Restoration Rewind

Delta Development Group Monthly Newsletter

June 2015

In the works… DMS Training and Implementation. This is an ongoing project for Ragan as she is constantly working to stay on top of any changes and problems. We are diligently working in the Denver office to tweak the inner workings of DMS to best satisfy the needs of a Delta Disaster Services operation. This includes different tasks and notifications. As well as job progression and KPI monitoring. As we establish best practices we will always share them with you. Recently we attempted the QuickBooks/DMS sync on the cost side. Unfortunately, bugs were discovered and we had to take a couple of steps back. We should be ready to test again in about a week, and we hope to see better results.

The new Xactimate contract is complete. Refunds are in process and everyone should be seeing them very soon. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or problems.

Ragan and Dixie continue previewing additional possible modules with FranConnect. We are looking for new and different ways to keep our network connected as well as facilitate an effective flow of information.

Our new Marketing program is in process. We are currently mailing to California in anticipation of the PCBC trade show in San Diego at the end of June. We will also be starting a mailing campaign to Texas around the Sunbelt Builders Tradeshow in Dallas in July.

All new website changes are complete for delta-us.com. This also ties in with our new marketing campaign and messaging. If you’re interested, jump to the website and join the email campaign. You will be included on all of the Delta Development Group we are sending out.

Mike visited Delta Disaster Services of Southern Colorado this month to lend some expertise to Emmis for his large church flood. This loss came from all of the recent rain storms we have seen across most of Colorado.

Some On-going stuff that is always seeing constant work; Franchisee websites are always a hot topic, SEO is a top priority for many right now. Please get with Charles and ask him what has been done to your site (if anything) and what can be done on your part to help with your SEO and keep your ratings fresh.

Wednesday Webinars! We are continually thinking of topics that we can bring to you. If anyone has any ideas of subjects they would like to cover please let us know. Also, we are always interested in your town hall discussion points. Please do not hesitate to submit these to Ragan as they come to your mind. We know sometimes when the question is asked, you don’t always remember the thing you thought of last week. Send them over to her as you think of them and we will make sure they get addressed at the next quarterly meeting.

New Players to the Game At the annual convention in March we brought in our friends from Interlink to talk a little bit about their merger with Aramsco. By joining with Aramsco, it makes Interlink able to service us even more. We are working with them on pricing for consumable items like tape, Tyvek suits, trash bags etc. We are hoping in the next year they can possibly become our exclusive vendor for everything surrounding field equipment and supplies. You can read a little bit more about Aramsco below.

Our new Product and Material Supplier

With locations in the territorial U.S. and Puerto Rico, Aramsco is one of the nation’s largest suppliers of goods and services to contractors and other organizations in markets such as environmental safety, disaster response, surface preparation and restoration. We provide our customers with valuable product expertise, education, quality products, exceptional customer service, and fast, reliable delivery nationwide at competitive prices.

Our History

Aramsco, Inc., was founded as a regional supplier of industrial safety products in the 1960’s. For almost 50 years, the company evolved into a highly specialized distributor of safety products serving a diverse customer base. In February 2007, the company was merged with Bullseye Environmental, another leading environmental safety supplier, and Safeguard Industrial was formed.

Early in 2013, Aramsco was acquired by AEA Investors, through its Small Business Fund II. This partnership with AEA allowed Aramsco to further build its business organically and through acquisitions; the first of which was Crown Cleaning Supplies and Equipment, headquartered in Orlando, Florida. In August of 2014, Aramsco formed another partnership, this time with Bridgewater Companies (aka Interlink Supply and Aztec Financial). Aramsco continues to look for ways to provide new opportunities to their partners and employees, and additional solutions and services to their customers.

Delivery Promise

No matter the where or the when, reliable delivery is a must. We deliver our products with a fleet of our own trucks, locally-based drivers, and third-party delivery companies. We work around our customer’s schedule to meet the most stringent of deadlines. We do this by offering:

• Next-day delivery on 1,000’s of products • Onsite pickup at any of our nationwide branches • Jobsite Delivery.

Please contact DDG or John Geyer at Interlink Supply of Denver if you have any questions or if you would like to work on ordering etc.

Rain, Floods and Jesus…Oh My!

This job is big and insane. During the recent rain storms and flooding across most of Colorado, Delta Disaster Services of Southern Colorado picked up a huge loss at a local church. This just isn’t any church, this building spans about 3 blocks with multiple buildings, all with multiple levels.

