Dan E

@LeveragedLayman Replit or v0

@thecruice What’s the project size for that bonus?

PM said he can finish a project a month quicker than what the bid schedule says. Told him if he does I’ll give him $25k. My wife overheard and is not happy. “You can’t do stuff like that, I don’t think that’s a good business decision” She’s probably right but I used to hate busting my ass for someone else and just getting a ‘thanks’.

@gvh41 Disregarding the franchise portion would you get into roofing again or look at another home service?

Eighteen months after buying into a roofing franchise, I was no longer a roofer. Still writing a $4,800 check every month on an SBA loan for a business I no longer own. Which I'll be writing for the next 99 months. This message is for anyone at the brink. If there's one thing I can promise, the decision to buy into a franchise will change your life. For better or worse. If I could start over again, I'd want someone to tell me about the conversations I never had that could've changed everything, so here we go: When I decided I wanted to own a business, I landed on franchising after a few months of research. Once I did, that was it. The blinders were on. The question stopped being "how should I get into home services?" It became "which franchise should I buy?" I did what I thought was thorough research. Around 6 months worth: - 3+ franchise consultants. - Franchise sales organizations like Franchise FastLane. - Franchise development reps (glorified sales reps) at 2+ dozen brands. - I bought a course. - I went to Discovery Days. - And I talked to A LOT of franchisees. If I was looking at a painting franchise, I called painting franchisees. Power washing, same thing. Roofing was trickier- I was the first franchisee in my specific system, so there was nobody to call within my brand. But I called franchisees from other roofing systems. And I called franchisees within the parent company's other brands. I talked to 50+ of people who had made the same decision I was about to make. I thought I was being diligent. And I was, but only within a very narrow frame. Here's what I missed: every single person I talked to had already bought into franchising. They were invested. Financially and psychologically. They needed the model to work because they were already in it. And so I wasn't getting perspective, I was getting confirmation. Nobody I spoke to had looked at franchising, weighed it against the alternatives, and chosen a different path. Or just went out and did the thing on their own without looking back. I never heard from the other side. If I could start over, I would have called an equal amount of independent home service business owners. Not franchisees. Independents. The guy running a roofing company he built from scratch. The woman who started a painting business without paying royalties to a corporate office. People doing the exact same work I wanted to do, but without a franchise agreement. And here's what they would have told me: 1. They would have made me think about royalties differently. When a franchisor says "7.5% royalty," it sounds manageable (hindsight is a bitch sometimes). But that 7.5% comes off your gross revenue- not your profit. In roofing, net profit margins typically run 20% at best after you pay for materials, labor, overhead, insurance, marketing etc. So that 7.5% royalty is 37.5% of your profit. If you perform like the best. An independent owner would have asked me: "What exactly are you getting for that?" 2. They would have told me what the best operators are doing to perform like the best. The top-performing independent roofing companies are hitting ~20% net margins. They're doing it through tight job costing, smart hiring, efficient crews, and systems they built themselves. They're not paying a franchisor to tell them how to answer the phone. They figured it out, or they joined a peer group and learned from people who had. 3. They would have pointed me toward resources I didn't know existed. There's an entire ecosystem of contractor networking groups, coaching programs, and peer communities that exist specifically to help independent home service owners grow. Groups like Nexstar, CCN, and HSA. Even the more intensive coaching programs are a fraction of what you'd pay in franchise fees over a ten-year agreement. And here's the difference- you're paying for education and community, not permission to operate under someone else's rules. 4. They would have told me the real challenges. They would have told me about cash flow crunches during slow seasons, the nightmare of finding reliable labor, the reality of building a brand from zero. Most importantly, they would have told me those challenges exist whether you're in a franchise or not. The difference is, when you're independent, you have the flexibility to solve them your own way. 5. They would have given me confidence. Maybe most importantly, talking to successful independents might have shown me that I didn't need to buy into a system to succeed. That the "support" I was paying for wasn't magic- it was stuff I could learn, build, or buy a la carte for a lot less money and a lot more freedom. I'm not saying franchising is always the wrong choice. For the right people in the right systems, it works. So if you're in the research phase right now, and you've landed on franchising, do yourself a favor. Don't just call franchisees. Call the people who looked at franchising and said no thanks. Call the independents doing the same work without the royalty check. They don't have confirmation bias or anything to sell you, and that's exactly why you should listen.

@RobinRoofs Makes it even more impressive, congratulations. How do you compensate? Are they on hourly? Or piece work?

@DanEng321 All crews from foreman down work for us and no one else, we have 9 crews like this, sometimes we have overflow and have to bring in some additional help, and have full on subs for things like Stucco and Gutters that we don’t fully in have in house yet

@gvh41 I always thought something like Rebath might be worth it as they have somewhat proprietary (?) moulds, etc on tubs that they supply.

@RobinRoofs Congratulations, very impressive. When you say take good care of your installers are you using primarily sub labor? Do you do any residential with in-house labor?

