A Third-Generation Roofer Just Handed Off Payroll. What It Means for Your Business

A roofer who has spent more than 25 years in the trade just handed off his payroll and accounting. Eco Roofing Solutions partnered with One Percent Holdings on Sept. 30. He kept the roofing work and the hiring. The books, the paychecks and supplier pricing moved to someone else's desk.

What Eco Roofing Just Did

Eco Roofing Solutions does residential and commercial roofing out of Gilbert, Arizona. It has partnered with One Percent Holdings and keeps its name, its people and its current leaders.

The deal closed on Sept. 30. Eric and Cierra Perry still run the company. One Percent Holdings now handles the books, the paychecks, the financial reports and supplier pricing, while the Perrys still run the roofing work and the hiring.

Perry has been at this a long time. He comes from three generations of roofers and has been in the industry for more than 25 years. He most recently served as president of the Arizona Roofing Contractors Association. In 2022, that group named Eco Roofing the state's Roofing Contractor of the Year.

The company works on shingle, tile, foam, flat and rolled roofs for homes and businesses across the Phoenix metro area.

"For me, roofing is personal, and so is doing the right thing," Perry said.

Put that next to the deal. A man who has spent his whole working life on roofs just moved payroll and accounting off his own desk, and he kept the roofing. That's the part that matters.

He Isn't the First One in Arizona

Eco Roofing is the second roofing company in Arizona to sign on with One Percent Holdings. Real Roofing of Chandler made the same move in July.

One Percent Holdings calls itself a partner that runs the back office for established roofing companies — accounting, reporting and support work — while the contractors who join keep their own names, brands and leadership.

That's the trade in one line. You keep the name, the crews and the brand. Somebody else keeps the books.

Two contractors in the same state, months apart, making the same move. My read: that's a pattern forming around a specific kind of owner — established, busy, and out of hours.

So what is he actually buying?

The Founder's Answer Is About Time

Cameron Bawden, the founder of One Percent Holdings, said the partnership is built to take administrative burden off the Perrys while leaving them in control of the roofing business.

"We will take the accounting and payroll off their plate," Bawden said.

My read: he's selling hours back — the time the paperwork eats. If you run a contracting company, you already know what those hours are worth. They're the difference between getting to the unsold estimates or not.

Notice which half the Perrys kept. They stayed on roofing operations and hiring — the part that touches customers and crews.

Here's where I'd start thinking about it.

What This Means for an Owner Who Sells

My read: this is not a roofing story. It's an owner-time story, and it lands the same way in any trade.

Picture a home services company — HVAC, remodeling, plumbing, whatever you run. The owner is also the bookkeeper. Sunday night is payroll, invoices and the supplier statement. Every one of those hours is an hour not spent on unsold estimates, callbacks, or riding along with a new salesperson. The customer never sees the paperwork. They see a callback that came three days late, and they call somebody else.

Same math in an HVAC shop or a remodeling crew, different product. You quote all day, then reconcile supplier invoices and payroll at night. And notice what this deal included: supplier pricing went to the partner too. For a contractor buying equipment and materials at volume, that line is not small.

Now the part that moves your numbers. When an owner buys back hours each week, the first place they should go is the front end — answering the phone, following up on quotes, calling past customers. That's the only place recovered time turns into cash. Everything else is just a cleaner desk.

In my experience, a lot of owners can tell you how many quotes went out last month. Far fewer can tell you how many got a second touch. That's the leak.

Which is why the handoff is the easy half.

How to Use This Idea This Week

Here's what I would do, in order. None of it takes long.

1. Write down every back-office task you personally touched last week. Payroll, invoices, supplier statements, filings. One page.

1. Put your own hourly number on that list. Not what you'd pay an admin — what an hour of your selling time is worth.

1. Split the list into two piles: what only you can do, and what someone else can do. Pricing, hiring and customer relationships stay. Payroll, filings, reporting and supplier pricing can move.

1. Block the recovered hours on your calendar before you hand anything off. Name them. Tuesday afternoon is callbacks. Thursday morning is unsold estimates.

1. Test one function first. Hand off payroll only, or reporting only. Run it a month. If it holds, add the next one.

1. Fix the front end at the same time. Time back only pays if the leads get answered. Pick one afternoon and start calling the people who asked you for a price.

1. Use a script, not vibes. Most owners freeze on the callback because they don't know what to say. Write three short ones this week and hand them to whoever makes your calls.

The first is a text to a past customer. Name the year you did the work, say you're booking inspections this month, and offer two days.

The second is a call to someone who asked about a new system a few weeks back. Tell them you're not calling to push, you just want them to get the install date before someone else does.

The third is a call to someone who got a quote and went quiet. Don't open with a discount. Ask what didn't fit and what had to be right.

That's the work. Now the part that trips owners up.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Handing off the wrong thing. Keep pricing, hiring and the customer relationship. Those are the business. The rest is administration.
• Handing off before you've written the process down. If it only works because you remember it, it won't survive the move.
• Assuming the time comes back on its own. It doesn't. It fills with meetings and firefighting unless you put it on the calendar with a name.
• Copying the structure without copying the reason. The point of the deal was to free up the owner's hours. If you hand off payroll and then spend the freed-up time on paperwork anyway, you paid for nothing.