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How To Start A Roofing Business

How And When To Build A Team

How to Start a Roofing Company with No Money

Though you will be able to perform some roof evaluations and repairs on your own in the first weeks and months of your roofing company’s launch, you will eventually need to hire a team of roofers. If your business grows, you will reach the point where you manage a team of roofers from the comfort of your office. Key in on experience and work ethic when hiring roofers. You need skilled individuals who aren’t afraid of hard work. After all, working high up on an angled roof on blazing hot summer days is not easy. Check each candidate’s references and work history to get a gauge as to whether he is cut out for this grueling work.

Next Steps

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Skills Experience And Education Useful In Running A Roofing Business

Starting a roofing business does not require a business degree, but certain skills and experiences can increase your businesss chances of success.

Roofing Experience. The roofing business requires experience in roofing or a similar construction job. This experience is needed to properly train employees, manage projects, and establish a proper standard of safety for your company to reduce risks.

Money Management. Finance is critical for a successful roofing business. Estimating and covering costs to complete projects and maintain cash flow during off seasons requires proper accounting.

Management Skills. Management skills are needed to hire skilled roofers for your business. A roofing business with a small crew will generally have a hierarchical structure, including a foreman and supervisor. As the business owner, you will likely spend time offsite and need the skills to direct your crew.

Customer Service Skills. Customer service skills will help you build the reputation you need to grow your business in a highly competitive market. The ability to communicate what your business does, how you will service the customer and the desire for referrals can build the trust to convince clients they should choose your company.

Education. There are benefits to learning the trade through an apprenticeship program. Experienced roofers can acquire certifications through the National Roofing Contractors Association.

How To Start A Roofing Company: A Comprehensive Guide

A home is a significant investment. However, it is essential to protect your investment from bad weather, wear and tear, or old age. This necessitates contacting qualified individuals to carry out the job correctly. When dealing with roofing issues, calling a professional roofer is essential.

Starting a roofing company can be a good investment. You will be doing different things like installation, repairing, painting, modifications, extensions, and spraying of roofs. The demand for roofing services is high because the building industry is rapidly growing.

Heres what it takes to start a roofing business.

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How To Start A Roofing Company: 6 Key Steps

Create a Thorough Business Plan

Regardless of the business youre trying to start you NEED a business plan if youre going to successfully get off the ground. While your business plan doesnt need to be so exhaustive that you spend so much time on it that it derails your ability to open your business in a timely manner, it does need to be thorough.

Depending on who you ask or where you look, youll get all sorts of outlines for what you should have in your business plan. Weve found that this outline, courtesy of NFIB, is succinct enough to where it isnt too much, but still thorough enough so youll make sure you dont miss anything.

The NFIB outline includes the following sections:

  • Executive Summary
  • Financial Plan and Projections

Choose Your Name

Depending on who you ask, this is either the most fun part of starting a roofing companyor the most stressful. While the name is an important part of your eventual business, it isnt the end-all-be-all. Performing high-quality services is what is truly important. So, dont sweat the naming portion. Choose something that you like, and that gets you excited. Take your time with the naming portion, but dont drag it on, and keep second-guessing yourself. Workshop a few different ideas with friends and family and see what sticks. Also, do your research to make sure the name is available. This list of some of the best available roofing names is a great place to get the juices flowing!

Develop a Marketing Plan

Use Social Media Wisely

How to Start a Roofing Business

Social media is an excellent place to start when it comes to marketing. Nowadays, many people rely on social networking as their primary news and entertainment source. Its reasonable to be here if you want your company roofing to flourish. You must not join every group and page, however, since doing so may appear desperate and decrease the relevance of your postings.

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Be The Leader Your Company Needs

Becoming a strong leader for your business is an important step if you want to grow. Business leaders with a clear vision, strong communication, and deft organization are able to overcome challenges and make wise decisions as they grow.

Many roofing business owners started out as roofers or supervisors. The upside of that path is that you have excellent background knowledge about the industry that can inform decisions about materials, techniques, or sales. On the other hand, very few people are natural born leaders, and working as an individual roofer doesnt always offer the opportunity to develop leadership skills.

So start working on becoming a better leader right now.

Round Up Your Equipment

Never mind new when used will do.

Equipment and tools to start a roofing company will depend on the type of roofing you provide. Residential roofing is cheaper and the easiest way to start. Commercial requires more capital.

