Improving Contractors’ Businesses and Giving Back to Support the Industry’s Future

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Industry veterans teamed up to create the Roofing Education Foundation while also helping roofing contractors tune up their businesses.

Many of you know John Kenney. He has worked in roofing for 40-plus years, having started in the industry as a teenager. He knows how to help roofing companies improve operations and implement processes for success and a better bottom line.

Many of you also know Trent Cotney. His firm Cotney Construction Law is well known for helping roofing contractors with their legal needs and for being the industry’s leading OSHA law firm. Cotney Construction Law is also known for their giving back to the industry. They donate services to many industry associations.

The two men are also friends, having served together on the West Coast Roofing Contractors Association in the Tampa, Florida area. They began talking about the idea of opening a consulting division as a complement to what Trent is already doing for contractors. “When you have clients with legal issues, once you fix them, you see the underlying reasons for those issues,” explained John. “It might be they lack the right processes and systems and that is what led to the legal issue in the first place.”  

Cotney Consulting Group (CCG) officially launched on March 1 and John said they have quite a few clients. “We are doing a lot of software integrations, building out SmartSheets for customers and have established an affinity program for our customers where they receive discounts on partner services.”

The company offers subscription-based plans but can also deliver custom proposals should someone need more in-depth assistance beyond what the plan covers. John says that they look at themselves as more than just consultants, but also as business coaches. The team is growing, adding new consultants that bring a variety of expertise. They also announced that they are opening a location in Toronto to serve that Canadian contracting community.

John shared that CCG is in the process of building out online training resources with online videos, estimating academy and a full library or safety trainings that will complement the in-person training that they plan to implement in the fall.

Because giving back to the industry is important to both John and Trent, they established the Roofing Education Foundation with a purpose to provide roofing education and training to vocational schools in the Tampa area. CCG trainers will provide a full day of roofing training at no cost to the schools or students. John said that they hope to start locally and then expand throughout the country.

Learn more about how Cotney Consulting Group can help your business in their RCS directory.