Business Insights

5 reasons your home improvement contracting business isn’t growing

From our deep experience with contractors who have seen the most success over the past few years, we bring you five straightforward ways to address growth lag in your home improvement contracting business. See how these ideas stack up to what you’ve learned, and let us know if we’ve missed some important ways to grow!

1. Failure to adapt to new market conditions

   Problem: Remodeling trends are constantly in flux — not only due to changing customer preferences and style developments, but also as a result of macroeconomic factors that impact everything from homeowner budgets to labor and supply costs for your business.

   Solution: Staying on top of economic news and understanding the levers that can affect your supply chain, financing, and customer behavior takes time and effort, but enlisting the help of a good consultant (such as your finance partner’s point of contact) can help keep you up-to-date and prepared to plan for future growth.

2. Falling behind on technology

   Problem: You do things the way your father and grandfather did. You’re still drawing up bid papers on actual paper, using a clipboard and pen, and taking cash and checks from customers (when you can get them to pay you). Your website is showing its age and may not be optimized for today’s internet browsers.

   Solution: Traditions can be wonderful and strengthen your brand, but this isn’t your grandfather’s business environment. It pays to research new materials and methods by following industry publications — so you can be at the forefront of your craft, rather than playing catch-up. Plus, if you’re not offering designs, bids, and financing on a phone, tablet, or laptop, using the latest integrated software, you’re falling behind and may be viewed as antiquated or lacking credibility — or simply wasting time and resources digging through file folders back at the office. Upgrade your website and start using an integrated commercial software platform.

3. Not adopting digital marketing best practices

   Problem: You Google your own business and aren’t even listed on the first few pages of results.

   Solution: Understanding how to manage your digital marketing is critical in today’s market. There are a number of free resources available for learning how to improve your Google ranking through search engine optimization (SEO) and the use of digital ads, how to use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to track and nurture your leads, how to run effective email campaigns, and how to develop a functional social media presence. Tip: Regions Home Improvement Financing offers several free resources to get you started.

4. Lacking speed-to-lead

   Problem: You’ve got some good ads out there, but your competitors keep getting the business.

   Solution: Responding to new leads as quickly as possible is crucial for driving business growth. Studies show that the faster you get back to a potential customer, the more likely you’ll convert that lead into a sale. In fact, recent data shows that businesses that respond to lead inquiries within 7 minutes are 10 times more likely to close the sale compared to those who wait an hour or more. Respond within 1 minute? That conversion figure goes up 500%.* Tip: Regions Home Improvement Financing has marketing experts who can help with tactics for improving your speed-to-lead.

5. Leaving financing out of the equation

   Problem: Your cash-flow is unreliable, you need more leads, you need bigger jobs, or you just need to close more bids — but customers are either going with someone else or just buying the bare minimum.

   Solution: Offering financing can be the game changer you need to overcome all of these obstacles. For cash flow issues, you can get money within about 24 hours of a funding request authorization when you offer your customers loans through a reliable lending bank — with no need to try collecting from the customer. Meanwhile, you can see a significant increase in leads and close rate when you advertise a choice of payment options. And job size? Homeowners who choose to finance typically spend more on their project in fact, they may spend as much as double what they would have spent without financing.**

If you want to learn more about how Regions Home Improvement Financing can help you grow your business, visit this page.

* https://www.kitoinfocom.com/blog-details.php/the-five-most-important-ways-to-improve-speed-to-lead

** https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/improving-americas-housing-2025