During a recent seminar in Toronto, I asked the group if anyone could tell me how they define “marketing.” I received an answer that was unlike any I’ve ever heard before. One of the participants said, “Marketing is making sure all of your employees know your company story and how they add value to the message.”
For most roofing contractors one of their largest and perhaps most frustrating expenses is workers’ compensation insurance. Roofing contractors pay more for workers’ comp than nearly any other contractor and as a result learning how to control that cost is essential to running a successful roofing business. The key to controlling your workers’ comp cost is controlling your experience modification factor.
The images tend to be memorable and camera-friendly - federal agents stage a well-publicized bust on a jobsite and cart off hundreds of undocumented workers. Today, however, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) have shifted their focus away from undocumented workers and are targeting the employers who hire them, often through audits and lawsuits.
A reader to Roofing Contractor wrote me and noted that my articles regularly focus on residential sales and appropriately requested that I offer some insights into commercial sales. Only a few days later, I was conducting a seminar at which one attendee expressed frustration about his wasted time in the plan room of general contractors, which resulted too frequently in lost bids. My advice: Get past the plan room.
There are three prominent membrane attachment methods used in the U.S. low-slope commercial roofing market. They are fully adhered, mechanically attached and self-adhered. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these attachment methods which should be considered prior to selection for a specific project.
I know I have written about this topic in the past, but recent overwhelming interest in this topic tells me it is time to talk about it again. I was lucky enough to speak on this topic at the 2011 International Roofing Expo in Las Vegas and the interest was undeniable. There I was at 7:45 a.m. in Las Vegas and the room was full of contractors who were eager to discuss the topic.
A Wall Street Journal article from last summer caught my eye. Titled “Customer Service as a Growth Engine,” the article described efforts by large organizations such as Walgreen, Comcast, American Express and others to pay “more attention to customer service in an effort to increase sales and gain market share in the economic recovery.”
The weather this winter was brutal in some parts of the country, which has led to a nice little uptick in roof repair and remediation work this spring. Now we are entering the storm season and there is no way of knowing how, when, what, or where the next weather event will strike.
Let’s define a roof fall as any unarrested free-fall of an employee originating from a roof deck launch point and resulting in a terminal impact with the ground or an impeding structure (like a lower roof). Like any other falling object, a fall victim will accelerate at 32 feet/second2.
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century the low-slope roofing market is still undergoing changes. The recent changes are minor modifications compared to the vast changes that occurred near the end of the last decade.
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