographers for all of our projects, and use providers, like JobTread, who we know will showcase our brand in the right light.
- Connections in the Community: Our alliances with realtors have worked well for us. We bring coffee and donuts to different brokerages along with a leave-behind that showcases our projects and discusses what it’s like to work with Craft. Our aim is to build trust. Realtors are often looking for someone to refer clients to, and we want to be their top choice. Over the past few years, 25% of our business has come through realtors that believe in us.
- Don’t Accept the Wrong Jobs: If someone wants to hire us for a project that doesn’t align with our company goals, I refer them to another remodeler. The homeowner is usually appreciative, as well as the referring company. We’ve discovered that if you accept the wrong projects it turns into a cycle where you keep getting referrals for work that you don't really want.
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