Roofing Business Plan: What to Include, Tips, Benefits, Template

What is a Roofing Business Plan?

A roofing business plan is a document that outlines your business roadmap.  It includes your plan for starting, running, and growing your roofing business, your goals and how to achieve them, and an implementation timeline.

It’s used to prove your business idea’s potential for success and generating revenue. You can use it to secure investor funding and also as a guide when making important business decisions.

A business plan differs from your company’s business model because it contains details about your business and its goals, whereas your business model outlines how you deliver your roofing services to make revenue.

How to Create an Effective Roofing Business Plan?

Creating a roofing business plan takes time and effort, but it’s not complicated. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Be realistic: Your goals, budgets, and timelines should be realistic and attainable. Creating a business plan with outlandish goals and requirements only sets your team up for failure. Use the SMART framework to set realistic goals, meaning each goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

2. Think about your purpose: What drives you to start a roofing company? What legacy do you want your business to have? Use the answers to these questions to inform your business plan. Investors find this information helpful and it can also inform your goals as your roofing business grows.

3. Define your company values: Your values cover the qualities your business upholds. They define many aspects of your roofing business, from the technicians you hire to how you handle customers and more. Examples of roofing company values include:

• Safety first

• Innovating approach

• Happy customers every time

• Quality craftsmanship

4. Set yearly goals:  Breaking down your service goals into yearly chunks can help you establish your timeline and, in turn, help you understand if you’re on track to hit your broader business goals.

You can use these goals as business milestones. They can include targets like a certain amount of revenue, the number of jobs closed, the number of customers, or even the number of employees.

What to Include in a Roofing Business Plan?

To create an effective roofing business plan, you must include the correct information and structure it logically.  The guide below outlines the sections to discuss and the details to include. 

1. Executive summary

An executive summary serves as a concise overview of your business plan.  In this section, explain the goal of your business plan, what the document is about, and what it includes.

Here, include:

• Your business name

• Your physical location and intended service areas

• Your target market

Also include the business owner’s name, roofing experience, certifications, and licenses.

The executive summary is the first page of your roofing company business plan document, but it may be difficult to write before you’ve crafted the rest of the plan. Instead, create placeholder text and include bulletpoints to flesh out later.

You can also add your mission and vision statements here to show your business’s purpose to investors and external stakeholders.

2. Business overview

The business overview is similar to the executive summary but provides a detailed description of your roofing business.  Here, you can deep dive into what your company is about, why you launched a roofing business, and why you think it will be profitable.  

Start this section by defining your legal structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company).  Then, you can list your roofing services.  You don’t need to go into detail here as you will give a proper description of your services in the following section.

Next, either summarize your roofing company’s history (if you’re already established) or explain why you want to start one.  To make it engaging and informative, you can use a storytelling framework and accurate statistics from sources like roofing industry reports.

3. Services

In this section, list all the roofing services you intend to offer, such as emergency, preventative, and corrective roof repair, roof maintenance and debris removal, gutter cleaning and repair, and new roof installations. Establish your focus, whether commercial or residential roofing, or both, and include it here.

Also define your pricing and billing method (flat rate or hourly) for each service.

Include any modern techniques and physical and digital tools used for each service. Some examples are magnetic sweepers, shingle cutters, cordless drills, roofing calculator software, and comprehensive roofing contractor software like ServiceTitan. 

ServiceTitan helps roofing businesses automate crucial business operations such as invoicing, scheduling, dispatching, and paperwork.  This lets you cut down overhead expenses and manage operations from one platform.

4. Market analysis

Market analysis involves surveying the roofing industry in your service area(s), including investigating your competitors and target customers.  You need to fully understand the market landscape and confirm your viable business plan. 

Analyzing the local roofing industry helps you uncover trends, preferences, niches, and opportunities to provide unique value.  For example, you might find a preference for smart home technology, yet very few homes have smart roofs.  You can conduct this analysis using roofing industry reports, neighborhood canvassing, and the United States Census Bureau.

Next, assess your target market to gain insight into who they are (demographics), what they like (psychographics), their pain points and challenges, income level, and buying habits.  

Understanding this information about your potential customers lets you create an informed, data-driven ideal customer profile (ICP).  In turn, your ICP will determine your key messaging and how to target your marketing campaigns.

