Dan Tibma
Title: Owner
Company: Tibma Design/Build Home Remodeling
Experience: 11 Years As Owner
Age: 51
With homeowners watching their wallets, the office phone isn’t ringing like it used to, for Needham-based Tibma Design/Build, and the company has gotten creative to pick up extra business. Dan Tibma, whose company recently won a Guildmaster award from national organization GuildQuality, sat down with Banker & Tradesman to discuss the remodeling business, the benefits of old-fashioned marketing, and why – despite the times – he still turns away would-be clients who are just looking to up their home’s resale value.
From what I understand, you stick to just remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, right?
Yes. We combined the design, along with the building part of it. We’re really builders, but we said, “Let’s focus on one area and get really good at it.” So my thing is I show up and say, “What are you thinking about doing and what’s possible? What’s your budget range? Can we do it in your budget range?” And if it’s something that’s accomplishable, they hire us and we help them figure everything out. We pick the paint colors, the tile, the lighting, the 100 percent package.
What range of houses do you work with, normally?
$600,000 to $2 million. Our average home value is $1.2 million.
A lot of industries are seeing some downturns, especially in all things housing. How’s business for you these days?
It’s down 30 percent, solidly.
For the clients you’re getting, are they interested in different things than they used to be?
Before, it’s been based on, “Do I think this guy will hear what I’m saying? Will they communicate with us? Will they do a good job? Will they give me a good value?” And now, “Are they going to give you the best price?” is in the discussion early.
How do you pick up the slack?
We’ve tried different marketing things. We’ve got a good niche in doing kitchens and bathrooms, and now we’re trying to do things that are not whole-kitchen remodels. We’ve put a lot of fireplaces in, we’re thinking that might be a way for people to make a big impact on their quality of life but not spend a lot of money … I’ve also been doing light renovations for people – doing countertops, doing backsplash tile, doing new appliances, new lighting, new flooring.
Do people hire you with an eye toward flipping their houses?
I’ve had a bunch of people call, thinking if they did some work it will help them sell their house or raise the value of their house. That is generally not our clients. Our clients are people who love their house. They have a real vision of how they want it.
Even with business down, you turn people away?
It has never, ever worked out. … They’re only interested in a price, and what I bring to the table is full service. If you wanted just a price thing, then Home Depot is an awesome option for some of these things.
Is it mostly because they’re just interested in putting a feature that will look good on the surface to prospective buyers, not something they intend to use for themselves?
Yeah, they don’t care at all.
Nabbing a national award like the one you just got must help bring you to people’s attention.
What’s good about our awards is that you get a lot of business down from the Internet, and winning an award gets you out in that space. People search your name and it gets popped up more often.
Is that how you get most of your customers?
I would say that 10 [percent] or 15 percent of the calls we get are from people who have said they found us on the Internet. It’s really caught on fire in the past couple years.
And before that?
[We did] mailers and knocking on doors. Right now we do it by newsletter; we send out a newsletter at the beginning of the job, saying we’re starting this job, and watch our progress.
How does that go over with people in the neighborhoods?
That was good – I’m actually thinking about getting back to that.
Five selling points for Tibma’s service:
Friendly, helpful employees and subcontractors
A promise to get the work done without dirtying up the rest of the house
Sticking to the agreed-upon budget without sliding over
A year-long warranty after the work gets done
Ability to execute the cleint’s initial vision
