The jobs you don’t take can be just as profitable as the ones you do

By John Kenney, Cotney Consulting Group.  

Some projects make your company stronger. Others simply make it busier.

One of the hardest lessons a roofing contractor learns isn't how to estimate a complicated project or manage a difficult customer. It's understanding that not every project your company can win is a project your company should take. Early in our careers, most of us measure success by volume. More bids lead to more contracts. More contracts lead to more revenue. More revenue must mean the business is growing. It's an understandable way to think because growth is easy to see. The schedule fills up. Crews stay busy. The phones keep ringing. 

But somewhere along the way, if you've been in this business long enough, you realize something that isn't nearly as obvious. Some projects make your company stronger. Others simply make it busier. I've met very few contractors who regretted walking away from a project six months later. I've met plenty who wished they had accepted one less job. Looking back, the warning signs were usually there. They weren't viewed as reasons to slow down. 

One thing I've learned over the years is that every roofing project begins consuming company resources long before the first crew arrives on site. Estimators invest hours reviewing drawings, visiting the project, meeting with suppliers, and preparing proposals. Salespeople negotiate contracts. Project managers begin planning. Materials are reserved. Schedules shift. Equipment is allocated. Leadership starts making decisions that affect other work already underway. 

Every project you accept immediately begins competing for your company's most valuable assets. 

Not just money. People. Time. Attention. Leadership. 

Those resources are finite, regardless of how large the company becomes. That is why the strongest roofing contractors don't simply evaluate whether a project can be built. They evaluate whether it should be built. There's an important difference. 

Too often, contractors ask, "Can we do this job?" A better question is, "Can we perform this project at the level our reputation demands without negatively affecting everything else we've already committed to?" That's a much harder question to answer. 

I've always believed that capacity is one of the least understood concepts in the roofing industry. Most companies think about production capacity. They know roughly how many squares their crews can install in a week. They understand equipment availability. They watch backlog closely. 

Far fewer think about management capacity. Every additional project requires estimating support, project management, field supervision, purchasing coordination, customer communication, accounting oversight and executive attention. Those responsibilities don't grow in a straight line. They multiply. At some point, adding one more project doesn't simply add work. It reduces the amount of leadership every existing project receives. 

That's when small issues begin slipping through unnoticed. Communication becomes rushed. Site visits become less frequent. Questions wait another day for answers. Material coordination isn't quite as tight. Change orders sit on someone's desk a little longer than they should.  

None of those decisions seem significant by themselves. Together, they slowly begin changing the outcome of the project. 

I've walked enough jobs over the years to know that operational problems rarely arrive all at once. They usually appear quietly, disguised as small compromises that seem harmless in the moment. A little less planning here. A delayed decision there. A superintendent stretched across one project too many. 

Eventually, the company finds itself working harder than ever while wondering why profitability feels more difficult to achieve. The answer often isn't hidden in the estimate. It's hidden in the decisions made before the estimate was ever accepted. 

Some projects carry warning signs from the very beginning. Incomplete drawings. Unrealistic schedules. Customers whose expectations continue changing throughout the bidding process. Margins that only work if everything goes perfectly. Work outside the company's normal expertise. None of those conditions automatically mean the project is bad. They increase operational risk. 

Experienced contractors learn to recognize those risks before signing the contract rather than discovering them halfway through construction. 

Another lesson experience teaches is that opportunity cost is real, even if it never appears on a financial statement. Every project accepted limits your ability to pursue another one. Every superintendent assigned to a difficult project isn't available somewhere else. Every project manager consumed by one demanding customer has less time for five others. Sometimes the real cost of accepting one project is the opportunity you unknowingly gave away. 

The strongest contractors I've worked with understand this instinctively. They don't evaluate projects solely by potential revenue. They evaluate them by strategic fit. Does the work align with the company's strengths? Does it fit with current staffing? Can it be executed without sacrificing quality or customer service elsewhere? Does the anticipated reward justify the operational demands it will place on the organization? Those questions require discipline because saying no is rarely comfortable. 

I've also found that confidence plays a role. Companies that understand who they are—and just as importantly, who they are not—tend to make better decisions. They don't chase every opportunity simply because it exists. They pursue work that fits their capabilities, supports their long-term goals, and allows their people to perform at a high level. 

That discipline doesn't limit growth. It protects it. 

One observation has stayed with me throughout my career. Companies rarely fail because they didn't have enough opportunities. More often, they struggle because they accepted opportunities they weren't prepared to execute successfully. 

There's a difference between building backlog and building a business. Backlog measures work you've sold. A business is measured by the consistency with which you deliver it. As contractors continue navigating changing markets, labor challenges, and increasing customer expectations, the pressure to keep crews busy will always exist. There will always be another project to pursue and another opportunity to grow. 

But growth without discipline has a way of exposing weaknesses that were previously hidden. The companies that continue outperforming their competitors aren't necessarily the ones winning the most work. They're the ones making better decisions about the work they choose to pursue. 

Because sometimes the most profitable project you'll ever be involved with...is the one you never accept.