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The plays
128 plays for the business side of running a roofing company. Free to read, nothing to sign up for.
Getting paid
Your crew
Try it out
Pick the one that matches your week. The card is the whole thing — print it, or open the play behind it.
The Intent Ladder — Which Rung Are You OnOpen the play
+-----------------------------------------------------+ | THE INTENT LADDER — WHICH RUNG ARE YOU ON? | | | | 1. "What do I do?" ............. bring a plan first| | 2. "What do you want?" .......... bring one | | 3. "Here's my fix — okay?" ...... add a time | | 4. "Doing it at ___ unless <=== AIM HERE | | you say stop." | | 5. "Handled it — here's ......... small, earned | | what happened." calls only | | | | BIG CALLS STILL COME TO THE OWNER: | | price changes . warranty promises . firing | +-----------------------------------------------------+
Every fire, in plain EnglishAll 56 of them — tap yours and the library opens to the plays.
Money
- Owed money you can't collect
- The adjuster's number came in way under the job
- Insurance money stuck — the carrier, the mortgage company, the second check
- Winter's coming and cash is thin
- Jobs sell but the profit isn't there
- You're bidding off a gut number and a guess at the squares
- Somebody wants you to eat the insurance deductible
- Your workers' comp bill keeps climbing
- You can't tell if sub crews or your own payroll makes you more money
Selling and where the work comes from
- You can't say where your work actually comes from
- The phone rings but the jobs don't close
- They ask what it'll cost before you're off the ladder
- You sent the price and never heard back
- She wants the roof but says she can't pay for it
- A storm just hit and the phone is going crazy
- The homeowner wants to run it through insurance
- You put a man on sales and can't tell if it's working
- Cash is fine this week and you can't see next month
Buying material
Your crew and the callbacks
- Nobody follows through
- Callbacks and sloppy work
- You've told him ten times and nothing changes
- You hear about problems from the homeowner, not your crew
- You got torched online
- Somebody could get hurt bad on your roof
- OSHA's at the gate and nobody knows what to say
- A sub crew's work is coming back on you
- A roof you finished is leaking and the phone's ringing
- Nobody can say what your warranty actually covers
- Callbacks are eating your margin and you can't say what they cost
The schedule and the weather
Hiring and keeping men
- A crew lead quit on you
- You're turning work away but you can't tell if you can afford another crew
- You're hiring
- New guys don't stick — hired Friday, gone by week three
- Your best man is about to blow up or walk
- You have to let a man go
- The sub crews you want keep working for somebody else
- Your crew's on the clock and the two-day job takes three
- Every roof starts with a fight over what the crew gets paid
- The crew wants paid Friday and the roof's not checked or paid for
- Somebody asks for a raise every Friday
Meetings and decisions
Your day and your own head
None of these — you just know you’re winging it? Your first 30 days — four weeks, five plays, in the order we’d run them.