February Ahead: Onward
Mission Driven
It’s been beyond cold the last few weeks: the windchill freezing, lingering snow, and temps in the teens. My fingers are like icicles trying to tighten the screw on the new exterior light fixture at the condo we’re renovating. While the winter blues are easy to come by, I’m trying to keep our goals and mission at the forefront of planning and think about the longer days ahead, our ambitions for the year, and how and if we can tackle them. The excitement of the new year has worn off, and now it’s time to dig in our heels and grind. And residential remodeling is a grind: not only doing the physical work and connecting with the customers, but first finding the work, estimating it properly, ordering, scheduling, storing, picking up materials, organizing, and cleaning the van, to all the backend strategizing, bookkeeping, marketing, hiring, social media, taxes, the list goes on.
It’s easy to get lost and stuck in the day-to-day operations - and with HIRS coming into its 5th year, we want more than just renovating and status quo. We like complex, ambitious, and audacious goals – something to work towards and strive and more than ever, we need to support women in male-dominated sectors. February is a great time to reflect on our mission and vision and put the wheels in motion. This month, we are saying our goals out loud, knowing they are lofty and heady. If you’re not setting goals that scare you, are they even goals? With labor and housing shortages, we need more women in construction, and we want to find the women already doing it, learn from them, and improve our business in doing so.
The Stats and Challenges
Helping dad, somewhere around 1989
Growing up, I was told I could be anything I set my mind to. I could be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, plumber, astronaut. I had never once considered being a residential remodeler and certainly not owning the company to boot. We’ve all heard fathers handing their home improvement companies over to their sons or maybe see women in design and office positions, but I don’t hear any women (that I know) saying they want to go out on their own for remodeling. It’s still odd to see women in the field, and I can say that based on my daily interactions with customers, contractors, and vendors alike.
In 2023, there were around 1.3 million women in the construction industry. While that number sounds large, it accounts for just under 11% of the total industry workforce, an increase from 9.3% . . . which was in 2002. Of this 11%, only 4% are in the skilled trades while the majority are in office and administrative support, management, and business or financial operations.
While data shows a slight increase in women in construction, women are still highly underrepresented in the field, and they also face hurdles that men do not - including gender bias and a lack of access to mentorship or training opportunities. Women have also cited challenges including job-site culture, discrimination, and limited support services such as childcare. This is nothing new and so common among male-dominated sectors.
If more women joined and remained in the construction industry, the workforce would grow enough to fill existing job openings. Even a modest increase in women's employment in construction would help bring it closer to levels seen in other industries and would result in a surplus of workers exceeding the number of available positions.
While construction typically has low educational barriers, skilled trades require technical training, constant networking, and business acumen. Expanding access to apprenticeships and training programs, child-care support, job site improvements, and better outreach could help remove these barriers and increase the number of women in construction as well as retention.
HIRS 2025 Roadmap
We ask ourselves daily, how do we go from hiring one part-time woman here and there, to really offering solutions for industry-wide issues like skilled labor shortages, women in construction, affordable housing, the list goes on. It seems a bit daunting, yet, one day at a time we take slow, small steps in the direction we want to go.
When women succeed in construction, the entire industry benefits: they help to drive innovation, improve communication, and overall create a more inclusive workforce. HIRS is proud to be women-owned and led, as well as play a part in advancing this mission by hiring women and looking to collaborate with businesses that have already achieved this goal and are thriving. The goals for HIRS in 2025 focus not only on quality home projects and superior customer communication, but around two of our core values: knowledge and growth.
Follow the journey to see if we accomplish our goals:
Attend JCL Live Residential Remodelers Conference
Providence, Rhode Island
JCL Live is the most anticipated regional trade event of the year for residential construction attended by over 9,000 industry professionals. HIRS will be attending for the 3rd year at the end of March to network, hone business skills, and focus on strategic development. The 3-day event hosts industry experts, offers hands-on demos, provides practical construction education, women in construction panels, building clinics, etc.
We’ve signed up for the following sessions in addition to exploring the expo:
Stair Building for Carpenters: while this is not something HIRS currently offers or plans to, we have a lot of customers ask about stair renovations and when I saw the session, having more knowledge made sense in order to better meet customer needs
SketchUp in Practice: Learning Sketchup has been on the back burner of my to-do list for almost 2 years. Our tiny house plan is currently in Power Point - and although it is impressive in there - it’s not the proper application for a building and design plan.
Women in Construction Roundtables: This was a no-brainer session, always inspiring, motivating, and informational.
Strategic Business Planning (Designing and Planning your Future Business Transition): I believe strategic development is a key component to any successful business and we are constantly thinking ahead to the next step, chapter, and development.
How to Turn Your Website into a Lead Generating Machine: Our website is a pillar of our marketing plan and it’s critical to keep it relevant and showing up in searches.
Rot Repair and Techniques: We have had a handful of rot projects — decking, siding, sheathing, window sills — just about anything that can and will rot. Would love to add to our arsenal of rot repair — these are the jobs that require creativity and patience.
