Building a successful roofing business requires excellent strategic planning and thorough execution.
This applies whether you’re an experienced roofer looking to start a small business or someone new to the roofing industry.
In either case, it is essential to know and understand the nine main steps to establishing a solid foundation for such a startup.
Very quickly, here’s how you do it.
Get licensed to operate legally in your area.
Build a comprehensive roofing business plan for your operation.
Secure financing to cover startup costs and other initial expenses.
Register your business with the appropriate authorities.
Set up your financial and accounting systems.
Get the necessary tools and equipment for roofing projects.
Determine your pricing strategy for roofing services.
Obtain insurance coverage to protect your business, employees, and clients.
Develop a marketing plan to promote your roofing company, get referrals, and attract potential customers.
Let’s review these nine steps in more detail and see exactly what you need to do to start your new roofing business as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Schedule a call with us to learn more about how our software and accompanying mobile app can help you streamline and grow your roofing business.
1. Get Licensed
Depending on the state or region you’ll be working in, you may need to get licensed before doing any roofing work.
These license requirements help ensure roofing contractors have the knowledge and skills to do these projects effectively.
Additionally, a contractor’s license provides more credibility, making roofing businesses appear more trustworthy to potential customers.
That said, not all states require a license for contractors.
For example, states like New York, Texas, Indiana, or Georgia don’t require a license, while Florida, Arizona, and Illinois do.
Also, states like South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio need roofers to be registered but not licensed. Meanwhile, roofing businesses in states like California, Alabama, and North Carolina only need a license when handling projects above a particular value.
Check with your local government or the Small Business Administration (SBA) to see whether or not you need a roofing or general contractor license to operate in your state or local region.
Also, remember that if you get a license in your state or area, you won’t automatically be able to do roofing jobs in others.
You will need a different license for every location you operate in if that area requires it.
2. Create Your Roofing Business Plan
You can’t hope to get off to a good start without creating a comprehensive business plan.
As a roofing entrepreneur, you must do due diligence and outline your company’s strategy, objectives, and financial projections.
Here’s a straightforward guide to help you develop an airtight business plan.
Executive summary: Start by summarizing your business needs, mission, goals, target market, and competitive advantages.
Company description: Provide a detailed description of your business, including business name, location, business structure (sole proprietorship, limited liability company (LLC), or partnership), company history, and management team.
Market analysis: Perform market research to identify your target market, analyze industry trends, and assess your competition.
Services offered: Describe the type of roofing services your company provides, such as roof replacement or repair, and whether it’s commercial or residential roofing. Highlight any unique or specialized offerings you provide.
Marketing and sales strategy: Outline your traditional or digital marketing strategies and tactics to attract potential clients for your business. This can include everything from advertising and social media to networking, referrals, testimonials, and other forms of word-of-mouth advertising.
Operations and management: Provide a detailed description of your business operation that includes staff, roofing materials, equipment, suppliers, and subcontractors. Also, explain how you will manage your daily operations effectively.
Financial projections: Include your cash flow projections, income statements, break-even analysis, and other financial forecasts that can demonstrate the fiscal viability of your business.
By following these steps and doing thorough research and planning, you can create a business plan that will serve as a roadmap for your long-term success.
It will also help you get funding for your business, which we’ll cover next.
3. Get Financing
Small roofing business owners need to secure funding to cover the startup costs and ensure the smooth running of the company.
Here are several options to consider.
Bank loans: Local banks and credit unions generally offer small business loans for all startups. Remember that these banks may require you to provide some collateral, such as business or personal assets, to cover the loan. Bank loans may also require lengthy application processes, high interest rates, and stringent qualification criteria.
SBA Loans: Small Business Administration (SBA) loans are often the better option when compared to bank loans. They offer more favorable terms, lower interest rates, and extended repayment periods. Qualified applicants also have access to grants. However, SBA loans need extensive documentation and collateral and have a lengthy approval process.
Investors: Venture capitalists and angel investors are always looking for a solid startup to invest in. They offer capital in exchange for equity or a stake in the company. This funding strategy can impact the roofing company's autonomy and direction, which can sometimes result in conflicting interests and decision-making disagreements.
Crowdfunding: Various crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo help startups raise funds from a large pool of individual backers who could support your roofing business idea. In this case, marketing is equally important as the business plan. For crowdfunding to succeed, you’ll need something to set you apart from other roofing companies, such as pledging roof repairs for low-income families in the area.
Personal savings: If all else fails, entrepreneurs can always rely on their personal savings or assets to finance their initial investment costs. This would allow them to maintain complete control of the company and avoid debt.
For more information on the different types of loans, lenders, qualifications, and application process, check out our small business loan guide.
4. Register Your Business
New roofing business owners must register their companies with the proper authorities before taking on projects.
