2. Your Design and Planning Services - The Best Marketing Tool &  Profit Center Available, Especially in Tough Times
With Guest Joseph Dellanno from My Design Build Coach
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

As a design professional, your experience and insights are valuable assets for your clients. Now more than ever it's important to communicate effectively with everyone involved in the planning process. A well thought out plan takes the involvement of many people and a large commitment of time. The time spent on a plan is a direct cost of doing business and should be treated as overhead as well as a profit center in your business.

You deserve to be compensated for your knowledge and time. The design services you offer should be treated the same as everything else that you sell in the course of running your business.

In this webinar Dan and Joe will discuss strategies that you can use to turn your design efforts into a profit center. You'll discover the right mindset involved in this process and what you can do to effectively market your services.

• The benefits of using a Design System
• We all know design is important, but why?
• What it means to be a Design Build Contractor
• Find prospects - Marketing your Services 101
• Qualifying potential clients - We're here to solve a problem
• Competitive advantage for designers
• Determine what prospects might be interested in from you
• Set up a relationship-opening discussion with your prospect
• Find out what your prospect is REALLY worried about
• Charging for Design Services
• Things that should be included in a Design Build Contract
• Pricing of Design Services
• Retainers and other forms of payment
• Design with Chief - Working with Chief and Clients

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Bonus Free Webinar
Are Hidden Labor Costs Eroding Your Profits?
Compute the True Cost of Employees & Make Smarter Pricing Decisions
Presented by Diane Gilson with Info Plus Accounting
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
(You'll enroll for both times at once. You can attend either session or both)
Morning - 90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern
Evening - 90 Minutes, 5 pm Pacific - 6 pm Mountain - 7 pm Central - 8 pm Eastern

This action packed presentation will give you some insight into techniques that will help you succeed in 2010. Don't let the important details in your business slip through the cracks any more. Understand and take control of the true costs of your employees.

Here's some of what you'll discover in this free webinar:

• The really important questions that business owners have about employee costs
• Why you're not getting the information you need to make wise decisions
• Seven steps you can use to "Compute and Convert" - Turn Labor Costs into Profits
• What's holding you back from making more money in your business?
• Examples of changes you can make to get on the road to profits
• Debunk some common myths about what employees really cost

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3. Finding, Creating and Using Symbols in Chief
with Guest Presenter David Michael from David Michael Designs
Thursday, February 25, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Chief is an object based CAD program and a large part of the functionality of the program centers on the elements that can be created using slabs, molding lines and solids as well as the 1000's of items in the libraries.

With these tools you can add items or convert virtually anything you draw into 3D elements allowing you to add a high level of realism to your plan. In this webinar you'll discover how these elements are used to add details and then how they can be turned into symbols that you can use over and over.

As part of this presentation you'll be given links for many free and for pay sources of symbols that you can obtain and add to your libraries.

• Working with the Library preferences and settings
• Searching, arranging and creating personal libraries
• Overview of the "Slab" tool and how it's used
• Examples and items created using 3D molding polylines
• Creating a 3D slab object and adding it to the libraries
• Overview of how to create and add symbols to the libraries
• Sources of symbols available on the internet
• Overview of using Sketchup to create a 3D object and how it's used in Chief
• Exporting and using a 3D Chief model in Sketchup

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4. Spend Less Time Redoing Plan Settings and Defaults For Each Project by Using Plan and Layout Templates
Thursday, March 4, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

If you find yourself spending way too much time setting defaults, colors, door and window styles and other elements each time you start a new plan you should take a close look at using predefined templates.
In this session we'll discuss how templates work and why they can be big timesavers. You'll discover the many areas of a plan and layout that can be preset to the way that you like to work.

As part of this class you'll receive a Remodeling Plan, New Home Plan and Layout Template that you can customize and use in your business.

• Review what templates are and how they are created and saved
• Templates that come with Chief Architect
• Settings that you should consider using in your plan templates
• Settings that you should consider using in your layout templates
• Overview of the remodeling and layout templates
• Storing commonly used details as part of a template
• How the proper use of layer sets can help you define your template

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Bonus - How to Build a List of Names and Do Email Marketing
Tuesday, (Evening) March 9, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 5 pm Pacific - 6 pm Mountain - 7 pm Central - 8 pm Eastern

You hear a lot of talk about creating newsletter or other items that you can email to people. Does this concept work and is it worth the time you put into everything needed. In this webinar you'll discover the steps needed to set up an effective email system and the steps you can take to build your email list.

• Overview of how email marketing works
• What sorts of technology is needed to do online marketing
• What are the best services to use and how much do they cost
• Tips to define a strategy that will work for your company
• Steps needed to build an effective mailing list
• Steps you can take to insure people will open your emails

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Extreme Examples of Adding Roofs to Your Plan
5. Advanced Roofs - Part 1
Thursday, March 11, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

6. Advanced Roofs - Part 2
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

If you've reviewed the roof webinars in the X2 15 part training series you already have a pretty keen understanding of how to do roofs in a plan. But you may still have questions about certain situations and would like more clarification.

In the Advanced Roof sessions you'll see live examples of how to approach complicated roof situations as well as solutions to solving simple things like adding roof saddles.

