# Getting Started



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

Look from any advice from the old timers on here. Im 25 and have been roofing since I was 15. I've work for basically the most prominent company in my area. He is very unlegit, cuts alot of corners, and is so swamped that quality isn't first priority its a just get it done attitude around there. I was taught by some of the best high quality guys in my town when I was young so I know the more high quality maybe even overkill ways of doing things. Basically I'm at a point were I'm sick of making a greedy a hole rich while hes screwing employees and homeowners alike. I think with my youth, knowledge and ability to actually be the main worker on a crew I could be successful on my own. I have all my own equipment I've gathered thru doing weekend jobs over the years. I'm at a point were to take care of my family/kid I need to get out from underneath my boss. I have most all the knowledge I need for getting started. I know the business and how it works in my town bidding, codes ect. I just ordered my expensive books and basically want to know if anyone as any tips for the test. People are very tight lipped about this aspect of it all which I understand thats good business. Any other tips I'm always open to listen. My ears are always open knowledge is power so let me know anything you think I should know that I may not already.


----------



## BamBamm5144 (Jan 2, 2010)

Well good luck. The business side is an entirely different world. A lot can be learned on these forums. 

I started when I was 23, thanks to the help of one of the members here. Now I am nearly 26, so basically the same age as you. It can be done but be prepared to have it consume your life.


----------



## vtroofing (Sep 27, 2009)

Sheriff said:


> Look from any advice from the old timers on here. Im 25 and have been roofing since I was 15. I've work for basically the most prominent company in my area. He is very unlegit, cuts alot of corners, and is so swamped that quality isn't first priority its a just get it done attitude around there. I was taught by some of the best high quality guys in my town when I was young so I know the more high quality maybe even overkill ways of doing things. Basically I'm at a point were I'm sick of making a greedy a hole rich while hes screwing employees and homeowners alike. I think with my youth, knowledge and ability to actually be the main worker on a crew I could be successful on my own. I have all my own equipment I've gathered thru doing weekend jobs over the years. I'm at a point were to take care of my family/kid I need to get out from underneath my boss. I have most all the knowledge I need for getting started. I know the business and how it works in my town bidding, codes ect. I just ordered my expensive books and basically want to know if anyone as any tips for the test. People are very tight lipped about this aspect of it all which I understand thats good business. Any other tips I'm always open to listen. My ears are always open knowledge is power so let me know anything you think I should know that I may not already.


 
How do you think your Boss is screwing Home Owners and Employees and staying so busy he needs to cut corners and get away with it?


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

Screws employees by paying cash, no workmans comp, trying to make us tare of 12/12s with just a couple toe locks to move as you go no board on the bottom just free falling. Screws homeowners by charging for stuff he doesn't do. Having cheap bootleg help doing bootleg work. Just yesterday he told people not to felt because it would take to long in the wind. Shingled right over barewood. Things like this have been building up and I'm tired of it. I do alot on the weekends even thou I shouldn't be but all that has been going well. I figure its smart to get a good start while I'm young. I've been reading alot on here and find alot of what I'm reading to be pretty informative.


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

He also rarely goes back for call backs. Alot of the ways I see people getting screwed I think are problems that wont come up until a bit later on. He basically has a monopoly on the trade in my town. Since hes not legit his prices are extremely low compared to everyone else in town. He also has a tight grip on Certainteed and ABC where he gets his supplies for way cheaper than anyone else. I'll see bids that he's multiple grands lower than the next bid. The only reason I would be able to compete with him is with doing higher quality work and actually standing behind it. I also have him beat by the fact that he's old and body beat and can't work on the roof anymore he just walks around on the ground all day. Where as me I can get up there and get down with the best of them saving on labor.


----------



## vtroofing (Sep 27, 2009)

There is a lot to benefit from these forums. I would like to think I am seasoned but I still learn and try to adapt/ evolve. 

Although I am not a CertainTeed fan- but for Roofer's their Business book is pretty informative and more geared towards our trade than any local college course- look to their website for more information- I will look for the direct link.


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

Think I found what you are talking about on the net. It showed different folders and hand outs to add to them. It also had other information in it for getting leads, closing the sell, and how to do the work correctly. I already have my Master Shingler certification my boss had me do the the other year.


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Being the worlds best tradesperson does not in anyw ay shape or form qualify one to be running their own business. Know what I mean? 

Running a business takes more than just roofing smarts, it takes business smart more importantly. Infact I find those that get too heavily involved in the hands on never really reach their full potential. They end up holding themselves back. 

