I know people get tired of hearing me preach about the importance of knowing your numbers. I laugh when people mistakenly think I am an accounting or financial nerd. I actually am not a detailed accounting type, and that is one of the reasons I left my first job as a cost accountant. I did not want to spend the rest of my life beating on a calculator all day. I do, however, know the financial answers I need, even if I do not compile the information myself. I use this information to make strategic decisions and run my business. Running a business without the numbers is like groping around in a dark room trying to find a black cat.
Roofing can be a tough business. If it rains too much, you can't work. If it doesn't rain at all, there is no need for your services. You can be doomed if it rains but doomed if it doesn't. To make matters worse, all the storms and crazy weather patterns seem to have caused particular havoc in people's work schedules.
Julien Benjamin Jr. was the first to hire me into the roofing industry and was a mentor of mine far beyond the time we spent working together. He was darn good at what he did and he always ran a first-rate shop. One of the first lessons he taught me comes to mind at this point in the world of commercial roofing: "Never be ashamed to make a profit."
The power of the brand! A strong brand draws people. A strong brand allows people to trust you much more quickly than a weak or nonexistent brand. Unfortunately, most roofing companies have very weak brands.
Jeff Edson of Restoration Roofing, formerly Western Systems Inc., in Longmont, Colo., had a dilemma. There was another roofing company nearby with a similar name (Western Roofing) and customers tended to confuse the two, so Jeff decided to enact a name change. He sought my opinion on his marketing strategy for a mailing campaign to inform clients of the name change to Restoration Roofing.
OSHA Subpart M [1926.500(b)] defines anchorage as "a secure means and point of attachment for lifelines, lanyards or deceleration devices." For physics buffs, it may also be identified as the terminus of the final force vector created by the arrested impact of a falling mass. Beyond the anchorage, the dissipation of the negative acceleration must occur without quantifiable structural failure in the mechanism or material supporting the anchor.
What is the reality of your business today? Are you creating the success and profits that you're after, or are you struggling to get your company on the right track? If you're struggling to create the reality you've always wanted, the problem might actually be your perception.
Most roofing experts would agree that it is a best practice to apply underlayments on steep-slope shingle applications. Underlayments provide benefits to the roof system at the deck and shingle components. These benefits add to the long-term weatherproofing success of the roof system. Another primary reason for their use is that most building codes require the application of underlayments on steep-slope roofs.
"Communication failure" is a catchall term that describes the cause of probably 90 percent of all business problems. Failures to communicate happen in many ways, for many reasons. Let's examine some of these and what can be done to correct them.
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