Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

All of us like saving money. But sometimes the attempt to do so is far more costly in the long term.

Take Carol Taddei for example. When her toilet needed a repair, she concluded that it would be less costly to replace it. So far, so good. However, she also thought that she could save even more by replacing it herself. Everything was fine until the ceiling in the room below collapsed—the new toilet was leaking. Her efforts ultimately cost her $3,000, all because she wanted to save the cost of paying a plumber to install her toilet.

As a professional contractor, you have probably seen your share of DIY projects gone bad. And, while sloppy cut in, or using the wrong product, or a bad drywall repair isn’t likely to create a mess similar to Taddei’s, it can often cost more to fix such problems than it would have to hire a professional from the start.

The same applies to our business. In an effort to save money, many contractors will design their own logo and marketing materials. They might do their own web site and keep the books. All of these can save money, and besides, anyone can do a web site (just like “anyone can paint”).

While the consequences of a bad toilet installation will eventually be very evident, the results of a poorly designed marketing piece can be less so. But they can be just as costly.

I have seen countless contractors try some form of marketing, get bad results, and then declare that “X doesn’t work”. Then seldom consider that the problem may not be with the media, but with the particular piece. Not only do they waste money, they dismiss a particular media as worthless. In doing so, they slowly conclude that marketing is ineffective.

It is easy to laugh at a toilet installation gone wrong. But it isn’t so funny when marketing goes wrong.