Danny Kerr - Contractors Guide: Building a Successful 2022 Strategic Business Plan

By Evelyn Witterholt, RCS Reporter. 

Learn from Danny Kerr about how contractors can strategically plan for the year ahead. 

In Season 4, Episode 4 of Roofing Road Trips, RCS President Heidi J. Ellsworth speaks with Danny Kerr, the founder of Breakthrough Academy, about how contractors can make plans to improve their business in the year ahead. 

Breakthrough Academy has been helping contractors build management structures for over seven years. They work with all kinds of contractors, but roofing contractors in particular, to help teach them how to manage their companies in efficient and beneficial ways. Danny says, “For the owner, ultimately our goal is to help pull them out of the day-to-day and get them to be more focused on the leadership of their people and the management of that company, than it is to just do a job.” 

During their conversation, Danny outlines various strategies for planning ahead that he teaches to contractors. One thing he likes to do is have companies perform year-end reviews in order to plan ahead. After this review, he suggests putting the right people on the right jobs and giving them the right resources so that the company has a more focused approach going into the new year. 

Danny stresses that it is one thing to make a yearly strategic plan to follow, but not to just leave it and forget it. “That's just the beginning, right? The actual work comes after that,” Danny said. “You need to make sure that you're actually spending time now every week, working on these things.”  

He recommends taking a minimum of five hours every week and dedicating that time to working on the future of the company. “When it's just a big, cool plan that everyone's excited about January, February, a little bit of work gets ensued on it,” Danny says. “When you start to have that habitual approach, real stuff actually happens.” 

On top of having annual reviews, Danny also suggests that contractors have quarterly reviews as well. He stresses the importance of the company’s goal remaining the same, but allowing the approach to be more flexible as the year goes along. He also recommends having a coach or peer group for the staff of a company who can help guide employees in the right direction. 

“A lot of us as humans, we need that,” Danny says. “Otherwise we just push things off to next week, to next week, and then it never really happens.” 

Listen to the full podcast to hear all the helpful tips for strategically planning in the new year! 

Learn more about Breakthrough Academy in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.btacademy.com.