Building a Lasting Legacy: A Convo with Corey Combes

You're listening to The Roofer Report, the ultimate podcast for roofing professionals, business owners, and entrepreneurs. Get insider access and hear about the highs, lows, and tales of triumphs from thriving business owners. Brought to you by Roofer. Hosted by Pete McKendrick.

Pete: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Roofer Report. I'm your host, Pete McKendrick, and I am joined today by our September Roofr of the Month Corey Combs from South Shore Roofing. Welcome, Corey. Excited to have you on. You've been a part of Roofr since the very beginning, and you and I have known each other since long before that, so this is an honor to have you on here and have you as our Roofr of the Month.

our Roofr of the Month series has been great. We've had some really great interviews. And I think this one will be a bit unique because up until this point, the majority of the people that we've had on as Roofr of the Month have been fairly new in their business within, I would say probably the first two years of business.

So you're probably the most established Roofr of the Month that we've had. So that'll be that'll, that'll make this a little different, talking about your journey, but I'll give you a little quick second here to kind of introduce yourself and talk a little bit about South Shore and then we'll, we'll dive into the story a bit.

Corey Combes: Yeah. Thanks. Maybe, me being the most established, we'll, we'll leave that up. We'll leave, we'll, you'll have that up for debate. When

Pete: The most senior, let's say the most senior. Yeah.

Corey Combes: a little better. Yeah, man, I, we've, we've talked a lot. We've known each other for a while. You've kind of watched my, my journey from opening South Shore to where we are now and the bumps and bruises that have come along with that and. My love for the industry and, we, we all kind of have the same love for the industry. I I just, I can't imagine doing anything else, South Shores, I mean, we've actually had to pivot, and it's interesting that we're going to talk a little bit about. the journey, because last time we did one of these, it was maybe a year or two ago and we were in the middle, I mean, we were slammed, we had too much work, we were, we had, we had those growth problems. And now things have changed to where Florida's in a really interesting spot. I got my fourth phone call from another contractor yesterday that they're probably going to go ahead and close up shop because they just don't want to deal with it. So I'm excited to talk about this journey and what's happening and how things are changing. Kind of my journey and what we're doing to ride the, I don't want to say ride the storm, but make it through this season of what's happening in the industry of Florida.

Pete: I mean, going back, like you said you and I have known each other since the very beginning. Right. I remember onboarding you and I think you were still a one man show. Right. At that point.

I was a  

Corey Combes: one man show, yeah.

Pete: Yeah, you were just getting started, so, so yeah, it's been awesome to watch you and South Shore grow.

And so take us back there, I guess for you. How did you get into roofing? Right? How did you end up in the roofing industry? I don't think anybody wakes up and says, I wanna be a roofer when I grow up. So,

Corey Combes: I definitely did not do that.

Pete: so how did you end up here?

Corey Combes: I was, I was working at a restaurant and oddly enough, I I just went and had dinner at the restaurant I was working at last week and I was having dinner with company owner that I'm acquiring at a restaurant that I used to work at. It was pretty fun. It was pretty funny.

Pete: come full circle there. Right?

Corey Combes: but we but we, we were working in the restaurant business and one of the guys that worked for me, or with me rather, came in one day and said I've got a way that we can make a lot more money. I said, I'm in, I didn't even ask what it was. And he's like, well, it's going to be construction.

And I'm like, I don't really know what I'm doing. He's like, it's fine. The time I was making $2.13 an hour. That's what that's what minimum wage was in Florida. And so, when when I first, when I started, when I first started, we get out there and the job is shoveling gravel off coal tar pitch built up roofs.

Shoveling gravel and pulling up that just god awful hot mop and insulation and all that garbage, so that's how I got into the roofing industry. So I went from making like 300 a week to 500 a week. And that was a, that was a payday

Pete: Yeah,

Corey Combes: man. so yeah, so that's how I got into it. And, very quickly realized that there were other positions open in the company and I needed to learn how to do those.

So I didn't have to shovel the

Pete: yeah,

Corey Combes: all day anymore. I did, I only did that for about two months, man. It was just, it was so

Pete: yeah, in the hottest place on, on earth, right? Yeah,

Corey Combes: was like, you think you're hot up there and, wherever I was like, try being a white guy in the middle of July, nailing on shingles in Florida. That's it.

Pete: yeah, it's brutal,

Corey Combes: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete: crazy. So, at what point did you kind of see an opportunity to say like, Hey, maybe I can do this on my own. Right. Like, maybe I can branch out and like what were the indicators there for you? And what made you make that leap?

