Restoration Rewind

Delta Development Group Monthly Newsletter

May 2015

DDG – Getting Things Done

• DDG Insurance renewals are all complete. • Taxes are done! • FDD changes have been made for California. SBA review is complete and was

approved with one very small change. • DMS training: Ragan was in the Southern Utah and the Northern Colorado office

this month for training. • New Xactimate Contracting is complete. Everything should be in place and you

will be receiving refunds directly from Xactware. Remember, you will also begin paying DDG in the future.

• Ragan and Dixie previewing additional possible modules with FranConnect (Providers of our Intranet and new franchise tracking)

• New marketing program is very close to being done. New printed materials and e-brochure are done. Ragan and Steve are working on uploads and availability of the new videos.

• Steve will be attending two builder/remodeler trade shows, June in San Diego and July in Dallas. We plan to do extensive mailings around the trade shows and have been finalizing how the mailings will go out. All web site changes are complete.

• Mike visited SE Pennsylvania and Western Colorado this month. • New Flood CE Class is coming very soon as well as class approvals in different

states.

We are always working with our offices and behind the scenes to make our franchise network stronger and flow smoothly. Please let us know if you hear of new items in your market or in the industry that we can look into and assist with.

Rising insurance losses from severe thunderstorms likely to

continue

Robert Swanson carts out some of his belongings through a tornado-damaged mobile home park in Sand Springs, Okla., Thursday, March 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

According to a recent Swiss Re sigma report, the increasing losses from severe thunderstorms—which include hail, heavy rains and flash flooding, tornadoes, thunder and lightning—are a growing challenge for society and insurers alike. The localized nature of the storms means they can cause considerable damage to crops, and also to properties and vehicles when they hit densely populated areas.

Severe thunderstorms occur in many countries around the world, and the United States is no exception. The damage left in the wake of a severe thunderstorm can be extreme, and the impact and costs of such storms have been rising over the last 25 years.

The U.S. has more tornadoes than any other country in the world, which is due to its geography. Cold dry air from Canada and the Rocky Mountains, hot dry air from the desert southwest and warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico all come together in the central U.S. In the spring, these air masses collide with the winds in the lower atmosphere coming from different directions at different speeds, causing thunderstorms to rotate. These rotating storms—supercells—are the source of the strongest tornadoes and largest hailstones. Up to 60 people die in U.S. tornadoes each year and 1,500 are injured.

$8B losses annually from severe thunderstorms

Between 1990 and 2014, insured losses from severe thunderstorms in the U.S. averaged $8 billion annually. Since 2008, those insured losses have exceeded $10 billion every year, including in 2014 which was the quietest year for tornado activity since the early 1990s.

According to the report, 2011 was the record year in the U.S in terms of insured ($28 billion) and total losses ($39 billion)

from severe thunderstorms. Most of the losses were caused by tornado outbreaks. There were 1,690 tornadoes in the U.S. that year, and new records were set for the highest numbers registered on both a single day and in a single month. Two outbreaks in the southern and Midwest states in April and May caused the most damage.

The most damaging hail event ever recorded in the U.S. was in 2001, when a hailstorm inflicted severe damage on Kansas City, causing insured losses of $2.9 billion (in 2014 prices). The claims were mostly for vehicle and property damage.

Growing urban populations and valuable technology Among the reasons for the rise in losses from severe thunderstorms are the growing exposures and increasing insurance penetration that come with expanding populations and urban centers and increasing values and technology at risk. For example, the U.S. states with the most severe thunderstorm activity have seen 15–48% population growth since 1990 and, in parallel, increasing risk exposure.

The multi-billion dollar severe thunderstorm loss events of recent years reaffirm the need for stronger mitigation measures, for example in building codes and construction practices.

CASH IN THE DOOR! Based on March Royalties…Northern Colorado takes an all-time record!

Congratulations Caroline, Adam and the rest of the crew on some great sales and collection efforts that exceeded $700,000 in cash in the door!

