You Can Make Six Figures in Year One Selling Roofs in Jacksonville. Here's Why Nobody Talks About It.
Choose A Roofer | Read time: 4 min | By: Brandon Cornellier
Nobody grows up saying they want to sell roofs.
That sentence is the entire reason the opportunity exists.
While everyone else is grinding through tech sales pipelines, fighting for quota at car dealerships, or refreshing their LinkedIn looking for marketing roles that pay $55,000 and call it competitive — a small group of people in Jacksonville figured out something that most of the workforce has completely overlooked. And they are quietly making more money than most of their friends who went to college, got the corporate job, and are now three years into a career that tops out at $80,000 if they're lucky.
The trades are having a moment nationally. Skilled labor shortages. Record construction demand. A generation of people finally waking up to the fact that a four-year degree and $80,000 in debt does not guarantee you anything it used to. But Jacksonville specifically — one of the fastest-growing cities in the country — is sitting on an opportunity that most people are sleeping on because of one thing: the word roofing.
Let's talk about that.
The Stigma Is the Opportunity
When most people hear "roofing job," they picture someone on a hot roof in August. They picture hard physical labor, inconsistent work, no benefits, and a dead end. That image is not wrong for some companies in this industry. There are plenty of roofing operations that run exactly that way.
But that image has almost nothing to do with what a Project Manager at NEXGEN Roofing actually does.
A Project Manager at NEXGEN is not on the roof. They are the face of the company to every homeowner they work with. They run the free inspection, document the roof condition, walk the homeowner through their options, present the proposal, and manage the relationship through to installation. They are backed by the strongest roofing credentials in the Jacksonville market — Owens Corning Platinum Preferred status, which puts NEXGEN in the top 1% of roofing contractors in the entire country — and a 4.9-star Google rating with hundreds of reviews that does a lot of the trust-building before anyone even knocks on a door.
The stigma keeps the competition thin. The credentials make the close easier. The combination is exactly why this opportunity is what it is.
your fit?
What the Numbers Actually Look Like
Let's be direct about this, because the roofing industry has a reputation for vague earnings claims and promises that don't pan out.
Here is the honest picture.
The average residential roof replacement in Jacksonville runs between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on material, size, and complexity. On a productive week, a Project Manager at NEXGEN might close three to five jobs. The commission structure is performance-based and uncapped — meaning there is no cap on what you can earn, and the ceiling is entirely determined by how consistently you run the system.
Year one six-figure earnings are achievable for the right person. Not guaranteed. Not handed to you. Achievable — for someone who shows up, learns the system, runs it correctly, and does not quit when the first month is harder than they expected.
The path beyond that is where it gets interesting.
Why Jacksonville Specifically
Jacksonville is not a random market. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, with a housing stock that is aging, an insurance environment that is pushing homeowners toward roof replacement, and a coastal geography that creates constant demand.
Approximately 1,400 homeowners in Jacksonville receive a letter from their insurance carrier every single day flagging their roof for age or condition. Every one of those letters is a homeowner who needs a roof. Every one of those homeowners is a potential customer. The demand is not manufactured. It is structural. And it is not going anywhere.
The Trade Comeback Nobody Is Advertising
Here is what is happening nationally that most people are not paying attention to.
The trades are the most undervalued career path in America right now. The skilled labor shortage is real. Electricians, plumbers, roofers, HVAC technicians — these are roles with more demand than supply, and that imbalance is only growing as the generation that built those skills ages out of the workforce.
But beyond the field trades, there is an entire layer of sales and operations careers inside the trades sector that nobody talks about — because everyone is too busy chasing the same corporate jobs that are increasingly automated, increasingly competitive, and increasingly capped.
The best-kept career secret in Jacksonville right now is this: a performance-driven sales role inside a credentialed roofing company, in a market with structural demand and thin competition for talent, is one of the most direct paths to a high income available to someone without a graduate degree, without connections, and without ten years of experience.
You just have to be willing to say the word roofing out loud.
What NEXGEN Was Built For
NEXGEN Roofing was founded in 2018 by Brandon Cornellier and Tim Betros — two people who watched their fathers spend careers at companies that did not take care of their people. That experience is not a backstory. It is the reason every decision at NEXGEN runs through the question: are we doing right by our team?
Both founders were recognized by the Jacksonville Business Journal 40 Under 40 in consecutive years — Brandon in 2025, Tim in 2026. The NEXGEN Foundation has donated over $150,000 to Northeast Florida communities. The company holds a 5.0 rating on Glassdoor, and 100% of employees would recommend it to a friend — 35% above the construction industry average.
None of that happened by accident. It happened because NEXGEN was built as the antidote to the kind of company Brandon and Tim watched their fathers work for. A company that pays people what they earn. A company that has a real conversation with every person who joins about where they want to go — personally and professionally — before day one.
That is the part of this industry that nobody advertises. It is the part we are most proud of.
Building With.
Who This Is Actually For
This is not for everyone.
If you want a salary with a ceiling and a predictable Monday through Friday with no accountability to your own output, this is not the role for you.
This is for someone who is tired of having their income determined by someone else's budget approval. Someone who wants to know that if they work harder and smarter, they actually earn more. Someone who is willing to be accountable to a number — and who believes, honestly, that they can hit it.
The people who have done best in this role at NEXGEN came from all over. Real estate. Insurance. Retail. Door-to-door sales. Customer service. Some of them had never sold anything before. What they had in common was not a resume — it was a mindset. They ran the system. They showed up. They built their book.
No roofing experience required. The right character is the only prerequisite.
The Bottom Line
Jacksonville is growing. The housing stock is aging. The insurance market is pushing demand. The competition for good roofing sales talent is thin because most people write the industry off before they ever look at it.
NEXGEN Roofing is hiring Project Managers right now. The path is real. The earnings are real. The company is real.
If you have ever wondered whether there is a career you have been sleeping on — one where the work is meaningful, the earning potential is uncapped, and the company actually gives a damn about the people who work there — this is worth a serious look.
Brandon Cornellier is Co-Founder of NEXGEN Roofing, Jacksonville's most reviewed privately held roofing contractor. He was named Jacksonville Business Journal 40 Under 40 in 2025 and JAX Chamber Small Business Leader of the Year in 2022.
your fit?