While I am not advocating the just get it done attitude, as a business manager your job is to manage, not to do. This means hiring people to do the work for you and your job is to train them how you want it to be done and ensure it is being done how they were trained and punish when it is not done how they have been trained. Does that make sense? 

Hang up the belt, if you want to be a business owner.


For what it is worth I was 26 when I started my own business. In the first four years I was $150k in debt. It's taken me twice as long to wash away the debt as it took me to accumulate it. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Read my blog, I have nothing to hide about my failures and REALLY want to help people avoid the same mistakes I made www.handupthebelt.com I know msyelf and many in this forum would be willing to help you, but the best advice I will give you and alot of guys will give you and I ignored when it was given to me: Start small and don't try to grow too fast. Make sure you have the all right people in place before you choose to hire more. Grow! but grow slow.

One bad apple ruins the bunch fire immediately anyone who doesn't agree with your core principals and anyone who routinely breaks your rules. Don't be friends with your employees. It makes it hard to fire them and then you keep around dead weight. 


My core principal in running a business is standardization and orginization. Systemitize your business every step of the way as if you were to die tomorrow and your business can continue on without you. Run your business like a franchise, like a McDonalds, even if you never have any intention of branching out like a franchise, like a McDonalds. McDonalds is a good example of systemitization and orginization however. It's not the owner in the back flipping burgers. It's not the owner in the front taking your order. 


Final thought. Do what you do well and hire someone to do everythign else. Don't wear too many hats. But remember to grow slow and make sure each hire is a keeper before hiring the next!


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

Higher quality work and standing behnid it costs alot mroe than low quality work and not fixing your mistakes. Do you have the confidence and the sales ability to charge more and get it? 

Have you thought about what you will say when the customer gasps at your price and says you are $3,000 higher than the low bidder?


One mroe comment, and I say this with the utmost respect. Get spell check. My typing here in the forums sucks, and honestly yours does too. But the information I send to my customers is extremely professional. 


There is no such thing as saving on labor. I fyou are doing the work of a roofer and not paying yourself to do that job you are stealing from yourself and you are not doing yourself or this industry any favors. If you intend to work for free please oh please do not start a business, you will be better off working for someone else. When you price a job consider the fact that you will be doing none of the work and you will be having to pay someone else to do it. When you price the job consider that YOU are the salesman and that YOU are doing the work of the sales man and you should pay yourslef a salesman's commission. If you don't do this you are doing yourself and your industry a dis-service and please oh please just work for someone who understands business if you wish to work for free. Just like I said when you price a job imagine that someone else will be doing everything and you will be doing nothing. Imagine when you price the job that YOU are not the employee of your company that you are nothing more than a share holder colelcting profit. Imagine that the manager gets paid, and the office girl gets paid and the sales man gets paid and the guy driving the trash to the dump gets paid, even if you are all of the above, pay yourself for each job.


Your body won't last forever. Work with your brain, not your back.


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

I found truth in a lot of what you are saying. I do have spell check but I basically just ignore it when I'm in forums. The only problem with what I see you telling me is not doing the work and just handling the business side of it. I see the guys who do that in my town and they are the ones who never have work and are struggling because of my boss. My boss gets a lot of jobs just because he's the only one in town that can say owner on site every job. Granted he doesn't do much actual labor while he's there anymore, which I understand he paid his dues, hes the boss, and his body is shot. I understand if I was to get going on my own I would have to step down somewhat in order to stay caught up on bids, deal with ABC, and any other phone call that needs my attention. Right now with my age and in order to compete with my boss I would need to be there and if I'm going to be there I'm not going to be just standing around. I see how the crews that the boss isn't around in this town screw their bosses and I don't want any part of that. While getting established I see it important that I'm there overseeing plus helping get the job done. There's no need for the overhead of a foreman when I can do that myself. This is how my boss has his business structured and I see he's the most successful in my town. I understand what you mean on the start small aspect thou. That's the other reason why I see people fail around here. As far as the being able to sell jobs I'm really good with talking with people. A lot of people in my family are business men and I've grown up watching them like a hawk. Seeing what made some successful and others fail. My family name is well known in my area, plus I'm well connected thru the Freemason's which is very large in my area. I'm also family friends with a few contractors in the area that tell me all the time they hate giving their work to other people and would love to see me licensed so they could help me. These reasons being why I get jobs to do on the weekends already. I don't like having to do them not legitimate and would like to be able to do it right. I'm highly driven to get things going I'm tired of being paid cash and wasting my years away. If I have to get a third shift job while starting out to keep funds coming if its a slow start so be it. On the plus side for motivation for me, me and my boss are pretty close. I've been with him longer than anyone and he's watched me grow up and from being a high school kid to a young adult starting a family. He takes me to hockey and basketball games, has my family over for dinner. We don't see eye to eye on somethings but overall he treats me way better than he does anyone else. With that said he's always talking to me at these things that as much as he wouldn't want to see me go he's not going to be around forever. He tells me that no one else my age in this town as my knowledge, work ethic, and drive. The direct quote from him would be if anyone out of your generation starts up and is successful its going to be you. These other companies around here are about to be belly up except for him. Sooner than later would be the prime time to get a start around here..........I took some out of what you said to me and am checking out your blog. Don't feel like I tried to shut you down on the just handling business aspect because that does make sense to me just not for right now. Thanks for sharing some of your wisdom/insight. P.S. after snooping around on your website I like how you had that structured more so than a lot of them I've seen. I like how you explain what you guys do better than anyone else, clean up and actually using ice and water everywhere you should. Which you are right most people in my area anyhow don't. I gained some knowledge on some marketing I liked on there. Thanks again for the insight and I hope to gain more from you and others like you. Don't worry I live 3+ hours from the Chicago area


