I have lived in Strathfield since 1990.
And it has been home for my roofing 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 roofers 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 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 roofing 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 roofers (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 roofers 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 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 two 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.
I started roofing work in 1999 and learnt ‘on the tools’ for a few years before facing the big challenge of operating a roofing business that is successful enough to remain solvent for the long term.
I am hardly on the tools any more. I have trained my roofers to be better than I am at repairing roofs. Now, I just make sure that there is continuity in the business to honor my on-going warranties…
Read more about Jack The Roofer StoryYou are in the middle of something important and the phone rings. Most people pick up. Slave to the interruption rather than sticking with the flow.
I forced myself to put my phone on silent – so that I could be more productive. That was 7 years ago. I killed the Fear Of Missing Out.
For most of my day, I don’t answer my phone – so giving you a phone number will only frustrate you. If I get another person to answer my phones, I only get more messages than I can cope with. Which means that messages get unanswered. That is not good.
In the last 7 years, nothing ‘BAD’ has happened because I did not answer my phone. I am safer letting my phone ring out than stopping in mid-stride to take a call. I am on the road driving , or on a roof for most of my day.
I do have an office phone and it is 02 97460178 (but it has been switched to ‘no message’ mode for a year now).
My mobile is 0416 264681 (you can text of leave a message).
The best way to get my attention is via email – and the only way to get my email is to fill in the CONTACT form on this website. Reaching out to me this way has a better chance of my attention because all the details go into my computer database. I tend to forget things as soon as I hang up the phone.
Boris lives in Eastern Sydney and he owns and operates The Roofing Professionals Eastside.
Brad lives up the coast and the owns and operates The Roofing Professionals Northside.
From very interesting beginnings, the ‘Roofing Professionals’ brand has come a long way…
The Roofing Professionals Westside is owned by a registered company called ADVCON Pty Ltd.
ADVCON Pty Ltd is GST registered and holds ABN 35 072 196 411.
ADVCON Pty Ltd has Workers Compensation cover with ‘ICare Workers Insurance” (Policy number 117390201)
and Public Liability Cover with “Chase Underwriting P/L” (Policy Number 496729)
We do not take any money upfront.
We do not take any deposits if you accept our quote and want to book a roof repair job in. (there is a reason why we do this and you can go to the Roof Repair work deposit page if you want more information).
We will generally email you an invoice when all the work as quoted has been completed. This invoice will have EFT banking details for you to pay us.We have a team meeting every morning to decide who is best suited to do the different roof repair jobs that are scheduled that day.
The tricky jobs will go to the more experienced workers. We have two apprentices (one virtually a tradesman one still going to TAFE). The experienced tradesmen are contractors in their own right.
The good roofers that I have trained up generally want to be independent (with my complete blessing) and they are free to come and go. But these roofers retain our core culture of playing the ‘LONG GAME’. Jobs are not complete until the solution is permanent.
I do not ‘handle the tools’ much nowadays. My roofers can do a far better job than I can.
Besides, I am busy making sure that my roofers have a good future, by getting them suitable work – since we are all playing the ‘long game’.