Equipment will probably account for the largest portion of your startup costs. So, buy tools as jobs require them and never spend more than you have to during startup. Dont buy a new truck when an old one will do. You may be able to get a good used one for under $10k.

Here are some basic items you may need:

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What More Should Your Plan Have

To make your dream of starting a roofing business a reality, your plan should be as comprehensive as possible.

This should include the time taken it will take for the business to break even, how to make money, determining the pricing structure as well as working out how much profits youre likely to earn over a while.

Promote Your Roofing Business

7 Steps for Subcontractors to start a Roofing Business in 2022

Different types of print marketing, signage, and additional branding elements can help build brand awareness in your local area.

Building relationships with potential customers face-to-face is one of the most impactful ways to find your first clients. Make sure to have professional business cards on hand whenever youre networking.

Print out a stack of flyers that include your logo, company information, and a first-time customer discount. Canvas your local neighborhoods, and distribute flyers.

You can also create decals to put on your work vehicles and order company uniforms with your logo.

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Where Choose Your Business Premises

In the early stages, you may want to run your business from home to keep costs low. But as your business grows, youll likely need to hire workers for various roles and may need to rent out a warehouse facility for roofing materials storage. You can find commercial space to rent in your area on sites such as Craigslist, Crexi, and Instant Offices.

When choosing a commercial space, you may want to follow these rules of thumb:

  • Central location accessible via public transport
  • Ventilated and spacious, with good natural light
  • Flexible lease that can be extended as your business grows
  • Ready-to-use space with no major renovations or repairs needed

Have A Plan For Your Roofing Company

If you want to start a roofing company, you must have a plan. Just dont get so caught up in planning that you dont execute.

If youre going to apply for financing or a small business loan, you must have a written business plan. Here are a few of the basics to include:

A narrative of your roofing company: Your business narrative is just a paragraph describing your business. You can write it in a who, what, when, where and why type of format.

  • Who: Who are you? What is the name of your roofing company? What makes you unique?
  • What: What services does your roofing company offer? Will you work on new construction? Residential? Commercial?
  • When: When will you operate? You may want to consider business hours or seasonal restrictions.
  • Where: Where will your roofing company do business? How far are you willing to travel for jobs?
  • Why: Why do you do what you do? No need to get all existential. Just throw in a word or two about why you enjoy doing roofing.

An example of a narrative may be something like this:

Joes Roofing was started by Joe Jones to offer residential roofing services to Hillsborough County. We operate 12 months out the year weather permitting. We take great pride in our workmanship and we like doing our part to make sure our customers have a good roof over their heads.

Choose your business structure and include it in your business plan: Choose your business structure based on your risks, the protection you need and the legal benefits they offer.

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Finding Roofers And Subcontractors

Do you know the difference between a W-2 and a 1099 employee? If you dont, stop reading and watch this video: W-2 vs. 1099. Ok, now you know the difference on how to pay. I personally, STRONGLY recommend you finding a roofing subcontracting crew to use for your roofing projects. A Latino crew if possible! Hiring in-house W-2 roofers is a thing of the past and its going to make it nearly impossible for you to compete in price with other roofing contractors.

How to Find Subcontractors Finding subcontractors to do work for you isnt impossible if you dont know any, but there is a method on where to find them. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and look for guys carrying around shingles, go to roofing Facebook groups, and check with your local roofing building supply company. All three of these ways is an easy way to find roofing subcontracting crews. If this doesnt work, just drive around neighborhoods and eventually, youll find some.

How to Pay Your Subs One of the biggest mistakes roofing companies make is not paying their roofing subcontractors on time and to the agreed amount price. Its important to get a signed subcontractor agreement prior to every project detailing exactly how much money is going to be exchanged. This will keep your subcontractors happy, and youll always have labor to do your projects.

How To Start A Roofing Company In 11 Steps

How To Start A Roofing Business Uk

There are a lot of questions to ask when starting your own roofing business, but the process can be a lot easier once you have some steps in place. Youll start out by defining your business, writing a business plan, and incorporating your business. From there, you need to obtain all of the necessary licenses and begin marketing your services to potential clients. Heres how to start a roofing company and find your first clients.

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Establishing The Level Of Competition

Once you have decided who your customers might be, you need to find out how well they are already served.