Corey Combes: That's, it's an interesting story. I, and I love this story. And I owe an immense debt of gratitude to this woman I used to work with. So. I started out as a, as a laborer and doing all that stuff. I worked my way up to shingling and then my, my family started to do flips and when they started flipping houses, obviously they brought me along cause I was the construction guy, which I didn't know anything.

All I knew how to do was roof. But I did that for a long time. I did that for a while. And then I, I got into, project management. So I did a lot of stuff in the industry. And after last position that I was working in, I was working as a sales rep and I was doing really well. I was making good money.

They left me alone. I, I had full autonomy. I had freedom. It was great. It was great. Like, came and goes. I pleased, had a great relationship with, with the owner and the sales, everybody. They did everything. They did remodeling, they did roofing. I mean, they did everything. And I worked on the larger project side. So I did all the additions and the new construction, all that stuff. And I worked with her. She was the architect that we had on staff. And one day asked me, she's like, why do you work here? And I'm like, well, what do you mean? She's like, you're really good at what you do.

She's like, the industry. Well, construction. And she's like, actually you can even draw out, basic elevations and floor plans. Like, why are you just working? Why don't you go do your own thing? Like, ah, I don't know. And she just kept on, she, Hey, you're in your earning years.

You're in your earning years. You're in your earning years. And finally, one day I had an argument with the owner. He, he did some stuff that was, I felt pretty unethical. I was their highest producer and I felt like I, I'll just tell you what happened. So I sold a big job. The, the, the the people that we, that were our customers were a huge pain in the ass and the owner just didn't want to deal with them anymore.

So he cut ties with them and then he backed out all of my commission for the job that I sold. I did my job, right? And he backed out. It was a, it was a, it was a 380, 000

Pete: Oh, wow.

Corey Combes: know so my commission, yeah, my commission was like 30

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: And he, and he did it in December. So I was living in Buffalo.

He did it in December at the slowest time of year that was going to carry me through the winter and it really screwed me. So I just said, you know what? You're right. And I spent the next six months planning my exit. So I got my licenses and I studied. I, everything. I set some money aside and then one day I just said,

Pete: Let's do this.

Corey Combes: Yeah, let's do it.

Pete: Nice. So how long were you on your own? We'll do it as a one man show.

Year and a half. Yeah. everything.

Corey Combes: Yeah. I, I was, I was selling maybe about a year. My, my first hire was an assistant to kind of help me, do all that stuff. Yeah, so I was on my own for about

Pete: Yeah. Until your first hire was an office assistant. Someone in house, like inside.

Corey Combes: Yeah, well, I, I, I did my first year doing everything. I did 1. 7 million and I was just, I was working all the time. Like I, I, that's all I did was sleep, eat, and work. That was it.

Pete: Now, did you have you guys had, you had crews working for you or were you using subs or how were you doing that early on?

Corey Combes: another interesting story. So we were flipping houses and we had this crew that always did our roofs. and. known them forever. So when I got my license and I started my business, she called me out of the blue and asked if I had any work. And I hadn't talked to her for like three or four years. Maybe, maybe even longer. It was maybe, maybe, maybe five or six years. And she just called me out of the blue and said, Hey, do you have any work? And I was like, as a matter of fact, I

Pete: Perfect timing.

Corey Combes: So, so yeah, I, I brought them on and we just, yeah, we just, we worked together and we, we, we did pretty well that for the first, first year they're, they're still with

Pete: Nice. That's awesome.

Corey Combes: Yeah.

Pete: So what do you think was the biggest challenge that you met in the first year of business? Cause obviously, we work with a lot of small businesses that roofer, and one of the things that we talk about quite often is. The failure rate of roofing companies, it's extremely high.

I think 95 percent in the first year go out of business and 98 percent in the first two. So what do you think were the biggest challenges that you've hit early on? Looking back, maybe, maybe they're different. Maybe what you thought was a challenge at the time, maybe looking back or some other stuff.

Corey Combes: I was really fortunate, man, because, when I jumped in, it was a good time economically and it was a good time in Florida. what was even timing is nobody was really trying to get into the retail game. Everybody was chasing the door knocking and insurance. so it just happened to line up that I hit the market at the right time in the right way. so my marketing and my advertising, even though it was awful, I mean, it was so bad, but, um it, it caught fire after about three months. So the first three months when I opened up South Shore, put a tool belt back on. I had a general contractor friend of mine who I was taking on like job. Like I did a bathroom remodel for him and I did a couple of window installs for him.