----------



## dougger222 (Aug 13, 2010)

Your at a good age to start in the business if that's the direction you are leaning. Like Grumpy said you may have the on site installation down good but running a business takes a lot more then just knowing how to nail down shingles and shingle around a chimney or skylight.

If your planning to run your business and be on site (what I do) you should explain to your wife and child now you won't be home much. Of course you may get time off in the Winter but Spring/Summer/Fall is a different story. However if your starting from the ground up you may be slow for a while before you get busy! 

I started roofing full time at the age of 17 and partnered with my dad at 19. At 21 opened my own roofing business and at 23 got licensed. For the first few years mainly did new construction with a few tear offs, and some repairs. Managed to bring in an honest tax paying 6 figure incoome but found myself away from home 15-16 hours a day 6-7 days a week for months and months on end. For a few years lived about an hour from most of my job sites. Looking back would have paid more to be closer to my work to be able to spend more time at home. Keep in mind this is in my mid 20's when making money seemed like goal #1.

By the end of 05 new construction had died off complety and for the first time in several years had no idea how to make it. Lived off credit for a few months and ran as a sub for a big insurance restoration firm by the Spring of 06. By the end of 06 started getting my own leads on insurance work.

From 06 to having no subs now have 6 subs. Of course we typicaly work on the same job and do regularly sub out all my new roofs and some tear offs to a couple of the subs. Don't make much subbing out the new roofs perhaps $5-8 a square but new construction work always leads to insurance work or out of pocket tear offs.

Do you have your own roofing liability insurance policy? If not do you have money saved up for it? Not sure on license fees in your state but here in MN get get a license you have to pay $790. A couple years ago my wife got set up as license GC corp and here out of pocket expense before she brought her first dollar in was over $3,000.

If your really motivated go for it! 

Also like Grumpy said. If your goal is high quality and great customer service unlike your current boss's business structure you need to set yourself apart from them and charge more money. When I first started out my bids for tear offs were very low typicaly the cheapest. Now my bids are often the highest and get most of them! Keep in mind all my work is from referrals.


----------



## BamBamm5144 (Jan 2, 2010)

Well Grumpy knows all about my history.

I will add this to the conversation. In 2010, when I started the business, I was hands on doing all the work. That winter I decided to take a different approach. By the end of 2011 my gross sales increased by a substantial amount. The tens of thousands of dollars of debt I accumulated in 2010 has gone down by 75%.

If you want to succeed, you can't be on the roof ALL the time. Find someone who can roof just as good as you and give them incentives to produce for you.


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

You fail when youdon't charge enough to cover alle xpenses and thinkyou will do the work yourself and pass along the savings that's why you fail. You fail when you try to compete on price and find out you can't run a legitimate business competing on price. You fail when you think you have to watch your guys like a hawk, if that is tyhe truth you have already failed in hiring the wrong guys. 

I'm and the most expensive or 2nd most expensive bidder on every residential job we isntall, or I probably made a mistake on my bid. One lady told me last year I was the cheapest and I freaked out! I'm used to explaining why I am 20% higher than everyone else. 

If you think your price is too high, you have already failed. YOu have to understand why you are worth more. You have to beleive why you are worth more and you MUST be able to articulate that belief to the customer as well. There is no salesmanship involved if you beleive it.

