Author: ad_prochoiceroofing

Here at Pro-Choice Roofing, we are excited to announce the new Catch-All System™, a product we have incorporated into our services to better serve you and your customers.

The Catch-All System™ is a protection system for the siding, windows, landscaping, decks, and gutters of your customers’ homes and businesses. It is installed in a matter of minutes on every roofing job where we send crews.

Using this new system, we can accomplish the following: 

• Protecting customers siding, windows, landscaping, decks, and gutters from scratching or other damages during the roof tear off process
• Saving plants from getting “cooked” by using breathable tarps
• Leaving a cleaner, more professional-looking job site 
• Reducing calls back and increase customer satisfaction
• Differentiating your company from the competition, especially if you are working in storm areas.

Check out this video to learn more about this new system:

Have questions about the Catch-All System™? Contact us at info@prochoiceroofing.com

 

A high-quality and reputable roofing crew will do many things: they’ll provide excellent customer services, exhibit professionalism at all times, and show quality workmanship. However, there are also things that a high-quality roofing crew will never do. If you experience any of these breaches of professionalism or protocol listed below, please find a new provider!

1.  1) Ask for cash payment or payment the same day
   

   If a roofing crew is asking for cash payments or same-day payment for a job, they are either trying to avoid tax liabilities or suffering from serious cash flow issues. Not having enough working capital is their issue. Not yours. You are not their business mentor or their board of directors. You’re the client. A high-quality, experienced roofing crew provider will have a 10 or 15-day payment term or they will adhere to your company’s billing and payment system. 

2.  2) Ask to borrow equipment or tools
   

   A professional roofing crew will have all tools and equipment needed to complete every job. Period. They will never need to borrow anything from you or, God forbid, your customer. 

3.  3) Throw full bundles of shingles on a dumpster
   

   For me, this is 2 sins rolled into one: stealing and dishonesty. I’ve seen this treason committed many times — contractors frustrated because crews have thrown out full bundles of shingles. The only plausible reason why anyone would do this is that they want to charge for more squares. That’s not just annoying — it breaks the trust the contractor had with the crew, breaking down that important relationship. 

4.  4) Leave behind a mess
   

   A good roofing crew will leave your customer property looking the same (or better) than they found it. No debris; no nails. They will treat your customer’s houses as if it were their own home. Bad cleanup is a sign of an unprofessional crew — one that doesn’t care about your business, or frankly, their own. When a roofing crew leaves behind a mess, they’re telling you, “This is not a long-term business relationship. I used you to make a buck.” These kinds of crews are either inexperienced or worse, careless. You shouldn’t even have to remind them to do a good cleanup — a great roofing crew will know it’s expected.

5.  5) Drink alcohol on the job site
   

   I saved the most important for last. Catching your crew drinking or using drugs on the job site is not just a terrible experience for your customer – it’s a huge liability for your company if they get hurt. There are serious consequences: enormous financial, reputational, and human losses for your company. A great way to ensure this doesn’t happen is to ask your crew for their policies and procedures before hiring them. Make sure they prohibit substance abuse on job sites and that they have a clear disciplinary procedure for dealing with breaches in those policies. To see an example of what this should look like, check out the Pro-Choice Roofing Company Policies and Procedures.

For every terrible roofing crew out there, there’s at least one great crew to hire for your jobs. High-quality crews are in high demand and busy, but when you find one and treat them fairly, they will add value to your company and become a fantastic business partner. We pride ourselves on extremely professional, organized, and highly skilled roofing crews. If you run into any of the issues listed above with your current crew, don’t hesitate to try us out for your next job.

 

Finding your ideal crews and building trust with them takes time and effort, but once you find high-quality crews, the relationship can go on for many years. If you would like to learn more about how we train and manage our crews, contact us at office@prochoiceroofing.com.

Asking your subcontractor the right questions during the interview can help you determine if they are a qualified partner or not. By asking these 5 questions, you can make sure you are hiring the best possible roofing crew for the job.