Can you build an 8 figure roofing business in 3 years from scratch like Chris suggested? Good amount of people jumping on this post with tons of reasons why this “can’t be done”. I built a 30M roofing business in less then 4 years so I know he is being extremely realistic here. Key in roofing right now is to turn away from the traditional insurance play and focus first and foremost on building a retail model and brand on social, in communities, at events, in networking groups. Brand and relationship focused retail roofing is not as much the adverse effect of slower storm and economic seasons like this year. Other thing is a diversified approach to the roofing business, guys who just do shingles are going to have a tougher time in this current market then if you build a reputation for installing metal, tile, specialty products with excellence. Heck, my brother-in-law who sells for us just sold a six figure residential copper metal roof the other week. The owner was getting quotes from the top couple retail brands in the area. They don’t go to just anyone when they get quotes on these kind of projects, they go to folks they are highly recommended to or who have an incredible local brand. Me and my sales manager just fired off a million dollar quote, they called us because of our brand in the community. Also retail commercial flat roofing which makes up 40% of our revenue is not a market nearly as impacted by storms. Commercial buildings owners want good roofs on their properties and over their tenants and that doesn’t change. Beyond that just business basics, good marketing, sales, ops processes, taking GREAT care of your installers. Most businesses in roofing do not take good enough care of their installers so they are not able to attract and retain the best talent on an install level. In this current labor market, great quality and talented labor is one of the number one constraints so figuring out how to build relationships and take care of the blue collar workforce is paramount. TLDR: It is very doable in 3 years to build to 10M in roofing if you have a great work ethic and understanding of business. One of the first pre requisites to doing so however, is an extremely positive, high responsibility and “can do” attitude. Which may sound cliché…. but many of the commentators here simply don’t seem to have it which is likely a large part of why they don’t have as much success.

@AizikZimerman How do you screen for this trait?

When I’m hiring for office roles, one of the biggest things I look for is a sense of urgency, a natural bias for action. The most successful people I’ve worked with all share this quality. They don’t wait for tomorrow to get something done if it can be done today. They move quickly, think quickly, and act quickly. People who move with urgency lift the whole team. People who don’t can unintentionally slow everything down. If you have that bias for action and that internal drive to keep things moving forward, you’re already ahead. It’s one of the most valuable traits anyone can bring to a team.

@jamesonhaslam @KenziesPoolBoy Yes, I would be interested!

If I launched a Twitter subscription button and started posted truly unhinged content (actual financials and job stories) would any of you sickos pay for that? then maybe I could afford an allocation in @KenziesPoolBoy round

@ThinkAppraiser Don Pebbles

When I talk to these people worth $20 30 40 $50 million you never gonna believe this, but none of them are real estate appraisers

@privatejetman I recognize this guys photo from Upwork. The reason it stands out is because I had an extremely similar interaction with him lol

Don’t be this guy.

@patrickdichter Why not go with YPO or EO?

I was in Hampton for a year and give it a 8/10. But after the first year I was tired of 2.5 hour zooms and when people say “I’ve been in EO/YPO/etc for 10 years” I just couldn’t picture myself in Hampton long term. The members are super impressive and it’s well run. I think it’s more valuable if you live in Austin, Denver or NYC where there’s more members and I know they’re doing in person core groups now.

I joined a new peer group. First meeting yesterday and I think I’ve found my long term place. Here’s why….

@MikeBotkin_ amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07G6X… amazon.com/dp/1476755744/…

@DanEng321 Link?

Any good book recommendations? Looking for quick page turner. Something similar to American Kingpin and The Art Thief, two great books by the way. Going to begin the LBJ series by Robert Caro in a few weeks. Want to squeeze something in before starting. What do you got?

@Aazarshad Ads

I’ve generated $35M+ for education brands with ads that don't look like ads. These ads follow proven frameworks (no guessing): • Authentic "ugly" ads that convert • UX familiarity bias ads • Authentic storytelling & more Like, & comment "ad to get this swipefile.

@Jacobsklug @lovable Build

After generating $250K (last 2 months) I built a playbook for @lovable apps—and I’m giving it away. In just two months, we cracked the code to building apps with AI. I’ve distilled everything we learned into this single document. Comment "Build" and drop a follow. I’ll DM it to you. P.S. This will likely blow up, so give me some time to reply.

@coleruudjohnson 15

My real estate business has generated over 5,000 off-market leads. We've perfected cold calling for leads. 9/10 people don't do it right. Today, I'll send you 15 sample calls alongside our 15-page script so you can master it. Like & Comment "15" & I'll DM it over!

@ClarkSquareCap $GCC.MX x.com/daneng321/stat…

What's your favorite non-US stock (US-listed is OK) heading into 2025? Why is it compelling? (Be sure to include a brief pitch). I will compile the results and share them. Please retweet to get more responses🙏

@joshuamschultz @ChandlerReedSMB Very grateful if you find it. Thanks.

@DanEng321 @ChandlerReedSMB I have it somewhere - I changed community providers

Great Cold Emailing breakdown with @ChandlerReedSMB today! How to warm up a domain (and why its necessary) How to set up your emails How much email to send The complete tech stack to use The system to implement Exact emails and subject lines he's used to close 100k deals Copy here in a newly formed free community (way to share content all in one place): communities.kajabi.com/smbblueprint/c…