When tariffs spike, steel prices swing, and the economy feels shaky, many home service companies freeze. Garage door businesses feel this more than most. In conversations on the Torch Talk podcast, Ryan Lucia has been breaking down what’s really happening with tariffs, the steel market, and how smart planning can turn uncertainty into growth instead of panic.

This article pulls out the key lessons from those conversations and connects them to practical strategies any garage door company can use right now.

Why Tariffs and Steel Prices Hit Garage Door Businesses So Hard

Garage doors are steel-heavy products. That means whenever steel prices jump 20–25% in a short window because of tariffs or global uncertainty, the impact lands directly on garage door manufacturers and, eventually, on local dealers and installers.

Industry partners like Majestic Steel have seen:

• Panic buying ahead of tariffs as companies rush to get material in under old pricing
  
• Demand surges followed by sudden slowdowns
  
• Huge gaps between raw steel price drops and what manufacturers pass back down the chain
  

For garage door businesses, that shows up as:

• Repeated manufacturer price increases
  
• Slow or partial rollbacks after big jumps
  
• Margin pressure on already tight service and install work
  

That’s why having a strong marketing and growth plan matters. When markets are unstable, the dealers with the clearest numbers, systems, and demand-generation strategy usually win.

If your garage door company needs help turning unpredictable markets into predictable leads, Markinuity’s home-service-focused SEO and local marketing services are built exactly for that kind of environment.

What Ryan Lucia Is Seeing in the Steel Market

On Torch Talk, Ryan Lucia often leans on experts like Brian from Majestic Steel, who’s spent more than three decades in the steel industry. Their conversations highlight a few key themes:

1. Uncertainty is the keyword

• Tariffs and trade negotiations have created a “wait and see” environment.
  
• Some markets are booming (often metro areas), while others—especially rural or architectural sectors—are slow.
  
• Many companies front-loaded purchases before tariffs hit, which created short-term spikes followed by quieter months.
  

2. Capacity is shifting, not disappearing

Steel makers like Nucor, Steel Dynamics, and Big River Steel have been expanding domestic capacity, including pre-painted steel lines that serve industries like garage doors. That means:

• More domestic options for manufacturers over time
  
• More emphasis on “melted and made in the USA” steel
  
• A gradual move toward more automation and robotics in production, which should eventually improve consistency and throughput
  

In other words: steel is changing, not collapsing. The short-term pain is real, but the long-term landscape may actually favor garage door manufacturers and dealers who are ready to move fast when demand comes roaring back.

What Tariffs Likely Mean for Garage Door Businesses in the Next 6–12 Months

From a garage door company perspective, Ryan Lucia sees a pattern:

• Short term (next few months):
  
  • Some projects get delayed or canceled.
    
  • Agricultural and certain construction segments struggle.
    
  • Small business owners feel squeezed by higher costs and nervous customers.
    
• Medium term (once trade deals and rate cuts hit):
  
  • Trade deals can quickly boost confidence and unlock demand.
    
  • Lower interest rates plus any potential tax breaks would put more money back into circulation.
    
  • Pent-up projects (replacements, upgrades, new construction) come flooding back.
    

That creates a window where garage door businesses that stay visible, prepared, and well-positioned online can grab market share from competitors who pulled back too hard.

This is where consistent local SEO and content marketing becomes a serious competitive advantage, not just a “nice to have.” Markinuity specializes in SEO for home service businesses, including garage door companies that need to dominate local search even when the economy is wobbling.

Three Moves Ryan Lucia Recommends for Garage Door Business Owners

Throughout the conversation, Ryan Lucia keeps coming back to three practical moves: plan ahead, demand transparency, and upgrade your operations.

1. Block off planning days—before the year hits

While many garage door companies drift into a new year with no clear plan, Ryan schedules intensive planning days every year. He does this for:

• Aaron Overhead Doors
  
• Markinuity
  
• GDU and other projects
  

During those days, the team:

• Reviews financials and profitability
  
• Sets clear revenue and margin goals
  
• Builds a roadmap for sales, marketing, staffing, and operations
  
• Comes back to the team with a clear, unified plan everyone can buy into
  

This is the same thinking behind his small-group intensives, where companies spend several days mapping out financial targets and then building a marketing and sales roadmap to hit them.

If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to run that kind of planning internally, partnering with a marketing team that understands home services and garage door companies can help you create that roadmap and execute it. Markinuity’s consulting and strategy services are specifically designed to align your numbers with your marketing plan instead of guessing.

2. Ask your manufacturers for a cost model

One of the most powerful ideas discussed in the episode is the concept of a cost model.

Instead of passively accepting every price increase, garage door dealers can ask manufacturers to break down:

• Raw material costs (steel, paint, components)
  
• Labor
  
• Freight and logistics
  
• Overhead and insurance
  
• Profit margin
  

Large retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s already do this. There’s no reason garage door companies can’t ask for similar transparency.

Why this matters for garage door businesses:

• It exposes where price increases are justified versus where margin is simply being padded.
  
• It gives owners real data to negotiate more confidently.
  
• It helps dealers set their own pricing and margin strategy without guessing.
  

Ryan Lucia points out that many manufacturers are generating much higher profit margins than the local dealers actually selling and servicing the doors. A well-structured cost model shifts the conversation from “take it or leave it” to “let’s talk about what’s fair.”

3. Modernize your operations and tech before the boom

While the broader economy wrestles with tariffs, rates, and consumer confidence, some garage door companies are:

• Hiring
  
• Posting record months
  
• Increasing profitability
  

The difference often comes down to how efficiently they run the business:

• Reducing wasted labor (for example, using shoulder-saving tools and better hardware to keep techs healthy and in the field)
  
• Tightening up subscriptions and unnecessary expenses
  
• Automating what can be automated so teams can focus on high-value work
  

On the marketing and customer side, that means:

• Responding to leads quickly
  
• Following up consistently
  
• Staying visible on Google when people search “garage door repair near me”
  

That’s exactly the kind of workflow Markinuity AI was built to support—helping home service owners like Ryan Lucia reduce missed calls and inconsistent follow-ups with AI tools that keep the pipeline moving 24/7. 

Pairing that with Markinuity’s core SEO, web design, and local marketing services gives garage door companies a complete system for attracting, converting, and keeping customers—even when the economy is choppy.

What Garage Door Businesses Should Do Right Now

Pulling it all together, here’s how garage door businesses can apply what Ryan Lucia and his guests are seeing in the market:

1. Accept the uncertainty—but don’t freeze.
   Tariffs and steel price swings are real, but they won’t last forever. Plan for both the slowdown and the surge.
   
2. Schedule dedicated planning time.
   Take 3–4 undistracted days before year-end to set your financial targets, marketing plan, and hiring roadmap for the next year.
   
3. Demand transparency from manufacturers.
   Ask for cost models. Push for clarity on where increases are coming from. Negotiate with data, not emotion.
   
4. Invest in marketing and operations now.
   Strengthen your Google visibility, website, and follow-up systems while competitors pull back. When demand returns, you’ll be the first call.
   
5. Work with partners who understand garage door companies.
   Markinuity focuses specifically on home service and garage door company marketing, helping dealers turn uncertainty into opportunity with targeted SEO, strategic consulting, and AI-backed follow-up systems.
   

Uncertain markets don’t have to be a death sentence for your margins. With the kind of clear-eyed planning, cost awareness, and marketing discipline that Ryan Lucia advocates, garage door businesses can come out of this environment stronger, leaner, and more profitable than ever.