This process ensures compliance with governmental regulations and establishes you as a legal entity.
There are several steps that you need to take.
Choose a business name: The first step is to choose a name for your roofing company and ensure that it’s not already in use by another business in your state.
Trademark registration: You can also consider trademarking your business name to protect it from unauthorized use.
Choose a business structure: Decide which type of roofing business you will have. Options include a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation. These differ in terms of liability protection and tax implications. Sole proprietorships, for example, offer no legal separation between the owner and business, exposing personal assets to business liabilities. Partnerships share profits and liabilities among partners, with taxation happening at the individual partner level. LLCs shield personal assets from business debts and allow members to choose pass-through taxation or corporate tax rates. Corporations offer the best level of liability protection and are subject to double taxation, with profits taxed at a corporate level and dividends at the individual level. The registration process will also vary depending on which option you choose.
Obtain an EIN: You must also apply for an employer identification number (EIN) from the IRS. This is important because it is a unique identifier for your business when paying taxes, hiring employees, or opening business bank accounts.
5. Handle Finances and Accounting
To protect your business and personal assets, opening a business bank account and getting a business credit card is essential. You also need to have a comprehensive bookkeeping procedure in place.
Let's go over both of these points in more detail.
Opening a business bank account
By opening a business bank account, you can keep your personal and business finances separate. This makes accounting and tax filing much more straightforward.
You should also consider getting a business credit card. This helps with expense tracking, improving cash flow, and building credit.
It’s good to shop around and see which banks offer the best small business assistance. This generally includes lower fees and interest rates.
Setting up accounting
Proper accounting helps ensure accurate financial records, compliance with all tax regulations, and informed decision-making. Consider streamlining these processes using accounting software like ServiceTitan's Accounting tool.
This software solution streamlines and automates daily accounting tasks and provides accurate financial insights. It includes invoice generation, bill management, payment collection, and reconciliation.
ServiceTitan’s Field Service Accounting system can help companies with the following accounting needs among its many capabilities.
Accounting for the Front Office: This helps track invoices and payments directly from the platform. This also includes payment auto-batching for multiple transaction types based on their cadence.
Accounting Periods: The tool provides a set of controls that allow roofing businesses to quickly and easily compile transactions into groups every month. Users can open and close these groups at any time to ensure accurate records. Additionally, this capability includes a suite of customizable permissions to assign to employees.
Accounts Payables: The Payables feature streamlines the accounts payable management process by allowing roofers to enter, approve, and send payments to vendors from a centralized location with just a few clicks of a button. It allows users to quickly review and export finalized transactions to their preferred accounting software like QuickBooks, Intacct, or Viewpoint Vista.
Accounts Receivable: The system also tracks invoices owed to the roofing business, helping with invoice aging, payment status, and bank deposits.
6. Get Your Roofing Tools and Equipment
Once you have all your paperwork in order, it’s time to invest in your safety and roofing equipment. You can expect to spend several thousands of dollars.
Although this might seem steep, you can spread the costs over time. Also, the total cost may ultimately differ depending on the roofing materials you’re working with, whether shingles, tile, or slate.
Among the most common roofing tools and equipment you’ll need include things like:
Roofing nail guns
Hammer tacker/stapler
Roofing hammer
Pry bar
Tin snips
Reciprocating saw and circular saw
Drill (cordless, electric, or air)
Generator
Tarps
Roofing shovel or shingle tear-off tool
Scoop shovel
Chalk line tools (reel and chalk)
Measuring tape or laser tool
Caulking gun
Cement bucket and trowel
Ladders and extension ladders
Ladder hoist
Roofing shoes or boots
Hard hats
Safety harnesses and all other personal protective equipment (PPE)
Air compressor
Remember that you can purchase used tools and roofing equipment to reduce your initial expenses.
Next, you should contact local businesses and suppliers to see their roofing materials. Choose the ones that offer premium materials and provide you with preferential payment options, discounts, or product bundles.
It’s also worth investing in a mobile application like ServiceTitan’s Field Service App, which empowers field technicians with all the relevant customer and project information even before they get to the site, directly from their phones.
This app lets your technicians access customer profiles—job histories, photos, voice notes, and even prior invoices. This way, your roofers can recognize loyal customers, review critical property details, or even spot new issues or opportunities.
ServiceTitan’s Field Service Mobile App also lets you upload your forms into the platform so that your roofing teams always have the necessary paperwork for customers to review and sign.
Your roofers can also give potential clients good-better-best estimates directly from their mobile devices.
If the customer decides to hire your roofing company, your technicians can accept payments in the form of checks, credit cards, or even cash.
Inventory management
Another essential thing to consider is managing your inventory. Once you get going, keeping track of everything will involve more and more work.
This is where a system like ServiceTitan’s Contractor Inventory Management Software comes into play.
It can streamline inventory workflows, increase accuracy, save time, and enhance efficiency through various features.
These include things like barcode scanners to increase efficiency and profitability.
Roofing businesses can use the tool to improve their inventory management by organizing items in trucks and warehouses. They can track and manage purchase orders and returns directly from the platform.
Roofers can also create templates to track which inventory (equipment or materials) must be in each truck or location or to maintain preferred inventory levels using custom stock lists.
The ServiceTitan Inventory App helps gain more control over inventory and cost. It reduces roofing job delays by allowing employees to view the entire equipment-use history for every client and request or reserve tools, materials, and equipment as needed.
7. Decide on Your Roofing Services Pricing
New roofing business owners must know how to correctly price their services to balance maximum profitability, customer satisfaction, and attracting new clients.
There are a few things to consider when pricing your services:
Estimate labor costs: Evaluate roughly how many labor hours are required for each project.
Estimate material costs: Calculate the material expenses based on the project’s specifications.
Assess overhead: Consider fixed expenses like labor, equipment maintenance, and insurance costs.
Determine your profit margin: Set your target margin to ensure profitability.
Research market rates: Analyze competitors’ pricing and adjust your own accordingly.
Factor in complexity: Consider any additional services or unexpected costs that may pop up while on the job.
Offer discounts: Consider any seasonal promotions or volume discounts to attract new customers.
Once you understand what to consider when pricing individual roofing projects, you can decide which pricing strategy will work best for you.
You can go for either an hourly rate or a flat rate option.
Hourly rate: Also known as time-and-materials pricing, this model charges clients based on time spent and materials used on a project. The main benefit is that it provides transparency, but it can also incentivize roofers to be efficient with their time. However, customers may need more immediate clarity about the final cost.
Flat rate: With this pricing model, customers get an upfront price for each service or project, regardless of how long it takes. The costs and services are laid out, making it generally easier for customers to understand.
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There are benefits and drawbacks to both hourly rate and flat-rate pricing models.
However, flat-rate pricing is the preferred option mainly because it promotes high performance, shortens the billing cycle, and removes the prospect of negotiating or renegotiating prices.
ServiceTitan Pricebook Pro is a tool that can help you with your pricing strategy.
It shows updated pricing averages for your services, allowing you to better estimate your position among competitors in your region.
Its Smart Start functionality automatically adds the most common services personalized to your business. The platform then delivers regular cost, image, description, and hours-sold updates for each item.
It can help you and your salespeople impress homeowners with high-quality images, descriptions, and explainer PDFs for your service offerings, providing them with a professional buying experience.
8. Get Roofing Business Insurance
New roofing businesses must secure comprehensive insurance coverage to protect themselves, clients, and employees from unforeseen circumstances.
The go-to insurance policies that most professional contractors have include the following.
General liability insurance covers property damage, bodily injury, libel, slander, and false advertising claims.
Workers' compensation insurance is mandatory in most states and covers employees’ medical expenses and lost wages in the event of work-related injuries.
Commercial property insurance safeguards business property, including tools, equipment, materials, and other inventory, against damage or loss due to fire, theft, or natural disasters.
Professional liability insurance is also known as Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance. It protects against claims of negligence or mistakes in roofing services.
Commercial auto insurance covers any vehicles used for business purposes against accidents and damages.
Umbrella insurance offers extra liability coverage beyond the limits of other policies.
Bonding may be required for specific projects since it guarantees payment in case of contractor default.
Contact your commercial insurance agent to determine your specific needs and find suitable coverage options.
9. Market Your Roofing Company
Any successful business nowadays can tell you that effective marketing gets a company off the ground.
For better or worse, word-of-mouth advertising—regardless of its effectiveness—will only get you so far in this digital age.
You’ll also need to invest in other marketing strategies to stand out from the competition and grow a successful roofing company.
Fortunately, ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing Software provides the right tools to help you attract new customers. It also enables you to track real-time data and measure ROI so you’ll know if you’re on the right track.
The tool’s Marketing Scorecard feature can rank your campaigns based on revenue so you’ll always know what’s working and where to invest your resources better.
ServiceTitan also lets you create unique phone numbers for each marketing ad or campaign. Every time that number is used to book a roofing job, the system tracks real-time ROI based on the revenue generated.
The ServiceTitan heat map highlights precisely where your ads are running and how much revenue you’ve generated in each area. This helps you better understand your target market and how to spend your ad dollars to increase your ROI further.
Here are some effective marketing techniques when launching a new roofing business:
Get a website
A website is today’s equivalent of a business phone number back in the day. Without one, potential customers may see you as a dodgy handyperson with little to no roofing experience.