This is the office’s second loss they have handled for the church. The first loss was referred from a former customer, Matt Baylor. They had done a tiny mitigation job for Mr. Baylor, at his home, in 2013. They wrote multiple reconstruction estimates for Mr. Baylor but he ended up doing all the reconstruction himself. However, since they were so nice he referred them to his church when they had a $10,000 water loss in May of 2014. Now fast forward to last month. The church suffered another loss and immediately called Delta to come to their rescue. This loss is approximately 25,000 sq. ft. of affected area and Emmis’s crews are still working on site every single day to get the church back up and running.

Owner, Emmis Chellman, is also working very closely with Mike Mastous to correctly write and package his estimate.

Please remember that Mike is a great resource for reviewing your estimates on large complicated jobs, or even the small ones. He can always find something to add in so that you are not leaving money on the table. Don’t hesitate to contact him if you have any questions or just need a second pair of eyes.

Marketing News Delta Development Group is rolling out our redesigned marketing campaign to attract new franchisees. Ragan has been assisting in target direct mail marketing to over 3,000 Southern California contractors as well as over 3,000 contractors in central and northern Texas. Our postcard campaigns run in a series of 4, full-color postcards and a letter. We send out two postcards and then a letter written directly from a current franchisee and then two more postcards. The contractors on our lists are targeted mostly because of tradeshows that we are attending this summer. We want to invite as many as we can, if they are attending the shows, to stop by and chat with us about the Delta Disaster Services franchise opportunity.

In preparation for the two tradeshows, we have redesigned our tradeshow booth to highlight our new message, “Build Your Future, Diversify Your Present”. We hope the new look will attract many of the contractors to our booth at the shows. We will keep you informed of any prospects that are nearing the point of validation by our existing franchises. If you are interested in knowing more or know someone who is, go to our website at www.delta-us.com and join our email list. From there you will be added to our email campaign and, on a regular basis, receive some great information about owning and operating a Delta Disaster Services franchise.

Also, a huge thank you to those franchises that have lent their support with the imagery, quotations and helping us better define the prospects we are looking for. Let's bring them on!

Industry News

In June, Delta Development Group will be represented at the annual Crawford Contractor Connection Convention in Orlando Florida. Two of our offices, Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado and Delta Disaster Services of Southern Colorado, will also be representing our network by attending the industry classes offered before the convention as well as the convention itself.

Delta Development Group is also a cosponsor of this annual event, participating as a Gold sponsor this year. Our name and logo will be noted throughout the convention as well as an ad that will be placed in the annual convention magazine. The magazine is seen by thousands of people who attend the convention to include all the leaders of insurance companies and vendor programs within these organizations.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado. Through ongoing persistence with the vendor manager at USAA they are the first office, other than Denver, to get activated on this program. They have already received their first loss for mitigation as well as construction and are well underway to capture more and more of the market share by providing excellent customer service to USAA's membership in Northern Colorado. Well done!

The Cost of Being an Entrepreneur and

the Key Attribute That Determines

Success: Grit

While most people think that successful entrepreneurs must be willing to grind it out, both Brian Levenson and Angela Lee Duckworth's studies have shown that grit (not grind) is what makes the difference.

BY BILL CARMODY

Norm Brodsky, a coach and member of the New York chapter of the Inc. Business Owners

council, is fond of saying, "As an entrepreneur, you'd better be successful because you're

unemployable otherwise." And while he says this in a loving, nurturing sort of way, he reminds

every CEO in the room there is a substantial cost of being an entrepreneur.

Once you've gone out on your own, it's hard to work for someone else.

Anyone can have the "entrepreneurial spirit", but there is a seismic shift once you decide to put it all on the line. The moment you walk away from a solid job in a larger company to start something new and unproven, it's really difficult to go back. This is why Norm Brodsky refers to entrepreneurs as unemployable: Once you work for yourself, and become accustomed to calling the shots and making things happen in a way that is

unique to your perspective and life experience, working for someone else becomes challenging.

Trading your evenings and weekends in the pursuit of something great.

The most obvious cost of being an entrepreneur is time. While everyone working in the corporate world today is all but expected to work more than 40 hours a week, for an entrepreneur there is an internal drive that is like no other. If you've started your own company

or joined a startup, it's usually because you see the world from a different perspective and are driven by an innate sense of purpose. That passion often comes at the expense of leisure and downtime.

