What I Know Now is a recurring column on CLEAN featuring restoration pros reflecting on the career lessons they wish they’d learned earlier.
Nelson Higgins
Most water damage jobs stall because the file has a gap somewhere: no clear scope, no authorization on record, or a scope change nobody documented until the invoice showed up. After 45 years in this industry, I’ve watched the same pattern repeat. The contractors who get paid consistently aren’t doing anything extraordinary. They’re getting the order right, every time. Start with […]
Nelson Higgins
The average estimator in the United States spends 30 minutes to an hour writing a $10,000 estimate. That number surprises people. It shouldn’t. What happens before the estimate is opened determines the outcome far more than the estimating itself. Most payment delays in water damage trace back to a bad file: By the time the estimate is written, the […]
Chris Tilkov
If I could hire for one trait in an estimator today, it would be a good listener. Not the fastest writer. Not the most technical. Estimating touches negotiation at every stage. You’re working through scope with the homeowner, submitting to the carrier, going back and forth with a reviewer. At every point, someone has a […]
Nelson Higgins
If I could go back 45 years, I’d tell myself one thing: learn to be the best communicator in the room. Communication is the age-old failure point in restoration. In my experience, about 80% of restorers are bad at it. And it costs them in ways they don’t always connect back to the real cause. […]
Chris TilkovDon't narrow yourself down before you have to. I studied architectural engineering, then pivoted to business, then technology management. At every turn, I just kept moving toward whatever was next. Looking back, that was probably the best career decision I never fully realized I was making. The advice I'd give my younger self is less about what to do and more about timing. I started building my business to improve estimating peer review processes when I had no dependents and no one else's stability on the line. That mattered. I got lucky in that respect, and I wouldn't do it again without looking hard at the full picture first. Entrepreneurship in restoration is hard work. People see the ones who made it and assume that's the norm. It's not. Starting a business is draining in ways you can't anticipate, and whether it works often comes down to life circumstances as much as it does to skill. What I'd tell myself, though: operate with a two-to-three year outlook. Stop trying to build a 20-year plan. I've never done the same thing for any long stretch of time. Stay humble, stay broad, and keep moving.
Don’t narrow yourself down before you have to. I studied architectural engineering, then pivoted to business, then technology management. At every turn, I just kept moving toward whatever was next. Looking back, that was probably the best career decision I never fully realized I was making. The advice I’d give my younger self is less […]
Holly Baldwin
For a long time, I was a chameleon. In school, in college, in early jobs, I’d look at the people around me and quietly try to mirror them. Who they were, how they presented, what they seemed to project. I thought that was just how you fit in, how you got ahead. It took years […]