I beelive on the residential side of things there is only a couple of competitors that are really and truly apples to apples in my area. I beelive that so when I am explaining it to customers I am passionate, I am honest, and people are not stupid. If you believe you are worth more you will earn more! 


Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with you being up on the roof banging down some shingles. There is nothing wrong with your supervision. Just understand these are things you do when you don't have more important tasks which require your attention. If you chose to step into the role of leader you must lead. 

I believe most guys never reach their full potential in roofing until an injury prevents them from roofing any more. They are forced to trust their employees, forced to let other people work for them. You won't get rich working, you will get rich letting other people work for you. If you are sick you can not work, you can not earn. If you have people working for you, even if you are sick, if they are properly trained you still earn. Want a paid vacation in roofing? Become an owner. When I go on vacation, my workers are still working. If you are doing the work, when you go on vacation your company stops, you are not earnign and in theory that vacation just cost you double than it cost me.


I am not rich, I do not have all the answers. I have made a ton of mistakes. I have learned from those mistakes, and I will make a ton more mistakes. But I share my failures so hopefully some other people learn from them and don't repeat them. It's good for my ego, but it's also good for the industry. Elevate yourself. Are you a roofer, or are you a professional roofer? I think of myself like a doctor or engineer. I am a professional, roofing just happens to be what I am a pro at.


----------



## dougger222 (Aug 13, 2010)

Every business runs at different levels and different business structures. It would be unfair to the OP to say, "You have to run your business this way because it's worked for me". 

There are owners of companies with ZERO business experiance (schooling) owning and running business that make tons of money and run very well. Some learn as they go along others just have enough common sense to "figure it out".

Running on a lot of debt is not only horrible for any company but it's especialy bad for a new company. Dave Ramsey's videos, radio, and books helped my wife and I erase $75K in debt in less than 2 years. In the same time we gathered $80K for a down payment for her dream house and saved up for our 6 month emergancy fund. If anybody I know has credit card debt that seems out of control I strongly urge them to buy a book by Ramsey. My wife got on the Ramsey kick first and within a couple months she convinced me to turn from my old ways!

Currently the only debt we have outside the rental house which the renters cover the note is the house. We bought it 3 years ago and are down to less than 13 years to pay it off. My hope and goal is to have it paid off by the time I'm 40.

My wife has help land a lot of roofing jobs through her old manger job at a steakhouse. For a few years her direct leads accounted for as much as half my revenues or $3-400K. The average roof she sold was $20K and some were as much as $35K. All my job was to measure the roof present the estimate do the work and get paid, easy stuff! If I had to pay someone to do what she did it would have been 10's of thousands of dollars per year.

My theory on my being an owner operator is this. It's working well for me and I fear if I no longer worked on the roofs daily I'd put on a lot of weight and die early of heart disease. Can I always keep this business model? More than likely NO. At some point my body will wear out and I'll bring in more leads than I can handle while working on roofs daily.

In the past 12 months I took 2 of them off (Jan,Feb). If you count all the rain days and in between jobs days you can easily take another 2 months off. Some weeks I'll spend about 3/4 of the time on roofs and some weeks it seems like half the time. There's pulling permits, going to the dump, meeting with adjuster, and meeting with homeowners.

Did a roof a couple years ago for a very wealthy retired blacktop contractor. One of my workers asked him what the his secret was, his reply? "Work every day". He told me he worked along side his guys until the day he retired.

With a 7 week old boy at home planning to take off 2 days a week from now on. Life is too short to work so much...


----------



## dougger222 (Aug 13, 2010)

Grumpy said:


> You fail when youdon't charge enough to cover alle xpenses and thinkyou will do the work yourself and pass along the savings that's why you fail. You fail when you try to compete on price and find out you can't run a legitimate business competing on price. You fail when you think you have to watch your guys like a hawk, if that is tyhe truth you have already failed in hiring the wrong guys.
> 
> I'm and the most expensive or 2nd most expensive bidder on every residential job we isntall, or I probably made a mistake on my bid. One lady told me last year I was the cheapest and I freaked out! I'm used to explaining why I am 20% higher than everyone else.
> 
> ...


Good post:thumbup:

You are right, it sure feels nice when your on vacation and your vacation is less than the money you made off your crew while you were away! Sort of reminds me a few years ago when I took my wife on a charter fishing trip on Lake of the Woods. Got the crew set up on a big roof and took off for the four day trip. On the way up North my wife demanded we stop by the casino. In less than an hour I'd wagered $20 on a penny slot and walked away with $880!!! It was a culmination of winning a nice chunk of change, earning money off the crew and C&R a trophy walleye that made it one of my most memorable trips. 