Burnout and exhaustion are very real risks to the business.

Especially at the early stages of a startup company, when the founders are expected to be the "chief cook and bottle washers", the desire to not drop balls pushes you to new levels of workaholism. As the head of sales, strategy, operations, finance, production, administration, technology and everything else, you are expected to seamlessly flow between diverse roles and responsibilities -- it's a tall order regardless of how many hats you've worn previously.

Survival is unacceptable.

Just getting by is not why you left a comfortable career track, so mere survival is frowned upon. The objective for the entrepreneur is to thrive; to demonstrate a new way of doing things which, when successful, is clearly the way we should have been doing it all along. When purpose is realized and demonstrated, the company scales to the level the entrepreneur had envisioned (and beyond).

Grit is the key attribute that determines success.

With all this in mind, what determines a successful entrepreneur from one of the many businesses that fail? According to Brian Levenson, CEO and founder of Core Mental Training, it's more important to have "grit" than "grind". He was moved by Angela Lee Duckworth's now famous Ted Talk, The key to success? Grit, in which she states "Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future... for years." While most people think that successful entrepreneurs must be willing to grind it out, both Levenson and Duckworth's studies have shown that grit (not grind) is what makes the difference. Specifically, your ability to persevere over the long-run and thrive despite all kinds of unplanned events.

1. Using a problem to bounce forward (not back). Grinding it out is about perseverance over

challenges. Grit is about learning from challenges and becoming better because of them. This

is the key difference between surviving and thriving. Survival is about overcoming challenges

by "bouncing back". Thriving is about "bouncing forward" by learning from difficult situations

and becoming stronger from these challenges.

2. Celebrating the small wins. Anyone can celebrate the big wins, but grit is about appreciating

the smaller steps that lead you to success. This is the difference between the mindset of a

marathon and a sprint. Without celebrating the small wins, it's difficult to keep going, so take

the opportunity to appreciate the small accomplishments so that you have the energy and

positive attitude to thrive.

3. Maintaining a healthy attitude toward misses. When something goes wrong, do you laugh or

beat yourself up? The natural tendency is to become hypercritical of the mistake and

overanalyze all the things you could have done differently. People with grit, however, take the

opportunity to laugh, focus on immediate recovery, and move on. No one is perfect. It's the

attitude that determines your outcomes. If you focus on the mistake, it can be debilitating. If,

however, you focus on the recovery, you will reinforce your grit and ability to thrive.

Given the same events, there are wholly different attitudes and perspectives that determine your outcomes. Grit is about having the right perspective, the right attitude, and celebrating the small wins. While the cost of being an entrepreneur may be high, that sense of purpose combined with a healthy dose of grit will ensure your long-term success.

CASH IN THE DOOR! Based on April Royalties…

Southern Utah comes in on top this month with over $300,000 in JUST mitigation! Congratulations to owner Mac Urie and the rest of the crew. The majority of these monies came from one large motel flood that created many late nights for Southern Utah!

Your Financial Toolbox QuickBooks Reports! If you are not using the reports available to you, you are missing out. Last month we talked about P&L’s and the importance of studying individual P&L’s on each closed job. Three more reports that are vital to understanding your business are: Open Estimates, Open Sales Orders and Open Invoices.

Every new customer should have an open estimate set up at the time a job is created. You will want an open estimate for both mitigation and construction. If the total amount of the estimate is unknown, simply enter $1.00. When you run an Open Estimate report from QuickBooks, it will give you a list of all the jobs needing to be billed, invoiced and/or collected. It is a great communication tool between the office/accounting and the estimating.

Once you have the total dollar amount of the loss and a signed work agreement, create a Sales Order from the existing estimate. The Open Sales Order Report now gives you a list of all jobs in process. Review this constantly for jobs that can be billed and closed out.

When all work is completed, create an invoice from the Sales Order. Run an Open Invoices list. These are the jobs to be chasing in collections to get the cash in. Make sure your sales order is closed and the job is off the work in process report.

You now have three very valuable reports for running your business, monitoring your cash flow and making sure you have the financial information you need!

Please call or email Dixie Feld if you would like any additional information.

And we will leave you with this…

“When you fear your struggles, your struggles

consume you. When you face your struggles, you

overcome them”.