Beautiful Kitchens By Refacing
www.The Kitchen Biz.com
Kitchen Cabinet Refacing is a Specialty Niche for Contractors Generating "Top Dollar Wages" plus 100% Markup on All Materials.
With the Basic Skills of a Handyman, You Can Transform a Kitchen Without Tearing it Apart.
It’s a No Brainer Sell to Homeowners, Saving Them Thousands while Putting a Nice Buck in Your Pocket!
Warning: This is not for everyone.
HOLD ON! Before we get started…
This opportunity is only available to Licensed Contractors. In California, you need to be licensed to sell projects over $500 to a homeowner. I don’t know other state requirements. You need to check for yourself.
I discovered Kitchen Cabinet Refacing from a pain in the ass request from two homeowners.
What is Kitchen Cabinet Refacing?
Kitchen Cabinet Refacing is the extremely less expensive alternative to a complete tear out remodel. It is the process of upgrading a kitchen in terms of style by removing the existing doors, installing new doors and then making the existing cabinet boxes match the new door. Put it in another way, you take out a 20-year-old dated kitchen and make it look current and stylish without a tear out gut remodel.
Add a new handle or knobs and you have a completely new updated kitchen.
My most common kitchen is a tract home with builder grade pine or oak cabinets and making it anything but pine or oak. In my area, these cabinets scream DATED.
- White or colored doors require painting the cabinet boxes.
- A wood door, cherry or maple requires veneering the cabinet boxes to match the new door.
- Add new drawer boxes with dovetail construction on full extension soft close glides and you have a brand new kitchen.
- The doors make the kitchen look brand new.
- The drawers make it feel brand new.
- Two very different points that combined make a homeowner very happy.
KCR is a disrupter!
In this booming world of new technology, the residential construction business; repairs and remodels has barely been affected. It’s too hands-on skill labor driven to be affected by a new computer app.
No computer techie is going to program a computer to enter a house and make improvements.
But it dawned on me. Even though KCR has been around forever, it is a disrupter.
You know, disruptors are all the rage when it comes to new tech businesses.
- Uber is a disrupter to Taxi cabs.
- Craigslist is such a disrupter that it’s wiped out Newspaper classifieds.
- Craigslist is so disruptive it has helped to shut down the entire newspaper companies.
- Amazon is a disrupter to retail sales.
- Starbucks has taken over towns and run mom & pop coffee shops out of business.
- Cell phones wiped out the landlines.
- Netflix is putting a monstrous dent in cable TV.
Well, doesn’t it fit that Cabinet Refacing is a Disrupter to Kitchen Remodeling?
“Hey, Mrs. Homeowner, I can give you the same updated, current and stylish kitchen for less than half the price of tearing it all apart?
I can do it with less mess and be done in two weeks.
Oh, Yea and Your kitchen will be usable every day while we’re here.
Are you interested?“
– “YES, Absolutely!“
Let’s talk dollars and see why they say yes so quickly…
“Hey, Mrs. Homeowner, I can give you the same updated, current and stylish kitchen for $12,000 or you can tear it apart, make it look exactly the same and I charge you $25,000.
Which way would you like to go?“
Or this is my favorite…
“Hey, Mrs. Homeowner, I can give you the same updated, current and stylish kitchen in two weeks for $42,000.00 or you can tear it apart, make it look exactly the same, it will take six weeks and I will charge you $100,000.
Which way would you like to go?”
Next time someone asks, what you do answer…
“I create Beautiful Kitchens at half the price of a tear out remodel.”
That will definitely peak their interest.
KCR is Not All About the Money but it Helps.
I love this business and want to share it with others but only if it’s right for you.
I’ve made more money refacing kitchen cabinets than any other niche in my past 20 plus years of contracting.
My learning curve took a few dozen projects to get proficient = consistently less screw-ups.
During that learning curve, I regularly miss-ordered doors that cost me hundreds of dollars to replace per project, but I still never had a losing project.
Come to think of it…
I’ll bet I’ve easily re-ordered over $12,000 worth of mistakes over the years….
And that is pennies compared to what I’ve earned.
For perspective, it would be like wasting a sheet of plywood on a five thousand dollar project.
Want to earn more? Then Transaction Size Matters!
I love a good ol’ fashion chocolate donut but I could never sell them. I hand this guy a dollar for my donut and I always think “how the hell is he making any money”.
“Oh wow” Look he just sold a whole dozen donuts…
12 bucks… yippee. I couldn’t do it.
I can spend two hours selling a three thousand dollar project or I can spend two hours selling a twenty thousand dollar kitchen.
I complete about two kitchens a month, they average $14,000 to $24,000 each.
You earn more money playing with big numbers than you do playing with small numbers.
The cash flow from completing two kitchens a month has made me feel just a touch of what it would be like to really be financially well off.
It’s as close as I’ve ever come to the peace of mind feeling of a higher financial level.
But then… maybe I wasn’t ready for it.
That old line “When the student is ready the teacher appears.”
Maybe it really holds true. Maybe you’re ready. Maybe you’re not.
If you are ready, I think you’ll really enjoy this business.
If you’re ready, I want to share it.
You will enjoy the specialty niche for a number of reasons.
Having a niche makes completing projects quick and efficient.
A quick and efficient completion of a niche project creates greater profit. There’s a reason they say:
“Riches in niches.”
And I’ll confess telling people I create Beautiful Kitchens carries a little prestige, which strokes my ego. Remodeling the most important, most visible room in the house is pretty cool.
It’s better than saying I’m a handyman.
Sorry guys.
My first project: $24,987!
Project breakdown:
- Existing Kitchen: 30 year old cabinets painted 15 years ago with a dated door style and exposed brass hinges.
- Tear Out Remodel Cost: $100,000+
- Accepted Refacing Proposal Price: $24,987
- Cabinet Square Footage: 125 (anything over 90 square feet is a large kitchen)
- My Material cost: $5,674 + est. $1,200 in screw ups
- Days to complete: 20 days
Project description: I was working for a homeowner doing mostly a little bit of everything repairs. I’m a licensed contractor but my business was pretty much advanced handyman projects. Everything from painting bedrooms to installing crown molding; a little electrical work and changing plumbing fixtures.
At some point, they mentioned that they’d like to remodel the kitchen. It was a large kitchen with a whole wall of pantry cabinets.
Pain points:
- They had received a gut remodel price tag of over of $100,000
- They hated the dated look of their kitchen.
- The painted doors had yellowed.
- The hinges were exposed with chipped paint.
- Some doors didn’t close completely, but there was no way they could afford A Hundred Grand.
When I mentioned the possibility of refacing, they were instantly interested. They didn’t want to move any cabinets. They wanted to keep the same footprint. But…
I didn’t have a price.
I didn’t know how to calculate a price.
I didn’t know how to do any of it.
As excited as I was about a new project, I was also scared to death of its size. Inexperience in bidding large projects is a recipe for losing money. I contacted my cabinet door rep, and he helped me stumble every step of the way.
I put together a proposal.
I made it as high as I thought possible without having them run the other way. I had enough experience to know I would screw something up in the learning process. The thought of four dozen custom ordered doors costing thousands of dollars scared the hell out of me.
I thought the number was high.
I was scared to present it. It was over $24, 000
The largest project I ever bid on with zero experience.
Their response to the bid…”That’s great. When can you start?“
My response…”Oh Shit… Now what?”
I pulled my rep in for three visits.
He showed me how to measure doors and drawer fronts.
He showed me how to measure drawer boxes.
He wasn’t much help on how to install anything.
What he thought was no big deal was a big deal to me.
I had no idea how to hang a door or how to properly space the hinges.
I had no idea how to install drawer glides so they would glide smoothly.
I had no idea how to fill out the order form to order doors accurately.
Doors, Drawer Fronts, Drawer boxes, glides and hinges at my cost: $5,674
Custom Material price on my proposal: $12,348
Twice my material cost plus a grand.
I like the number 12 better than 11.
I didn’t have five grand and had no idea how I was going to order the doors. Luckily, my proposal experience saved me.
I had the custom material cost and labor separate on my proposal. I asked the homeowner for a 50% deposit for the custom materials.
When I delivered the custom materials, I asked for the balance. I had the materials paid for and just made six grand and I hadn’t even started working. This was a project that should have taken two weeks.
It took four.
I stumbled every step of the way. I had no idea how to execute anything.
In the end, I ordered at least twelve hundred dollars worth of replacement material/doors.
It took me days to do what now takes me hours.
Even with screws ups…
On the upside, even with my learning curve and all my screw-ups, I still made a very nice profit.
It was more of a profit than I made doing any other contracting.
This project and the next dozen kitchens took me at least twice as long to complete than it does now.
I regularly ordered wrong door sizes.
I regularly forgot to order a door or two and had to wait two weeks after the project was done just to install that last door.
I put screws through drawer fronts.
The worst was drawer glides. It took me an hour to set a single drawer glide semi-accurately.
Now it takes 10 minutes to set three or four drawers perfectly.
I’m hooked. I’m now A Specialist in an Easy Sell Niche Business that Pays Well with Little Competition.
Everything About KCR Works!
You’ll like that it’s a specialty.
There’s riches in niches.
There’s usually little if no competition.
You’ll like that it has a set number of tools.
You don’t need to own every tool under the sun.
You can work on rainy days and stay dry in a nice warm house in the middle of the winter.
Of course, the substantial increase in income is quite a bonus.
Kitchens never get boring.
I love the high transaction cost.
No building permits are needed.
Most of my kitchens are $14,000 to $24,000
My large kitchens are anywhere from $18,000 to $42,000
Projects are no longer small.
You know a few hours or two days or three days.
It takes just as much time to sell a small project as it does to a large project.
I used to spend two hours selling a homeowner a day’s worth of work.
I can spend that same two hours selling a two-week kitchen refacing project for $14,000.
It’s fairly easy physical work.
You don’t crawl under houses.
You’re not wearing out your body heavy lifting.
You can perform this work until you’re 70.
#1 Reason for selling KCR to others…To give me the initiative to more thoroughly document this business for my family. I want to sell this kitchen biz to three maybe six guys. I currently have well documented notes; color manuals full of before and after pictures and step-by-step notes about every aspect of this business. There is tons of experience to save you a small fortune and get you up to speed quickly.
You will learn how to order custom doors and drawer fronts.
From day one, you will learn how to efficiently hang doors, install full extension soft close glides and mount drawer fronts.
You will learn how to attract new homeowners with every project
And the most important part of your project starts with crafting the proposal. You screw this up and you’re off to a bad start.
Get it right and you’ve almost insured a very nice profit upon completion.
Once I have completely documented this business, I know my family can continue it.
One son has a career. He wouldn’t be interested.
But my daughter and my other son would be awesome.
I could see them and my wife stepping right in and continuing the business.
You’re a Wanted Man.
You are the Solution to Improving with the Most Important,
Most Visible Room in the House.
The Kitchen.
Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Sells Itself.
A homeowner can have the same result for 50% less than the cost of a tear-out remodel.
A $30 thousand kitchen will cost you $15K to reface.
A $52 thousand kitchen remodel will cost you $24K or less.
Every woman on the planet wants a new kitchen.
Few can afford an expensive tear out remodel.
More can afford 50% off that full price.
Every project you complete is another story and another set of before and after pictures to show the next homeowner.
The vast majority of kitchens do not need a new footprint.
There’s no place they can go.
Rarely is a tear out remodel even necessary.
Usually, the house does not have room to change the floor plan.
They just want a new, more current style than the 20, 30 or 40-year-old builder grade kitchen that they currently have.
Here’s the good news.
HGTV is Selling New Kitchens for you Everyday
I don’t know of a woman homeowner that doesn’t watch HGTV with great regularity.
Every woman wants a new kitchen and they are reminded about it every day. The Property Brothers remind them, Chip and Joanne Gaines remind them and all over the world, House Hunters remind them.
Everyday with every episode, they are reminded that their kitchen is dated.
…Monday after work…” It’s not a bad size but it’s old and dated.”
… Wednesday before bedtime… “Look at this pink tile. This kitchen has gotta go.”
And on the weekend… “This kitchen is ridiculous. We’ll tear out these cabinets and start over.”
Every night, they see somebody on HGTV getting a new kitchen.
They have been tormented watching this for years.
Now, they want theirs and you’re gonna do it for them for 50% less than a tear out remodel. SOLD!
Refacing requires Resources not Available to a Homeowner.
The top cabinet door companies will not sell to homeowners.
They only sell to the trade.
(Here’s a side note. If it is a company that sells doors to homeowners, you’ve got the wrong company. The good ones only sell to the trade.)
A homeowner cannot buy these doors and then shop the lowest bidder to install them.
Homeowners very often buy cabinets from Home Depot and then shop for the cheapest contractor to install them.
How do I know this…Because they call me and ask me to bid on installing them their newly purchased shitty cabinets.
“Calling all low bidders… stupid cheap homeowners want you to install crap.”
Not available to homeowners means it can be marked up and they don’t know your material cost.
This equals profit potential.
My Worst Money Losing Project.
There is no one project. The worst thing that happens in kitchen refacing projects is that I miss-order doors.
- I either order the wrong size or I’m missing a door.
- It’s always a challenge to get a perfect project order.
- A perfect order = every door and drawer box is there. And they are all the correct size.
- After years of experience, trial and error, a perfect order happen quite often.
My worst mistake was drilling for handles (two holes) where I should have been drilling for knobs (one hole), so I drilled two holes per door instead of one hole.
“I want handles on the upper doors over here, but did I forget to tell you I want a knobs on the upper doors over here.”
–J. Haugh, Homeowner
“Yes, Jeannie you did forgot to tell me that.”
I had to replace $600 (my cost) worth of doors because Jeannie the homeowner wanted knobs, not handles. The project was still immensely profitable.
Another thing I like about refacing is that the projects are bid well enough that when you screw something up…and you will screw something up…it doesn’t cost you out-of-pocket money. There’s still enough money in the project to pay for mistakes.
I’d rather not have the mistakes in the first place of course, but having the money to cover them is nice.
Below is the line I regularly use with my homeowners.
It puts things in perspective and they get it.
“If you want a Beautiful Kitchen, call me.
If you want your Dream Kitchen, keep playing the lottery.”
They always grin a little.
They get it.
They understand that kitchens are expensive.
They understand that to get a dream kitchen in their dream home with all the fancy expensive bells & whistles, you need to win the lottery.
But for your budget, I can make it look beautiful.
They get it.
Reason #3 I’m selling the Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Biz…
Yep… another source of income. Sure, I’ll sell a few and make a buck, but if it wasn’t for reason #1 and unexpectedly reason #4, I wouldn’t be doing it at all.
I’d rather just focus on kitchens. That creates plenty of income for me.
I’m only going to sell the kitchen biz to contractors that are a true fit.
You’re not gonna get a hard sales pitch out of me.
Just like my proposals to homeowners… If we’re not a good match, no problem. We both move on.
So too with KCR Biz… If it’s not for you and you’re not in the right area, That’s OK.
Go find what is for you.
Plus I’ll only be selling it to one person per service area, where ever that service area may be.
Long before your purchase, I’ll let you know if others are in your area.
Please note: I certainly won’t be selling this to anyone in my service area. That you can count on.
The Most Profitable Projects.
Project breakdown:
- Existing Kitchens: 15–20 year-old builder grade cabinets of pine or oak with exposed hinges and clanky drawer glides
- Tear Out Remodel Cost: about 50 to 100 grand
- Accepted Refacing Proposal: $18,000 to $42,000
- Cabinet Square Footage: 90 to 125 square feet
- My Material cost: $6,000 to $9,000 this very often includes new drawer boxes and glides
- Day to complete: 10 days. 15 tops.
My most profitable projects are, of course, the larger kitchens with over 90 square feet of cabinets. These large kitchens cost anywhere from 50 to a 100 grand for a tear-out remodel.
And these aren’t custom homes.
They are large tract houses of approximately 2500 square feet or more.
I can reface that same kitchen with full-extension soft-close drawers for half or less than the price of a tear-out remodel.
My Largest Project: Amy’s Kitchen
Project breakdown:
- Existing Kitchen: 30-year-old cabinets; 70’s stained dark oak with exposed brass hinges and wood rail drawer glides. The countertop was 4’x 4’ tiles with dark brown grout.
- Tear Out Remodel Cost: about $200,000
- Accepted Refacing Proposal: $82,463
- Cabinet Square Footage: 145
- My Material cost: $16,674
- Days to complete: 8 weeks to complete.
Don’t confuse largest with the most profitable.
Some kitchens in & out can be very profitable.
This was a very unique project. Yes, they were dark and dated cabinets which is normal. What made it different is that Amy had more than enough cabinets but they were in all the wrong places.
The kitchen footprint remained the same.
No kitchen walls were moved.
The existing cabinets were relocated then refaced.
The only new cabinet was the large island which we custom made.
There was some traditional remodeling involved.
We did open up the family room by removing a wall and we did extensive electrical rewiring.
As your refacing business grows, you may find the homeowner needs an additional cabinet here or there.
95% of a project is refaced cabinets but you may need “one new cabinet over here please”.
The longer you’re in business, the more you’ll run into unique situations like Amy’s.
Competition? What Competition?
Refacing cabinets is truly a niche.
You need Special information. Special training. Special resources.
Without these, there is no one to compete against you.
There are very few guys out there refacing kitchen cabinets.
Your area might be different. You’ll have to do your own homework.
If I run into another competitor, it’s usually a cabinet maker.
I can only think of one cabinet maker that I have ever bid against.
I rarely compete against anybody.
I‘m usually the only bid.
If there is another bid, it’s a tear out remodel bid for over twice the price of mine.
Home Depot and Sears are probably the only two competitors I run into.
Sears has recently gone out of business.
When I did bid against them, I always won the bid.
I would make a very nice profit, and I was still 2, 3, to $4 thousand less than their bid.
That wasn’t my competition. That was an easy choice for the homeowners.
99 times out of 100, I am the only bid they look at.
It’s either a yes to me or they don’t do the project at all.
Next… All the reasons KCR is for you are also all the reasons it might not be for you.
Unexpected Reason #4 for Selling the Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Biz
This was completely unexpected and its already kicked in.
As I am putting all this information together, I’m improving my own Cabinet Refacing business on many levels. Somewhere, I heard that when you teach something you get better at it.
I’m finding that to be quite true.
This alone is well worth organizing all this material and creating a program for others. The other plus is as I improve my business, I will help you improve yours.
Before: n/a
Maybe it’s Not for You…
All the reasons kitchen cabinet refacing is for you are also all the reason it may not be for you.
It is a detailed process.
It takes effort to be prepared before you can even present a proposal.
There are a few steps in creating a money making proposal.
You need to do some homework ahead of time to get your pricing correct.
It takes being organized.
There’s a fair amount of organized paperwork.
It takes accurately measuring, accurately ordering and accurately installing.
The actual hands-on installing doors and drawers is probably the easiest part of this business.
Every project is about two weeks.
No more small one or two day projects with minimal profit potential.
I love this part. It has a High Cost of Transaction.
Some guys are uncomfortable presenting large proposals.
And that’s OK.
The only difference is keeping a straight face as you say:
“This kitchen will cost Twenty Four thousand dollars.”
“This kitchen will cost Forty-Two thousand dollars.”
Dan Kennedy says you just need to have big balls to say it with a straight face. I truly believe that.
Yet truth be told, I rarely verbalize the total cost.
My proposals and paperwork speaks for me.
I have no problem typing large numbers.
You want a low transaction cost… sell donuts.
An Even Bigger Reason It may NOT be for You.
You may be in the wrong demographic area.
This business is not for someone that lives in Downtown San Francisco, Downtown Chicago or Downtown New York. Or any downtown city.
It is not an “in the city business.”
This is an “in the Suburbs Business.”
The number one criteria for this business to be successful is to live in an area with dozens of suburban tract housing developments with thousands of tract houses that are 20, 30 and 40 years old.
Bingo
You’re sitting in the middle of a gold mine.
These homeowners are tired of their kitchens.
The Sweet Spot
A tract housing development of 500 or a thousand homes.
You are surrounded by dozens of these developments.
These developments have five different home models.
They’re all different. All exteriors look a little different.
The floor plans might be a little different, and the majority of the kitchens are all the same.
This is your target market.
How the whole thing started.
This is kinda how the whole kitchen biz started. My friend David mentioned I should develop The Kitchen Cabinet Refacing business as a franchise.
I thought that was a little ambitious but introducing other contractors in the biz made more sense.
A $30,000 Franchise…?
The numbers certainly justify a thirty thousand dollar franchise but I’m not sure that’s the way to go for me…yet.