You can use ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro’s Audience Builder to segment your customer base into various groups and deliver email content tailored to their exact needs.

Let’s say you have some customers with expiring memberships. Instead of sending the same email to those who renewed their plan recently, you can create a special audience containing them only, and send an email that speaks directly to their needs.

Lastly, you must analyze your top competitors.  Aim for around five of the top performing roofing companies serving your local area.  Check out their websites, social media profiles, and business listings on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Angi.

You should also look at their approach to marketing and their preferred marketing channels (email, direct mail, outdoor advertising, etc.), and how they price their products and services.

Then, you can use the information from your competitive analysis to perform a SWOT analysis.  This exercise establishes your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and highlights why customers will choose your business over your competitors. 

After determining your value prop, you can use ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing tool to promote your business to customers via:

• Paid advertising

• Email mails

• Direct mails

As customers interact with your ads on those channels, ServiceTitan will automatically track their performance and deliver a detailed report highlighting:

• Zip codes generating the most calls

• Campaigns bringing in revenue

• The types of jobs each ad generates

5. Equipment

In this section, you must include the necessary tools and equipment for running a successful roofing business.  You should list the item, its estimated purchase price, and maintenance costs.

 Some examples of equipment to include here are:

• Ladders

• Safety equipment and roofing PPE (harnesses, hard hats, gloves, work boots, coveralls)

• Hand tools and power tools (tin snips, pry bars, magnet brooms, nail guns, cordless drills)

• Roofing materials (shingles, underlay, flashing)

Next, outline your inventory management plan, including your chosen inventory management software.

ServiceTitan’s Inventory Management platform seamlessly integrates with the Field Service App and automatically updates stock replenishment orders to include items booked out by your roofers or added to invoices. Technicians can even requisition stock from the field.

You can set your ideal stock levels for each item so that replenishment is automatically triggered so your technicians always have what they need to perform their work effectively.

The tool also shows the location, quantity, and total value of each inventory item.  This provides a more detailed overview of your inventory and lets you make informed decisions about new stock purchases.

6. Marketing plan

Marketing is an essential part of running a business.  It helps to put your roofing business in front of prospective buyers and, when done properly, convinces them to choose your business for their roofing work.

A structured marketing strategy lays out how you will approach different aspects and marketing channels, and how you will target your ideal customer profile. 

Start this section by restating the ICP you created during your market analysis.  Then, define the strategies and channels you intend to use to promote your roofing business.  You should combine traditional or “offline” channels with digital ones to enhance your reach locally and online.

Some channels to consider are:

• Email marketing

• Flyer distribution and bulletin boards

• Direct mail

• Social media marketing

• Search engine optimization (SEO)

If you wish to track all these campaigns in one place, use ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing. That way, you can save the costs of subscribing to multiple platforms while getting accurate data to improve your campaigns.

When you launch your website, make sure to include local-intent keywords like “Irvine roofing services” and create a Google Business Profile with all your business details on it.  This helps increase your visibility on search engines.

7. Management summary

In this section, you can outline your organizational chart with all the roles you intend to fill.  This should include the business owner (i.e., you), your management staff and team leaders, technicians, and front-office staff.

Next to each role on the chart, you should detail the responsibilities and chain of command to show how your business will make important decisions.  Adding the qualifications and expertise you need for each role can make it easier when it comes time to hire as you already know what to look for. 

This chart will look a little different depending on your business structure and scale.  You might start out as a one-person company or with one or two additional staff members but plan to hire more down the line.  In this case, you should lay out your plan for hiring more staff, and the milestones you need to hit before making your next hire.

For example, you could note that you will hire one more customer service representative and another roofer once your roofing company consistently generates over $75,000 per month for three months.

8. Financials

The financial section of your roofing business plan can be complicated, but it’s one of the most important.

Here, you will explain how your roofing business will cover startup costs, maintain financial health, handle expenses (and what those expenses are), and invest in business growth.

It’s advisable to open a dedicated business bank account and get a business credit card.  This will help you when it comes time to file taxes, and you can build up your credit to qualify for business loans.

