The Roofer Show

After 30 years in roofing and 500 podcast episodes, Dave Sullivan shares how a one-page roofing business plan gave him the freedom to travel and enjoy his family, and what he didn't plan for when he finally sold his company. Plus, get his free 2027 One-Page Roofing Business Plan.

In this episode about building a roofing business plan around the life you want, Dave Sullivan celebrates 500 episodes of The Roofer Show by telling his own story.

It started with a reel from Tommy Mello of A1 Garage Door Service, standing in front of his bucket list map, asking people to share their favorite spot in the world.

Watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc1NVylEhX7/

Tommy's got a bucket list. Dave's got a been-there list.

Growing up in the family roofing business, Dave watched his father stay chained to the business and never get to enjoy the retirement he'd dreamed about. Dave was determined to do things differently.

With help from a business coach, a One-Page Business Plan, and the right people and systems, he built a profitable roofing company that ran without him. He spent a month or two at a time in Maui with his family, checking his "Maui Report" of KPIs each morning over coffee.

Then life threw him a punch in the mouth. Health problems meant he could never get on a roof again, family circumstances changed, and an opportunity to sell came sooner than expected.

After selling the company, he discovered something he hadn't planned for: he missed the people, the culture, and the sense of purpose the business gave him. That led to The Roofer Show, coaching roofing contractors, and 500 episodes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why every roofing contractor needs a One-Page Business Plan, and why the planning matters more than the plan
• Why Dave never wanted to be the biggest roofer in town, just the most profitable
• The Three-Legged Stool: Sell Work, Do Work, Keep Score
• The Two-Week Vacation Test, and how it turned into months away
• How the "Maui Report" let Dave run his company from the beach
• Always be recruiting, always be training, always be retaining
• How a spring carnival for employees' families became his best recruiting tool
• What Dave learned from selling his roofing company
• Why having a purpose matters just as much as financial success

00:00 Tommy Mello's bucket list map

02:47 Show intro

03:10 500 episodes and the lessons that cost me

04:59 "What do you want?" The question that changed everything

07:10 Plans are worthless, but planning is everything

09:41 The One-Page Business Plan walkthrough

11:56 Not the biggest, just the most profitable

12:23 The Two-Week Vacation Test

13:24 The Maui Report

14:45 Thanks to ProLine CRM

15:36 Punched in the mouth: vertigo and the people I loved

18:38 Selling the business

20:59 Getting to the top and not liking the view

21:41 500 episodes and a new purpose

22:57 Thanks to SMA Support Services

23:45 Your free 2027 One-Page Roofing Business Plan

24:18 Thank you, John DeLaurier

24:54 Don't wait to put pins in your map

Stop reacting to everything happening in your roofing business and start building a company that supports the life you want.

Get the free planning guide and fillable worksheet:

https://theroofercoach.com/plan

Take an hour, work through the plan, and identify your three most important priorities for the coming year. Then send it to Dave. He'd be happy to take a look and offer feedback.

Roofing Business Mentoring

Get personal guidance from someone who's built and sold a successful roofing company. Dave helps contractors improve profitability, understand their numbers, build better systems, develop their people, and create a business that doesn't depend on the owner for everything.

https://theroofercoach.com/mentoring/

Roofing Business Health Check

Not sure what's holding your roofing company back? Dave's Roofing Business Health Check identifies problems in your sales, operations, profitability, financial management, and leadership. Walk away with clear priorities and a practical action plan.

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/

ProLine CRM

Manage roofing leads, estimates, customer communication, and follow-up in one system. Stop letting profitable opportunities fall through the cracks.

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

SMA Support Services

Chris Diroll and his team help roofing contractors with inside sales, customer follow-up, administrative support, and implementing systems that free up the owner.

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

To John DeLaurier, longtime co-host of The Roofer Show, former coaching client, and co-founder of The Roofer Mastermind. John joined Dave for a couple hundred episodes while building, rebranding, and eventually selling DeLaurier Roofing before becoming a co-founder of ProLine.

And thank you to the guests, roofing contractors, coaching clients, and listeners who have made these 500 episodes possible.