Finish the MTA
When we started building the tiny house we wanted to come up with a savvy name. And we couldn’t. The best we got was MTA — the first initial of our grandmothers’ names - Marietta, Therese, Arlene. And the goal this year is to finish it - and sell it. We’d like to finish it by mid-summer but would even be happy with end of year. We acquired the trailer in June 2023 and said we’d take our time. Well now 20 months has passed and we need to get a move on it.
What’s left to do? Everything. We finally framed the loft and bathroom wall which will eventually hold a pocket door. Currently, the utilities are underway: we ran wires this week and have been having robust plumbing conversations. The number of decisions feels endless. In order to properly plumb, run wires, frame, etc. it’s essential to know the specs of the fixtures and products that will eventually be installed, even if they are not yet onsite. And think of the billions of different products and choices. It’s easily overwhelming. We have a building and floor plan, but have made multiple changes and then go into analysis paralysis on the endless options.
Part of the goal is to make a decision, knowing that any decision could have gone 25 different ways, and being ok with it. Although it’s a steep learning curve, we’re dedicated to spending more time between projects to get this project out of our backyard. — Just so we can possibly build another. Travis will only let me work on one at a time — and can’t blame him if it takes 2 years to finish!
Wild Abundance Site Visit
Barnardsville, North Carolina
We’ve been on a quest to find women-owned businesses in the remodeling or tiny home industry — either building, training, or teaching; and we stumbled upon the coolest school. Wild Abundance popped up immediately on a search and I knew we needed to go. We are planning to drive down in late summer, and hoping to volunteer over a long weekend.
Wild Abundance offers courses in carpentry and tiny houses, earth skills, and permaculture. We are most interested in their carpentry and tiny house programs, where they offer women’s carpentry classes, tiny house workshops, framing classes, beginner to advanced woodworking classes and much more. We are motivated to seek out these small gems of companies that are doing amazing things where we can learn, collaborate, and network.
Buildher Site Visit
Nairobi, Kenya
A road-trip to North Carolina seems lofty, but we’re setting our sights even higher. Last year when my parents decided to plan and embark on an African safari in Kenya and Tanzania, I also entertained the idea of joining them. And then my brain went one step further and started googling “women in construction in Kenya” and Buildher popped up. Again, I saw a group of kick-ass women with a proper training facility and school that exclusively trains women and promotes gender equality in construction. I am a traveler at heart, always wanting to learn and explore and this seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass.
Buildher - the first organization in Kenya to provide women with hands-on training in construction - works to support low-income women to break the cycle of systemic inequality by providing training, tools, and employment support. The site visit would include attendance and possible presentation (and demo) at a local builders conference for women organized by Buildher, as well as onsite knowledge-share, skill building, and cultural exchange at their training facility in Nairobi. I had the opportunity to meet with Tatu Gatere, owner and founder of Buildher, a few months back in DC while she was in town. We agreed this would be a great collaboration and are aiming to make it happen at the end of October or early November. Thankfully we have time to formalize the plan, create a schedule and agenda, confirm the budget, and determine how many tools we can carry in our suitcase. Plenty more to come on this goal!
Organizations such as Wild Abundance, Buildher, and Girls at Work play a large roll in changing the tide for women in construction – and we want to learn directly from them. Stay tuned for more information on these projects each month.
What You Can Do
Learn more about organizations making a difference, such as Wild Abundance and Buildher
Share this newsletter to help raise awareness for women in construction
Let’s collaborate! Reach out to explore ways we can partner and support development and training for women in construction
Current Projects
Finishing the condo renovation: upgraded the bathroom, replaced lighting and fixtures, patched and painted most rooms, and contracted with D. Powers Hardwood Flooring to refinish birch floors, renovate the basement stairs, and install a floating floor
Ordering an exterior door and estimating a full bedroom renovation for a repeat customer
Assisting with design and tile choice for a kitchen backsplash and fresh paint
Installing a drywall patch over a fireplace
Drafting and implementing the electrical and plumbing plan in the MTA
Insulating the MTA
In the Name of Marketing
We recently brought the team together for a branding and content photo/video shoot. Coming up to 5 years we realized we were in need of some fresh, professional images, especially as the team morphs and shifts. We worked with the HYN Group and Fearless Persona Photography. We are excited to share this content with you, and you will see it rolling out over the next few weeks and months on the website, in our newsletters, and on the HIRS Instagram and Facebook pages. These are some of the behind-the-scene shots:
The Origins
Home Improvement and Renovation Services (HIRS) is a woman-owned, family-operated business specializing in residential remodeling and repairs across southern New Hampshire. Founded in 2020, HIRS has grown organically through word-of-mouth referrals, offering a wide range of services, focusing on interior renovations such as kitchen, bedroom, bath remodels, flooring, doors and windows, painting, finish work, and custom carpentry. We bring quality service, extensive knowledge with a passion for learning, a drive for growth, and the resilience to make meaningful outcomes. We push the boundaries of the glass ceiling and look forward to ongoing collaboration with change and thought-leaders across the industry.
