Our word is our bond. The lesson on integrity started when we were children. Navigating the world and confronting or avoiding consequences. We understood from these childhood lessons the importance of maintaining and protecting our integrity. So much of our work is based in trust. Trust that we have the skills we say we do, or can be trusted to complete a project successfully and meet our clients renovation goals. Trust that a renovation project will involve the right people and stay on track. Trust that we can handle the surprises and have the difficult conversations when they are needed. We believe our reputation of integrity, is a significant reason why our former clients refer us to their friends and family. We understand that our client is putting their reputation at risk when suggesting us for another renovation project. The last thing that we want is for a referral project to not be executed well. We have honest discussions when deciding on the overall scope of a project, we provide our honest opinion on budgets and timelines. This occasionally losing us work because someone else has a better timeline or budget proposal, or says they can do more for less. While this sometimes can be true, we believe our approach sets everyone up for the greatest chance of success because we have managed expectations from the outset.

AI image generator is a strange tool... These two concepts are easy to elaborate on together. Almost all renovation projects are multi faceted. We are often working with dozens of individuals to complete a renovation. We take a respectful team approach to our projects. Every individual has a role to play, and those contributions are important and valued. We have spent a significant time curating our team of professional tradespeople to ensure that this attitude of respect and teamwork is shared by everyone that works with us. Renovations often have multiple people working in the same space at the same time. Ensuring everyone works well together is essential for a successful project. We also focus on making our job sites enjoyable places to work. We believe we get more engagement and commitment from our trade partners if they truly enjoy coming to work with us. We get feedback from our collaborators that they look forward to working on our sites and as a result will often prioritize our project timelines over other potential schedule conflicts. By creating enjoyable spaces where collaboration is welcomed and individuals are respected, we can deliver better results for our clients. This approach encourages buy-in from all of the stakeholders and minimizes conflicts and delays. We all spend many hours of our days working and we are intent to enjoy as much of our time at work as possible!

Digging into the what, the why, and the how Renovating a home is a significant undertaking that requires skill, knowledge, and dedication. Hiring a renovation contractor is one of the largest decisions homeowners make. A renovation project can often be one of the biggest expenses that clients take on. While we work on projects ranging from hundreds of dollars well into the hundreds of thousands, our principles remain the same. In this post, we will explore the key principles that form the foundation of our renovation business. The Whats if you will, each of these will get an individual post to reveal more about the whys and hows. 1. We believe that Value needs to be at the root of every decision While this list is not exactly ranked, Value is our core focus. It is important to distinguish value from price. We never try to be the cheapest option, we think a race to the bottom comes at significant other, often hidden, costs. Our fundamental focus is on providing the best value for our clients. 2. We believe that Integrity is the foundation of trust The Client-Contractor relationship is a complex one, it thrives when it has a strong foundation of trust and our integrity is paramount. Our integrity drives every decision we make, and goes hand in hand with our focus on value. We believe if our integrity gets questioned the relationship will fall apart, its foundation would be broken. We are nothing without our integrity and it is a core principle for this reason. 3. We believe in the importance of Client Satisfaction We are dedicated to client satisfaction. By understanding the needs and preferences of clients, addressing their concerns, and going the extra mile to exceed expectations, our business has cultivated long-lasting relationships and earns repeat business and referrals. We have relied on this principle to drive our development and client referrals that have sustained us since 2008. 4. We believe that renovations are a team sport We cannot overstate the benefits of having a great team. Creating and maintaining a team of professionals that work well together has been the key to our success in completing projects and delivering on our commitment to value. Everyone we work with is treated with respect and we acknowledge everyone contributes to our mutual success. An extraordinary amount of time and focus has been spent on curating the team that we have. 5. We believe that work needs to be fun We recognize that everyone we work with has made the choice to work with us. Whether that means the client that hired us or the tradespeople that we hire for our projects. Everyone has made the choice to come together on this specific project. We also understand that there are always other options out there. One of our principles is to keep a fun and light energy on our projects. Renovating can be stressful, dirty, dusty, and difficult. We see the benefits in always maintaining a fun environment, we create a space that people enjoy coming to, and are happy working in. This builds on the concept that renovations are a team sport. By adhering to these core principles, we believe we have established ourselves as a reputable and reliable contractor in the competitive industry of home renovations. We understand that there are many choices that our potential clients face and we strive to provide our best in every aspect and reduce the stress of renovations.

