Originally released as Episode 444, I’m bringing this conversation back because the lessons are even more relevant today than when we first recorded it.

Most roofing contractors don’t have a business plan—they have ideas, goals, and good intentions.

That was me too… until everything changed.

In this episode, I sit down with my longtime business coach, Rick Dutmer, to share how a simple business plan transformed my roofing company from chaos and constant firefighting into a profitable business I was ultimately able to sell.

If you’re working too many hours, making every decision yourself, or wondering whether all your hard work will ever pay off someday, this episode will show you what’s possible when you stop reacting and start running your business on purpose.

Running a roofing company without a clear business plan almost guarantees stress, burnout, and uncertainty—even when sales are strong.

In this replay, I sit down with my longtime business coach, Rick Dutmer, to discuss the strategies that helped transform my roofing company into a profitable, systems-driven business that no longer depended on me for every decision.

We cover why most contractors avoid planning, why chasing revenue can actually make your business weaker, and how focusing on profitability, leadership, and systems creates a company that’s easier to run, more enjoyable to own, and ultimately far more valuable.

Whether your goal is to make more money, take more time off, or someday sell your business, the principles in this episode are just as relevant today as when we first recorded it.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why “Volume kills, profit thrills.”
• Why growth without profit can destroy a business.
• How a simple business plan creates clarity and confidence.
• Why profitability matters more than revenue.
• How to build a management team that doesn’t depend on you.
• What makes a roofing company valuable to a future buyer.
• Why planning years ahead gives you more options and more freedom.

📥 Download my FREE One Page Business Plan:

https://theroofercoach.com/resources

📅 Book a free Roofing Business Strategy Call:

https://theroofercoach.com

Missed calls, poor follow-up, and stale estimates are costing roofing contractors thousands every month.

SMA Support provides trained virtual assistants, inside sales support, lead follow-up, CRM management, and administrative support built specifically for roofing companies.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

ProLine helps roofing contractors streamline operations, automate follow-up, improve communication, and gain visibility into every stage of the customer journey.

From lead management to production and reporting, ProLine helps contractors create the systems needed to scale.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

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.

Most roofing contractors think they have a lead problem.

After working with hundreds of roofing companies over the years, I've learned that's usually not the real issue.

The contractors who stay stuck are often dealing with the same challenges:

• No clear vision for where they're going
• Working in the business instead of on the business
• Bad financial information
• No scoreboard or KPIs
• No sales system
• No clear identity or story
• Chasing shiny objects instead of focusing on fundamentals

In this episode, I break down the seven most common problems I see in roofing companies and share practical insights from my own experience building and selling a roofing company, as well as working with contractors across North America.

If you're working harder than ever but feel like you're not getting ahead, this episode is for you.

Whether your goal is more profit, more freedom, a better team, or building a business that can run without you, these lessons will help you identify what's really holding you back.

• Why more leads usually aren't the answer
• The Two Week Vacation Test and what it reveals about your business
• The difference between financials and scorekeeping
• Why most contractors leave money sitting in their CRM
• How your story impacts sales and pricing
• Why shiny object syndrome keeps contractors stuck
• The Sell Work, Do Work, Keep Score framework

Missed calls, poor follow-up, and stale estimates are costing roofing contractors thousands every month.

SMA Support provides trained virtual assistants, inside sales support, lead follow-up, CRM management, and administrative support built specifically for roofing companies.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

ProLine helps roofing contractors streamline operations, automate follow-up, improve communication, and gain visibility into every stage of the customer journey.

From lead management to production and reporting, ProLine helps contractors create the systems needed to scale.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

The Roofer Coach

https://theroofercoach.com

Free Roofing Business Resources

https://theroofercoach.com/resources

Roofing Business Success Audit

https://theroofercoach.com/resources

Facebook:

https://facebook.com/theroofercoach

YouTube:

https://youtube.com/@TheRooferCoach

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.

Most roofing contractors think growth comes from more leads.

John Starry took a different approach.

In just three years, he built Steadfast Roofing into a $13 million company while earning nearly 800 Google reviews, creating a strong company culture, and building systems that support sustainable growth.

In this episode, John shares how his team generates referrals from every project, follows up with leads faster, creates a consistent customer experience, and tracks profitability as the company grows.

If you’re looking to grow your roofing company without creating more chaos, this episode is packed with practical lessons you can apply immediately.