Like I just, I wasn't making

Pete: Right.

Corey Combes: So in between my sales calls and builds, I was actually going out

Pete: Knocking projects out for extra money. I like it. Yeah  

Corey Combes: So, that, that wasn't really the biggest challenge. I think the biggest challenge was, is you just don't know what you don't know. know, even though I, I had been in the industry and I'd been an installer and I'd worked in project management and all that stuff, I'd never been an owner. And I had never handled the financial side of it. never had, you know what I mean? I never had to deal with Paying vendors and figuring out your cash flow and understanding like okay, can I afford to pay this person? I didn't know any of that and that could have been my biggest challenge. I just, we, I know how to sell like I know how to sell and I know how to build. And so like we just, I made enough money and I just worked so much I didn't have time to spend any money. So just got kind of lucky that the financial stuff worked out because I wasn't tracking anything. the financials. Like, I wasn't doing my P& Ls. I wasn't tracking my my, my, my cost. I wasn't doing any of that stuff. so looking back at it, that is the big, that, that's the biggest challenge. And that's, I think, why most people go out of business is because of that financial side and understanding business finances and understanding cash flow and understanding all those things that it takes to run a construction company, especially when you run into some payment issues or, you, you have a problem where you have to fix it out of your own cashflow or, whatever it is. And knowing if you have the money to do that is such an integral part of what

Pete: yeah,

Corey Combes: But I was lucky and I will continue to say that I was lucky because the economy was so good and I had hit the market in such In such a good way, not, and without even, it was dumb luck I was making enough money that it wasn't too big of a concern.

Pete: no, it's interesting cause we talk about this quite often, internally, like we're working right now on job costing, and, and being able to keep track of your job costs inside of Roofr and, it, it kind of leads right into this. You're talking about guys who have come from a background of being either like the incredible sales guy.

That's all the opportunity to go out and do it on his own. Or the guy who is like the master installer and could run any production crew on planet earth, but neither one of those guys necessarily have the business experience. Right. And so when it comes time to actually running their own thing, they start to realize, wow, there's a lot more to this than what I thought.

Right. And there's, the marketing and the financials and, although there's other, all these other managing employees. That you don't take into account. Like I remember I ran a landscaping business when I was in my twenties and I bought this small landscaping business from another guy and same thing, right?

Like I inherited like two employees. I hired another one, and you've got like equipment that's breaking down and like all of these like expenses and like you never sleep, right? Like you're like laying in bed at night, like thinking about everything and freaking out and stressing. Yeah.

I'm making a pay payroll this week. Like you said, you're doing side jobs to make sure you can pay your guys and like all this stuff. And yeah, it's, you don't realize until you're in it that how much there really is involved in running a business like that, and yeah,

Corey Combes: when my wife and I first got together, she, she would come over to my apartment. she would see all these bills sitting on my on my counter. Right. And she'd be like, are is, are you okay? Like, do you, can you pay your bills?

I was like, I have plenty of money. Right. she's like, oh, okay. She's like, give me your, sign some checks, give me your checkbook and

Pete: fix it.

Corey Combes: And I'll take care of these. Right. But that's just how I was. Like I, I would have the money and I just, it wasn't something that was like, well, we say a core competency now, but it just wasn't something that I wanted to do or be, I didn't

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: And so I brought that same, know, dumb ass attitude when I started at South Shore, right? And I quickly figured out, I was like, Oh, wait a minute. It's not

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: works at all.

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: like we're, we're talking about like, it's not a 55 power bill. Like we're talking about like, tens and 20 and 30, hundreds of

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: Right. I think that was the other thing. Like I had to adjust really quickly to what it takes to have that responsiveness and be responsible in your business. So I think that was the other, probably the other big challenge

Pete: What what made you decide to do retail? Because like you said it, and I remember, like back when you came on to the platform that I was on back then, I mean, it was all the rage to be an insurance roofer, right? Like I remember people saying like, Oh, this is going to. Eventually the bottom is going to fall out of this and it's a fad, but at the time, everybody wanted to do insurance because it was like the get rich quick way to be a roofer, right?

And so what made you look at that and say, I'm going to go do retail instead?

