Shawn McCadden Presents Two Seminars at Riverhead Building Supply Tradeshow

  

  

 delicious  

  

At this event Shawn presented seminars to help builders and remodelers deal with the realities of a tough and changing marketplace and to make them aware of the EPA RRP Rule.  See below for descriptions of the two topics Shawn presented.

 Click here to request one or more of the seminar handouts

Gael Harden and Shawn	Lesa Dresher of NARI-NY

Wow!  Great event!  Riverhead Building Supply did a first class job with this trade show for builders and remodelers.  The venue was beautiful and the show floor was well set up.  Even with the live demos underway on the show floor, attendees and exhibitors were able to easily interact without the typical noise challenges common at most shows.  Special thanks to Gael Harden, Marketing Manager for Riverhead.  Talk about organized and helpful... Gael organized the show and was great to work with.  All of the Riverhead employees that I interacted with were also very professional and eager to make sure my sessions went well for me as well as the attendees.  Riverhead expressed their interest in having me back to present other topics in the near future to help their customers with more business related education.  Other vendors should look to Riverhead as a good example of how serving and keeping contractors as customers goes far beyond just the building materials they offer.

In the "Show Me The Money" seminar, attendees really liked the solutions I offered to help them better manage cash flow for their businesses.   Several commented that, despite the tough economic times, they felt better prepared to weather financial realties as a result of what they learned.  Others were convinced they needed to switch from cash to accrual based accounting so they would have better visibility of their cash flow position and as a result would know in advance what options they could consider if they were challenged to meet monthly vendor bills.

In the EPA RRP Awareness seminar, again, most of the attendees knew little or nothing about the new realities that will affect their businesses come April 22nd.  My demonstration of wearing and removing the white coveralls while I was explaining the required work practices and cleaning procedures really made a hit.  The crowd wanted to know who it was that was responsible for the new rule and the shortsighted regulations.  When I told them Congress was responsible, many attendees called out for replacing incumbents at the mid-term elections.  They were also furious at the EPA for its lack of promoting awareness about the new rule.  Only three attendees had already submitted their Firm Certification application and not one attendee's firm would be certified in time to do the work covered under the rule before the April 22nd deadline.

The Long Island NARI Chapter was also represented at the show.  Lesa Dresher, Executive Director for the chapter told me the chapter was trying to pull together a bus load of remodelers to go to Washington DC on April 13th to protest the new RRP rule and seek changes.  For more information about this effort you can e-mail the chapter at info@nari-ny.org

Seminar Descriptions:

Seminar #1:

Show Me Where The Money Went!

Is your checkbook balance often lower than you expected? 

Nine of every ten high quality remodeling businesses with raving fans for clients fail within the first five years. The number one reason contracting businesses fail is due to a lack of available money when they needed it, even if they are operating profitably.  So what do those who want to succeed need to know?  Come to this session and understand why (even though you earned a profit), there may be no money in the bank. These money tips will help you better manage money and help you succeed in the future.

Learning objectives: By completing this class attendees learned how to:

• Know the difference between cash and accrual accounting and which one to use for your business.
• Understand and use a variety of options for better managing cash flow
• Write payment schedules to improve collections and avoid being under billed with your clients.

Seminar #2:

An Introduction to the New EPA RRP Lead Rules Program Description:    

The New EPA RRP LEAD Rules will be a game changer for most businesses that perform work that disturbs paint. This session is a quick introduction for those who know little or nothing about the new rules. Find out if the work your business does and how you do that work will be affected. Contractors and trades doing this work must get their employees and their businesses ready to operate under these new rules or risk fines of up to $37,500 per individual violation. Claiming or pretending to be ignorant of these new rules won't be an option. Attend this informative session so you won't be caught by surprise by what you need to know.  Shawn will be allowing plenty of time for Q&A.

 (The new rules go into effect on April 22, 2010)