Roofing Contractor Blog

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We all need to be great at marketing.

If you’ve been by the EternaBond booth at a trade show, perhaps Chris Margarites has flagged you down and given you this demonstration: He uses his EternaBond roofing tape to join a piece of metal to a piece of EPDM to a piece of PVC to a piece of just about anything and dares attendees to pull them apart.

How do you become a winner in the roofing business during these uncertain times? For starters, the International Roofing Expo held Feb. 3-5 in Las Vegas was an ideal launching pad.

There is a reason this writer does not frequently have a lot to say about politics and politicians in this country. I am about as cynical as they come in regard to this circus, but do not find it particularly right to toss potshots when I refuse to become fully engaged in the process.

I live and work in the rather sickly Detroit metropolitan market. Every time I drive by a flooring store, granite shop, plumbing showroom or contractor’s truck, I wonder how they are doing. What steps have they taken to cut costs? How long can they keep going if conditions don’t improve?

As part of our State of the Industry survey, we asked an open-ended question of our contractor participants: “What advice would you give a roofing contractor in order to ensure they have a profitable and successful future in the industry?”

It is Sunday morning and I have just returned from a little jog with a few thousand of my closest friends at the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer. This was the second annual event and since it is in my old stomping grounds at Jacksonville Beach, Fla., thought I might as well give it a spin.

I had heard that Las Vegas construction was in huge trouble. According to the reports, the financial meltdown had broken the city’s back. The cranes were idle, the jackhammers silent and the workers sent packing. Put a fork in all those huge building projects--they're dead.

As part of our State of the Industry Survey, we asked contractors about sales volumes across product categories.

My Blackberry began buzzing early last week while I was attending the International Roofing Expo with the sad news that Millard Fuller had died in an ambulance on the way to Albany from Americus, Ga. Friends all over knew Millard Fuller was one of my heroes.