Corey Combes: Honestly, if I, if I'm being 100 percent honest about it, I got into retail because that's what I've known my entire career. Like what happened in the roofing industry was not the norm. I mean, that wasn't, we would do restoration jobs. I remember, probably early two thousands. We would when we were between flips, I would, I would go into work and do work for other companies. And we would do these restoration jobs and we would get these houses, the entire inside of the house paid for. Like we would find these like four or five mold spots in the house. We'd get a mold expert out there. We'd find all this mold and we would get the entire house remodeled. Off of like these mold

Pete: Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: companies, how they mitigated that. And then they did the same thing with sinkholes in Florida. So they continue. So these, these contractors kept exposing. And look, I don't even want to get into the ethical argument. I'm just, so what I say with a grain of salt here.

Okay. contractors would figure out a way, let's just say this to, to squeeze the most juice out of their project. Let's just say it that way. Okay. And, and then the, the insurance companies figured that out they figured out how to mitigate what the contractors were doing. So I watched it happen two other times. so I'm watching what's happening in the roofing industry. know retail really well because that's what I've done my whole career. And I'm like, you know what? This just doesn't really seem sustainable. I'm not really going to get involved with that. And I didn't. I dipped my toes in it a little bit. just because there was so much opportunity there and there were people talking about it. So there was a year, I think in 20 20, 20 20, where, where, where we were doing some claims and, but I just had such a bad experience with it. I'm like, you know what? We're not doing this. It just, it was way more work.

It was way more dumb stuff that you had to deal with, with the insurance company, and you had to beg for every penny. Like, we're not, I'm

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: that. that's, that's why I stuck with retail.

Pete: It's funny. I remember we did a lot of the company that I had in St. Augustine in, in Northeast Florida, right on the coast beach town. Right. We kind of had the same issue. Like we would do the same thing, right? Like you squeeze everything you can out of a project. And then with the hurricanes, we could get a lot of same thing, mold and flood damage and things like that.

And then the insurance companies caught on and then they stopped offering flood insurance to people. If they were within a certain distance of the beach and all this stuff, same idea,

Corey Combes: now you have to buy a separate

Pete: right?

Corey Combes: with a whole separate, they have separate guidelines on the flood

Pete: Yeah. So they,

Corey Combes: That's what

Pete: yeah, exactly. expose it. And then they, they figure it out. So,  

Corey Combes: Yeah.

Pete: I remember back when you first started to, that you were roofing only, right?

No other trades. What made you decide to go that route? Because I think, talking to some of the other contractors, I know it is very easy to fall prey to, especially early on, right? When you're looking for work, and you're trying to get going and trying to make some money for the company.

It's very easy to say, like, Oh, while we're here, we can fix that too. Or, Oh, you've got a, something wrong with your bathroom. Let me take a look. And next thing you're essentially a GC as opposed to just a roofing contractor.

Corey Combes: Yeah. This will actually dovetail well into what we're doing now and how we're handling the current situation in Florida. So, really fortunate that I have a diverse background in construction where I've done a lot of everything. I've done, large scale remodels. I've done production building.

I've done a lot of different things in the construction industry, I've done roofing. And so I, I saw the opportunity and the convenience of just doing roofing. Because they're quick, they're quick turnaround projects. And that's, that's why the, that's why it's such a popular industry because there's, yes, there's a lot that can happen, but they're high margin, quick turnaround.

And that is, that's the recipe for

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: right there. So, that's why we started with that because the first, so, so let me back up a little bit when I was trying to find my way. When I first opened South Shore, because like I said, I was doing some projects on my own where, I had done a bath remodel and I'd done some window installs and I did, a couple of siding installs or, I thought to myself, okay, well maybe we'll have a diverse set of offerings because The company that I worked for prior to, they did everything.

They did remodeling, they did roofing, siding, they did everything and they did fine. But I had a, I had my first big project. It was a, I think it was like a 38, 000 project that we started out. We, Got into it, built a deck, did a bathroom remodel, found out that that was leaking so badly, it rotted out all their subfloors, threw out the tire, the entire house, got an insurance claim done for them.