Hosted by Dave Sullivan, The Roofer Coach, The Roofer Show helps roofing contractors build more profitable businesses, improve roofing sales and operations, understand their numbers, and create more freedom in their lives.

Website: https://theroofercoach.com/

Don't wait until you sell your roofing company to start enjoying the life you've worked so hard to build. And when you finally get to the top of the mountain, make sure you're going to like the view.

What if you could build a $10 million roofing business, make good money, and work less than 20 hours a week?

Scott Tibay of Rain Stoppers Roofing did just that. But his original goal was to build a $100 million roofing company.

So what changed?

In this episode of The Roofer Show, Dave Sullivan talks with Scott about building a profitable roofing business, changing priorities, and creating a company that doesn’t depend on the owner being there every day.

Scott is a former coaching client and member of The Roofer Mastermind. He shares what he’s learned about growing a roofing company, marketing, building a strong team, and deciding what success really looks like.

In This Episode:

• Why Scott changed his $100 million growth goal.
• How he built a roofing business that allowed him to work less than 20 hours a week.
• Why more revenue doesn’t always mean more profit.
• What roofing contractors should know about private equity.
• Lessons from rebranding to Rain Stoppers Roofing.
• How SEO, organic marketing, and branding support business growth.
• Building a roofing company that can run without the owner.

If you’re working too many hours and wondering where the money is going, Dave’s Roofing Business Health Check can help you identify opportunities to improve your profitability and get your time back.

Learn more at https://theroofercoach.com

Scott uses both ProLine and SMA Support in his business.

ProLine helps roofing contractors manage leads, estimates, sales follow-up, and customer communication.

ProLine CRM

SMA Support helps roofing contractors with phone answering, lead follow-up, CRM management, and day-to-day operations.

SMA Support

Remember, it’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep.

Your roofing company is doing millions in revenue. You're selling jobs, keeping your crews busy, and working harder than ever.

So why isn't there more money in the bank? And why can't you take a two-week vacation without worrying about the business?

More leads and more sales aren't necessarily the answer.

In this episode of The Roofer Show, I sit down with John DeLaurier from ProLine and Chris Diroll from SMA Support to talk about what really makes a roofing business profitable.

All three of us have owned roofing companies, and we know firsthand what happens when sales, operations, and financial performance aren't working together.

It comes down to three things:

Sell Work. Do Work. Keep Score.

When one of those legs is weak, the whole business suffers.

• Sell Work: Why speed to lead, better proposals, and consistent follow-up can produce more sales without spending more on advertising.
• Recover Lost Opportunities: How to turn open estimates and neglected prospects into additional revenue.
• Do Work: Why clear responsibilities, better handoffs, and consistent processes matter as your roofing company grows.
• Keep Score: The financial numbers every roofing contractor should understand, including close rate, gross profit, job costing, cash flow, and the quick ratio.
• Protect Your Margins: How I discovered a consistent 5% to 8% material-cost problem through job costing.
• Avoid the Growth Trap: Why growing from $2 million to $10 million in revenue won't solve a business that isn't profitable today.
• Get Your Freedom Back: How to build a roofing company that can operate while you take a two-week vacation.

The discussion comes back to one important question:

What's really holding your roofing business back?

Before you hire more people, buy more software, or spend more on marketing, you need to identify the problem, fix it, measure the results, and keep improving.

That's how you build a roofing business that's profitable, predictable, and doesn't depend on you for every decision.

Not Sure Where Your Roofing Business Is Stuck?

That's exactly why I developed my Roofing Business Health Check.

We'll look at your sales, operations, financial statements, job costing, and cash flow to identify what's holding your business back.

You'll receive a written Roofing Business Health Record and the three priorities I'd focus on over the next 90 days.

You can see a sample Health Record and schedule a free 15-minute introductory call here:

https://theroofercoach.com/healthcheck

The Roofer Coach and Roofing Business Health Check

ProLine CRM

SMA Support

The Roofer Show

John DeLaurier, ProLine

John is a former roofing contractor who now works with ProLine, helping roofing companies improve their sales processes, customer follow-up, and CRM reporting.

