Almost every small business owner starts off on their own or with one or two partners. But what happens when your small business isn’t so small anymore?
If you’re finding yourself with a growing roofing company, it may be time to start adding employees, like a roofing office manager. You might be full of questions or worries before bringing on other team members, such as:
- Will I need to rent an office?
- How will I find enough tasks to keep a full-time employee busy?
- How should I manage their productivity if I’m out in the field?
- Will hiring office employees hurt my revenue?
All of these questions are completely valid! Running your own contracting business is a difficult challenge, and it can feel intimidating to start trusting other people with a portion of your success.
Numerous roofing professionals weighed in on this topic on Facebook. Let’s roundup their expert advice:
There is plenty to do… don’t sweat ‘Making sure she’s busy.’ That’s too much pressure and uncomfortable culture. There’s a curve to it. If she’s got talent, she will become an expert at all the processes, the materials, the accounting, marketing, the crew pay. She’ll make forms, safety sign off sheets to show osha… pay request forms for the crew. Organize documentation of every kind, learn a CRM system like acculynx or whatever you choose. It takes years to learn and commit to organizing and keeping all documents.
Jon Roise
Capital Exteriors
“I pay my office manager $18.75 an hour. During the slow time she is doing some marketing for me which is how I keep her busy. Honestly it’s not working 100%. I do give her 5% profit margin commission incentive for everything that comes in due to her marketing efforts.”
Brandi Burk
Paramount Roofing & Construction
“These days, why rent space for an office? Let her work from home. We use a virtual office and only meet every two weeks in a conference room. They have an answering service there and my mail goes there. Spending money for office space is outdated.”
Craig Bailo
Triple Crown Restoration
“My only advice would be to set clear guidelines about what you want her doing. Start slow, give her some tasks to learn and then progress as you both have figured out exactly how those things are going to work. If you just give someone a huge list of stuff that they can do to “stay busy” it will be really hard to prioritize things. I’d create a list of all the things you would like her doing, and then assign/teach them one by one. Absolutely clear expectations will save you a lot of frustration.”
Caleb Shelburne
Robin Hood Roofing
“My response is a bit different. I think you need to examine yourself. If I were you, I’d take a bit to map out what your business model is. Everything: from how you get new clients, to documentation/photos, to final invoices. Once you have a semi-solid grasp, write down some job responsibilities for stuff that you KNOW you cannot keep up with. That may be as simple as filing receipts, or following-up with people, but the wage isn’t wasted. Think of the areas you struggle the most in, and ask them to help you. Once you have more business processes outsourced (personally/effectively), you can spend your time figuring out how to grow even further. A good CRM is a great starting point, and will help flatten your learning curve by half.”
Andrew Zenk
Visionary Construction Group
Key Takeaways About Hiring a Roofing Office Manager
It’s clear that every business owner runs their business in their own way. You may want to hire an office manager earlier than some, or you may hold out on your own for much longer than most.
But if you decide to make the jump and hire a roofing office manager, here are some of the key takeaways we gathered from our experts:
- Have a solid grasp of your business model and the exact tasks you need help with.
- Remote work/working from home is huge right now. Use it to your advantage when you hire so that you save on overhead costs.
- Having an office manager learn a CRM is a great asset.
- Be sure to pay a fair wage. If you can’t afford a full-time employee at a fair wage, consider part-time for now.
- It’s valuable for your office manager to tackle your marketing efforts.
- Start slow, and train your new office manager on the tasks you need help with one by one.
There you have it! We love these helpful tips from roofing experts around the country. What’s your experience with hiring a roofing office manager for the first time? Let us know in the comments!