This post reminds me, ready for another vacation!!!


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

dougger222 said:


> Did a roof a couple years ago for a very wealthy retired blacktop contractor. One of my workers asked him what the his secret was, his reply? "Work every day". He told me he worked along side his guys until the day he retired.


Here is why I disagree with that. In this example, You don't have a business, you are self employed. Who will you sell your business to when you want to retire? Your pool of possible buyers is limited. A turn key business is one where the owner can be removed from the equation and the business still runs successfully. That's a business one will want to buy... and as a business owner I ask myself what will I do with my business when I am ready to retire?

Well the answer is simple I am not goign to GIVE it to anyone, not even my kids. It is an investment and I intend to recoup on my investment. I intend to sell my business, and I invision selling it to someone who zero roofing experience. I'll sell it to anyone, but think an "investor" with business sense will see it for it's true value. 

If the business can not operate without the owner, the value dramatically decreases. Someone who buys your business is not buying a business, they are buying a job. 


There's nothing wrong with working on the roof, except when it gets in the way of your day to day leadership and management. I still will occassionally and when I do the kaka hits the fan because I have twice the paper work and phone calls to do the next day. I can pay someone to work on the roof who will do it for less money than my time is worth. They will do it faster than me because they are in the practice of doing it every day and are honestly in better shape, and they will do it better than me because again I am out of practice. I'm sure 90% of the people in this forum are better roofers than me. 

Can I take myself from the equation, will my business run without me? Most certainly not YET. That doesn't make me a hypocrite however. It just means I haven't gotten there yet. DOugger, you aid it yourself one day you KNOW you will have to embrance my business model. The difference between you and I is I chose to embrace it before my knees and back gave out rather than wait for the inevitable.


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

To go along with you Grumpy one of my biggest drives for getting going now is knowing my body is on a timeline. I feel by being able to get things started now before my body is shot increases the chances that by the time I'm older I can do what you do and just handle the business end. As far as time away from the family I'm already a workaholic so I see the danger on getting carried away. On the plus I have a strong women at my side that will know how to lay down the law on me when need be.


----------



## dougger222 (Aug 13, 2010)

Grumpy,
I know sooner than later I'll look at my business similiar to how you look at and run your business. I hope it's not after an injury or when my body can no longer go on roofs. 

Back in 08/09 I could have taken the off the roof approach because I got hundreds and hundreds of referral roof leads, mostly insurance claims. Could have made more money off the roofs in those two years and in the homes of potential customers turning more leads into sales. Could have run 3-4 crews. Could have also had 3-4 door knockers bringing in even more sales. Could have brought in well over $1,000,000.00 each year. These questions are often reminded of me looking back to the aftermath of a huge hail storm. 

More than likely next big hail storm when the leads are pouring in will take a whole different approach and YES will not be on the roof so much. Here are my thoughts,
Me-business owner take care of business paperwork and daily business operations
Dad-run the crews (3+) and basicly act as project manager 
2-3 salesman/estimator/meeting with adjusters
Of course at times I will do all the above but will more than likely NOT be working on the roofs with the crews.

As far as the past couple years and so far this year there's not really been a huge distraction from my present in terms of running a business while on the roof. We've been hit with limited wind and hail claims but still seam to pick up more and more non insurance jobs (not new construction) every passing year.

Back in the 90's my dad ran 5 roofing crews doing only new construction. He made good money but had a lot of stress as well. From being on the roof every day for over 15 years to no longer be needed on the roof he found his time spent best eating at really nice resturaunts (put on 100 pounds) gambling, and spending MONEY!!! Although I was fairly young at the time still realize he made a lot of mistakes.

I used to sub from another roofer who was at the same level as my dad except he still worked on some roofs. His demon was spending money on atv's, snowmobiles, and drugs. He went from earning a few hundred grand a year after paying his subs to roofing up North for $10 an hour. His drug habit led him into divorce which he ended up losing everything.

As far as the blacktop contractor who retired very well. I know for a fact if he could change anything he would have taken more time off to spend with his family. Within a couple years of retiring his wife of over 40 years died of cancer.


----------



## dougger222 (Aug 13, 2010)

Sheriff said:


> To go along with you Grumpy one of my biggest drives for getting going now is knowing my body is on a timeline. I feel by being able to get things started now before my body is shot increases the chances that by the time I'm older I can do what you do and just handle the business end. As far as time away from the family I'm already a workaholic so I see the danger on getting carried away. On the plus I have a strong women at my side that will know how to lay down the law on me when need be.


