EPI’s Year in Review-2015

Here we are at the end of 2015 about to venture into a new year filled with life’s suprises of ups and downs. As we continue on our painting journey we reflect back to aquire tools to achieve the goals we work towards. We can not guarantee what the future may bring as life suprises can pop up at any given second. However, I am a firm believer in if we acknowledge the past the good and the bad, we can promote success and block failures from accruing. We hunger for knowledge, thirst for growth and seek out success.

Our buggiest change this year was the focus on our target market. In the beginning of 2015 we shifted our goals from sub-contract work to residential remodel work. Sub-contract work consist of working for general contractors, projects range from large to small scale new construction. We continue to service some general contractors and property maintenance but we are not actively seeking them. Residential remodel projects consist of all your interior and exterior painting projects on residential properties. In this market we contract and work directly with the owner of the properties.

Numbers tell everything! 

Before we go into where our sales came from let’s look at what every responsible salesman, business owner and even some employees are asking themselves at this time of year, “What are my sales for the year?“. Let’s not monkey around here! Sales for Ewing Painting ware under our sales for 2014 by 8%. At first glance this can be discouraging, let’s move on before we run away screaming. One of the most valuable question to any business is “Are we profitable?“. In 2014 our profits were at 9%, as in 2015 we increased our profits by a whopping 18%. WOW! I am excited over the results of increasing our primary market to residential. I will take that decrease in sales and raise you with profits, oh ya! Let’s keep this ball rolling and see where our sales came form.

In 2014 our sales for sub-contract work was 36%, property maintenance at 14% and residential remodel came in at 51%. Remember I wanted to increase my primary market. 2015 sub-contract work decreased to 21%, property maintenance stayed even with the 14% giving our residential sales a outstanding 65% of the sales. We nearly doubled our sales for residential painting. I think I need to take a break to get some of these cartwheels out of my gut.

While the numbers are encouraging, and are the ultimate fact checker on whether to chalk it up as a success or not, we did have few set backs this year. Our biggest and hardest challenge has been employment, under-employment that is. We did lose a valuable employee this year, as his and our goals did not align. It did leave me stranded with a flat tire, however I was determined that it wasn’t going to keep there. We are now continuing to seek new employees with goals that line up with EPI. We already hired one employees for office work and one in the field. We are creating systems to better the environment for employees and customers. I guess you could say this is a good problem to have, I have to say I would like to eliminate the problem.

We are anticipating to double our sales for 2016. This year we joined a business coaching group to help us stay focused on achieving 2016 goals. We have already installed some of the practices into our marketing strategy. You will be seeing more of our video testimonies, increasing our blog posts and Facebook contests. We will be more active in local networking groups and chamber events. We look forward to seeing and working with you in the EPIC year to come.

Thank you for taking the time in reading our first end of the year in review. Let’s take a look at in another 12 months.