WOW and WOW again!

Speaking of wins…

Cammy Seaman, Business Development Representative at Delta Disaster Services of Northern Colorado experienced two fantastic wins recently. In late March Cammy made a cold call to a local agent. That particular agent told her that he had a buddy in restoration that he refers his business to. Instead of taking that no as her final answer Cammy told the agent that while she respected their friendship and the relationship they have built she still wanted to leave the company information just in case his friend was ever busy and they needed a back-up. About 2 hours after leaving the office, she received a call from that agent. He told her he was very impressed that she didn’t take no for an answer and that he would be willing to meet her for lunch. After that lunch, the agent was thoroughly pleased and said he would be more than willing to give them a shot. He also offered to reach out to the district manager in hopes of extending their reach throughout all of the Farmers agent in the district.

The second win for Cammy came a little less then 2 weeks ago. Cammy gave a presentation to a local Famers Insurance office. This was not just any office, this just so happened to be the largest Famers Insurance office in Northern Colorado. After the

presentation they received praises from everyone in the office. But the true surprise came when she received a thank you card in the mail, signed by everyone in the insurance office! It is not very often our marketers are on the receiving end of the thank you cards, and this one came at an excellent time for Cammy and the whole Northern Colorado office. WAY TO GO CAMMY!

If you have great stories to share, send them to us at DDG. We want to share your wins with the rest of the network!

TOOLS IN YOUR FINANCIAL TOOL BOX.

One of the most valuable tools in your everyday Financial Tool Box is the P&L on a closed job. If you are completing jobs and not running a P&L, you could be miss-coding items and not knowing it and that leads to losing money.

Here are some key steps to follow and some items to look for:

1. Job is Complete, Closed Out and Billed 2. All Costs are entered in QuickBooks 3. All Revenue is entered in QuickBooks 4. To generate the P&L report:

a. Go to “Reports” in the Top Tool Bar b. Under “Company and Financial” you will have the option to pick “PROFIT

AND LOSS BY JOB” c. QuickBooks will automatically generate a report on all jobs for the current

year. d. Go to the Top Left side of the report “Customize Report” e. Second Tab “Filters” f. Change the date to “All” g. Change the Name to the customer name you are wanting to capture

information about. h. Hit Ok

5. Examine the report for anything that does not look correct. Some triggers and things to especially look for:

a. Is there a supplement that has not been billed?

b. Are there costs that have not been charged to the job? Have those costs come in or has the subcontractor forgotten to bill you? Have you charged the subcontractor to the wrong job? Did the subcontractor bill you too much?

c. Are your labor costs too high? (This is especially something to watch on your mitigation)

d. What is your Gross Profit Margin? Remember your Benchmarks! 70% on Mitigation and 40% on Construction. You will not hit these margins on all jobs. However, when

you do not hit them you need to know what happened and if there is a way to avoid it in the future.

By regularly examining P&L’s on all closed jobs you will start to see patterns. These patterns can tell you which types of work are more profitable (for example roofs or contents, etc.) Which adjusters or carriers are better to work for and have better profit margins? If you are factoring your subcontractor bids correctly or if you need to give the sub more or less money? These are just a few examples of the patterns that will develop. As you add supervisors, you can see which supervisors are more efficient at running jobs.

Anyone who would like to learn more about P&L’s on jobs, or who needs help, please call or email Dixie Feld.

Good Times…and the Sweet Taste of Victory

Last week the whole crew from Delta Disaster Services went on an outing to PAINTBALL! We all geared up and were fully loaded with guns full of paint to unleash on each other in the name of fun (and some friendly retaliation.) We encourage office activities whenever possible to keep your morale high. A happy staff does happy work and keeps the customer happy as well.

Unfortunately we didn’t get too many after photos, but as you can

see Dixie went all out and definitely got a mouth full of sweet

competition.

And we will leave you with this…

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain