Do you know Joe?

by Tom Ryan

Joe Percario General Contractors, LLC, was started by Joe Percario’s father in 1953 and has grown to become one of New Jersey’s premier home improvement contractors with annual sales climbing well over $4.5 million.

Joe Percario specializes in all types of siding, roofing, windows, doors, as well as custom-built decks and complete home additions—a "one stop shop" for home owners, which prides itself on its experienced employees who make even the most difficult situations look easy.

He has built his business on a solid foundation of quality. That quality is reinforced by staying up-todate on state of the art products and techniques. Joe’s intuition has told him that change is necessary for the survival of any business. Year after year, Joe Percario has been able to achieve the prestigious BBB’s Reliability Seal, as well as being featured on the cover of Qualified Remodeler, and found in the pages of other industry magazines—a business feat not easily achieved in an industry that has the highest dissatisfaction ratings in the country.

Being far removed from the negative reputation of the industry and being able to tout both national and local recognition is something Joe Percario is understandably proud of. Joe recognizes that his responsibility to his company is to stay on top of an everchanging industry. Joe also knows it takes more than just a clean slate and positive recognition to be successful. By surrounding himself with the best industry leaders available, Joe knows he and his employees will be given the innovative edge to continue to grow through any economic condition.

Some of the remodeling industry leaders Joe uses are a national trade association like NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry) and industry giants such as CertainTeed, Anderson, Owens- Corning and GAF/Elk materials corporations. In 1998, GAF/Elk started a Master Elite Contractor program to partly separate themselves from the installers’ errors that tarnished their reputation and sometimes forced them into unwarranted litigation. In 1999, CertainTeed started a similar Master Craftsmen program.

Joe Percario saw that the training these companies could offer would prove its value immediately. With the decline of experienced trades people available today, home remodeling is tipping the scales with complaints. "Programs like these are a great way to make everyone a winner," said Joe.

While thousands of home improvement contractors have come and gone in New Jersey since 1953, Joe Percario General Contractors LLC has stood the test of time. Joe’s father created a simple recipe for success—always use a family-focused approach to customer service and satisfaction, and combine that with quality work, fair prices and a commitment to more customer satisfaction.

While Joe has built his business into a multi-million dollar home improvement contracting business, he has never lost sight of his roots as a neighbor in the community. It was that sense of being a part of the community which formed the inspiration for Joe’s innovative approach to advertising — hundreds of signs placed on all his job sites which simply say, "Do You Know Joe?" More than just a clever saying or the genius of a creative entrepreneur, the advertising slogan tells a deeper story of a home improvement contractor who is a neighbor.

Neighbors know each other by first names, not business cards, and when you have somebody who has a local business in the neighborhood, who sends his children to the same schools and attends the same church as you, you have someone you can trust. While that small town world of 1953 has long passed, the values, which so many people recognize as the foundation for strong communities, still inspire Joe’s business philosophy today.

That’s the foundation upon which Joe has built his home improvement contracting business. But like so many entrepreneurs, running a successful business takes more than strong values and good intentions. The more Joe became successful with a growing business, the more Joe realized that running the business like his father did, out of his hip pocket when the business first began, would no longer work.

Like so many entrepreneurs whose businesses become successful, Joe was becoming overwhelmed by the business. The only way he knew how to solve his problems was to work harder, to work longer hours and to work weekends—just to stay on top of the business. But the more he worked, the more he realized that much of his time was spent fixing other people’s problems in the business.

Joe found himself much like the showman from "The Ed Sullivan Show" who could spin dinner plates on a stick, handling a half-dozen or more at a time. But just like the plate spinner on TV, Joe found himself spending all his energy trying to keep all the plates spinning so they would not fall and break. There are only so many plates one person can handle.

What Joe lacked was organization. Joe didn’t have the systems he needed to run his business. One Friday night before a long Labor Day weekend, Joe was sitting on a pile of pallets worrying about the problems of his business when a sales rep from International Profit Associates walked up to him. The last thing Joe wanted to do was talk to a sales rep at 5:00 p.m. on the Friday night before Labor Day.

But listen, he did.

While Joe was skeptical, he figured there had to be a better way. He knew the home improvement business, but he didn’t know the "business of the business." While Joe learned to manage by observation from his father, the business had grown so large that now Joe needed the systems to manage information.

That’s just what IPA did for Joe Percario. Prior to IPA’s analytical and consulting work, Joe’s bidding process was like most contractors. Joe put together a laundry list of things included in the job for which he was bidding, threw it all together, and added a number to cover all the overhead and, hopefully, a profit. Hope was a big part of his bidding process. Where numbers were lacking, hope filled the gap. Joe was no different from other self-made contractors who built their business on their skills and reputations, rather than on sound business systems and principles.

IPA’s consultants broke down all the costs associated with each job and in running the company, and developed a software program that allowed Joe to accurately see the profit he could expect from the job, before he actually got into the job. The estimating program IPA put together for Joe Percario has not only allowed him to bid jobs more effectively, it has given Joe something he never had before— a way to decide when to walk away from an unprofitable job that was not worth bidding on.