And this is another reason why I'm not going to do it. I didn't want to do insurance. We got an insurance claim done for them. The job ended up being like 113, 000 because we had to rip out all the flooring. We had to do everything right. The job went flawless. Okay. Except their grandson took some of their trim, their cabinet trim that we had pulled off and decided to take it in the yard and play with it and break it. Right? So we go to finish the job. We can't find the trim. He had the, we can't find the trim. We can't find anybody to match it. I told him, look, I, I'm sorry, I can't help you. And he's like, what do you mean? You're not going to finish the job,

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: And we, we, we fought over this trim that his grandson, not fought, but we had a

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: this trim that his grandson broke. I couldn't finish the job. He went out and wrote a one star review and a brand new business said the job went perfect, except they didn't finish.

like, you know what? I'm not doing interiors, man, because we were, we were starting to do roofs. Roofs were really profitable. They were easy. They were quicker. And I'm like, you know what? We're just going to focus on that. So we did. And so we just leaned into roofing. It wasn't necessarily intentional. Because you're right. I did. I would have fallen victim to like, Hey, we, I know all this stuff. We can do

Pete: yeah,

Corey Combes: stuff, but it just so happened. I got my fingers slammed in the door on that first project. And I'm like, you know what? Let's

Pete: funny. Yeah. I mean, one thing about being a GC that I learned is the projects will always take longer than you think they're gonna take. Right. Something and they're always gonna be more expensive. And your profitability is not gonna be what you think it's gonna be in the end. So I understand the, the reason why people lean heavy into roofing.

So , I totally get it. So. So as you have grown, what have you, what would you say have been the most crucial people that you've added to the staff, obviously it's different times, probably the need for different people have, has arisen, but what would you say would be like your key people?

If I was starting out a new business and I was like, okay, my goal this year is to hire one person next year is to hire two more, who would you say? These are your key hires.

Corey Combes: that's a, that's a complicated, that's a complicated question, Pete, because, well,

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: you as an owner, you bring different skills to the

Pete: True. Yeah.

Corey Combes: that, hopefully you bring some skillset that qualifies you to own that business. Some of it's different for other people. I I've seen people that have a really strong finance background come into roofing and do

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: because they understand the money part of it, they understand the business part of it. figure that they can hire out and get the trades people. And so their key people are going to be the ones that understand and know the

Pete: Right.

Corey Combes: Okay. So is, is an owner and, if you're an owner operator or you're an owner and your core competency is, let's say you're a, you're a skills guy, the install in and out. Well, your first hire or you're the first person you're going to bring on is somebody that's going to be completely opposite. So there's no plug and play answer to

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: really depends on what you bring to the table and what you need. For me, uh the, the, the, the, the person that helped me the most, I will say, was an assistant took the things that I didn't, that weren't. Revenue generating. She took those off my plate and now I can go and focus on doing things that Brought money into the company. And so when somebody asks that question on a generic on a generic level, that's what I tell them. Whoever can take the things off your plate that are not revenue generating, that will allow whoever's going to generate the revenue to go generate revenue. That's the first person that you need to hire because one of two things happen. You bring on somebody that doesn't necessarily take those off your plate, They actually add to it because you have to teach and train and continue to answer

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

Corey Combes: so that's what I would say is like, think about what you, what you need off your plate that is not revenue generating. That's the key, that's the key factors, the revenue generating hire that person and give them those things that are going to free you up for what you need to do to bring into the business.

So that, that was the person that helped me the most. But the most I would say the most helpful person that I've brought in in terms of like, that is, I've learned the most from was I brought in a guy, he's a financial planner, but he's not just a financial planner. He helps you, he kind of works as a fractional CFO sort of. And he helps you figure out like your, your costs operate, costs to be profitable, costs to to, to be able to invest money back into the company. And so. All of those things that help me understand my cashflow and, all of that stuff so that when I make decisions in the company, they're based on the financials because that's how businesses run, not how I feel about something or what I want to happen or any of that stuff. Now we can look at it and we can make data driven actual decisions based on what we've identified to be healthy metrics in the business. And, where we are with that. So that was, that has been the, I think the, the, the healthiest thing that I've paid for and the healthiest hire that I've made.

Pete: What, now you guys saw some pretty significant growth pretty quickly at South Shore. What would you attribute that to? Just good timing? Or? Is there, is there something specific that you did from a process standpoint from, I guess any, anything like specifically in the system or in your process that you did that allowed you guys to scale?

Cause how long you guys have been in business now? How long?

Corey Combes: This is

Pete: Yeah. So you're only in year five. So you're really not, I joked at the beginning and said you were the most senior person, but you're really not that far. Removed from the other folks that I've talked to that are in their first and second years of business, and you guys have, have done extremely well, so, what do you attribute that to?