A business website gives you credibility; if designed correctly, it can boost brand awareness and generate leads.
Among the best ways for new roofing companies to create a website is to use a website builder like Squarespace or Wix. These platforms offer both affordability and simplicity.
Alternatively, you can hire a professional web designer to create a custom-built website tailored specifically to your needs and branding.
Another option is to use WordPress with specific contractor or roofing themes and plugins. This option strikes a balance between ease of use and customization.
List your roofing business
Sites like Google Business, Bing Places for Business, Yelp for Business, and similar platforms are where people typically go online to look for roofers, contractors, and other service providers.
Ensure your business info is accurate and consistent across all these platforms. You must also regularly update your listings with relevant details or engaging information to attract potential customers.
Run Local Services Ads
Google Ads is another effective tool to get your brand front and center to people searching for your services in your area.
With ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro—Ads tool, you can integrate with Google Ads and Google Analytics to optimize and track ad performance and ROI in real time.
You’ll also be able to identify wasted marketing dollars and optimize your campaigns so that Google targets better leads who are looking for your specific services.
The Local Services Ads integration helps you appear at the top of Google search results whenever someone is looking for roofers in your area.
This feature makes automatic bookings from Google into ServiceTitan’s dashboards, increasing efficiency and customer information accuracy.
Remember that these Google Local Services Ads only trigger when someone in your designated area does a relevant Google search.
This can significantly improve the ROI of your ad campaign by focusing the ads on potential hot leads actively looking for your roofing services.
Leverage email marketing
Email marketing is a truly effective method of nurturing leads and maintaining solid customer relationships.
With ServiceTitan’s MarketingPro – Email tool, you can identify targetable audiences, design templates, automate email campaigns, and track your ROI.
You can use these capabilities to send your target audience regular tips, promotions, and price updates to keep your roofing business in their minds.
Embrace social media
Roofers can use social media for several reasons, such as increasing brand visibility, reaching a wider audience, driving lead generation, and engaging with potential customers.
It’s also an effective way to showcase experience and remain top-of-mind with clients, which can improve loyalty and boost referrals.
New roofing companies can effectively leverage social media by:
Presenting before-and-after projects and satisfied customer testimonials to build trust and credibility.
Taking part in relevant conversations, sharing industry news, and offering tips, maintenance advice, and valuable insights to the local community.
Running targeted ads to reach potential customers.
Be mindful of SEO
As a new roofer with an online presence, you should consider and use search engine optimization (SEO).
Roofing SEO helps you enhance your visibility and attract potential customers. You can do this by using relevant keywords across your website, building backlinks from reputable sources, and creating high-quality and valuable content your target audience is interested in.
These best practices can help improve your search engine rankings and drive organic traffic to your website.
You can also leverage local SEO techniques, such as claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing and getting positive reviews.
These help you appear in local search results, attracting new clients in your area.
Manage your online reputation
With so many review sites available for people to read and write about your services, keeping track of everything is next to impossible. Yet, staying on top of your online reputation can generate a lot of positive feedback and marketing success.
ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro – Reputation lets you monitor and respond to online customer reviews across various sites and platforms from a centralized location. You can also update your business listing information across over 60 review sites.
After completing a roofing job, the platform automates follow-up review requests, redirecting customers to a preferred review site where they can leave their opinions.
You’ll also be able to see which jobs, technicians, or customers are driving positive or negative reviews of your roofing business, helping you make more informed decisions down the line.
Check out the other essential home service marketing tools that can give you a competitive edge and set you up for success.
Over to You
Starting a roofing company requires careful planning and execution.
Following this nine-step guide, aspiring entrepreneurs can lay a solid foundation to build a successful roofing business (pun intended).
A comprehensive roofing software solution can help see this plan through by streamlining and optimizing many business processes that new roofing business owners don’t have time to address with their limited resources.
ServiceTitan is an all-in-one roofing business software solution built to help service companies consolidate their business operations, boost revenue, and drive growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are a few quick answers to your questions.
How much does it cost to start a roofing company?
The cost of starting a roofing business ranges somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
The startup costs for a roofing company depend on multiple factors, such as registration fees, employee wages, tool and equipment purchases, material costs, liability insurance, and marketing expenses.
What is a good profit margin for a roofing company?
The national average profit margin for roofing companies is between 20 and 40 percent. That said, newer or larger roofing businesses may be on the lower end of that spectrum.
Large roofing businesses tend to suffer from higher overhead, while new roofing companies need to ramp up their business before starting to see higher profit margins.
Is a roofing company profitable?
Roofing companies can be profitable, depending on how well they are managed.
According to Roofing Contractor, a 2021 survey identified the median annual revenue that year in the roofing sector to range between $500,000 and $4.9 million.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
