Client Story · Log home restoration

How a Log Home Restorer Got the Business Out of His Head

Twenty-five years of trade skill, and one person carrying everything else. One season of back-office work put the books, the website, the insurance and the next hire on paper.

A log home in Pemberton Meadows, BC, freshly stained and chinked under a wraparound porch, with mountains behind

A log home restoration company in the Sea to Sky came to us at the end of summer. The owner has been in the trade for more than 25 years. He sands, stains, chinks and rebuilds log homes from Squamish to Pemberton, and the same clients call him back year after year.

The work was never the problem. Everything around the work lived with him: the books, the quotes, the hiring, the insurance, the website. He had started to think about stepping back one day. There was nothing written down to step back from.

What we found when we looked

  1. The website was selling the wrong business. It listed six services. He does three. Its enquiry form sent every new lead to someone who no longer worked with the company.
  2. The insurance was about to cover work he does not do. The application assumed media blasting and chemical stripping. His equipment list had no compressor and no blast pot. That one line was pushing the premium up for pollution cover he did not need.
  3. Only the owner could chink. Chinking is the service almost nobody else in the area still does properly. Nobody on the crew had learned it, so every chinking job waited on him.
  4. He had no books he could run himself. No job costing, no standard quote, no way to see which jobs made money once the season was over.

What we built in one season

  1. Books he runs himself. QuickBooks set up, the bank connected, and a working session so he can drive it without us.
  2. A job costing sheet. Every job’s quote, materials and labour next to what it actually brought in.
  3. Quote and invoice templates. One look, every time, with his GST number and terms already on them.
  4. A one-page website. His own job photos, the three services he really offers, and the mobile number he actually answers. No form to go astray.
  5. Insurance fixed before it was bought. We caught the media blasting assumption and corrected it with the brokers, so he is quoted for the work he does.
  6. A hiring system for his first crew lead. A job description, a ready-to-post ad with the pay range (BC’s pay transparency law requires it), five screening questions, a paid half-day trial and a posting calendar. A careers section is live on the new site.

What changed

He keeps his own books now. Homeowners who find him online see the right services and reach the right phone. The crew lead search opens in late January, when good people are still looking, instead of in May when they are all hired.

Next season starts with a plan instead of a scramble. And the business is starting to exist on paper, not only in his head.

What we would tell another trades owner

Read your insurance application line by line before you sign it. Somebody else probably filled in the services, and every wrong line costs you premium.

Then hire in February. In a resort town, everyone worth hiring for summer is booked by April. If you post in May, you pick from whoever is left.

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