How to Grow Your Roofing Business: A Complete Management Guide

Are you running your business, or is your business running you… into the ground? Discover a better way to operate with these proven lessons from elite roofers.

Do you remember the day you started your company? All that hope… all that verve…

And now? In between chasing jobs, fielding customer calls, training staff and climbing ladders – why are you still climbing ladders? – you’re lucky if you can remember what you ate for breakfast.

If it feels like there’s no time for anything besides whatever fire happens to be blazing the hottest, congrats… you’re ready to grow. 🔥🔥🔥

In fact, you must, because life just can’t continue at this break-neck pace.

You need to clear some space on your plate and focus on actually managing your company. Easier said than done, though, right?

Sure. But nothing you can’t handle. Especially with the help of this guide. Read on to learn the business management secrets of the most profitable – and calm – roofers out there.

Create an effective roofing business plan

With a clear business plan, you’ll no longer get to the end of the year and find yourself wondering where the time went, or worse, what you have to show for it.

The process of writing your plan will help you clarify the crucial elements of your business, such as the:

• Purpose behind your work
• Values that will guide your decisions
• Short and long-term goals
• Actionable steps to reach those goals
• Celebration you'll have when you reach the other side

It’s not the place to worry about the finer points of how you’ll actually accomplish each step. (Though we’ve got tools to help you with that too, don’t worry!)

The business plan is about drawing the map to your future, and while it can be as robust as you want, we recommend keeping it brief. Here’s a one-page Strategic Plan template that will help get you going.

Plus, for more on this topic, head over to this article on How to Write a Roofing Business Plan.

Build a budget and use a tracking system

Why does proper roofing bookkeeping matter to your business? Let’s lay it out. If your tracking is weak, you have no data to make decisions with, leaving you financially vulnerable. Without proper financial controls like an annual budget, accurate job costing, high-quality bookkeeping and accounting you’re only a bad decision or two away from bankruptcy! (Trust us, we bring roofers back from the brink every year.)

Many roofing professionals aren’t aware of their gross profit margin, but this crucial metric links directly to your estimating, which depends on having accurate billable hours to work from, which requires you to have a good tracking system in place.

It really is all connected…

So, quit relying on a basic “price-per-square” model (you can do better than that), and build a budget. Trust us, it’ll change your world and allow you to:

• Track your actuals against your budget, annually, quarterly and weekly
• Understand your revenue, variable expenses and overhead
• Increase your gross and net profit margins to meet (or even beat!) the benchmarks
• Make accurate business forecasts
• Set up a stress-free system for job costing and tracking billable hours

If you’re ready to start keeping better tabs on your bottom line, this Budget Quick Tool will help.

Make a roofing project management plan

When things heat up, that’s when your leadership is truly tested. As you watch your team pass the buck and shrug blame off on one another, it’s easy to think the problem is them.

But it’s not – it’s you.

If they haven’t been given crystal-clear expectations about their deliverables and timelines, that’s on you. That’s right. All the confusion and kerfuffles that lead to project delays and irate clients… they’re your problems to solve.

How?

Infuse more accountability within your team.

Accountability is central to a successful project management plan because if things are going to get done on time and budget, each action needs to be assigned to someone specifically. And that person needs to be empowered to get the job done.

The balance between accountability and empowerment is a delicate, but vital, one. Which is why we created the Goal Setting & Review (GSR). It’s an iron-clad way to keep your roofing projects on track, while providing a framework to support your team in doing their best work.

If you’re curious to understand how GSRs work, this webinar explains how they’re done (and offers a bonus template!).

Hire a stellar roofing project manager

Reliable roofing staff can make or break your company. If you stand any chance at all of stepping out of the daily grind and getting off the tools for good, you’re going to need steadfast people you can depend on – especially a project manager who knows how to get the job done.

However, assembling an A-list team is one thing; finding viable candidates in the first place is something else entirely.

How do you attract quality talent that won’t won’t flee the moment the flurries start? By attracting individuals with values that align with those of your company, and making sure you’ve got secure and steady cash flow so you can afford to keep them YEAR ROUND.

It all starts with being very clear about who you’re looking for, not just in terms of technical skills, but also in terms of personality and attitude.

We’ve got a template for creating Ideal Candidate Profiles, which will assist you with defining the skills and values you require in each role, and steer you towards writing job postings that grab the attention of top-notch candidates.

Once you’ve got applications coming in and you need to whittle the applicants down, here’s an Interview Guide to asking the right questions and recognizing red flags.

Finally, this tool on Compensation and Incentives will help ensure you’re able to provide competitive packages to prospective team members.

Define your organizational structure

As a business owner, it likely feels like every job is your job, and on more occasions than you’d probably like, that entails cleaning up yet another mess after your team members have tripped over each other (we mean this figuratively, but… interpret as you see fit).

If your team isn’t sure who’s meant to be doing what – or if YOU feel like you don’t know exactly where your job ends and your team’s begins – it could be worth creating a definitive organizational structure.

That may sound overly corporate, but as you scale your business, it’s going to save your sanity… and that of your team.

It can be basic to start with, the most important thing is that the rings around the positions are clearly defined. What is each person’s role, and what responsibilities lie within it?

Overlapping tiles may be the way to secure a dry roof, but overlapping jobs are a surefire way to wash out a team.

Set new staff up for success

So, you’ve jumped through all the recruitment hoops and have managed to land a fantastic new member for your team. Great! Now, welcome them into the fold with a smooth onboarding process.

This is where standard operating procedures (SOPs) can really shine. With thoughtfully-crafted instructions, rife with images – or even videos – training can be a simple matter of plug-and play.

You’ll save a ton of time, both for yourself and the rest of your team, as your new hire is supported with materials they can refer to as needed, without needing to pester people with basic questions.

This Training Checklist will help you get new hires off on the right foot, and if you want to learn more about bringing standardization into your business, start by viewing this webinar on the power of SOPs.

Solidify your sales and marketing

Leads are the spark that sets the sales funnel in motion, but do you have a clear picture of where your leads are coming from? Do you have a focused marketing plan to draw in prospects from your ideal customer group?

Even if you’re engaging in sales and marketing activities, if you don’t have a definitive strategy in place, your only result is likely to be wasted effort.

It’s imperative to develop a dialed-in sales process, with a defined goal for what you’re after. Whether you’re still handling the bulk of the sales work, or you’ve managed to hire a sales person – or team, even! – you need to know your required KPIs.

What closing rate do you need to maintain your target gross profit margin? If you aren’t sure, or want some assistance figuring it out, Breakthrough Academy can help you pinpoint an answer.

Implement roofing business management software

Just like it’s impossible to fix a roof without the right tools, it’s impossible to run a seven-figure roofing company without the right tech.

There are apps for virtually every aspect of managing your business, from handling customer communications, to organizing social media posts. But choosing the software combo that’s right for your business can be overwhelming.

That’s why we created this Tech Stack Quick Tool. It’ll orient you to the options available and guide you through the process of deciding which is the best tech stack for your team.

When it comes to platforms designed to help roofers specifically, these are a few of our favorite partners:

• SumoQuote – specialized sales tool for creating winning roofing quotes
• JobNimbus – all-in-one roofing software to manage projects, empower communication, and master project details with ease
• CompanyCam – photo documentation and communication app to keep tabs on progress at job sites
• Eagleview – integrated virtual measurement system to increase accuracy and compress bidding timelines

Lastly…

It might feel like there’s a LOT to do – and you’re right, there is – but remember it doesn’t all need to happen right now. Redoing your management systems is an endeavor that will take a little time. But once you get started, you’ll see an immediate improvement, especially in your stress levels.

To help you through the process, Breakthrough Academy has distilled the above elements down to 6 key pillars we call The Contractor Growth Method.

You can think of it like a system of systems – complete with the support of expert coaches, a motivated community and thoughtfully crafted templates – all designed to help you free yourself from the frenzy of day-to-day operations…

And quit clambering up ladders.

Learn more about how to join Breakthrough Academy’s community of elite roofing contractors today.