How many other roofing firms are there in your area? A look through the relevant classifications on Yell.com and other similar online directories will give you an idea of how many roofing businesses there are in your area. You could also look at local print directories. Try searching the web for roofing businesses in your area too. How many offer the same services that you intend to offer? These are your direct competitors. Bear in mind that there may be other roofers working in the area who don’t advertise anywhere – some of these may be ‘cowboys’ who operate illegitimately.

Look at some of your competitors’ advertisements and websites:

  • what services do they offer
  • do they advertise any special features, for example an insurance-backed guarantee, 24 hour emergency service
  • do they belong to any trade associations, for example the National Federation of Roofing Contractors or the Federation of Master Builders
  • are they signed up to the Competent Roofer scheme, enabling them to sign off aspects of their work for Building Regulations

Why Identify An Opportunity

Research roofing companies in your area to examine their products and services, price points, and customer reviews. Youre looking for a market gap to fill. For instance, maybe the local market is missing a roofing business that installs metal roofs or slate roofs.

You might consider targeting a niche market by specializing in a certain aspect of your industry, such as slate roof repairs or asphalt roofing.

This could jumpstart your word-of-mouth marketing and attract clients right away.

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Business Accounting Is Essential

To keep track of all expenses and income, business accounting will need to be in place.

There are several benefits attached which include being able to forecast revenues, the ability to create and control budgets, tracking business expenses, and making informed major business purchase decisions.

Business accounting also helps with better monitoring of the financial health of your business, making personnel decisions regarding layoffs and adding staff, monitoring of business growth, and keeping accurate records.

How To Start A Roofing Business

How To Start a Roofing Business – 10 Things to Know Part 1

If you want to start a roofing business you must realize that running a profitable roofing company is a lot more than knowing how to find a leak or replace a roof. Being a successful roofing business owner involves organization, knowledge, patience, perseverance, people-skills, and a number of other traits. Many business owners fail, not because they werent skilled in their craft, but because they were not skilled in running a business.

The larger you want your roofing company to be, the better you need to be as a business owner, as the responsibility will be greater. It is not wrong to dream big, but if you are a new business owner, it is best to start small and work your way up.

If you are looking to grow quickly, it will be critical for you to identify your own weaknesses and hire others that can excel in those positions.

On this page, and throughout The Roofers Helper website, you will find valuable tips and helpful information to get your roofing business off the ground.

There are basically 3 steps forhow to start a roofing business:

  • Plan your roofing company. This is a major step, and will help guide the direction of your business.
  • Register your roofing business with proper government institutions. You need to make sure your business is operating legally in your area.
  • Promote your roofing business. A solid marketing and sales strategy is critical to attract new customers.
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    Promote Your Roofing Company

    The next step is to help customers find your roofing business when theyre looking for the services you offer.

    You should:

    • Build a business website and list your services on it.
    • Create profiles for your business on platforms like Google, Facebook, Yelp, and Thumbtack.
    • Showcase the portfolio of your roofing company.
    • Build a brand presence on various social media channels.
    • Come up with effective advertising strategies to promote your roofing business and services.

    Satisfy Any Legal Requirements

    Look into the legal requirements of running a trade business in your country. Things like licences, permits, tax requirements, and entry into local business registers may all be prerequisites to your launch. If this all sounds a bit intimidating, dont worry there are loads of free resources you can use to get help consult your local council or see if there are any non-profit organisations that help to get small businesses on their feet.

    If youre planning on hiring, therell likely be a few requirements you need to consider. Depending on what method of employment you use, this process may differ. For example, there are different rules for hiring a contractor versus a subcontractor, or a subcontractor versus an employee.

    No matter where you are, youll no doubt need to satisfy a number of safety requirements before you can even think of roofing. Check out the health and safety requirements in your country:

    Another great way to ensure that youve ticked all the health and safety boxes is by checking in with your team members so that you can all work towards a safer workplace. Try using our free health and safety survey questions, theyre tailored to tradespeople:

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    Step : Obtain Necessary Permits And Licenses

    Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

    State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

    Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate a roofing business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBAs reference to state licenses and permits.

    For information about local licenses and permits:

    Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses.

    For information about local licenses and permits:

    Service Agreement

    Roofing businesses should consider requiring clients to sign a service agreement before starting a new project. This agreement should clarify client expectations and minimize risk of legal disputes by setting out payment terms and conditions, service level expectations, and intellectual property ownership. Here is an example service agreement.

    Certificate of Occupancy

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