Chris Diroll, SMA Support

Chris is a former roofing contractor who now helps roofing businesses improve their operations, accountability, administrative support, and processes so owners can focus on growing their companies.

Dave Sullivan spent more than 30 years as a roofing contractor, built and sold a successful eight-figure roofing company, and now helps roofing business owners improve profitability, cash flow, and operations through The Roofer Coach and The Roofer Show.

The Roofer Show: Helping roofing contractors grow their businesses, make more money, and have more free time.

Stop cutting your roofing prices. On a job with a 30% gross margin, a 10% discount means you need 50% more jobs just to earn the same gross profit.

As you look at this year’s results and plan for next year, I walk through 12 essentials for a more profitable roofing business: pricing from your costs, following up with prospects, protecting profit in production, and keeping score.

Pick the one or two you need to work on first, then use the free One-Page Business Plan to put your priorities on paper.

Free One-Page Business Plan: https://theroofercoach.com/plan

SMA Support: https://theroofercoach.com/sma/

ProLine: https://theroofercoach.com/proline/

Roof repairs can look very profitable until you add up what they really cost. Dave Sullivan breaks down roof repair pricing, hidden costs, the right customer, repair operations, and the numbers contractors need to track to know if their repairs are actually making money.

Roof repairs look profitable.

A $600 repair. A couple hours of labor. Maybe $75 in materials.

Looks like easy money, right?

Not so fast.

What about the cost of the lead, answering the phone, scheduling, drive time, the truck, fuel, insurance, trips to the supply house, documentation, billing, collections and callbacks?

There may be a lot more money tied up in that repair than you realize.

In this episode, I break down what it really costs to run a roof repair business and why you can’t price repairs based simply on how long your technician spends on the roof.

I also share what I learned building a commercial service and maintenance operation that eventually did about $4 million a year.

In this episode:

• Why repairs need to be treated as a separate business
• The hidden costs contractors often miss
• Why I won’t give you a magic price for a roof repair
• How to determine what you need to charge
• How to identify your ideal repair customer
• What repair customers are really paying you for
• Why repairs need their own sales and service process
• How repair customers can become future reroof customers
• Why a good production roofer isn’t automatically a good repair technician
• The numbers you need to track to know if repairs are actually profitable

Repairs can be a very profitable part of your roofing business.

But don’t do them just to keep everybody busy.

Know why you’re doing them. Know what they cost. Charge enough to make a profit. And keep score.

Not sure where the profit is going in your roofing business?

Start with the Roofing Business Health Check.

We’ll look at the whole business through the three things every successful roofing company has to do well:

Sell the Work. Do the Work. Keep Score.

We’ll identify where you’re making money, where you’re leaking it, and the three things I’d focus on over the next 90 days.

theroofercoach.com/proline

Promo code: DAVE50

theroofercoach.com/smasupport

Episode #478, the service/repair truck episode

Episode #490, Why Your Roofing Company Has Plenty of Work—but No Money

A roofing company can have plenty of money in the bank and still have a serious cash flow problem.

Customer deposits may already be committed to jobs you haven’t produced. Material bills, payroll, subcontractors and taxes are coming due. And if you’re growing, the cash problem can get worse fast.

In this episode of The Roofer Show, Dave Sullivan revisits a conversation with credit and collections expert Thea Dudley and breaks down five common cash flow mistakes roofing contractors make.

• The difference between cash in the bank and healthy cash flow
• Why your order-to-cash process matters
• How slow collections can turn 30-day receivables into 60- or 90-day problems
• Why billing quickly is critical to cash flow
• How to protect your receivables and lien rights
• Why supplier discounts can disappear when cash is tight
• How growing too fast can create even bigger cash flow problems
• Why your back office systems have to keep up with sales

Having more sales doesn’t automatically solve a cash problem. If your jobs aren’t producing enough gross profit, more volume can actually make the problem worse.

Sometimes you have to get above the day-to-day and look at the whole business: What do you have? What do you owe? Who owes you money? And are you actually making money?

