Sample Roofing Contractor Business Plan
Is it worth writing a lengthy business plan for your roofing startup? Preparing a business plan can take a lot of time, and many entrepreneurs are tempted to proceed without one, unless they really need it to prove the viability of their ideas to partners or investors.
Your roofing business isn’t going to be a huge, complicated business for a few years anyway, so why bother? Well, while I wouldn’t suggest you spend months writing a 100-page report, you might find it helpful to have a 10- to 20-page document on your computer that can be your company’s blueprint for success. You can make changes to it as you slowly learn more about the business.
This will be the main document that defines exactly how your business is run. If done right, you should be able to hand this document over to someone when they buy your business and they can take over with very little of your time explaining things to them.
Here’s a quick roofing business plan template to give you some ideas on how to put together your own.
Contents page and summary
This should be a summary of your entire roofing business plan. If you will be presenting the plan to stakeholders, let them know the content. Include a basic summary of your plans to start a roofing business. Outline the opportunities you see in the market and what you plan to do to grab a piece of the pie for yourself.
Background in the roofing business
Prove to yourself or others why you are cut out to be in this business. List details of your education and any relevant experience you have had in the roofing industry or business in general. Outline your reasons for wanting to start a roofing business.
Mission statement
State your company’s mission or philosophy in a few words or a short phrase. Try to think about what you want to achieve with your business besides profits. You must be driven by the desire to provide quality service to people in a way that satisfies them and provides great value to them, while allowing you to achieve your goals. What kind of products and services do you want to deliver? How will you be different from all the other roofing companies out there?
Business purposes
Set the goals you have for your business in the first few years. Set realistic goals that you know are achievable so you don’t get discouraged if you don’t reach them. Success can be measured by a number of metrics, such as the total number of roofing jobs completed per month, the percentage of leads that become new customers, or for example the productivity of your employees.
Launch Requirements
List all the products and services your company will offer, and then lay out a list of the equipment and inventory you’ll need to get started. If you need to buy a truck, then you’ll be looking at a minimum upfront cost of around $20,000.
Startup requirements will also include compliance costs. Depending on the state you operate from, you may need a contractor’s license, insurance, bonding, or comply with a number of other relevant regulations.
Remember that in addition to purchasing all the roofing equipment you will need, you will also need to purchase materials for your first job. Clients usually pay a large portion of your total invoice after the work is completed, so you will have to pay the bill until you receive a refund when they pay their invoice in full.
Structure, ownership and management
There are four main options to consider for your business structure and they include a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability corporation (LLC).
Outline how your business will be owned and note the different parties who may have an ownership stake.
Create a management structure so that there is no confusion among those involved in the business as to who is responsible for running each part of the business.
Marketing plan
Identify your target market by both location and other demographic factors, and describe the type of people or properties that make up your target market. Include the results of any market research you do or local industry statistics you can gather.
Make a detailed plan for marketing your roofing business. This should include how you plan to receive inquiries, convert them into new accounts and maintain them over the long term. It should also include brand development, pricing, advertising, sales approach and other marketing methods.
Competitive analysis
Write profiles of your main local competitors and try to understand how they run their business. Borrow and adapt features of their business that work and look for weaknesses in their business models that you might be able to exploit. Figure out how you will differentiate your brand from theirs in a way that allows you to stand out in the marketplace.
Operations
Include details of the day-to-day operations of the proposed roofing business. Note office location, business administration and record keeping systems, staffing plans, and procedures regarding roofing installations or repairs.
A financial analysis
Outline some of the methods you can use to get funding for your new venture.
Create a spreadsheet that shows projections of expected cash flows over the first few years of the business for various scenarios. You can then determine how profitable you think the business will be in a number of different economic climates.
You will be able to find many free business plan examples online, but it can be more difficult to find a specific roofing business plan sample. There are some business planning software programs that you can buy, but they are usually just generic business plans that have been adapted anyway.
Unless you can convince other roofing business owners to share their plan with you, then you really need to look at templates from other industries and model your roofing business plan on them.
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