Podcast 121: How To Improve Your Job Profits By 25% with Dave Sullivan

There are 2 ways to make more profit on your roofing jobs. First, sell your jobs for more money. The second is to reduce your costs to do the job. Simple isn’t it? But if you’re like most contractors you already have a full book of business. And you’re not getting any more money for that work. Today’s podcast is all about production and reviews some new ways to reduce your costs and make more money that you may not have thought of.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

There are two ways to make more money: sell your work for more money or do the work for less cost (See Episode 22)
One component of doing the work smarter is to take care of your employees
Many contractors go out of business when they are booming, simply because they run out of cash
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”

Examples of learning the hard way:
- Writing down the wrong address
- Leaving a ladder on the job site
- Misunderstandings due to lack of clear communication with customers
How to turn it around:
- Use checklists and put systems in place
- Set goals for how you want to do the work
  - Get in and out with the most profit
  - Have a happy, happy customer that pays his bills and gives 5-star reviews
  - Have customers who refer you to other like-minded customers
  - Spend the least amount of time supervising
The most important part of the job is the Pre-job work:
- Assemble the job package
- Meet with the customer
- Hand the job off to the foreman or job supervisor
- Communicate clearly to the customer
- Go over payment terms and job specifics
Specific things to accomplish during the job:(See Episode 16)
Specific things to accomplish during the post-job (See Episode 19)
How to conduct the job post-mortem
Don’t forget to ask for a review and referrals
- Make the review process easy for the customer
- Send a small thank-you gift to the customer
- Try to secure one new job in the neighborhood