Spaces for Life: Too much of a good thing–an overwhelmed industry causes problems – Retouch Design-Build

Spaces for Life

The ReTouch Home Improvement blog

POST CATEGORIES

PROJECT TYPES

Spaces for Life: Too much of a good thing–an overwhelmed industry causes problems

By Lance McCarthy

Have you ever discovered a restaurant before anyone else? Maybe a small, intimate Italian place with great food and friendly staff that you can just walk into and find a table? Then…everyone else discovers it, and it loses its magic. There aren’t enough tables to seat everyone, the food becomes unpredictable, and the staff seems tired and unfocused. Boo.

That’s a lot like what is happening in the construction industry right now. There was this little thing called the housing bubble a few years back. You may have heard of it? Everyone talks about how it affected banks and homeowners, but it also completely obliterated the entire construction industry.

In a matter of 3 years, we lost over 3 million jobs, which equated to almost 1 out of every 3 construction workers. It was a dark time. Felt a little like playing wack-a-mole, only being the mole.

The good news is that the good times are back. Us ‘Mericans can only refrain from spending and improving our spaces for so long, and many of us in the industry are experiencing levels of demand that we have never seen.

You may be thinking “Ok, Lance, happy ending, let’s move on. Why should I care about your jobs report? I’m not listening to NPR’s Planet Money right now.”

Well, I’m glad you asked. Let me weave a little story about a small company. We’ll call it Joe’s Plumbing.

It is 2006, and Joe has a profitable little plumbing company. He has 10 employees, a two month backlog of work, and just bought a new speedboat. Life is good. Then out of nowhere, wham! The recession hits. Almost overnight the backlog of work evaporates and Joe is gasping for air. After a bloody year of loans and boat-selling, he lays off all his employees.

Fast forward to 2013. The lean times have lasted so long that Joe forgot the good times. Then the phone starts to ring…and ring…and ring. He is struggling to keep up, but doesn’t dare turn down any work for fear that it will go away again. He finally starts trying to hire back his former employees, but they aren’t there any more. They are either back in school, have started their own companies or moved to other industries, or retired.

That is where we now find Joe. He has as much work as he did before, but he doesn’t have his team any more. What does this mean for you when you hire Joe?

Ready to Take the Next Step?