Roofing Business Health Check:

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/

ProLine:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

Promo code: DAVE50

SMA Support:

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

An eight-figure roofing company is busy and completing plenty of work, but the profit is not what the owner expects. Dave Sullivan and construction accounting expert Diane Gilson explain how the timing of income and job costs can distort a roofing company’s monthly profit.

How can an eight-figure roofing company stay busy, complete plenty of work, and still wonder where the money went?

The owner’s accountant recommends cash-basis accounting. Other successful roofing contractors are telling him cash basis is completely wrong for a company his size.

So who is right?

Possibly both of them.

The accounting method used to prepare a company’s tax return may not provide the information an owner needs to manage the business.

In this episode, Dave revisits an important conversation with construction accounting expert Diane Gilson. They explain why a roofing company can appear highly profitable one month and lose money the next, even when its pricing and production have not substantially changed.

Diane calls this the gross profit roller coaster.

Are you busy but still wondering where the money is going?

The Roofing Business Health Check examines your financials, sales and marketing, operations, leadership, and systems.

Dave identifies the real problems and the three things you should fix first.

Learn more and talk with Dave:

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/

• The difference between cash and accrual accounting
• Why tax accounting and management accounting serve different purposes
• How the timing of customer payments and job costs distorts gross profit
• Why accrual accounting alone may not completely solve the problem
• How percentage-of-completion adjustments match income with job costs
• Why accurate estimates and job costing are essential
• What roofing owners should ask their accountants
• How to determine whether your financial statements are telling the truth

This is not an accounting class. You do not need to become a bookkeeper or CPA.

But as the owner, you need to understand enough to know whether your roofing company is actually making money.

Diane Gilson specializes in construction accounting, job costing, management reporting, and helping contractors understand their numbers.

https://buildyournumbers.com/

SMA SUPPORT

Get roofing-trained support for lead intake, follow-up, appointment setting, CRM management, rehash, reviews, and administrative work.

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

PROLINE

Manage leads, automate follow-up, schedule appointments, send proposals, and see what is happening throughout your sales pipeline.

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

Use promo code DAVE50.

The Roofer Coach:

https://theroofercoach.com/

The Roofer Show helps roofing contractors build more profitable businesses, develop dependable systems, understand their numbers, and reclaim their time.

A $4 million roofing contractor is busy and short on cash. He thinks he needs more leads. But once we examine the whole business, the real problems are somewhere else.

A roofing contractor calls me and says:

Maybe he does.

But what if leads aren’t the problem? What if spending more money on marketing actually makes things worse?

In this episode, I walk through a fictional $4 million roofing company using the same whole-business approach behind my new Roofing Business Health Check.

We examine all three legs of a healthy roofing business:

• Sell Work

• Do Work

• Keep Score

The owner thinks he needs more leads, but we find missed calls, estimates nobody followed up on and old opportunities sitting untouched in the CRM.

Then we look at production. Sales promises aren’t making it into the job package, change orders aren’t always collected and completed jobs aren’t being properly job-costed.

Finally, we examine the numbers. Gross profit is slipping, overhead is growing and the owner is running a $4 million company without a clear financial scorecard.

More leads won’t fix those problems. They could make them worse.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why revenue doesn’t tell you whether your business is healthy
• How poor follow-up wastes leads you already paid for
• Why more sales can make a weak production system worse
• How a seven-point gross profit drop can cost a $4 million company $280,000
• Why leadership, ownership and accountability matter
• How to use the Two-Week Vacation test
• The three priorities I would give this contractor
• Why you need to diagnose the real problem before deciding on the solution

The Roofing Business Health Check is a whole-business examination with me, Dave Sullivan.

We’ll look at:

• Financial Health
• Sales and Marketing
• Operations
• Leadership
• Systems

We’ll spend up to two hours looking at the business. I’ll identify the three things I believe should be addressed first.

Within two business days, the contractor will receive a personalized Roofing Business Health Record and written 90-Day Action Plan.

Financial statements are strongly recommended, but they are not required.

The cost is $495.

This isn’t a big program, a long-term commitment or a promise to 10X the business. It’s about finding the real problems, getting the basics right and building a strong foundation to grow on.

