Goodbye 2023, Hello 2024: Reflecting on the Past And Planning For the Future
Ah, it’s the New Year! And with the New Year comes reflections on the past year and goals for the future — and it’s no different for businesses either. As we look back at 2023, we were busy! We had quite a few large jobs and a considerable number of smaller ones, both indoor and outdoor, some challenging, some straightforward. All in all, we never look down on anything that has taught us something.
Towards the end of the year, we joined the National Home Builders Association, along with the Pennsylvania Builders Association and the Builder Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh (BAMP). We also won a “Best of” award from BAMP (a division of the National Home Builders Association), which is an amazing achievement, especially for a younger company. David also joined the NAHB Remodelers Council, and Kari joined Professional Women in Building. We are excited to attend more events this year.
Towards the end of last year, we realized that we love the bigger projects: the design, the project management, the personalized relationships we develop with our clients when we spend weeks on end with them, and the overall outcome of the project. With that realization, we rebranded from DeShong Construction, which seemed too vague for us, to DeShong Design and Remodeling. Since Kari has contributed to almost all of the design aspects of the larger jobs and doesn’t plan on stopping, it makes sense to let everyone know that the design and construction aspects are now under one roof. Plus, Kari has plans to hire our own full-time designer in the future to assist when we grow further. While we won't turn down all small jobs, we plan to schedule them during downtime, such as between countertop template and installation, or in between larger jobs if they end early in the middle of the week.
Looking forward to our year three, we are very excited, we are implementing even more customer service items, such as our binder, and project management software. We are getting better and better systems in place. Kari, who also works as a second shooter for a wedding photographer in WV, has introduced a client appreciation give-back program. Under this initiative, clients undergoing kitchen, basement, and whole-house transformations will have the opportunity to receive complimentary family photos, courtesy of our team. We are hoping to collaborate with interior designers this year, collaborating more with Allegheny Millwork & Lumber and with their design team. We plan to hire another Site Foreman to help alleviate our schedule.
Kari is already excited to plan Monday morning meetings, where she can serve pastries - a favorite she wishes to continue from her Oil & Gas days, were she had very early Monday morning meetings, but it was worth it for those pastries. Oh and quiches, and of course peach cobbler (backstory: our employee, Nick, obsesses over it, all.summer.long), anything peach… peach cheesecake, peach crumble, peach this and peach that, okay I can go on and on, but other delightful treats to make Monday mornings even brighter. Cheers to an exciting year ahead!
With two years under our belt, and establishing our brand, we feel that year three is going to great!
