Retail Observer

NOVEMBER 2015 RETAILOBSERVER.COM 31 Block 4: 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. • Living in Place – Accessibility, Comfort, and Safety in All Homes– Erik Listou; Louie Delaware • NKBA 0.1 CEU, 1.0 NARI CEU, NAHB 1.00 CE Hour Learn to help your clients remain independent and safe in their homes. Understanding how proper design can identify common, and not-so-common, accessibility and safety issues, and how to recommend practical solutions, is critical to improving independence and dignity for all your clients. Improve your professional opportunities by increasing your services and networking with other like-minded professionals such as contractors, realtors, medical, home care and home inspection specialists. Learning Objectives: • Identify the principles of living in place design and how applying safer kitchen and bath design principals will increase accessibility and comfort for all home owners • Explore other practical solutions throughout the home to increase accessibility and safety without institutionalizing the home • Describe how living in place designs and products will increase business potential WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 Block 5: 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. • Rent My Brain, Reduce the Pain: Making Gains with Value– Judith Neary, CMKBD and Corey Klassen, CKD, CBD • 0.1NKBA CEU, 1.0 NARI CEUs, NAHB 1.00 CE Hour Today's designers are confused about how to establish design fees and product sales because our market has changed. We continue to have less control over projects with homeowners purchasing materials on-line, using online inspiration to create their own looks, and even using do-it-yourself layout software. Many designers continue to sell design fees associated with creativity but fail to establish themselves as an investment with homeowners. How can designers use their talent to establish value with a client? How can they translate their creativity into a monetary skill? Developing a menu of services, tasks, and organizing a proposal for design services, we can better illustrate the gap in the creative work and illustrate where to make monetary gains in the business. Exploring fixed fee, percent of project, and even a set-menu, designers can establish value with all types of homeowners at all types of budget levels. Learning Objectives: • Define and categorize your services based on existing skill sets into a menu of options • Identify areas to increase service options, and possibly increase revenue, based on client and project type • Develop a strategy and a plan to implement the menu of services into your business Block 6: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. • Solutions for New Water Heater Efficiency Regulations– Jerry Callahan • No CEUs The Department of Energy has imposed new regulations for water heaters and they are catching facility owners, managers, and consumers by surprise. In the electric category, the new standards effectively prohibit 55-gallon or greater water heaters. Standard 65-gallon and 80-gallon electric water heaters will disappear from the market completely and homeowners who want these large capacity units will have to invest double in a heat pump driven design that meets DOE efficiency standards. In this presentation, we will explore solutions for manufacturers, distributors, and contractors who lack the training and preparation for the sales effort now required to satisfy the end consumer. After attending this session, attendees will be able to understand the implications of the new regulations on their business, regardless of whether the work involves existing structures or new construction. Designers who once considered the water heater to be a commodity product must now take into account every financial consideration: the return on investment of a new unit, the initial cost of installation, the life cycle cost, any maintenance issues, the payback period, and the value of varying warrantees. Block 7: 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. • Emerging Online Lead Generation Trends for Kitchen and Bath Remodelers – Timothy Jordan and Todd Bairstow • No CEUs We all know how important search engines and the Internet have become for kitchen and bath remodelers. Homeowners are flocking to the internet to do research on designers, remodelers, and kitchen and bath products – before they ever make a purchasing decision. Now, the landscape is changing again. Mobile phones and tablets are rapidly changing the game for kitchen and bath retailers everywhere. In fact, more than 50% of all online searches are now occurring on a mobile phone. It is a new day.

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