1. What steps will you take to protect my customers’ siding, gutters, and landscaping?

If you’ve been in the business long enough, at some point, you’ve had to deal with siding and gutters being damaged during the roof tear process. Often, this happens when crews haven’t planned for this risk or brought the right equipment to protect the homeowner’s property. It’s uncomfortable to deal with a customer who’s, at the least, unhappy about the damage, not to mention the amount of time, energy, and lost money you put in trying to resolve it. In the best-case scenario, this leads to heated arguments. In the worst cases, it leads to lawsuits. Most of the time, you’ll be able to come to a fair agreement to repair or replace the damaged property.

The best thing you can do is to avoid the situation in the first place! If your crew has some kind of wall and gutter protection system, you’re much less likely to deal with the headache described above. The taller the house, the larger the risk of damaging the siding and gutters, no matter how careful your crew is. That’s why it’s so important to ask the crew you’re hiring what their wall and gutter protection system looks like. How do they ensure the siding, gutters, lawn furniture, and landscaping are unharmed? What kinds of tools or equipment do they have to protect your clients’ property? Check out the protection systems Pro-Choice crews use below:

2. What policies do you have that enforce professionalism on the job site?

One of the issues I have seen over the years is with crews drinking alcohol and smoking on the job site. This can be a business killer for your company. It is very important to ask this question to any potential subcontractor you are considering. Ask them if they have a written company policy and procedures and if they do have, how are they enforced? If they have a policy, it will be on their company’s presentation package or otherwise readily shareable. If they don’t have a written policy, at the very least, they should be able to confidently explain how they deal with substance abuse and other breaches of professionalism on job sites. The crew you hire should be able to guarantee that they can be highly organized and professional.

At Pro-Choice Roofing, we have a very strict policy for keeping our crews organized and professional. Check out the Pro-Choice Roofing Company Policies and Procedures.

3. Are you available for small jobs, roof repairs, and roof inspections?

We all have had service call requests from our clients, and this can be anywhere from blown shingles to roof leaks. By asking this question at the outset of your subcontracting relationship, you’ll know whether this provider has a long-term relationship mindset and is focused on building value for your company or if they’re just looking to fill their schedule with as many big jobs as possible.

I’ve dealt with crews in the past that seem to be “above” small jobs. I’ve even seen other crews that say they’ll do smaller jobs to close the deal, but then flake out come storm season. But for contractors, doing great work on a small job can lead to bigger jobs in the future with the same property manager or homeowner. In my opinion, if a crew wants your big jobs, they should be willing to do small jobs as well.

4. How do you onboard and retain new crew members?

The roofing industry is no different than any other industry. Companies must provide consistent training to their workers from the moment they are hired. I’m not just talking about training like “how to install shingles properly” or safety training, which of course, is essential. I’m talking about training that helps workers understand the business, the sales, and marketing processes.

“Why would a crew member need to know about that?”, you may wonder. When crew members understand how contractors get their work — good word of mouth, good reviews, reputation — they understand the importance of the little things: good cleanup, protecting the property, etc. They will understand that every interaction and detail during their work can either contribute to or take away from your ability to generate new opportunities through referrals and reviews.

5. How many years of experience do you have?

If a roofing crew has been in business long enough, it means they have accumulated experience in areas like quality control, team management, communication, sales, marketing, and professionalism. They have a different mindset, one of long-term success. They value clients who provide consistent work.

Crews who have been in the business for years have seen many challenges, so they can easily troubleshoot issues on the job site, providing peace of mind for you. Also, they can provide you with more accurate bids when you need them, and help you see things that you might not see when you are bidding on a job. Combining their experience and yours can really empower your business to do great things!

 

Finding your ideal crews and building trust with them takes time and effort, but once you find high-quality crews, the relationship can go on for many years. If you would like to learn more about how we train and manage our crews, contact us at office@prochoiceroofing.com.

To our valuable customers,

 

As we all know, COVID-19 has certainly changed our daily life and work.  We are all focused on how to best protect our families, employees, customers, and communities.  On behalf of all Pro-Choice employees and crew members, we want to let you know that our thoughts are with those who are affected.

