Roofers Success International?????

Thanks you guys I really appreciate all of your advice it's always nice to know there are good people out there willing to help others in need

P.S. Twill has some excellent advise there!

TCR Roofing ****** I think i'm looking for more sales and advertising help than anything. I need to learn how to sell my quality over the low bidder. 90% of my work is word of mouth and they usually already know and I don't have to sell them. ******** That is the #1 way by far. To be referred and thus trusted BEFORE you even get to the site for the estimate. I don't know about you Chris but i don't want some NON ROOFER trying to teach me how to be a bull Schitter! Homeowners can be pretty silly sometimes but they often know when someones feeding them a line or trying to beef everything up. For me the best way has been just to be myself and shoot it to them straight. They really appreciate it. lol It doesn't sound to me like you would be happy with a lot of employees but at the same time you feel like you need some help. I can relate to that more than you'll ever know. Try adding 1 at a time until you get the help you are looking for. Just remember the more help you get the more work you will need to keep it all together. Thus more advertising dollars, payroll taxes, insurance costs, etc. I don't have a real large business ( I work 6-8 roofers, 1 secretary, 1 roof replacement salesman and i sell all the repairs and perform some of the smaller repairs myself ) I would prefer to sell the replacements but i cannot find anyone worth a crap to sell repairs for me. I've tried about a half dozen different guys and all they do is screw up and create call backs costing me money, time and headaches. I was able to find a guy who is not a roofer but is a good salesman. He had a little experience measuring roofs and selling insurance. I spent a few years working with him and molding him into a good estimator and roof salesman. Now, 5 years later he rarely needs my assistance anymore. Good help is hard to find and can be even harder to keep. I pay him fairly well, pay 100% of his health insurance and set him up a retirement plan. I have had a half page color ad in the real yellow pages for many years now. One day ( after i decide my customer base is large enough ) I plan to eliminate all advertising and cut back on roofing employees. Thats my plan for what im going to call Semi-Retired. lol Hopefully i can do that for 10-15 yrs and then Fully Retire. Might work out that way might not but thats the plan. lol Good Luck to ya!

TCR- I like this conversation. And I appreciate your honesty. Running headlong & blindly into creating some multi-million dollar company is certainly not going to lead to any kind of success. Most contractors end up creating a nightmare & a disaster.

I agree w/ Willie about measuring your own success. It is an individual thing. Which is the beauty of it. You seem to have taken the first step, which is to remove your ego.

Think about the #'s: Can you be successful w/ one employee as a $250,000 company? A $300 k Company? Can you protect your margins, take on another employee and grow to $400,000 + per year? And so on.

Can you work a niche without falling prey to creating a volume monster that needs fed?

Can you run this business profitably, w/ integrity and a minimum of headaches and liabilities?

Even a small company needs quality management. You can't manage five guys until you learn to manage one! Walk don't run!

You got 5 yrs. in and that is good. Your questions are worthy: "Where do I go from here? What are the possibilities?"

There is no magic bullet. There is no magic product that will bring the world to your door. And there is no single employee who is going to take you to the next level.

You are at the point where you want help and are willing to ask the right questions.

Thank I hear you. I guess i'm not really sure what I want and I know I need to make that decision before I do anything. Sometimes I think just me and maybe one guy would be fine. I know I can make money like that. I'm just tired of doing it all myself. I don't think i'm the kind of guy to have a big crew anyway. I know there are good roofers out there unfortionaly I have worked along side to many bad ones and it scares me to have that kind of liability out there working for me. I won't have someone that as soon as I turn my head will do it whatever way they want. I think i'm looking for more sales and advertising help than anything. I need to learn how to sell my quality over the low bidder. 90% of my work is word of mouth and they usually already know and I don't have to sell them.

Chris, for what its worth: If you've been running your own business for 5 years then im assuming that you had several years experience before that. I installed for 12 years and have been running my own business for 13 years ( 25 yrs. total ) and i get these letters ( and many others) all the time in the mail. Sometimes i open them just out of curiosity and sometimes not. When i was at your stage of the game i wanted to be "successful" too ( i mean who doesn't )and thought maybe somebody had something to offer just like what you are thinking. But i have not found anything like that to be worth 10 cents. Worse than the money you will spend is the time lost where you could be doing what you do best. And thats selling, repairing and installing. It can also throw you off track sometimes. Doesn't seem to me that you need this type of thing. Especially if its just you with no employees. At that pace you dont need a lot of work to stay busy. I dont know what your definition of "successful" is. But to me its making a comfortable living and being able to put a little away for a rainy day. Although i have had some very profitable time frames in this business over the years I gave up on trying to get rich a long time ago. lol If by "successful" you mean that you want to grow and have a few employees and more work then theres nothing wrong with that but be very careful not to overspend in the process. You should grow a little at a time over time. Don't try too many new things too quickly. Like, if you want more work then advertise more. A lot of people don't like the yellow pages but they have been very successful for me. When i first started out i advertised in the yellow pages and the newspaper. Then i started using yard signs, lettered trucks etc. The leads from the advertising will turn into jobs and then those jobs will turn into more jobs. Over time you will build up a nice customer base. For me "True Success" as a roofer comes from being exactly that! "A Roofer"! Not some big shot business man type.

I tried to find the post on NRG but couldn't find it

no they do not send you any jobs. you just pay to be a part of the the club i guess you could say. they tell you how to market and run your company. among other things.

On reflection, I think there was a real long thread at NRG. I know Kyle is a member. I assume if it's a monthly fee, the fee must come out of the jobs they're sending you after you get paid on completion? Right?

Well that is kind of what they are trying to save you is learning through the school of hard knocks....but is cost you quite a bit of money per month

Wish i could help you out Chris but i spent 25 yrs. learning from the school of hard knocks. I would teach THEM how to have success as a roofer if it were possible but they wouldn't be able to understand it! lol