Casey and I have been determined since the beginning to maintain our values and build the culture needed to attract and retain the industry’s best — and to protect our fun as we poured ourselves into the company. I had a sense that starting out of the gate with a load of debt would make it harder to defend our values and establish a culture of honesty, integrity, and collaboration.
To avoid borrowing, we chose a very humble start. Casey and I packed our whole lives into two rooms, and I’m truly grateful to my father, Mark Jobin, who let us live rent-free while we chased our dream. That allowed us to aggressively reinvest and set aside as much profit as possible to absorb how quickly material and labor costs compile before our average A/R cycle returned money to the company. My early view of cash flow was shaped by those immediate needs as we fought to establish ourselves and survive.
It’s easy to ease up on conservative cash-flow principles once a company gets some success under its belt. Here I credit key conversations with Sandra Suran, owner of The Suran Group in Portland, who was hired to help my close friend Rip Caswell, owner of Caswell Sculpture, navigate a period of high growth. A respected CPA and business strategist, Sandra explained where most construction companies go wrong: on paper they have a lot of eggs from doing many things right, but then they count their expected chickens and expand. When fewer chickens hatch — or hatching is delayed — they find themselves in a deficit, and short-term debt becomes the cash band-aid.
Instead of learning the lesson, many construction companies let debt become how they survive — and they often realize it too late, as mounting interest, the need for more debt, and a shifting lending market become their undoing. Sandra’s gold nuggets stuck with me. Casey and I kept living well below our means as Jobin Roofing began to flourish, refusing to watch our dollars turn into donuts. It was humbling to live at home with our dad while some of our employees were buying houses — but knowing what I know now, much of our success traces back to building a strong financial foundation at the expense of our egos.
From 2019 to 2022 our company doubled year over year, and in 2024 we grew just shy of 40%. Each year our cash position allowed that growth without financial strain, and it let us onboard key infrastructure in the slower fourth and first quarters so that by the second and third quarters the new team is trained, supported, and ready for peak season.
Our strategy also lets us invest in high-quality people who need time to mature in their roles. While most roofing companies pressure estimators to sell immediately and quickly cut “underperformers,” Casey and I target high-caliber people who exemplify our core values, train them and train them some more, and give them time to settle into the industry. I constantly tell our estimating team that success is a culmination of experience, perseverance, and growth that can’t happen overnight: give yourself grace, be patient, improve 1% each day, and in a year you’ll be among the best this industry has to offer.
Our cash-flow strategy also ensures we are true advocates. It’s very hard to tell a homeowner that your services aren’t needed when the strain of the dollar is looming overhead. Operating from a position of genuine advocacy yields high-quality relationships, and today the majority of our business is referral-based — a critical step toward a bulletproof business. It’s the ultimate insurance policy: it lets a company buck a downward industry trend, withstand a storm that takes out competitors, and enjoy the slingshot effect when that storm passes.
View your cash-flow management with the future and growth in mind — don’t let growth be your undoing.
A few helpful tips (in no particular order):
- Identify your average accounts-receivable turnover.
- Identify your average job and material cost.
- Identify your average daily operational overhead.
- Identify what infrastructure you’d need if your business grew 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% — and how much cash you’d need on hand to support it. In your earlier years, ask: what would happen if you doubled?
I hope this helps. I’m glad to expand on any of these concepts or how my experience might translate to your business — feel free to email me at Brendan@jobinroofing.com.
Sincerely,
Brendan Jobin