Pro-Choice’s mission has always been to provide excellent roofing installation services and peace of mind to our contractors. That’s why the entire team here at Pro-Choice Roofing has been busy implementing guidelines that protect our contractors, our workers, and your clients. Here are some of the practices we’ve implemented since the COVID-19 pandemic began:

 

1. We have implemented the identification and isolation of potentially infected workers. 
2. We have encouraged voluntarily to wear face masks, gloves, goggles, and the use of hand sanitizer at the Jobsite as much as they can. 
3. We have mandated that all employees and crew members notify our office and stay home if they suspect they have been exposed to COVID-19.  In addition, we have developed a policy to immediately remove any worker from a job site if we suspect the worker has violated the mandate.

We have also implemented a physical distancing policy for all our workers. Crew members are not to come within 6 feet of anyone present on the job site — each other, homeowners, or contractors. We encourage our contractor clients to do the same to minimize risk.  

We are eternally grateful for the support of our team, the community, and our contractors. We wish you, your family, and your colleague’s health and strength through this crisis.

 

Sincerely,

Miguel Quishpe

Have you ever wondered why most businesses fail in the first 10 years? It’s not high taxation, recessions, or other more obvious reasons. When a contractor goes out of the business, it’s almost always because of cash flow problems.  When a business runs out of money, the business ends. Here is the most probable reason why a contractor might have a cash flow issue:

Lack of profitable sales.

Not charging enough for your work has to do with one thing: not knowing your real company markup or gross margin numbers.  Every company should establish its own markup based on their company’s overhead and desired profit margin. Using someone else’s numbers for your company can be disastrous. 

There’s a popular myth that there is a certain percentage (overhead and profits)  that a contractor should use, 25% or 30%, and that by simply adding this on top of the job cost, you’ve figured out your sale price. Even worse, some so-called “industry experts”, like those you’ll find lurking in insurance companies, will tell you that contractors should use a 10% overhead and 10% profit margin. But, where do they get these numbers? How do they come up with this formula? 

Well, there’s a reason why this approach won’t work: you don’t know for sure that those “industry standards” will support your company’s overhead costs and the net profit you intended to make when you started your business (if you even planned that far ahead). Your company should have a unique markup factor or a margin percentage based on your company’s financial situation. Here’s why:

#1 Your company will not have the same overhead as your competitor. 

Let’s say you have a business with a big office, a warehouse, a bunch of equipment, service trucks, a full team of production managers, job supervisors, sales reps, a marketing department, and a couple of owners, each with their own salary expectations. The overhead costs list can go on and on.  

On the other hand, your competitor may be a one-man operation, running his company from home with no equipment, service trucks, or office rent. He’s managing all the sales, running the jobs, and maybe even doing all the work. His company might not even make a profit, but he makes a good enough salary, so he doesn’t care. 

It’s obvious that these two companies will have two very different margins or markups. Your office, team, and equipment help you deliver more value to your clients than the one-man show, but if that value is not reflected in what you charge, you won’t be doing it for very long.

#2 Every company will have different expectations of how much net profit is made off each sale.

Some of the big construction companies have profit-sharing programs for their top-performing employees and/or management teams. Smaller companies probably aren’t in that position (yet). Depending on the size and financial situation of your company, profit sharing can be an excellent way to retain talent and keep company morale high. But it’s something you need to decide in good time. This serves as another reason that you need to develop your own markup or profit margin formula based on your revenue, real overhead costs, and desired profit. 

Here’s the wrong way to calculate a job’s sale price:

Job cost + Overhead + profit = sale price ❌

And this is the correct way:

Job cost x markup = sale price ✅ 

A deep understanding of how to establish and use the right markup, gross margin, and breakeven points for your company should be your #1 priority as a business owner. 

If you don’t think you’re working with the right formula to mark up your jobs and you’re serious about your company’s financial success, I encourage you to watch this video where one of my best mentors explains “Calculating Your Markup”:

 

Finding your ideal crews and building trust with them takes time and effort, but once you find high-quality crews, the relationship can go on for many years. If you would like to learn more about how we train and manage our crews, contact us at office@prochoiceroofing.com.