Fellow Business Owners and Roofers - Need Your Help!

Hi fellow business owners and roofers. I need some help in setting up a business, and have nowhere to turn but to this forum, where I know real roofing business owners and roofers hang out. Hope you can give me a hand, and I will give you mine with what I am good at (search engine optimization).

Here’s the story.

One day I decided I am going to start a business. Thought of limousines, but the license + limos are way to expensive, so I needed more ideas. Headed out to my friend who is a roofer, and told him I want a business. We talked and so it was decided we were going to open a roofing business.

We decided to go 50/50, with me making the website, and him pitching in his part, and later on taking care of the roofing team, while I talk to the customers, market the company, manage finances etc.

2 and half months later he only pitched in pennies while I spent a lot of money marketing the site, making sure we got reception girls (remote office), and just moving business ahead. Didn’t ask for much. Spent all my weekends and all my free time at home working on the business, making my dream of actually running a successful business come true.

Now that the website ranks on the search engines for very good terms, we are getting calls, which are not going anywhere yet. The demand is there, needs to be higher to support a company, but it’s there and calls should hopefully only go up.

Happy with the progress, I called my friend, and said it’s time to move things forward. The response was that it was his weekend, and he is going to play PS3 all day today and doesn’t want to be bothered by anything. I spent a lot of effort, money and time at home on my weekends, moving things forward, yet the only weekend I need him he ditches.

Screw a partner like that. I dont need a partner like that. He’s still a good friend, but NO WAY he is my partner. I am going to build this company by myself.

I am pretty clueless at roofing. I do search engine optimization professionally for an insurance company, but I know little about roofing. I will learn as I go, and I know, since that’s how I learned what I do now… I can have a company as I’ve always wanted to have one, so the first step - I turn to you…

Basically, I am going to buy roofing equipment, hire estimator, and roofing team and have the company. For the money I am turning to a good man I know, and to a bank.

I know I need a truck, and some credit to get the materials for the job. But what else? What are the tools that are needed for the job? How much do they cost. How much does it cost you to maintain a team of roofers? Have all those question and nobody to answer them, so I am hoping you can help.

I want to have a figure in mind as a starting point. What is the amount that I need to buy the equipment, and how much operating capital do I need to get things rolling. Keep in mind you can subtract marketing expenses, since marketing is there.

Ivan.

I really dont know what your looking for.Hire a business coach.

Sorry, but I don’t think that this is a good idea. Roofing is not some recreational hobby. You must know how the roofing work is done.

If you must do this, you need a general manager who is a roofing expert. If he is any good at all, you will need to pay him 6 figures because he can make that out there on his own. Knowing marketing is pretty useless in this profession. Knowing sales is paramount, though.

I could go on for hours as to why this is a bad idea.

:?:

Shoot Dude, 1099 a bunch of illegal immigrants. That is 2/3 - 3/4 of the residential roofing industry. You don’t even need a clue on how to roof anything

Get Exactimate— you don’t need to have a clue about how to price anything.

Go sell colors and 30 yr. shingles---- you can be clueless about products… and still sell them!

That’s about it. And you are FAT in the majority of the way things work Fella :frowning:

Let me give you this idea…what about getting a crew that will still be ther in low work time and make sure the leader know abouth the roofing istallation. Just make sure u dont sale tile roofs or slate this takes more then just reading books. Ask this questions Why home owners do their own roofs some times>>> they just open the shingle grap and look ther instructions…but if the crrew leader knows about roofing you will be in good hand…dont ever tell your roofers you dont know about roofing always get on top of roofs and take a look how things are getting done and if you see things that look weird ask the lead guy…is this going to be ok… You got the money to make ur business grow and it takes more then just having the money…

where are you located Ivan ?

Hello there Ivan,

I can “hear” the excitement in your post. You really want to be a business owner in the worst way possible. Congrats! Seriously.

My question to you is are you interested in roofing? It is a great trade and takes major skills. But, if you aren’t interested in ROOFING, only interested in a BUSINESS then I do gently suggest that you try to get into another industry. If you are serious about owning a ROOFING BUSINESS then maybe you could become a partner with a local roofing business…invest your time and money slowly, learn the trade from beginning to end, work on the roofs for a summer. There are roofs that go up on weekends so you could continue with your day job. There are countless things you could propose to the current owner you’d partner with and maybe he’d have ideas for you as well.

I do wish you luck Ivan. If you want to talk more, click the link below and PM me in the WATERCOOLER.

Sal

[quote=“Idiot Savant”]Shoot Dude, 1099 a bunch of illegal immigrants. That is 2/3 - 3/4 of the residential roofing industry. You don’t even need a clue on how to roof anything

Get Exactimate— you don’t need to have a clue about how to price anything.

Go sell colors and 30 yr. shingles---- you can be clueless about products… and still sell them!

That’s about it. And you are FAT in the majority of the way things work Fella :([/quote]

Shoot Idiot Dude, there’s a guy here who I suspect is 1099ing High School kids or recent grads. He used to be a HS wrestling coach

His prices are dirt cheap, he does major crappy work and he has a fleet of AWESOME trucks.
Which taxpayer do you think is paying for that AWESOME fleet BTW?

I think Ivan is pulling everyones d–k.The guy didnt have anything to do so he made up the whole thing.

Have a sub-contractor do the work. Then you don’t need to pay them when you don’t have work for them, and you don’t need to buy a bunch of equipment. I disagree with needing roofing knowledge. Smart people hire people smarter than them. Hire an experienced roof salesman/estimator, and pay him commission. EVERY business is a marketing business, so the fact you have marketing skills puts you a step above someone who only knows roofing. You can learn roofing. Go to Certainteed’s website and order the roofing applicator manual and shingle technology manual. You will learn a ton from those two books. It’s not rocket science. Years down the road, because of your marketing prowess, you will be doing 3 times as many roofs as the expert “roofers”.

Sometimes more is less

HUH?

I would recommend holding off on the business start and going to work for a roofing contractor for at least year to see if its something you want to get into. By then, you should start to understand what the business is all about.

Good Luck,

Steddy

Well it all just makes perfect sense now.,I was missing the point the whole F*****G time.