b'Running ASuccessful Roofing CompanyKen Kelly Growing a successful roofing company working with employees, developing future process and managing business operations, S mall roofing companies tend to be morerather than talking to customers, dealing with successful than larger ones. They typicallysuppliers or doing other daily tasks employees have a higher profit margin, less debt andcan do. Jim Collins in the book Good to Great greater customer loyalty. The reasons are simple.says, You get the right people on the bus, the Small business owners are directly involved inwrong people off the bus and the right people every aspect of the business process. Think of thein the right seats. When you do the bus drives owner as a hub in a wheel. Each of the differentitself.business divisions are spokes in that wheel. ThePlanning for growth is critical. The common four big spokes are marketing, sales, operationsway to grow a company is by increasing and administration. Every decision made in themarketingthe thought being if marketing business goes through the owner, and the ownerincreases, leads increase, sales increase, work has complete control over the entire operation.increases and more money is made. I wish it Promises made at the initial sales estimate arewere that easy, but its not, as you may have delivered through completion. Eventually wordlearned. Increasing marketing alone only causes gets out and referrals bring in a steady stream ofthe business to run lopsidedits like increasing work. the length of just one of the spokes in the wheel. But what happens when the business startsWithout additional salespeople, leads are burned to grow? Its not humanly possible for oneand potential customers become upset. Without person to run everything, not even with todaystrained crews, work isnt completed correctly, technology. Things typically get out of balancecausing callbacks. Without enough capital to when the owner has to rely on others. The onlyfinance increased payroll, the company can ruin way to ensure continued success is to empoweraccount status and cause dissent.employees.The way to successfully grow a roofing Follow these guidelines: company is to increase the length of each spoke in the business wheel slightlyall at the same - Hire slow and fire fast. Look for talent andtime. ability, not skill. Here are the seven steps:- Teach your employees how to do the job better1.Identify one improvement in each of the than you can. four key business areas: Marketing, Sales, - Give them the authority to make toughOperations and Administration. (If it aint decisions. broke, break it!Sam Walton.)- And the responsibility to make good ones. 2.Set a timeline for implementation.- Measure duties and manage results. 3.Quietly work on each division behind the Always remember, as the saying goes, Youscenes.cannot manage what you cannot measure. 4.Test each improvement prior to launch.Planning for Expansion 5.Launch the new improvements close to each other.The next step is to remove yourself from the6.Usher in the change personally to verify center of the business. This is the hard part foradoption and ensure success.most owners. Spend sixty percent of your time7.Repeat and grow the wheel even bigger.working on the business, not in the business. More than half your time should be spentReprinted with permission of Roofing Contractor magazine. You can find more articles written by Ken Kelly at www.roofingcontractor.com18 www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer'