jb here, posting on Kitchen and Residential Design. Yeah – I will admit it; I don’t know how it happened either. I certainly have very little formal design knowledge, and . . . I am pretty certain, too, that I am not as well traveled or as well versed as our host, Paul. But here we are, and I am, again . . . freewriting.
For those of you who do not know me, I am in the early stages of launching a business. My business targets what I see as a void currently found within the home improvement market. I bring this up less to sway you any which way, but more, rather, to lead you into what I am about to say.
While I have thrown my hat in, I have also chosen to do so in a slightly different way. In deciding upon that path, I have faced, and still expect to face, many challenges. None so far have been bigger, though, than simply trying to find the words that I need to effectively communicate what it is exactly that I envision.
In the course of planning, of course, I looked. I looked at the industry. And I found that these days there are companies and individuals doing remodeling, restoration, rehabs and renovations. Some businesses offer home services; others offer solutions. Some homeowners do design and build; others focus on maintenance and repair. All exist within a marketplace that is mostly divided: do-it-yourself or do-it-for-me, and to which caterers do I give my patronage?
In looking, I spent some time on the phrase – “home improvement.” It means, and I think we know it to indicate, any enterprise that effectively upgrades, fixes or otherwise improves a house. The act of doing and done. “Home improvement” as a discrete phrase, however, may exist, too, not only as the high level descriptive, but also as a sub-set of itself.
OK . . . I know that there are slight nuisances associated with each of those sub-sets of activity. In terms of a business you may call, for example, you may expect a “home improvement” company to offer a wide and blurry array of home services. With these organizations, too, you may expect a limited amount of design service and/or only a few aesthetically-oriented questions.
The phrase “home improvement,” you see, has been utilized by many. And over years, some have claimed it and used it for good. Others, though, have helped to cultivate a sense, adding meanings, of maliciousness and mistrust; no? Be it the tonic salesmen with their overpriced door-to-door pitching of wares, or the hypnotists who have taken on clients only to leave them in the end in a daze.
From that, I often avoided the phrase as if it were a four-letter word. But I have come around and I have come to use it, sometimes, more as a matter of convention. Still I do not attach it to my business, specifically.
I feel in some way that I must apologize now not only for writing some those words above, but also for any negative meanings that I myself may one day add. They are, after all, only two innocent little words, natural and attractive.
Heavy on the one, they say – Home is the focal point of life, and I am not talking only of those things attached to the house. Think about it – is there any other place you spend more time; is there any other place that you know so well, or care so much about?
And perhaps as a phrase today, home improvement, more so than rehabbing or designing and building, actually offers an opportunity to take back a little something for ourselves and others. Am I so bold, yet, to do that alone; no!
Or could I maybe just modify it to fit my needs, instead, calling it something like -- life improvement? A new business sub-set, no; no, I can't. After all, I do fear a steep fall into the pit of either misrepresentation or, worse, of self-help freakdom.
I go instead, at least in marketing material, with “Home Project Services” or “Home Project Support.” These phrases are meant to denote non-standard, and somewhat non-descript, construction services. Not design, per se, and still I wonder what I am trying to say.
Now . . . did this little tangent accomplish anything for anyone? I don’t know; sometimes, these things are hit or miss. But I do know you may notice me here and there, trying to find the words that say, “My business (and more should follow) may really be less about home improvement, and more about helping people find the means to improve their most important asset … themselves.”
For those of you who do not know me, I am in the early stages of launching a business. My business targets what I see as a void currently found within the home improvement market. I bring this up less to sway you any which way, but more, rather, to lead you into what I am about to say.
While I have thrown my hat in, I have also chosen to do so in a slightly different way. In deciding upon that path, I have faced, and still expect to face, many challenges. None so far have been bigger, though, than simply trying to find the words that I need to effectively communicate what it is exactly that I envision.
In the course of planning, of course, I looked. I looked at the industry. And I found that these days there are companies and individuals doing remodeling, restoration, rehabs and renovations. Some businesses offer home services; others offer solutions. Some homeowners do design and build; others focus on maintenance and repair. All exist within a marketplace that is mostly divided: do-it-yourself or do-it-for-me, and to which caterers do I give my patronage?
In looking, I spent some time on the phrase – “home improvement.” It means, and I think we know it to indicate, any enterprise that effectively upgrades, fixes or otherwise improves a house. The act of doing and done. “Home improvement” as a discrete phrase, however, may exist, too, not only as the high level descriptive, but also as a sub-set of itself.
OK . . . I know that there are slight nuisances associated with each of those sub-sets of activity. In terms of a business you may call, for example, you may expect a “home improvement” company to offer a wide and blurry array of home services. With these organizations, too, you may expect a limited amount of design service and/or only a few aesthetically-oriented questions.
The phrase “home improvement,” you see, has been utilized by many. And over years, some have claimed it and used it for good. Others, though, have helped to cultivate a sense, adding meanings, of maliciousness and mistrust; no? Be it the tonic salesmen with their overpriced door-to-door pitching of wares, or the hypnotists who have taken on clients only to leave them in the end in a daze.
From that, I often avoided the phrase as if it were a four-letter word. But I have come around and I have come to use it, sometimes, more as a matter of convention. Still I do not attach it to my business, specifically.
I feel in some way that I must apologize now not only for writing some those words above, but also for any negative meanings that I myself may one day add. They are, after all, only two innocent little words, natural and attractive.
Heavy on the one, they say – Home is the focal point of life, and I am not talking only of those things attached to the house. Think about it – is there any other place you spend more time; is there any other place that you know so well, or care so much about?
And perhaps as a phrase today, home improvement, more so than rehabbing or designing and building, actually offers an opportunity to take back a little something for ourselves and others. Am I so bold, yet, to do that alone; no!
Or could I maybe just modify it to fit my needs, instead, calling it something like -- life improvement? A new business sub-set, no; no, I can't. After all, I do fear a steep fall into the pit of either misrepresentation or, worse, of self-help freakdom.
I go instead, at least in marketing material, with “Home Project Services” or “Home Project Support.” These phrases are meant to denote non-standard, and somewhat non-descript, construction services. Not design, per se, and still I wonder what I am trying to say.
Now . . . did this little tangent accomplish anything for anyone? I don’t know; sometimes, these things are hit or miss. But I do know you may notice me here and there, trying to find the words that say, “My business (and more should follow) may really be less about home improvement, and more about helping people find the means to improve their most important asset … themselves.”
Thank you for reading, thank you to Paul, and Happy Holidays to all:
jb @BMoxieBMore
Blogging for now at :: http://www.agentsofmoxie.com/
How-to/self-help photo shot by Barry Morgan at Barry’s Big Blog of Building @blogofbuilding (check him out for a daily visual log of building and other things): http://bigblogofbuilding.blogspot.com/
and ps. Here is a great little story about both moxie and the work of some home improvement contractors, courtesy of Mike Hines @eXapath :: Forgotten...But Not Gone
