Here's how I feel today

Every spring is the same. Trying to sell roofs while competing with the cheap crooks who are working for wages trying to keep their SOBs busy. This goes on for a month or so until they start piling up jobs and realize that they better raise their prices and things get back to only mildly ridiculous. This little ditty sums it all up for me right now. :woohoo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42fycsKu-5E

You laughed, you laughed. I heard you laugh.

:laugh:>>>

1Peter, thanks man!

Supplier/Salesman, that sounds like heaven to me right now! That's what I'm working towards. I know it'll be slow to start, but if I can comfortably pay my bills by year's end, have enough of a stash to spend next winter at my house on the beach in Puerto Rico, and have developed a few work producing relationships with good people, then I'll consider this year a success.

OLE, same deal here. Racked up a ton of debt when I "grew". I remember having 8 men going full time, an office and 2 trucks and being broke. I longed for those snatch & grab jobs where everything was so easy (go in, do the repair, please the customer, get paid well, go fishing).

You can make a great living busting hour hump with a ton of exposure to all kinds of liability issues & limited profit, or you can make a great living doing one job at a time with comfortable down time.

I for one choose the latter (work less, make more, do a better job).

Don't get me wrong, I have all the respect for those companies that run successful crew operated busineses. I admire them. It shows that they have what it takes and my hat's off to them. Cheers.

But the sad fact is that there is just so much that any given market will bear and in our area, there simply are no good roofers around. All these companies are turning into jack of all trade deals. In my opinion, the more you focus on something the better you become at it. There is no peak.

Thanks guys.

;)>>>

Well, after 20 years of roofing 10 years for others and 10 years running my own business doing all replacement sales, repair sales and all repairs personally i decided i would like to advance and not have to work as hard so i hired a replacement salesman, a secretary, a repair salesman and a couple repair guys and got an out of home office. I went through three secretary's, a dozen or so repair guys, 4-5 replacement salesmen and 7-8 repair salesmen before i finally ended up with a half way decent bunch. The first year we had a lot of storms and everything was ok. The next year dropped off somewhat and then we suffered a year long drought followed by the economy problem. I ended up with nearly $100,000 worth of debt trying to keep everyone and everything together until i finally reached a point where i had no choice but to let them all go one at a time along with many things we had in place that were not absolutely necessary. And yep you guessed it. It was back to Ole willie doing it all again. lol Like i never went through all the crap i had to endure just to get this thing set up right. Things have finally picked up enough that i just hired my replacement salesman back the other day but i'm not going any farther EVER! And i plan to cut my advertising in half in a couple months when its time to renew. It will take me years to get out of this debt. Probably at least the 4 years i had these people working. lol Now aint that a Bitch! lol>>>

2nd Gen and Willie; I have a contractor in my area who does it that way and is doing well enough to keep his two daughters in college. On a larger roof he will occasionally-but not always- bring on ONE laborer to help with the tear-off but is always there by himself loading the roof and shingling on his own. His father comes out to keep him company once in a while but never up on the roof, just putzing around the job site picking up wrappers and nails, going for lunch, etc. His work is perfect, word of mouth keeps his ad expense down to zero and he has extremely low overhead (including zero employee-related expense). He is set in his ways and not getting rich but doing well financially but has the benefit of being completely satisfied with what he earns and how he earns it. (Too bad for me he is also set on his current supplier - not me!)>>>

Positive thinking 2ndgen !

And that is what all "Real Roofers" need.

Despite the downturn here and the fact that I don't advertise anymore I am still getting enquiries for roof work.

All of the callers need fairly new roofs upgraded to leak proof because of bad flashing and valley details.

If either of my sons was interested I would be back roofing full time tomorow ! >>>

OLE Willie Said:This business is becoming more and more competitive and all that is doing is driving the prices down farther and farther while materials continue to rise as well as most other things. The only way to make any money in residential anymore around here is to be a one man rodeo and do EVERYTHING and i mean EVERYTHING your self. The old, hard way! :woohoo:

And that EXACTLY what I'm about to embark on Willie. :)

Competitive is not the word I'd use...cut throat is more like it. But that's ok...because I'm going to beat them. Without a doubt, I will. I will take it back to how I used to do it...provide the best service & material at a reasonable price. Better to do 1 great job that pays well than 4 that are just self-employment gigs.

Truth is, the cream rises to the top. We just have to be that cream. It's really survival of the fittest.

I for one am not going to surrender my trade to anyone that will not work as good as me. That's being a pussy.

Lucky for me, my old man just retired late last year! He's coming in with me and we're going to shake things up! With his experience (add 50+ years to my 25 years) and my desire to develop a great roofing company based on reputation, we will wipe the area clean of the jackleg shoemakers!

I'm feeling like Jack Nicolson in the original Batman movie...

"Wait till they get a load of me"

>>>

The day they made the 30 year arch's they opened the door for the Mex / Brazil subs Ask them to install a 3 tab roof and they are lost. Anybody can install 30 year shingles (no tape measure needed).

Ed, Maybe the paper over the I&W is overkill and all the the venting is not needed maybe this can get ur Est. down a little Plus is 1/2 inch plywood legal to go back with on the deck ?>>>

You are NEVER going to compete with SOB's, believe me. That's why we got out of the shingle business several years ago. You have to pick a niche roofing business. Take a long hard look at coatings for commerical buildings. Price is the name of the game today and you can coat a roof for far less that you can cover it. Buy a spray rig and get busy.........

JET>>>

Gman,

I just lost a job in North Aurora to what seems to be, from reviewing his website, a reputable contractor, named Affordable, (Not the pink truck guys out of Northbrook, I Think???)

Scope current = 3.25/12 pitch with original plywood decking and BUR with gravel. Then, on top of that, another layer of plywood and a 2 year old layer of Arch 30 shingles.

Object, to tear down to the original rafters and improve ventilation, due to no current exhaust and only minimal intake.

I would need between 77 to 82 sheets of new 5/8" CDX for the new decking, depending on how the cuts worked out.

I included 100% I & W Shield for the entire roof surface and 104 feet of Smart Vent for both entire eave edges, plus 54 feet of Shingle Vent II and then 30# felt over the I & W Shield and then install back 30 year Arch's.

Affordable was about $8,000.00 less than my proposed price. Minor differences were, he was only going 9 feet up with I & W and was going to use 1/2" wood, (Plywood or OSB, I don't know), and the Air Vent product, Vented Drip Edge over the gutters and a different brand of ridge vent.

Even if he upgraded his specs to mine, there is only about $1,000.00 more of an upcharge.

WTF???

Even if I took out the pricing for Materials AND Labor for the removal of both plywood decks and the installation of the new plywood deck, my price would still be higher than his.

How can it be done?

Ed>>>

Willie, At least it's nothing new. Just the same ole games. Got to keep the sense of humor and follow your heart. I can't do all the work that I get calls for so the ones I get will at least be profitable.>>>

Man i feel you! lol I had two customers call this week saying they just wanted to let us know they hired another company! Well, Gee thanks i sure appreciate that! lol When i asked them where we went wrong naturally it was the price. I quoted one guy $12,500 on a fairly large job and he got a quote from a mexican crew for $7,500 and hired them! I figured up my job cost at $8,000 and it was a 3 day job! How the hell they are going to make any money to speak of on that job is beyond my comprehension. They could simply sub a job from a local company and make more than that! This business is becoming more and more competitive and all that is doing is driving the prices down farther and farther while materials continue to rise as well as most other things. The only way to make any money in residential anymore around here is to be a one man rodeo and do EVERYTHING and i mean EVERYTHING your self. The old, hard way! :woohoo:>>>