Now, you can make a list of all your roofing business expenses, such as equipment purchases, rent, wages, utilities and overheads, marketing budgets, and learning and development.

Then, you can write out your three- to five-year financial projections.  Make sure to include:

• Projected cash flow

• Balance sheet

• Break-even analysis

• Profit and loss projections

• Pricing strategies

To make financial management easier, consider using ServiceTitan’s Customer Payments and Contractor Payroll platforms.

The Customer Payments software allows your roofers to collect payments via credit card, check, and cash from the field.  Your office staff can access these payments while the system automatically handles reconciliation, so there’s no manual data entry involved.  The payment is deposited into your business bank account in 24 hours.

This helps maintain accurate financial records and provides valuable profitability data insights, letting you make informed business decisions.

The Contractor Payroll platform lets users oversee payroll from one centralized location.  You can create custom payment structures that cover commission, overtime, benefits, and bonuses.  By handling these operations automatically, you can ensure you compensate each employee accurately and fairly, cutting out the risk of errors usually found in manual payroll.

9. Legal & regulatory compliance

Your state and local government will have specific regulations your roofing business must comply with to avoid lawsuits, fines, and reputational damage.

Start by researching the roofing licenses you and your employees require, and where to obtain them in your state.  Then, list any other certifications you may need to perform your services.

Instead of basing the licenses your employees get on assumptions, you can use ServiceTitan’s Roofing Licensing tool to find what your state requires.

Lastly, you must define and obtain any other licenses required by your state and local government for roofing business operations, such as waste management, insurance (general liability, workers’ compensation), and more.

Ready to create your own roofing business plan?  Download our free roofing business plan template to help you get started.

Why Would You Need a Roofing Business Plan?

Putting together a comprehensive roofing business plan will take time, especially considering the amount of research you will need to do.  However, it is an important step in starting a new business.

Additionally, much of the research and planning, like conducting market research, identifying your target audience, defining your operational plan, and outlining the management team will need to be done before you launch the business.

Putting this information together in your roofing business plan lets you create a cohesive plan and can help you strive towards business success. Remember, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

Here are some other benefits of creating a roofing business plan:

• Clearly defined goals and objectives:  Having your goals laid out in your business plan makes it easier to keep your team members on the same page and working towards the same objective.

• Show your unique selling points (USP):  In your business plan, you will establish what makes you different from your competitors and highlight your USP.  This informs your messaging and sales strategies.

• Prove yourself to investors:  Even the best idea won’t get far without solid evidence that it is financially viable.  A well-executed business plan helps you show investors that your idea is worth investing in.

Set Your Roofing Company Up for Success with the Right Technology

Using technology to streamline your business operations can give you a competitive advantage as it saves your employees time, enhances productivity, reduces errors, and can help your business run more smoothly.

One of the best software solutions to implement is ServiceTitan.

ServiceTitan’s Roofing Contractor software lets you track your company’s performance through custom and pre-made reports.  You can assess financial stability, revenue, profit margins and profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee performance, all in one place.

These reports and the Technician and CSR Scorecards help businesses identify top performers and spot areas for improvement.

With ServiceTitan’s Service Scheduling software, roofing entrepreneurs offer customers the option of booking an appointment online, while still staying in control of their schedule from a central hub. 

When an existing customer calls your business, ServiceTitan immediately shows your CSR who they are, their service history, and details of their property.  The CSR can access call scripts from a drop-down menu so they don’t miss any vital information.

CSRs can see the entire schedule months in advance in just a few clicks, so they can schedule an appointment when the right technician is available.  Front-office staff can also tag jobs with special requirements like specific skills, tools, and language proficiency.

Over to You

Following the steps outlined in this article will help you to create a detailed roofing business plan that lays the foundation for business success.  Use our handy template to make structuring your business plan easier and ensure you include the right information.

Roofing contractor software like ServiceTitan lets you streamline essential workflows, enhancing productivity and setting you up for long-term success.

Book a ServiceTitan demo today and learn how it can help your roofing business succeed.

ServiceTitan is an all-in-one solution for home service providers.  Contractors use ServiceTitan’s suite of features to optimize their business operations, manage customer relations, and increase revenue.  ServiceTitan is proud to serve over 100,000 contractors across the country.