The latest earnings reports from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, and other industry leaders show that demand has not disappeared, but it has become more selective. Finding growth looks different in today’s home improvement market than it did just a couple of years ago. Contractors still have opportunities to grow, but they are increasingly competing […]
Q2 2026 Earnings: Finding Growth In Today’s Market Read More »
Over the past few years, contractors have had to adapt to a very different home improvement market. Demand has not disappeared. Homeowners are still investing in their homes. The difference is where they are choosing to spend their money. The days of homeowners saying yes to every project have cooled. Today, many are weighing projects
The Projects Homeowners Are Prioritizing in 2026 Read More »
Most contractors still think of themselves as construction businesses. Roofing companies install roofs. Flooring companies install floors. Kitchen remodelers renovate kitchens. That is all still true. But as these companies grow, something else happens behind the scenes. The business becomes less about individual jobs and more about coordinating people, schedules, communication, materials, systems, and expectations
Contractors Are Becoming Coordination Businesses Read More »
When a company’s operations start to strain, the first instinct is almost always the same. We bought the wrong tools. So the search begins. A better scheduling platform. A different CRM. Something with stronger reporting. The assumption underneath all of it is that somewhere out there is the right piece of software, and once it’s
You Don’t Have a Technology Problem. You Have a Systems Problem. Read More »
Most contractors did not intentionally build a complicated software stack. It just happened over time. One platform handled leads. Another handled quoting. Someone added a scheduling app. Accounting lived somewhere else. Then came customer communication tools, an app for jobsite photos, one for taking payments, spreadsheets, retailer portals, and mobile apps for crews in the
The Contractor Tech Stack Problem Nobody Talks About Read More »
The first quarter earnings reports from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, and other major suppliers are starting to paint a clearer picture of where the home improvement industry is heading. The broad slowdown many contractors feared has not fully materialized. At the same time, this is not a booming market driven by large discretionary remodels
Q1 2026 Earnings: What the Big Boxes and Suppliers Are Signaling to Contractors Read More »
Last week at FAST Remodeler Live in Nashville, we walked the sponsor floor. The pattern was hard to miss. AI marketing platforms. Lead generation. Financing tools. All-in-one CRMs promising to do everything from first call to final invoice. Nearly every vendor at the event was selling something to help a contractor win more work. Very
The Industry Is Selling Contractors the Wrong Software Read More »
by Nick Mraz – Cilio Pro Advisor Every disconnected tech stack started with good intentions. Someone needed a better way to manage leads. They bought a tool. Someone else needed to track job status. They bought another tool. The estimating process was a mess, so they added a quoting platform. A new manager came in
A Pro Advisor Perspective: The Shiny Object Graveyard Read More »
By Paul Wyman | A Cilio Pro Advisor A few weeks ago I had a tree contractor come out to repair some irrigation damage in my yard. He showed up, looked at the damage, and told me he did not have the right PVC elbow on his truck to fix it. The job was incomplete.
A Pro Advisor Perspective: When Nobody Can Make the Call Read More »
If you’ve worked within Lowe’s installation programs for any length of time, you’ve likely noticed the same pattern. When a job goes poorly, the customer completes the survey. When a job goes well, you hear nothing. The result is a response rate that hovers around three percent, with feedback that often skews negative. That creates
Why Lowe’s Customers Don’t Complete LTR Surveys (and What to Do About It) Read More »
