www.greenmediaonline.com Green Media / August 2014 21
The vision
Envision a system that costs $10 to $30 per month, which:
• Offers a phone/tablet-based CRM system where each
contact with each customer can be recorded by each person
in your company.
• Offers you a tablet estimating tool, which incorporates
pictures and project itemization that easily prepares estimates
on the spot during a prospect site visit where you can e-mail
your customer a professionally produced estimate on the spot,
incorporating photos (a portable printer in your truck solves
anyone's need for paper).
• Provides up-to-the-minute, real-time reports of outstand-
ing estimates.
• Provides tools for e-mailing prospects confi rmations of
appointments, follow-ups, and even post job before-and-after
photos for their records with your invoice.
• Plots your pending estimates and pending jobs on maps
to improve the scheduling and ease of site visits.
An example of perfect execution
Many contracting support fi rms are commissioning app de-
velopers to create custom apps to make the vision above a reality.
The customization simply implants arithmetic tools and fi elds
where the service experts provide in the app design a capabil-
ity for the app to calculate price by dimension of a job. For
example, an installer identifi es the parts and work required for
replacement, and takes a picture with his/her tablet. Each con-
tractor has preloaded his/her individual pricing, determined by
market and circumstance. The app produces the estimate for
e-mail/mail to the customer and populates all the supporting
systems for record keeping and continuous contact with the
prospect. A click of a button gives a contractor a map spot-
ting all pending estimates and jobs. An ideal execution of this
program is HMI (www.concreteraisingsystems.com), a concrete lift-
ing and leveling contractor that commissioned Logical Engine
(www.EstimateRocket.com), a business app software developer, to
create a system to maximize the effi ciency of their customers. A
tour of that system, and the potential, can be viewed at http://
www.mudpumps.com/information-center/estimate-rocket/.
It's all about money and growth
Some years ago, I began a consulting assignment with a
small concrete contractor by asking him about his estimat-
ing process. He told me: 1) It would take six years to train an
estimator; and 2) He could not trust anyone else to do the
estimates. I told him I was leaving because, if that were true,
he is destined to be the same size company forever. That
company is now deploying technology in estimating, has
a full-time estimator doing 20 estimates a day, is four times
larger, and that entrepreneur plays golf on the weekends
instead of running around giving estimates.
If you are happy spending hundreds of dollars per estimate,
and limiting your growth, that is okay, and is one of the great
values of being an entrepreneur — doing it your way. But what
will your competition be doing next week, and what will your
customers think? ■
Paul DelFino is a principal of the consulting fi rm Opportunity Inc. For
nearly tow decades, he has assisted entrepreneurs in growing their businesses,
responding to economic downturns and merger and acquisition activity. His
publications include, "Skewed Entrepreneurial Strategies," available from all
online booksellers. To learn more, visit www.opportunity-inc.com.
Screen shots provided by Estimate Rocket and HMI