Ya, I think every good man needs a strong woman on his side!!!

In 06 when I subbed from the insurance restoration firm the owner of the company was married to the owner of a huge national insurance restoration firm. I don't know exact specifics but rumors abound that together they brought in close to $10,000,000.00 a year! Guess both the husband and wife are good at what they do? It would be true to say they are both workaholics!!!


----------



## Grumpy (Oct 29, 2008)

My daughter really changed for me how much time I was able to put into the business. When I got married my new bride would call me at 8 pm to ask me when I was coming home. Sometimes I got home after she was asleep. I was working sometimes 80 hour weeks and I was LOSING MONEY! The year I was most profitable, I had 2 sales rep, one not really worth counting was a junko, I ran a lead a day, maybe worked 6 hours a day and 3 on Saturday. I had an administrative assistant, I had a production manager, so I could do that. We were making money, the machine was running, I'd show up to sign various papers and answer various questions, grab a lead and go home. Sometimes I would hit up a the gym for an hour during the day. I certainly wasn't working 40 hour weeks though. Everyone had their job, everyone did their job for the most part, and the machine was running smoothly until the sales stopped. Then it all fell apart and because I now had my 2nd kid I didn't have the time to put everything back together.


----------



## jeffroofing (Feb 18, 2012)

I am 26, I have been in business for myself for 5 years this year. I first started out with my own business by not doing any of the work, 8had a crew going for me.

I would always be on the job watching it go down. It got real boring to the point after two years I just started working the jobs with the crew because I could not stand around and keep looking up. I would get so bored and feel like I was wasting my time. Realistically those first two years I was not going on so many estimates that I had to leave he job to keep up with giving the estimates.

Since the start of year 3 I have been working the job as a shingler. I have also been getting more and more calls and it has been a little hectic at times to have to go from work to meet up with home owners to provide them with a estimate or do it on my free time (days off). 

Right now at 26 years old for myself, It makes more sense for me to keep working my jobs and deal with the hectic schedule here and there with estimates because I would accumulate more money and with the jobs I was getting not all my money has to go to paying the workers comp for that additional roofer. . Keep in mind i only do 45-50 roofs a year right now about 1200 squares. 

I do see growth yearly about 20 percent more work for my company typically just landing bigger roofs then smaller, more referrals and I have pretty sound knowledge of what advertisement works for me so I am not wasting money anymore on advertisement that don’t pay me back.

The way I look at it I’ll continue to grow whether its 10 or 20 r 30 percent rate unless economy really takes a dip for the shit that no one can afford a roof. With each year growing, when I get to the point of where I start to worry a lot more about my body getting any problems or just get to be really hectic with keeping up with estimates and make more sense to me to hire someone to take my place as a shingler I will then be able to be more comfortable mentally and financially with being just the salesman. With the growth yearly I will also be able to bid just as a salesman not doing the work. right now it would be hard for me to do to keep up with expenses and etc. since I do not see the calls as much as a well-established company. (company that does 2500-3000 sq a year)

Best thing to do is take it slow, spend smart, think smart. Also remember you only go around once so keep that $ you save by being smart and also remember your self-employed you pay more taxes and it consumes your time, so you MUST be smart about it.

ps . i am HOPING to become just salesman by 30, 31, till then no uneccessarry lifting or bending off job n keep my body in shape at gym on eliptical. I would love to be able to walk, sit, shake hands, maybe a little romantic encounters, and take care of myself properly in my golden years as naturally as possible for the age, but you cant if your back broke!


----------



## jeffroofing (Feb 18, 2012)

what sounds like a average normal roofing commission for roofing salesman? is it more common by percent of profit?


----------



## BamBamm5144 (Jan 2, 2010)

jeffroofing said:


> what sounds like a average normal roofing commission for roofing salesman? is it more common by percent of profit?


I pay my salesman 40% of profit.


----------



## Sheriff (Feb 28, 2012)

Got my books in the mail the end of last week. I got a pretty decent idea on what areas I need to sharpen my knowledge up on. Sure is a lot of material for 75 questions to come from. I've noticed a lot of it is repetitive so that has stood out as things I could probably end up seeing on the test. As far the OSHA part I haven't been able to locate a book for that. I think I'm just going to take one of the OSHA classes the do in the town nearby me.


----------



## lsaver07 (Dec 14, 2010)

The questions are extremely repetitive on the IL test.


----------

