Cram Roofing has a reputation for quality work and an exemplary safety record, but the logistics posed by a reroofing job at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., must have given them pause.
“Safety will never make you a million dollars, but it can save you a million,” said Kirk Herold as he opened his session titled “Safety: The Top Priority.”
Effective marketing techniques that don’t eat up a company’s profits were the focus of Ken Kelly’s presentation titled “Guerilla Marketing.” Kelly, the president of Kelly Roofing in Naples, Fla., noted that a typical seminar attendee retains only 20 percent of the information received. “My goal is to increase those numbers by making ideas easy to implement,” he said, and then he offered his first suggestion: “Listen to books.”
John D’Annunzio, president of IRT/Paragon Consultants with offices in Michigan, Florida and Indiana, informed attendees about recent code changes and highlighted some trends to keep an eye on in his session titled “Code Update.”
The increasingly complex world of employment verification, Social Security regulations, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was the focus of James Aldrich’s session, “The ICE Man Cometh and How to Be Ready for Him.” Aldrich, an attorney with Dickinson Wright PLLC in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., focuses on the corporate aspects of U.S. immigration law, and he was on hand to supply advice to business owners regarding a variety of employment issues.
David Welch, president of Ben Hill Roofing and Siding Co. in Atlanta, detailed some of his company’s most effective marketing strategies, but only after taking the audience on a tour of some recent marketing failures. His goal: to help Best of Success attendees learn from his mistakes as well as his successes. “I don’t know about you, but I hate to waste money on marketing,” said Welch. “I don’t mind spending it, but I sure mind wasting it.”
The director of Federal Affairs for the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), R. Craig Silvertooth, updated Best of Success attendees on immigration law and impending legislation in his session titled “Immigration and Construction.”
Bob Daly Jr., president of Kaw Roofing & Sheet Metal Inc., Kansas City, Kan., and the president of the National Roofing Contractors Association, updated attendees on the NRCA’s recent initiatives.
Sometimes a company offering the right products and services finds the perfect niche and great relationships just seem to flow naturally - or at least that’s how it seems from afar. Of course, at the heart of all that success is a lot of hard work done the right way, and it is this attention to quality that is the hallmark of Brian McPartlon Roofing LLC of Santa Fe, N.M.