[OUTLAW]

First of all I would like to thank Ed The Roofer for helping me get my website in my signature

Now, I have one more question. How do I make it "go live" so to speak? You know, where you can click on it.

 

[Ed the Roofer]

I reported your post, which will eventually get a message to the administrator to see why it is not working.

Ed

 

[Nathan]

I've fixed your signature. Let me know if you need anything else.

 

[OUTLAW]

I really appreciate it guys

 

[ronbryanroofing]

Ed,
I saw on the big site you were nominated for "Most helpful". From all I have seen that is true.

I have a question, and I think it has been answered but the answer was way over my Computer Intellect.

Having ones website posted on every message being posted makes it more likely to be picked up by Google when local to you or the towns you operate in?

 

[ronbryanroofing]

Sorry that last sentence made no sense...

When people type "roofing and one of the towns you listed" the more your website is in these forums the better chance it will be picked up on their search?

 

[tinner666]

I wouldn't worry about it Ed. Doing that only made my traffic go up and increased my leads so I can't lay around like I want too.
I think I'll take mine out becasue being #1 on Google all the time for certain keyword phrases can be a drag.:jester:

 

[Ed the Roofer]

Ed,
I saw on the big site you were nominated for "Most helpful". From all I have seen that is true.

Thank you for that observation.

The interesting thing about the majority of voters in that thread who selected me as their choice, was that they were mostly not contractors.

They were more in the categories of Contractors Business Coaches, Contractor Marketing Gurus and Contractor Advice Columnists.

I don't honestly know if that adds or diminishes the value of that recognition status. LOL.

I would prefer to just be known amongst other contractors and the home owners that read my postings, as one who is passionate about not only learning business, marketing, sales and trades skills, but more in the line of someone who will offer what he has to others, just in the spirit of trying to upgrade the status and image of the contracting field in general.

Others are equally as worthy of that helpful designated title.

In the end, we leave this planet with nothing, so why not share what you have to offer while you are around and improve the climate surrounding yourself.

My true passionate dream, which is still being worked on as I type, is to create a unified contractors association, not only for the networking capabilities, but also for the increased marketing advantages that a group effort could sustain, more so than any one individual.

A higher aspiration level of contractor would be desired to fill the spots available in multi-areas, so that when a home owner glances at the broad range of contractor choices, the ones evolving through this organization will be viewed as being on a higher plateau than the common run of the mill hacks and jack-legs so redundant in their pre-perceptive views of the tradesmen fields.

If things work as planned, there may be an unveiling of the beta test area versions of this entity around the beginning of summer time.

We all can dream, can't we?

Ed

 

[ronbryanroofing]

Here we are all on the same page as we are upwards a thousand miles apart but you know that feeling you get when you want a job but don't get it but in your "Roofers Heart" you know you lost a fair fight to another good roofer. I get that sometimes but mostly if I loose it is to low ballers and that pisses me off.

I too have this thought bouncing around in my head of a similar "Club". I think all of us just roofers that loose jobs to low ballers would consider the unity of keeping the prices up/ consistent in some way, shape or form.

I am not sure how "The Club" could be the only ones in the HO's eyes that are capable of doing their work (small hurdle) It would be nice to have a couple local "Club" names that you could offer to the HO that would be in the same level of quality and of course be in the same price bracket and may the best man win that would be nice.

You also mentioned buying power. That is also a motivator. However to be in the sizable position to negotiate the cost downwards, the group might need to be quite large as what some here are reporting the low ballers are very low.

 

[Ed the Roofer]

The areas where we are going to be testing, will start off with around 300-350 members according to preliminary plans, with the next desired escalation of membership to jump up to around 1,000 members and then see how it goes.

What would you like to see in such an organization?


Do you think that any of those available resources would be something that any smart contractor would be interested in joining?

Do you think that the envisioned credibility of the allowed contractors involved would be something that consumers would desire to seek out specifically?



How much would something like that be worth to anyone?

There is so much to the list, but for the initial start up intent and desire, certain aspects will not be made available immediately, but brought on board when feasible to do so.

Ed

 

[ronbryanroofing]

A lot of guys say it is not about price, but I am not completely convinced. With that in mind:

1. Purchasing Power- In my experience we roof about a hundred tear off and put back squares per week. When I get the bigger 80, 100, 200 square projects I send out for updated/ best pricing and sometimes it is upwards to 12 or 15 dollars per square less! Never working retail I can only imagine the mark ups they are using, but I am curious and I think that would help actually knowing.

2. Exclusively Roofers- And I am thinking Residential or Condo's ect., (as the Industrial Roofers have their own Pricing Structure and Requirements to handle that volume/ quantity of work).

* Updated monthly website accessible to HO's to verify Members Insurance is Active, If Complaints are reported they are addressed.

I am thinking this is also something that is "Price per monitored" ... Meaning as a whole being completely legit
across the board as I mentioned above and operating at a minimum set amount and it stays above.

Personally I would feel comfortable sharing such a list / website with HO's making the fight fair, protecting them (Insured, ect.) and protecting me from low ballers.

Bills in by the 10th, so would be Certificates of Insurance to stay on the Website or off you go!

I would think $100 bucks a month times 300 Club members would pay the bills ( Website, Office Personal, material negotiators - I am sure a couple major suppliers would jump at having 300 promising to buy from them, at my volume which is not much compared to some of you- that is around a million square!

 

[Ed the Roofer]

Ron,

I have to admit, that I actually typed in a very lengthy post earlier, but had to redact the information, because the time is not yet right for it to get out, as we are still engaging some other interested parties and do not want to let the cat out of the bag, if we ever actually establish a "bag", in the first place.

Some legal and accounting considerations are still being looked at.

Please provide as many useful ideas as you can though, for me to see if what I feel is needed, actually winds up being what is thought about by other contractors.

I will promise to reveal more, when the time comes, which I hope is not just a pipe dream.

I do know through much research, which I am very vigorous and thorough about, that what ever the fee proposed, the savings would substantially offset the investment by a wide margin. And, that is not by making up a whole bunch of "What If" scenarios, like is so common with most people trying to sell you something.

Take Market Sharp Software for example:
They promise exceptional results, but that is all based on the validity that their software will produce an exponential quantitative amount of financial goals and results, which it very well might actually do, but I am NOT willing to spend $2,000.00 to $5,000.00 to find out for myself, unless they offered a money back guarantee of at least a portion of the fee paid.

I do not believe that contractors should continue to pay the price of someone creating a function, such as a software that has a fixed development cost, yet they continue to charge the exorbitant initial fees, even when volume should have gotten that cost under control. At the point of volume saturation, even the first members to sign up and purchase those softwares, should be granted a future rebate, based on their initial higher priced purchase amount.

Ed


Ed

 

[user182]

I have thought about starting some kind of a business to help contractors with sales & marketing also.

About a year ago a marketing guy that has done some work for asked me to partner with him but I decided not to do it.

With the way the Detroit market has been going I had to focus all my efforts on keeping my roofing business going.

I’m located in a rural area that has 16% unemployment and I commute to the Detroit suburbs. Between the difficulty of the slow economy and the time I am spending driving I figured I would not be able to invest enough time in starting another business.

Meanwhile I am constantly improving my sales & marketing methods. Maybe someday I’ll be able to offer some kind of sales training and marketing products for contractors.