So I had an idea and I want to know what others think. I currently work as a roofing salesman for a company. I came up with the idea of doing gutter cleaning on the side. The company I work for doesn’t offer that service. I’ve actually had customers ask if we do that and I live in a very populated area with a ton of trees.
I figure I do gutter cleaning with my own vehicle, own ladder, own leaf blower so that my gutter cleaning business and roofing job don’t interfere with one another. Eventually offer softwashing roofs, and installing guards down the road. I mentioned to one of the owners I was thinking about doing this and a few weeks went by with no other comments.
Today I had someone during a roof inspection ask me if the roofing company I work for offered that service. I let them know they haven’t in the past but I would ask. I also said it was funny that they asked because I’ve been considering doing this on the side for myself.
I’ve been trying to learn how to legally protect myself and form the LLC the last few weeks but haven’t because of lack of legal knowledge. I’m not good at that side of things and am not in a financial situation to hire an attorney to do it for me. That doesn’t mean I’ve given up. I’m great on the sales side and bringing in business.
I brought it up to the owner I had talked to previously today and told him what I was wanting to do. He told me to slow my role and he was actually working on bringing this to the roofing company but it hadn’t come to fruition yet. He told the other 2 owners about my idea and now they want to do it and make me a manager of it. Then I said I was actually coming to him to have him help me with the legal side of it since he offered to be my mentor in the past. I mentioned part of the plan was to do this on my own and while on the roofs I could do free inspections and hopefully help my roofing sales increase as well.
After stating I was already working on the LLC and wanted to know if they would be okay with me using there work truck, ladder and one of their leaf blowers and giving them a 25% kickback since I’m already do inspections and on the roof. They also already have insurance for this as well. Otherwise I was willing to do it on my own without them with my own equipment, with my own vehicle, on my own time and insurance. They countered with saying they would start the company with me and give me 25% ownership. Equal 4 way split and I manage it with a small salary and possibly an override on jobs sold.
I in a way feel like they just snaked the idea from me and may be just trying to lowball me from what it’s actually worth. I haven’t been a business owner before but I’m going to be in the near future no matter what happens. It’s what I want to do. I’m tired of working for others when I could make more. They also have 3 different branches for there roofing company in 3 different markets and that could help this idea spread larger scale. In the end I feel like I could make more doing it alone in a way. If I do it with them I could manage other people who are doing the cleanings for me and keeping my hands cleaner. What should I do?
Posted by Retribution96