New business start

Robby the Roofer Said: Do you have alot of experience truely inspecting your roofs? If you are not comfortable with this process, It might be a wise decision to hire and experience roofer to QC your liabilities part or full time (at least 15 yrs exp). This will keep your contractors honest. It is your company, your liability....protect your interest as much as possible.

I feel that I'm competant in determining wether a roof is hail/wind damaged. I know there are men with much more experience than I have. That being said, I am confident in the crews abilities I work with, and their ability to restore a storm damaged roof. I do tend to agree with having a right hand man (one with lots of years and experience under his belt), the question becomes, can I afford such an employee?

These are all the points that are going through my head. I want to make sure I address them before I rish my financial future. I'm not interested in doing substandard work just to make a buck. Robby, in your opinion, does it take 15 years experience to really get a handle on doing it right? I'm not doubting you just curious.

Thanks again

Do you have alot of experience truely inspecting your roofs? If you are not comfortable with this process, It might be a wise decision to hire and experience roofer to QC your liabilities part or full time (at least 15 yrs exp). This will keep your contractors honest. It is your company, your liability....protect your interest as much as possible.

Thank you guys for the quick replies. I am fortunate to live in an area where we have fairly regular damaging hail storms. Someone told me that in my area, the average roof lasts seven years. We still have thousands of homes with T lock shingles on them which seem to be fairly easy to get bought. Oldschool, To be honest, I'm selling plenty of jobs (even in the slow season) the problem lies with the way that I'm paid. I receive a small sign up draw when the customer commits, then I get a small "first check" draw and the balance doesn't get paid to me until all monies are collected and roof is inspected by regional. This process can take months and I have to rely on too many others in the meantime. I got to thinking a while back that with a little hard work and effort, I can learn to do everything that my company does for me. If I can do this, I can be paid accordingly and if I fail, it will be because of me and I don't have to leave it in the hands of someone else. I do understand the gravity of the economic times and the overhead that is involved. But, if I follow conservative business plans my thinking was that there is enough work to make a decent living. Again, my goal isn't to be rich and move to the Bahamas by the end of the month. I'd like to do between five and ten roofs a month. Do them the right way, and earn a comfortable living in the process. Thanks again guys for your responses, I want to make sure I'm thinking about everything before I make the leap. I love the business. I only regret that I didn't start as a kid pounding nails. I'm sure this would add credibility. I have all the respect for you guys that are on roofs every day. We'll see how it goes. Talk to ya soon

Go for it. On the other hand, don't be surprized when some of "Your" crews start to compete against you too. There is a lot of overhead in doing it right and without the abiliity to do some of the work yourself, it is going to be a hard row to hoe. Good luck!

Are you not making enough money working for the extablished company already? Why leave?