Here is a video of how our shop is set up as of the end of the season. Roof cleaning and house washing is still only 25% of the company at this point but still thought i’d share. If it can help anyone along the way with ideas or even just motivation then thats great! We will add some new builds through the year so I will share those later. Any feedback is always appreciated. We are far from perfect and are trying to organize and run smoother all the time.
10 Likes
I used that roof snow removal tool once too. My arms felt like jello when I was done 
1 Like
Nice little shop! Two thumbs up.
When did you start out? Pretty decent sized set up, where are you located?
@Deanswc that is a great setup. My shop is 7 minutes from my office… LOVE IT.
We do the same thing with clean/dirty towels in the trash bins. Once you get a washer/dryer in the shop it will change your life 
Do your guys like those Quick-Click Ladder Stabilizers?
Great shop, how many employees?
Dont mean to run you down at all but you dont have much equipment. What was the main reason to decide to get the shop.
At what annual sales would you say it was beneficial to move into a dedicated shop?
Do you rent or own?
A shop that size here would run close to $2000 a month. I’ve always didnt want to pay that, recently I have been totally rethinking the benefits.
Dean, thanks for sharing, great motivational post for me.
@Streakanator Thank you. We started in the fall of 2014. Never planned to be more than solo but saw the opportunity as the work came in. We are in Boise Idaho.
@dgalkin Thank you, I’m really happy with the space. To be honest I haven’t really talked to much about the stabilizers with them. Although I can say they have never complained to me about them. I noticed that some guys will take them off on some houses and then others will put them back on as needed. So I think for that reason they tend to work well. I know I sure like them.
@anon46335951 thanks Jeff. Right now there are 4 technicians, one salesman, and then me and my wife that work together in the truck.
You’re definitely right and no offense taken. It’s not a whole lot of stuff in the shop. But that wasn’t the driving factor for moving into the space. I live in a 800 square-foot house that can only park two cars in the single file driveway. So we were basically parking the work trucks in the yard and then halfway sticking out into the street. We were constantly pulling one truck out to let my wife out of the driveway and moving it back. Also it just looked terrible and junky. Which was very upsetting to my wife. Then the garage to an old 50s house is not very big. It can fit one small car with a couple feet on each side and maybe 5 to 6 feet in front of it. So all of those tools quickly fill up a small garage even though there’s not a ton. Then on top of that you have a car for each employee and they have to find somewhere to park. So this typically ends up being in front of your neighbors houses which they do not appreciate. Then this also required me to clean /stock and prep the trucks for the guys in my off time because I didn’t allow free access to my garage. So this was causing me to spend a lot of time after business hours on keeping the trucks going. My whole goal with my business is to have it run by itself with me only being there to oversee and not necessarily be heavily dependent on. This wasn’t possible operating out of my house. I considered buying a house or I could build a big shop in the back but I also realized I just don’t want my company operating out of my house. I want to be able to leave my work and come home and have a distinct separation between the two. This allowed me to do this. Now there are some weeks where I don’t even come into the office and everything is just done without me being there. All that’s really required of me is to answer the phones sometimes when the guys have questions or need help.
Another factor that was important to me was to create a sense of stability in the guys working for me. It was hard to give the appearance of a legitimate company that’s going to be around for a long time operating out of my garage. Now the guys can come to work and feel as if they are part of a real company. This also helps when having new ones interview for a job position. Not to say this can’t be done from a home-based operation but it just makes it easier for me.
As far as annual sales go I think that can really depend on different circumstances. If someone was in a better situation that allowed them to operate out of their house it probably wouldn’t be as necessary. I was more forced into needing the shop because of our circumstances. I’m sure there are bigger companies that can still operate out of smaller spaces. However I would think that anywhere over $250,000 in sales is a safe time to get a shop.
We pay $1,450 a month to lease the shop. I don’t know where the company will be 5 years from now so I didn’t want to purchase anything.
The goal of my business really isn’t to make me a ton of money. As of right now I feel very comfortable financially. The main goal for running my company is to allow me to live the lifestyle that I would like to. Currently I work 1 to 2 days a week with my wife and then I get to spend the other days volunteering and on my own personal hobbies. I sacrifice what I could make financially if I was to work those other days but at least at this point I get to spend pretty much every day with my family and to me that’s worth it. We don’t make as much as we could but we continue to make a decent profit and I get to have a enjoyable life style. By having the shop this allows me to do all of these things and so to me it was really a easy decision. I don’t regret it at all and I constantly find myself saying “man I sure am glad I got this shop.”
10 Likes
After watching the video, I find it hard to believe you could get mad. 
5:33 For reals!
Thanks for sharing, it is inspiring to see something like that.