How researching what Brand Strategy is, upended my week Turns out we already had a strategy too! Albeit far less defined and refined than our brand identity. This is effectively how we want to be viewed by our potential clients. What are our core beliefs? Why are they important? How do we articulate them? and how our actions reflect our beliefs to our clients? The buzzwords are easy to come up with: Quality Honest Fair Experienced Focused I think every contractor would say the same things. The hard part comes next... how do we position ourselves to be different. The What, The Why, and The How In this marketing meeting with Heather, she put it to me this way: Brand Strategy is the what, the why, and the how. What are our beliefs, why are they important, and how are they achieved through the actions of our company. This set off a wave of introspection to determine what is important to us as a company and brand, but more importantly why and how are we manifesting these principles in our actions. Would our clients believe our principles based on our actions? The sobering truth to this is, at this point, we can only really hope so. We have not put enough thought and effort into what makes us unique, or a compelling choice to hire as a renovation contractor. We have relied on former clients and professional relationships to continue to drive business our way, without taking the time to think about the what, why and how of it all. We will endeavour to tackle our core principles in future posts, in the hopes that it may inform potential clients, and provide a clear expectation of what one can expect when working with us. A longer form format, for those interested in learning more than what we can quickly say in an introductory meeting. And now begins the real work.

Turns out, I already had a brand identity I just didn't know that's what it was called Late in 2019 I had decided that I would hire someone to improve my website, and refresh my logo. The previous logo was done by a friend of my partner and while it was great, I felt that it needed to mature. My website was a DIY job that made me realize I should stick to renovations. I made a few phone calls and met with a few great teams to discuss my vision. Ultimately, I decided on a company that was basically brand new, but started by someone with a ton of experience. I love working with owner/operators! Something you will see is an Important principle, but that is for another post! I had accidentally hired an award winning brand strategist, for my humble redesign! Nathan, founder of twentytwo&brand, took on my small project and treated me like I was his most important client. Over the next few weeks we refined the website and logo, and my brand identity was born. So I had an answer for "What is your brand identity?" From a simple start in 2008 to a professional overhaul in 2019, this is the foundation of our Marketing Journey, Thanks to Twentytwo&brand we have a great starting point!

I had a meeting a little over a week ago. We are bringing a permanent soffit light product offering to our company, as part of this new partnership Watts Lights offered a preliminary meeting to discuss the process of getting listed on their website as a certified installer. I figured this would be a quick and easy meeting, give my contact details and move on. The meeting started as expected, polite introductions, confirmation of our basic details, and then it took a turn I wasn't entirely prepared for. The person I was meeting with was Watts Lights' Marketing Director, she wanted to understand how we market ourselves. "What is your brand strategy?" "What is your brand identity?" These are questions that I hadn't encountered before. I am confident in my skills and abilities as a renovation contractor, but am lacking when it comes to marketing and business development. A difficult realization from someone who has been self employed for almost their entire adult life. I have always relied on the quality of my work and successful projects to lead me to the next one and the one after that. This has worked for me to this point and I expect would continue to work well enough. However, these questions have sat in the back of my mind since that meeting. Before I could tackle what is MY brand Identity and strategy, I needed to learn what IS a brand identity and strategy. Through learning about these concepts I started to write down what is important to us as a company and how we can communicate our values outside of in home estimates, and progress meetings with clients. This Blog is the manifestation of tackling these concepts... and I was also told in our meeting that search engine optimization likes blog posts. So win-win! I will endeavour to communicate in a longer form what our family owned small local business is all about. I hope that some of what comes next is helpful to my former, current, and future clients!

Why Value is at the core of everything What do we mean by value? Value is finding the balance between the quality and benefits derived relative to the costs. When we first started All Urban Renovations we set out to create the best value for our clients. This has been a steadfast focus from the very beginning. The approach to focus on value affects every aspect of a renovation project. From defining the scope of work, to choosing a designer, selecting fixtures and finishes, and assembling a team of tradespeople to carry out the work. Value is considered at each phase of our projects. As an example, we seldom choose the cheapest fixtures, finishes or tradespeople and instead focus on the anticipated life cycle of the products and services and make our recommendations based on the cost, quality, and longevity. We ensure we work with like minded individuals that have a similar commitment to a complete and long term view of our work. We seek to understand the clients goals and desired outcomes when discussing renovation plans. This understanding then informs our approach and path forward. We take a broad overview of the project and begin to build out our strategy to deliver value. We strive for our projects to deliver great long term satisfaction and exceptional quality. Long after the project costs have been forgotten our work remains, the value is what we hope to be remembered for. We work with clients to help them make informed choices, and we rely on our experience and the experience of our team to deliver the best possible outcome for their money.