I have been in this business for a long time. Anything from installer, sales and management. However, I am tired of the same old song and dance. You know the one "Sale, Sale, Sale" But they never pay you or they can't pay their bills.....I am ready to try my own go a this. Here is what I have. Sales team, canvassers, telemarketers, office management, office desk, computers, etc all I need now is the help to do it right. If anyone can give me some advise....
If it was a storm chasing outfit just go to the next storm with all your sales peeps and roofers and find a local business that does not have the employees to handle the calls they are getting and work out a deal. If you want to start a local company get rid of all of them except for one small crew of roofers and prepare to sell your own jobs until the business picks up enough to hire on a salesman. Why do you think your boss could not pay you or his bills? Because all of you guys were the " high overhead ". Best of Luck! :huh:
What do you need money for? Buying marketing? Investing in rolling stock and production tooling? Paying people their back wages that were not paid by the previous owner? In a service industry like roofing, you don't need lots of capital unless you're building up production capacity, buying the prospects, or transporting the whole dog-and-pony show around the country...
Financial backers, or investors, want a relatively risk-free guaranteed return on their investment. Which means you have to show you know what the risks are and how you will control them. Investors also like to protect their investment by collateral, which in your case will be what? Investor expectation of returns on their capital will probably be at least 20-30% annually given the risk profile of the business - which means that pricing will have to be high enough to generate enough extra cash to pay the interest.
Traditionally, for a service business to stand above its competition, it had to have a niche, a unique appeal, a system, that generated above-average profits. We'll assume, for sake of this discussion, that we are only considering legitimate, honest businesses that pay their employees, taxes, suppliers and backers on time and in full, and still have a profit left over after paying themselves. If you don't have such a niche, then you'll have a lot of difficulty raising capital. Which means that if your group wants to get ahead, it will have to use "sweat equity" financing to get the show rolling. And for the "sweat equity" investment to work, everybody involved needs to be on the same page. "This is how we are going to get customers, this is how we will do the production, this is how we will cover all the costs, and this is how much we will have left to share after all is said and done." Add to that: "This is how we mediate disputes, and this is how we resolve differences"... and you have a fighting chance to succeed.
Service industries usually have some value only as long as the "formula" continues to work. What guarantees does any investor have that the formula is still producing?
So how long did you work where you didnt get paid and what kind of outfit pays no one?How long was the previous owner in business and what is this a storm chasing setup?Your going to need volume for that operation,so i presume your chasing storms.
I guess you don't understand what i am asking. I have canvassers that canvass, sales people that sell, roofing crews.....etc. We just worked at a bad place. We made the company money, he just didn't pay anyone. I am not taking his name or debts. I was just asking for advice.
Woo Hoo, talk about baptism by fire. If you were one of the guys that always knew it was being done wrong, but didn't offer up the answers to fix it, good luck, you're gonna get quite an education.
Maybe it's just the help to do it right. I am trying to be very careful about things. I don't want to have high overhead and take myself out of the business in the first year. I also don't want to be listed as a rip of company. I didn't buy anything, it was handed to me in a settlement over pay.