With the first snow of the season already past our offices here in Columbus, Ohio. We’re definitely feeling the winter season closing in on us. While that doesn’t apply to all of our friends in the roofing industry, for those of you in the Northern latitudes, it’s almost time to pack in the tools and call an end to shingling for the year. That doesn’t work is over with though, this week’s blog is here to give you some suggestions on how to do more for your company than hibernate this winter season.
EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS
Winter’s a great time to expand your horizons past just roofing contracting. If you’ve got skilled crews, more than likely they’ll know how to do more than just climb roofs and lay shingle. Taking some interior remodeling jobs or other general contracting work is a great way to expand your crew’s skill sets and open new revenue streams for your business.
GETTING SOME NEW TOOLS
We’re not just talking a new shingle stripper to speed up removals here. The off-season is an excellent time to shop for new solutions to the pain points you had during the previous year. Want to speed up inspections on multi-story homes? Maybe a drone could bring some speed and technological “wow” factor to your appointments. Getting up and running with new software is always a tough task when you’re busy. Spending some time demoing new software, training and fitting them into your company’s workflow is a perfect task to spend the winter months on. We have many companies that we meet at trade shows circle back during the winter months to start training and getting ready to blow next year out of the water. (If you’re one of them, here’s a link to our demo calendar so you can get started.)
TRAINING YOUR STAFF
Finding time to train your crews is always tough. No one wants to come in on a Saturday to sit through a pre-recorded seminar, and waiting for rain-out days leads to inconsistent training and less retention of the material. If you can, scheduling a training week during the off-months is a good time to consolidate all that into a single time-frame. If you do it well, it can be a team-building exercise too. If your office lacks the room or the equipment to do a team-wide training session, you should look at local resources like libraries, The BBB, Builders Exchange or other organizations that have community rooms for general use. Our own training sessions can be as short as 30 minutes, and we have comprehensive training available 24/7 on our YouTube channel so you can train at your own pace.
Using slower seasons to prepare for the busy ones is one way to use the industry’s fluctuations to your advantage. However you plan on spending your winter, we hope it’s positive and productive, and we’re here to help if you have questions on implementing our software into your practices. Call us during business hours or email us anytime and we’ll get the conversation started!