• How John built a $13M roofing company in just three years
• How Steadfast Roofing earned nearly 800 Google reviews
• The review process that creates consistent 5-star customer experiences
• Why speed-to-lead is critical for converting expensive leads
• How to generate referrals from every job site
• The systems and processes that support sustainable growth
• How company culture impacts accountability and performance
• Why job costing and profitability tracking matter as you scale

00:00 Introduction

05:13 Starting Steadfast Roofing

08:36 Growing to $3.7M in Year One

12:00 Neighborhood Marketing and Referrals

13:42 How They Earned Nearly 800 Google Reviews

16:47 Lead Generation That Works

18:40 Speed-to-Lead and Follow-Up

23:39 Building a Website That Converts

25:40 Growing to $13M

30:45 Managing a Growing Sales Team

33:13 Building Company Culture

34:29 Production Systems and Communication

42:00 Job Costing and Profitability

47:24 Managing Growth and Cash Flow

51:32 Lessons Learned

53:19 Final Thoughts

Missed calls, poor follow-up, and stale estimates are costing roofing contractors thousands every month.

SMA Support provides trained virtual assistants, inside sales support, lead follow-up, CRM management, and administrative support built specifically for roofing companies.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

ProLine helps roofing contractors streamline operations, automate follow-up, improve communication, and gain visibility into every stage of the customer journey.

From lead management to production and reporting, ProLine helps contractors create the systems needed to scale.

Learn more:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

The Roofer Coach

https://theroofercoach.com

Free Roofing Business Resources

https://theroofercoach.com/resources

Roofing Business Success Audit

https://theroofercoach.com/resources

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Roofer Show and leave a review. It helps other roofing contractors build more profitable businesses with less stress and more freedom.

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.

What separates a roofing business from a roofing job?

In this replay episode, Dave Sullivan sits down with Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Door Service and one of the most influential entrepreneurs in the home service industry.

Tommy shares lessons learned while building a highly valuable company, including how to create a business that works without you, why profit must come before growth, how to hire and retain great people, and why most contractors never build a company that can actually be sold.

Whether you’re trying to grow your roofing company, improve profitability, or build a business that gives you more freedom, this episode is packed with practical insights.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The difference between owning a business and owning a job
• Why most contractors struggle to build a sellable company
• How EBITDA impacts business value
• The importance of profit before growth
• Why hiring A-players changes everything
• How to create accountability with KPIs and scorecards
• The power of delegation and building systems
• Why culture is one of your greatest competitive advantages
• How successful contractors build teams that operate without them
• Lessons from scaling a home service company

• Tommy Mello
• A1 Garage Door Service
• Home Service Millionaire
• The E-Myth Revisited
• Rocket Fuel
• The Dream Manager
• The One Thing

ProLine CRM: theroofercoach.com/proline

Built specifically for contractors to help manage leads, sales, production, follow-up, and customer communication.

SMA Support: theroofercoach.com/sma

Virtual team members for lead management, appointment setting, customer follow-up, CRM management, and administrative support.

Website:

https://theroofercoach.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@DaveSullivanRooferShow

Subscribe to The Roofer Show for weekly conversations focused on the business end of the roofing business

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.

Thinking about starting a roofing business in 2026 — or trying to grow the one you already have?

In this episode, Dave Sullivan sits down with former Roofer Show co-host John DeLaurier to break down what it actually takes to build a profitable roofing company in today’s market.

John started a roofing business from scratch, built it into a successful company, eventually sold it, and now works with roofing contractors across the country through ProLine CRM. Together, Dave and John discuss the systems, numbers, leadership, marketing, customer experience, and technology that separate successful roofing businesses from the ones that struggle.

They cover:

• Why profit matters more than revenue
• How to reverse engineer your business goals
• The importance of branding and customer experience
• Speed to lead and follow-up systems
• Hiring and building a sales team
• Marketing strategies that actually work
• CRM systems, automations, and KPIs
• What most roofing contractors get wrong when starting out

If you want to build a roofing business that’s profitable, scalable, and less dependent on you — this episode is packed with practical advice.

As your roofing company grows, the chaos usually grows with it: production tracking, supplements, admin work, scheduling, follow-up, and more.

SMA Support helps roofing companies simplify operations with trained virtual assistants, inside sales support, CRM management, and back-office help so owners can focus on growing the business instead of constantly putting out fires.

Learn more at:

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

ProLine CRM

Most roofing companies don’t have a lead problem — they have a follow-up problem.

ProLine CRM helps roofing contractors automate follow-up, manage pipelines, track leads, build proposals, and sell more jobs without the chaos.

Learn more at:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

WEBSITE:

https://theroofercoach.com

https://www.youtube.com/@TheRooferShow

Looking for guidance and accountability to help build a more profitable roofing business?

Schedule a strategy call at:

https://davesullivan.as.me/free-strategy-call

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.

Selling the job is only the beginning.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Dave Sullivan and John DeLaurie get into the next two legs of the stool:

• doing the work
• and keeping score

• where roofing companies start losing money
• communication breakdowns with homeowners
• production handoff problems
• customer experience and reviews
• job costing
• dashboards and KPIs
• bookkeeping and cash flow
• accountability and ownership
• AI and operational systems

This episode focuses on what actually happens after the sale — and why so many roofing companies struggle operationally even when sales are strong.

Looking for help building a more profitable roofing business with better systems and accountability? Let’s talk.

Take the Profit Leak Audit:

https://theroofercoach.com/audit

ProLine CRM – Know your numbers and close more jobs.

Track your leads, follow-ups, and pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks.

👉 Check it out: https://theroofercoach.com/proline

SMA Support – Never miss another call or follow-up.

They handle your calls and lead follow-up so you stop losing the jobs you’re already paying for.

👉 Learn more: https://theroofercoach.com/sma

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.

Most roofing companies don’t have a lead problem — they have a systems problem.

In this episode, Dave Sullivan sits down with John DeLaurie to talk about:

• what top roofing contractors are doing differently
• why so many companies stay stuck operationally
• lead generation that actually works
• sales process and follow-up
• answering the phone and speed to lead CRM systems and automations
• building a roofing business that runs profitably

John also shares insights from talking with contractors around the country and what separates companies that are growing from those that stay stuck.

Next week, Dave and John get into the next two legs of the stool — doing the work and keeping score — where most roofing companies really start losing money.

Looking for help building a more profitable roofing business with better systems and accountability? Let’s talk.

Take the Profit Leak Audit:

https://theroofercoach.com/audit

Recommended Tools

ProLine CRM – Know your numbers and close more jobs.

Track your leads, follow-ups, and pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks.

👉 Check it out: https://useproline.com/

SMA Support – Never miss another call or follow-up.

They handle your calls and lead follow-up so you stop losing the jobs you’re already paying for.

👉 Learn more: https://funnels.smasupport.us/the-roofer-show

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.

If you’re a roofing contractor tired of chasing jobs and inconsistent revenue… this episode will change how you think about your business.

In this episode, I sit down with Bryan Mitchell to break down how to build a profitable repair and maintenance division—and why it can be one of the most overlooked opportunities in roofing.

1. We walk through it step-by-step:
2. Why only 5–7% of roofs get replaced each year
3. How service creates recurring revenue
4. What a service division actually looks like
5. How to start (even if you’re small)
6. The numbers behind a $500K service truck
7. How to find opportunities and win the work
8. The biggest mistakes contractors make

This isn’t theory—this is how real roofing businesses build profit, stability, and long-term value.

Learn more about Bryan Mitchell:

https://serviceadvantedge.net

Looking for a mentor to help build a more profitable roofing business?

https://theroofercoach.com

SMA Support

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

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.

If you had to step away from your business for two weeks… would it run—or fall apart?

In this episode, I break down the “2-Week Vacation Test”—a simple way to see whether you actually own a business… or just a job.

Most contractors don’t have a lead problem. They have a structure problem.

If everything depends on you—calls, sales, production, decisions—your business can’t grow.

We walk through the 3 core areas every roofing business needs to function without the owner:

1. Selling the work (lead handling & follow-up)
2. Doing the work (production & accountability)
3. Keeping score (financial visibility)

I’ll also show you where most contractors are leaking money—and how to start fixing it.

If you want to know exactly where your business is breaking, download the Roofing Business Success Audit below.

👉 Roofing Business Success Audit:

https://theroofercoach.com/audit

👉 Learn more about SMA Support:

https://theroofercoach.com/sma

👉 Learn more about ProLine CRM:

https://theroofercoach.com/proline

00:00 – The 2-Week Vacation Test

00:30 – Welcome to The Roofer Show

01:15 – The Real Problem (You Are the System)

03:30 – The 3-Legged Stool Explained

07:00 – Run the Test on Your Business

10:00 – Fixing the Bottlenecks

10:30 – SMA (Lead Handling & Follow-Up)

11:45 – ProLine CRM (Systems & Pipeline)

13:00 – Why This Actually Matters

16:00 – Download the Audit

18:30 – Final Thoughts

Download the Roofing Business Success Audit:

https://theroofercoach.com/download-audit

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.

Most roofing contractors think they need more leads…

But the real problem is what happens AFTER the lead comes in.

In this episode, we break down what it actually costs to get a customer — and why chasing more leads is probably costing you thousands.

If you’ve been spending money on Google Ads, SEO, or lead services and not seeing the results you want… this will change how you look at your business.

👉 Find your biggest profit leak in 2 minutes:

https://theroofercoach.com/audit

1. The real cost per lead and cost per customer
2. Why most contractors don’t know their close rate
3. How one job should create multiple opportunities
4. The simple referral system most companies skip
5. How to grow without relying on more leads

Looking for a mentor to help guide you and accountability to building a more profitable roofing business? Let’s talk.

https://theroofercoach.com/audit

ProLine CRM – Know your numbers and close more jobs.

Track your leads, follow-ups, and pipeline so nothing falls through the cracks.

👉 Check it out: https://useproline.com/

SMA Support – Never miss another call or follow-up.

They handle your calls and lead follow-up so you stop losing the jobs you’re already paying for.

👉 Learn more: https://funnels.smasupport.us/the-roofer-show