Thousands of dollars profit per project…check.
A Higher Transaction Cost profit than most franchises… check.
Easily taught and replicated…check.
A market in demand for your service…check.
I was thinking more like $12,997 for all the package with a Website and Custom Color brochure (I call the Design Guide) and $4,997 for everything you need at a lesser price without the website.
These are both numbers that a serious contractor could invest.
$12,997 is a number that can be recouped in a handful of kitchen projects but I don’t have this ready yet.
For now it’s $4,997. A number that could be easily recouped in one or two projects.
For Now…
The Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Biz Sales Price … $4,997
- Pricing Guide. Learn how to measure the square footage of a kitchen during your first visit with the Homeowner and then convert it to a winning profitable proposal.
Calculating rough cabinet square footage taken on your first visit into an exact door order and hard profitable numbers takes a little practice. Get it right and you’ve almost insured a very nice profit upon completion. - Hinges and Holes. From day one, you will learn how to quickly and efficiently hang doors, install full extension soft close glides accurately , mount drawer fronts and install handles and knobs.
When your homeowner pushes their soft close drawer for the first time and it gently closes itself, you’d think they just won the lottery. They love it.
Like many things you’ve learned in the trade once you know the simple tips and tricks it’s easy. - Design Guide. A 20 plus page full color collection of before and after projects full with ideas for your homeowner. This is a sales tool you can use right away to sell projects. You can add your own before and after pictures and testimonials of your own as you complete projects.
*If you designed and printed this yourself, the cost would be about $1,500 before you even printed one copy. Guess how I know that cost?
Oh. Copies are only 9 bucks apiece. I’ll give you the direct source. And sending it to the homeowner ahead of your visit is a very smart marketing move. It solidifies your professionalism before you even say a word. - Sample Doors. You’ll get three sample doors from Decorative Specialties. Each door has a different hinge boring pattern to show you the difference = experience. Hinge boring; another costly lesson I learned that you will learn and profit from. Oh yea and a handful of Blum hinges, finish caps and hinges restrictors. All the little stuff that gives you instant experience.
- Proposal Crafting. The most important part of your project starts with crafting a profitable proposal. There’s a good way to present numbers and a very poor way. You screw this up and you’re off to a bad start. Present your proposal the way a homeowner wants to see it and your chances of acceptance are greatly improved.
- Sales Secrets. 15 years of website feedback has taught me what homeowners like. I developed a very good website as my brochure for my contractor “advanced handyman skills” looong before refacing. What I learned from that website has made my current site very attractive to homeowners.
How do I know it’s a good website? Because homeowners regularly tell me they like it… without me asking them. I take it as quite a compliment.
Learn how to qualify homeowners over the phone before you visit them for an estimate. Know exactly what to say so you don’t waste your time with looky loos driving to their home, typing an estimate just to get a no response.
This tip will save you hundreds of hours of wasted time.
Learn how to collect referrals and testimonials from every project. Get your homeowners and fellow contractors selling for you. - Google AdWords is a great monthly way to get homeowners without spending a fortune. If you know the right AdWords, it is extremely cost effective. I currently budget a measely $200 a month. My phone rings every month from AdWords. Many months, I only use $90 of the $200.
The testing to get AdWords razor sharp cost me about five thousand bucks. It took months of testing to eliminate the unprofitable keywords and only use the exact keywords that produce results.
More importantly… Google AdWords is superior to SEO.
*This tip alone will save you thousands of dollars and get you better customers sooner. We probably spent another five grand developing SEO only to find out AdWords was more effective.
Here’s a Huge Bonus… I only recently started using.
This is definitely an Advanced Ad Words Strategy.
This little AdWords trick would totally piss off my professional acquaintances if they ever found out. - Plus… One on One Assistance
One phone call and you’ll get answers.
One email before, during or after a project and you’ll get answers.
All of the above for $4,997.00.
All this is Nothing you couldn’t do yourself or learn over time.
What I have put together will simply save you a ton of money and get you up to profits quicker.
Note #1… If this is not the right price for you, That’s OK.
Just like my proposal to a homeowner or your price to a homeowner…
If it doesn’t fit, That’s OK. We both move on.
Note #2… I will not sell this to more than one person in a service area. Let me know the state and three counties you service and I will not sell to another.