Go to TheRooferCoach.com, click on Roofing Business Health Check and book a quick 15-minute call with me.

There is no obligation. We’ll discuss what is happening in the business, answer any questions and decide whether the Health Check makes sense.

Roofing Business Health Check:

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/

ProLine CRM:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

SMA Support:

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

#489: Is Your Roofing Business Healthy?

#490: Why Your Roofing Company Has Plenty of Work But No Money

#491: Sell Work with John DeLaurier of ProLine

#492: Do Work with Chris Diroll of SMA Support

Chris Diroll of SMA Support explains why roofing contractors may not need more leads—they may need better follow-up, clearer processes and someone responsible for consistent implementation.

Most roofing contractors believe more leads will solve their sales problems. But what if the real problem is that the leads they already paid for are slipping through the cracks?

In this third installment of the Roofing Business Health Check series, Dave Sullivan is joined by Chris Diroll of SMA Support to discuss the missing implementation piece behind a healthy roofing business.

Financial statements and CRM dashboards give you the lab work, but they only provide a snapshot. Before you can make an accurate diagnosis and decide what to fix, someone must keep the information accurate, maintain the CRM and make sure the processes are followed consistently.

Chris shares how he once believed he needed more leads. Instead, he followed up with approximately 200 open estimates in only 22 minutes—and had two or three signed the following morning.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why more leads may be the wrong prescription
• Where opportunities leak out of the sales process
• Why your CRM needs one clearly responsible owner
• The difference between hiring a VA and installing a managed process
• Why recruiting, role fit, training and accountability matter
• How missed calls and inconsistent follow-up waste marketing dollars
• Why accurate information must be maintained consistently
• How back-office support can free the owner for higher-value work
• Why job costing and accurate bookkeeping complete the Health Check

The goal is not simply to add more software, employees or leads. It is to diagnose the real constraint, assign ownership and consistently implement the right process.

Roofing Business Health Check:

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check/

Learn more about SMA Support:

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

Learn more about ProLine:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

Episode 490 — Financial Health:

https://theroofercoach.com/490

Episode 491 — Sales Health with John DeLaurier:

https://theroofercoach.com/491

Schedule a call with Dave:

https://davesullivan.as.me/consulting-call

Keep an eye out for the upcoming live Roofing Business Health Check webinar with Dave Sullivan, Chris Diroll and John DeLaurier.

Most roofing contractors believe they know their closing rate. The problem is that they are usually calculating it incorrectly—or relying on gut feeling instead of accurate numbers.

In this episode, Dave is joined by former Roofer Show co-host John DeLaurier from ProLine to examine the sales leg of the Roofing Business Health Check.

They explain why “we need more leads” is often the wrong diagnosis, what a CRM should actually do for a roofing contractor and which numbers belong on a useful sales dashboard.

• Why most contractors don’t know their true closing rate
• The difference between an inquiry, qualified lead and presented proposal
• Why open quotes make closing rates misleading
• How missed calls and slow follow-up waste marketing dollars
• Why every opportunity needs a clearly documented next step
• What a properly configured CRM should automate
• Which sales numbers should appear on the owner’s dashboard
• Why a low closing rate may indicate bad leads, poor follow-up, weak sales skills or incorrect pricing
• Why an unusually high closing rate can also signal a problem
• How average job size, sales cycle and conversion rates help forecast future revenue
• Why accurate sales numbers are essential to the Roofing Business Health Check

The takeaway is simple: You cannot accurately diagnose a sales or marketing problem until you can trust the numbers in your CRM.

Roofing Business Health Check:

https://theroofercoach.com/health-check

Learn more about ProLine and use code DAVE50:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

Learn more about SMA Support:

https://theroofercoach.com/smasupport

Schedule a strategy call with Dave:

https://davesullivan.as.me/consulting-call

About The Roofer Show

The Roofer Show Podcast helps roofing contractors grow their businesses, make more money, and have more free time.

Hosted by Dave Sullivan, The Roofer Coach, the show shares practical advice on roofing sales, marketing, operations, leadership, and financial management.