Starting a roofing business is an exciting endeavor—images of happy clients and a steady stream of income might infiltrate your thoughts. However, there’s a lot of legwork involved to get to that point.
We’ll share our must-know starting a roofing business tips to help you get set up for success.
1. Figure Out Your Budget
It may sound cliché, but it takes money to make money in the roofing business. Although it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of starting your company, it’s vital that you set a budget.
As part of your budget planning, you should determine the following:
- Start-up fees
- Recurring fees
- How much of an emergency fund you want to have
Once you set a budget, never go over it unless you’ve reassessed your finances. Furthermore, you should have a number in mind of when to cut ties with your business so that you don’t keep pouring money into something that’s giving you a low or no return.
2. Understand the Legal Side of Things
Unless you have a background in law, you should hire an attorney to help you sort through the legal paperwork of starting your business.
You’ll need to choose between a proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or an LLC and ensure you have your proper state registration and licenses.
Speaking of licenses, as a roofing contractor, it’s critical that you have the correct and up-to-date permits to perform your job.
You should also reach out to insurance companies to determine what your coverage options are—insurance is essential for any business but especially one as high risk as roofing.
3. Focus on Marketing
There’s little point in talking about starting a roofing business tips without taking marketing into account. Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to gain new clients, but you likely won’t have that advantage when you first start your roofing business.
Avenues you can take to market your company includes:
- Paid ad campaigns on search engines and social media
- Developing free content via a blog and posting on your social media pages
- Gather email addresses of prospective customers and set up an email campaign
- Traditional advertising such as television and magazine ads
4. Manage Off-Season Work
If you work in a climate where winters or hurricanes can shut down your work for extended periods, building a plan on how you’ll manage a lower or non-existent income stream is important.
For starters, you should aim to have as few employees as possible when you’re first launching your company and to hire them on a contract basis. That way, you don’t have to pay them a salary during the low season.
You also need to revisit your recurring expenses and make sure you save enough during the high season to cover them during the low season.
Finally, use the low season as a time to identify areas where you can streamline time-consuming tasks, revisit your marketing strategy, and maintain your roofing equipment.
5. Take a Sales Training Course
Of all the starting a roofing business tips we’re sharing here, learning sales might make you squirm. You may not think of yourself as a salesperson, but that’s a skill you’ll need to run a roofing business.
Therefore, if you don’t have experience in sales, consider signing up for an online course in a place such as Udemy. Some characteristics of successful salespeople include:
- Confidence
- Empathy
- Adaptability
- Resilience
Above all, if you focus your attention and questions on the client, putting their needs above all else, you’ll likely encounter success early on with your roofing business.
6. Build a Professional Website
Websites are prime real estate for roofing businesses these days, and the best part is they’re economical to run. However, if you don’t have a background in website development and search engine optimization, your website will likely rank low, making it a challenge for clients to find you.
That’s why we created Hook, an agency that focuses on helping start-up contractors build a professional-looking website. The strategies we’ll apply to your website will last long after we’re gone, helping you to bring in clients for years to come.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you scale your new roofing business, schedule a call with us today.
