Multipurpose sheds are today’s hottest backyard trend, and this presents a major sales opportunity for builders and dealers. As it turns out, there may be no reason to wait until a customer moves to sell them on a new shed. Builders can help customers to think beyond the basic footprint[Read More…]
Megan Headley
Megan Headley is a freelance writer with more
than a decade of experience writing about the
built environment. She can be reached at
rmheadley3@gmail.com, or connect with her
at www.linkedin.com/in/meganheadley
Tooled for Sales
How many sheds have you sold at 10:30 p.m.? There’s likely very few dealers out there sitting at the lot in case of a late-night sale, yet according to Joe Dumas, CEO of 3D Fish based in Youngstown, Ohio, there’s a large potential customer base looking to purchase sheds online[Read More…]
Exploring Sales Beyond the Shed
Once you’ve begun to explore options to add to your sheds, it’s easy to travel down the road of adding other types of inventory to your sales lot. Many shed dealers expand to carry products that might range from playhouses and playsets to horse barns and carports to pergolas and[Read More…]
Exploring the World of Cabins and Cottages
At a time when sheds are being seen as the new multi-purpose “room,” being retrofitted as offices and outside retreats, it’s tougher to pinpoint what sets these small structures apart from their classic cousins, cabins and cottages. But the builders who offer a wide range of outdoor products that include[Read More…]
The Market’s Most Portable Tools
If you’re doing any portion of the shed build on-site, then you already know that portability is a critical factor in a tool. Given that much of the shed build is done in the customer’s backyard, a balance of portability and power is essential for most tools in which you’ll[Read More…]
Facing the Challenge
Every build brings its own challenges. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a roadmap to those challenges? Fortunately, those builders who have been in the shed business a year or two … or considerably more … are often willing to share the challenges they’ve faced, and how they’re working[Read More…]
Updated Window Installation Instructions
More sheds than ever are including windows, providing natural lighting and, increasingly, a breath of fresh air into backyard structures serving as workshops, studios, and more. “When I started, we were selling the old awning-covered crank-out [windows],” says Shane Hartman of WEH Supply Inc. in Denver, Pennsylvania. “They’re still around[Read More…]
To Pour or Not to Pour?
It’s difficult to build anything without a proper foundation. While most sheds stand just fine on blocks, in some cases regulations or customer needs demand that the foundation be concrete. With blocks or even a gravel pad, the biggest consideration may be ensuring that the foundation is level. But with[Read More…]
How Do You Identify Your Sheds?
For more than 20 years, Blue Ridge Impressions in Port Republic, Virginia, has been selling nameplates for a range of purposes. About five years ago, however, the company began to explore an expanding niche where it saw a need for better identification: sheds and other backyard structures. Like many shed[Read More…]
Financing Options to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly
Of the many shed builders and dealers polled for this article about how they financed new investments, most shared the same answer: self-finance. It doesn’t seem to matter whether that investment is new machinery or the transportation equipment that can make the job easier. These established builders, large and small,[Read More…]