As part of this session participants will be encouraged to send in examples of plans where they've run into situations that were difficult to figure out. We'll look at each of these examples and you'll see exactly how to approach and apply the solution.

Since completing the roofs on all of the sample plans in version 3 (when roofs were introduced into Chief) I've drawn 1000's of plans with simple roofs and some with very complicated roofs. In fact the more complicated the roof the more fun I have drawing it.

Send your examples to dan@chiefexperts.com with a brief explanation of what you are having difficulties with. I'll be assembling these examples before each class and will demonstrate the solutions needed to finish each roof

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7. Advanced Plot Plan Layout Techniques and Instruction
with Guest Presenter Michael Gaydos, AIA from Michael Gaydos Architect, PLLC
Thursday, March 25, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Chief Architect offers many really great features and the 2D CAD tools are no exception. In this session you'll see real life examples of how to use these CAD tools to create actual plot plans.

• What does a plot plan and survey consist of and how they are calculated
• Steps needed to understand what's involved in starting and completing a survey
• Step by step process used to complete an actual plot plan using the tools in Chief
• How to properly display everything that's needed for the plot plan
• Importing existing items and positioning them correctly in your current drawings
• Converting your plot plan to 3D and adding contour lines

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8. Split Levels - Solutions and Procedures for Creating Split Level Plans
Thursday, April 8, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Next to adding roofs to a plan, drawing projects with different levels ranks high on the list of things that frustrate many Chief users. In this session you'll discover how to setup and layout a split level that works.

• What is a split level and how does Chief handle the process of creating levels
• Methods to determine how to start the split level plan
• Predefining what the levels should be
• Setup and identifying your levels
• Designing the garage platform
• Keeping levels in place once you've added them to the plan
• Adding pony walls as part of a lookout and walkout plan

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Bonus - Marketing Strategies for Your Company
Tuesday, (Evening) April 13, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 5 pm Pacific - 6 pm Mountain - 7 pm Central - 8 pm Eastern

There are many ways to market your business. Some techniques are free and some have a large investment attached to them. In this webinar you'll discover ideas in many price ranges that you can use to get the word out about your services.

Learn practical no-nonsense ideas that you can use to get your foot in the door and become the contractor of choice.

• Get the list - over 50 marketing ideas you can use now
• Establishing a marketing plan and budget
• Tracking what marketing works
• What role your website plays in your marketing
• What is the best form of marketing for contractors

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9. Foundations - 3D Modeling and Detailing Techniques for Accurate Foundation Plans
Thursday, April 15, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Discover proper techniques to add foundations to your plan. In this webinar you'll see examples of the detailed plans your foundation contractor will need and how these plans are accomplished.

• Overview of the unique qualities of floor level 0
• Wall types used to create foundations
• Automatic versus manual foundation techniques
• Aligning walls from floor to floor
• Creating step footings
• Adding interior framing walls
• Creating garage slabs and curbing
• Detailing techniques to use in your working drawings
• Adding floor framing to a foundation
• Preparing the foundation plan for your plan layout

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10. Decks - Simple and Complex Detailing Techniques for 3D & 2D Deck Plans
Thursday, April 22, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Decks, entries, slabs and other exterior attachments can cause some conflicts in your plan. Discover how some simple steps to take when layout out these types of area that not only work in the 3D model but become part of the working drawings.

• Examples of detailed deck and porch plans
• Set up procedures for drawing decks and porches
• Simple procedures to consider when dimensioning a deck
• Laying out the footing and adding 3D footings
• Advantages and limitations of the Advanced Deck Framing feature
• Example of a post and beam porch with screen
• Miscellaneous tips for deck railings, skirting, decking, posts, beams and more

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11. Creative Presentation Techniques
Creating Drawings, Images and Presentations for Sales and Marketing
Thursday, May 6, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Chief is an excellent modeling and drawing program. But did you know it's an excellent sales and marketing tool as well. In this session we'll discuss ideas that you can use to market your business using the plans that you draw.

• Tips for creating quality renderings in Chief
• How to create walkthroughs and post them on the internet
• Using images from your plans to create brochures
• Creating online photo albums
• Is your portfolio up to date? Ideas on what to add to your presentations
• ow to create a photo montage for your website
• Creating a before and after "Thank You" for your client

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12. Advanced Examples of the Slab, Molding and Solids Tools
Thursday, May 13, 2010 - Enroll for the entire 2010 Productivity Series
90 Minutes, 8 am Pacific - 9 am Mountain - 10 am Central - 11 am Eastern

Chief is an incredibly powerful 3D modeling tool. Just about anything you draw can be displayed in 3D if you know how to do it. In this session you'll see first-hand examples of many things that were created with the molding, slab and solid tools along with explanations of how it was accomplished.

• Overview of Chief's 3D modeling capabilities and procedures
• Items created with the "Molding" tool
• How to create a repeating 3D object with the "3D Molding" too
• Types of items that you can create with the "Slab" tools
• Using the "Solid" tools to create specific 3D items
• Examples of show stalls, tray ceilings, moldings, trim detail, railings, ductwork & more...