When news of the coronavirus hit in early February and companies closed their doors in March, MJ Taylor was concerned. Today she is busier than ever.
GREENSBORO, NC – When you own a business, you want to be busy. More calls and customers are better than no calls and customers. While many companies are excited to be 50% busy, some are doing more work than before.
“We’re very busy. Every single person I speak to in the business is in the same boat,” said MJ Taylor.
The owner of MJ Design Build will handle everything from a remodeled bathroom or kitchen to building a new home from scratch.
Earlier this year, after the pandemic started, Taylor feared her business would take a hit. Several customers have postponed planned jobs as many worried about job security and uncertainty in the future.
“I was really worried, I thought, what should I do,” said Taylor.
Any delay in business she had was short-lived as most customers called back a month or two later to reschedule.
Calls came in as more and more people wanted to renovate or remodel their homes.
“I probably get three to five calls a day,” said Taylor.
Many builders are so busy that subcontractors are planned for up to 10 weeks due to the high demand. Many subcontractors also cancel or delay some orders when a larger one is added.
Carl LaBonge and his wife recently hired MJ Design Build to remodel some bathrooms and some rooms in their home. The couple now work from home full time and found that the timing was right.
LaBonge said now that it was home it would be a great time to tackle some projects at home.
With many people staying at home more than ever, many want to turn a guest room into an office. Other people are trying to remodel the kitchen as more people are eating at home than eating out.
The other possible explanation for this sudden remodeling boom is that money not spent on travel this summer can be spent on home improvement.
“We were on a cruise in Alaska in early August, so the fact that we’re not going to pay $ 5,000 or $ 6,000 (for the cruise) helped,” LaBonge said.
How long this sudden onslaught of businesses will last is unclear. Taylor is trying to do as much work as possible right now to find out that it will eventually slow down.
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