One of the challenges in making predictions is being blindsided by items you could never have seen coming. Before last year, imagine someone telling you the country would be shut down for months, you could not go to a restaurant or church service for months, college basketball would stop the week before March Madness, and most schools would be closed for months (or in some cases, a year).

In the March issue of R&R, Phil walked through his industry predictions from 2018 and revealed how he scored on each. His predictions included labor shortages and wage increases, industry pricing challenges, more TPA influence, growth of outside groups, and projections on weather-related events. To see how he fared, check out his March article! This month, he’s sharing his predictions for 2019!

Welcome to my {mostly} annual restoration trends update. I have spent more than 30 years working in the restoration industry which gives me a relevant perspective on the business of restoration. The following list is meant to help restoration contractors assess their business strategies – and just be an overall interesting read. I believe these issues will be the top drivers of change, not only in 2019, but into the future.