If you are interested in starting a roofing company, we want to offer you our congratulations and a warm welcome to the industry! Few industries are more rewarding than the roofing industry and starting a roofing company is something that you will be able to look back on with pride for years to come.
Today, the Roofing Academy team is excited to share some advice from The Roofing Academy’s own, Randy Brothers, on starting a roofing company. Keep reading below to learn more.
How to Start a Roofing Company
Casting Your Vision
The first step to starting any business, roofing or not, is casting your vision. As a founder, you are responsible for being a visionary for your company in order to find success. When casting your vision, it is important have a strong understanding and knowledge of your industry. Without a strong industry knowledge base, it will be near impossible to cast a successful vision.
Start by thinking about a goal for your company and then consider how you will achieve that goal. What steps do you need to take in order to get your business from Point A to Point B? What metrics will you use to measure success? How will you build a team to support your vision? From there you can start taking actionable steps to make your vision come alive.
Partnerships
Like most things in life, it is hard to build a successful organization completely on your own. While you may think you have the industry knowledge, business acumen, and level-headedness to achieve solo success, it is unlikely that you will be able to manage the many responsibilities of running a successful organization completely on your own.
When searching for a business partner or partners to take on this endeavor with, you will want to look for people who complement you. Your business partner should have strengths that you may not — for instance, if you have a keen eye for exterior design, industry knowledge, and the personality traits of a great salesman, but lack the financial and accounting skills necessary to run a business, look for someone excels there.
In addition to finding a partner with the business strengths that you need to succeed, you should look for a partner whose values, morals, and behaviors match yours. Before entering into any sort of business relationship, ask yourself if the person’s values and ethics align with yours and those of your future business.
Funding
Randy believes in the proof of concept theory when considering acquiring funding for a roofing company. Proof of concept happens when you prove that your business model works and the industry has a demand for what you are selling. In order for this to work, you want to focus on starting your roofing company with as little expense as possible and fist ensuring that you have the ability to execute and deliver quality service and product on time, on budget, and for a fair price.
Once you prove your concept, you will need money to continue pushing operations forward. There are a variety of avenues for funding including your own savings, a second mortgage, bank loans, or private investors. Each of these avenues has it’s own set of pros and cons and many times people choose a combination of the options when starting a roofing company. Only you know what your personal financial situation looks like and it is important to evaluate which is right for you and your individual finances.
Licensing
When starting a roofing company one of the most important things you will need to do is make sure that you are properly licensed to operate in your city and state. Each jurisdiction has their own set of licensing regulations so you will want to do some research and check with the local building department before opening for business.
The Business Plan
Your business plan will be one of the most helpful tools in your toolbox in the early days of your roofing company. In order to successfully launch your business operations, there are six main components that you will want to include when developing your business plan.
1. Planning and Budgeting
Start by establishing a method for tracking and analyzing critical financial data in order to create a budget for your new roofing company. Use these numbers as key metrics for measuring success and growth.
2. Organizational Structure
What roles and responsibilities are needed to get your roofing company off the ground and who will be filling these roles? What does your organizational chart look like, in other words, who reports to who? As your company grows your organizational structure may change but it is important to have a starting point.
3. Recruiting and Hiring
Create a standardized hiring process to use as you grow. Think about how you will find and source talent, what interview style and questions will be important, and how will you onboard new team members. Just like choosing partners whose ethics and values align with yours, you will want to make sure your entire team is of similar moral character to your own.
4. Training and Coaching
Training, coaching, and development are key components of any roofing company. Providing your team with consistent development opportunities will help you retain talent and grow your business.
5. Marketing and Sales
Establish a marketing and sales strategy and budget. Consider how much it will cost to acquire one lead, standardize the sales process, and determine who will be responsible for achieving sales goals.
6. Goal Setting and Priority Management
How do you plan to set and track goals for both your organization as a whole and the individual contributors on your staff? How will your roofing company prioritize certain tasks and goals? These are important things to consider as you are building your foundation.
Starting a roofing company (or any company for that matter) is a challenging endeavor, but seeing your vision come to life is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. If you are thinking of starting a roofing company, The Roofing Academy is a great resource for you to consider. Our members receive access to exclusive content and training materials in order to help them find success in this industry. If you are interested in learning more about our membership benefits, contact us today!