Mike Holmes new magazine

Mike Holmes has introduced a new magazine and I just picked up a copy of the first edition.  You can see the cover at http://www.holmesmagazine.com/.  It is quite good and has several interesting articles, including "Fresh Air in Your Home", "Geothermal Solutions" and a section for contractors.  Its' worth a look.

Hiring Contractors

There are a lot of great contractors out there but also lots of not so great ones. There is lot's to consider when hiring a contractor. The CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.) has a pretty good (although lengthy) article on this topic. You can find it here: http://www.cmhc.ca/en/co/renoho/refash/refash_009.cfm. Near the start of the article they list key things to look for when you hire a contractor. It is a long list but the good news is checkthetrades.com does many of these steps for you. Here's 5 key ones:
How long have you been in business?
What work are you, or your subcontractors, licensed to do, e.g., electrical, plumbing?
What kind of work do you specialize in?
Have you done a similar job before?
Do you carry workers’ compensation and liability insurance?

Many people just don't like to ask for this type of information or just don't have the time. References are also very important and they take even longer. That's were we come in, hence our slogan: We Check You Choose.

Habitat for Humanity / Restore

We have had the opportunity to get to know the folks at Habitat for Humanity / Restore in Barrie. They are an incredibly dedicated group and work really hard at supporting their cause at the Restore. If you have never been to a Restore you need to check one out, a great resource for all sorts of things.http://www.habitathuronia.com/restore.php. If you are starting a reno give them a call or ask your contractor to call them and they can pay you a visit and identify what can be recycled at the Restore, they can even arrange a pick up and you may be able to get a tax receipt.

Reducing Risk

I had a chat with a homeowner the other day who told me his story of frustration. He had hired a contractor to do some work on his home based on a recomendation from a colleague. The contractor came to his house, provided a quote and requested and was given a 25% deposit. Guess what, he never showed up the next day or the next or the next ...The homeowner realized he only had a cell number, that was never answered, and no address. He has never seen the contractor or his money since. Situations like this can be avoided. All checkthetrades members have to provide full contact information, business information and references to us. We are all about reducing risk for the consumer, the more information they have the lower the risk.

SNAP Magazine

SNAP Magazine is a neat local magazine that is in many communities. http://www.snapbarrie.com/. What makes it interesting is they cover lots of local events and activities and then distribute the paper free of charge. It's always fun to see yourself and your friends in the paper and SNAP makes this happen. Here's an excerpt from a featured article on checkthetrades that is in the October issue of the Barrie paper:

Everyone has a story; a story of a renovation project gone wrong, of a contractor who never came back to fix his problems, of a service business that would never return calls. Finding reputable, quality businesses is not always easy and finding the time to do the research to source these businesses can be difficult. It takes time to review a company’s qualifications, to find out what type of insurance they carry and to call and check references. That’s were checkthetrades.com comes in. They are an on-line directory of reputable businesses that is free for consumers to use. Every listed member has met the 10 Point Standards process, which includes a site visit, the verification of references, a review of qualifications and insurance coverage’s and the requirement to sign the company’s Code of Conduct. By signing the Code of Conduct a business is committing to always treat customers in a professional manner, to never misrepresent their products or services and to deal with any concerns promptly.

Using checkthetrades.com is simple and free. You don’t need to sign up or provide any information, just click the Find a Business button to get started. You will find a wide range of business categories. On each businesses web page you can find a full listing of business information and qualifications, photos and a Google location map. Check the Trades slogan is “we check you choose” and it is just that, they check out the businesses and you choose which ones to contact.

I just finished reading the book "Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads". It is a collection of writings by Roy Williams and it is excellent. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in brand development and advertising, both online and off. You can find more about Roy Williams and his "Wizard Academy" at: http://www.wizardofads.com/
Here's a few great concepts from him on writing great ads:
use powerful words
be specific
repetition is key
create echoic lines
cause the listener to imagine themselves taking the action you want

Video's

We are partnering with Andrew Sorlie and Sorlie Arts to offer a video service to our members. We started off with a video of our own, you can watch it from our blog. Andrew was great to work with and made the process very easy for us.

I firmly believe that the good websites of the future will have lots of video on them. You can't beat the spoken word for communicating ideas. We are going to add more video to our site and encourage our members to do the same.