I have lived in Strathfield since 1990.
And it has been home for my specialised roof repair and roof maintenance business (The Roofing Professionals Westside) since the early 2000’s.
Strathfield is located about 13 km west of the Sydney CBD and it is still considered as part of Sydney’s “Inner West”. Its inner west location makes it an ideal home for my roof technicians in the mornings before they travel out to their daily roof repair jobs around Sydney.
I run a home based business and I have a constant fight with my wife over the last two decades about roofing materials spoiling her house frontage.
So, we are not a big company. I am just Jack The Roofer (owner of the Roofing Professionals Westside) and I have a small team that I have trained up to do roof repairs very well.
And I have kept it small for selfish reasons. I love the roof repair game and I still want to keep my hands dirty. This is a luxury that a CEO of a big company will struggle to hang on to. That is why I don’t want to go there.
And by being ‘in the thick’ of the Sydney roof repair and maintenance world for two decades, I had no option but to get good at it. When Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the 10,000 hour rule – he must have been thinking of me.
Being ‘on the tools’ is a rare luxury for me nowadays. I have spent many years as ‘one of the boys’ on roofing jobs – but I now only have time to be a problem solver. My roof technicians (my average team is 5 roofers) do all the actual work now and they have proven to be better at it than me.
I am thankful that I have a teachable team of roof technicians who keep on getting better. My challenge is how to lead them on the continuous improvement path.
Good is OK in the challenging roof repair business.
Better (heading to best) is where we want to be.
The BOYS
It is the boys who do all the heavy lifting now. Some of them will be the ones who will carry on when I have run out of ‘PUFF’.
Geoff has been with me for about a decade and slots in as my right hand man. He learnt roofing in New Zealand and now, embraces Sydney as the place to continue applying his roofing skills.
Training is the key to having the right roof technicians on hand to carry out our challenging roof repair work. Mason and Christian completed their roofing apprenticeships with me and are on their way to become true tradesmen. I have another three apprentices getting trained up.
I also have preferred roofing contractors with proven track records and these roof technicians fit in well with my young team.