Corey Combes: Well I think there's a, there's a lot wrapped up in that. And I used to say luck, right? I used to say luck. And I was, I was talking to a a friend of ours, actually, John, John Brose one day. And, and, and I said that to him, I said, I've just gotten really lucky. And he's like, I know you, you didn't get lucky.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: I have a great market. Tampa, the Tampa area is a great market. I hit it at the right time. It's just growing like crazy. Yeah. There wasn't a ton of people in the retail space. So, when, when I hit the market, the luck of that was had a lot to play, but other things is, because I've worked for some really good companies and I've Been in the construction industry. I mapped out like what I, I wanted this to look like. And I sat down and I wrote out my processes and I had these living documents that when I needed something, I would actually sit down and I would write this, these job descriptions out or these responsibilities out. I just kept building that way. And because I did that, I, I had an intimate understanding on what I needed next in my business. It's the people that don't, I think it's the people that are always looking to have somebody help them that don't really take the time to identify where they need. Like Austin Fricker is a really good one. I don't know if you've ever met him or if you've ever talked to him, if you get a chance to connect with him, he's, he's unbelievable.

Same thing, like got in trouble, ended up, on some work crew, learning roofing. ended up getting out, getting out of prison, started, started working on roofing crew, opened up the company, and now he runs a 20 million company in the middle of, BFE something. Like he just owns the area. And he talks about like how he just paid attention to In his business and did the things in his business. So he knew what he needed and he was able to help with that organic growth. And he'll even tell you now that there's a lot of things that on like a high level, he'll look at it and he'll direct traffic, but he'll find the right people because that's not really what he does. And that's the second thing or the third thing rather than I think I did well, as I partnered with the right people, I found really competent and good people to partner with to help me get With the things that I didn't know. Now, is I had an understanding of what I needed and how to go about it, but I was not a professional that could actually execute that on a high level. people, I hear people say a lot, they're like, Oh, I'll just hire the things that I need or whatever. And it's like, that's not how it works either. You have to understand. What you need and at least be competent in that thing so that you can bring in the right person That's actually going to help  

Pete: Yeah. No, I mean, it's a great point because, like last year with rise, like we were traveling and I would ask the question just simply like how many people have written their process down on paper, and in a room of 75 people, I might have four or five people raise their hand, and it's like you said, like, how do you, if you don't even know what your process is.

How are you ever going to be able to identify where your areas of opportunity are, where you could fill a gap by hiring a person, or fill a gap with something else, software or something like that, you're, you're never going to truly like, you're going to be putting out fires.

You're going to be hiring people to put it on a fire, after, reacting to a situation after, it's fallen apart as opposed to being proactive and being able to say like, okay, Hey, here's an opportunity that we could probably do better. Because I know my process.

And like you said, yeah, you, you may know that that's a spot that you don't necessarily want to deal with, but you also know enough about it and know that you need to put somebody there to, to fix that problem. And I think a lot of times we're more traditional of what I've seen anyway with roofers is they're more reactive than proactive, right?

Rather than having that process in place, having a system and saying, okay, here's what we could do to make the process better or to sustain us longer, or, Keep a scaling, we wait until it starts to fall apart around us. And then we try to hire it to, to save our ass more or less.

Corey Combes: it was, and it wasn't, I don't want to, and look, I'm not, I don't want to give the impression that I'm like some sort of mastermind where I like, you know what I mean? I'm like thinking I, it was really as like, I don't want to have any problems. Like, okay, so how do I

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. I just don't want to deal with it. Right.

Corey Combes: all it was, I don't want to get sued.

I don't want to have

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: Like, how do I make that happen? And like really everything was just built off of like that one premise. Like, how do I minimize problems?

Pete: funny.

Corey Combes: You

Pete: I like that. Yeah. Well, and it's funny,  

Corey Combes: And look, we can, we can talk about this for the next two hours, man. So I'm just going to, I'm just, I know this is a short version, so I'm just going to stop there.

Pete: it's funny, like I remember Ty backer from TC backers saying, every, every person has a process, even if your process is, let's go figure it the hell out. Like that's a process. It's not a good one, but it is, so you start from there and then you build, but, like you said, if that, that was the premise was like, let's just figure this out so we don't have to deal with the issues, right.

That's a process. Yeah.

Corey Combes: hmm. Yeah. I just took it from the, like customer journey standpoint, right? Like, okay, so I got a lead, what happens next? And then just walk through the, okay, so then it's sold. Then what happens next? Then what

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: that was it. It was just kind of like, what happens next?

What happens next? What happens next? And I just, I went on Google docs and I just started like. Like my, my map, right? It's like, okay, we have a lead. The lead goes to this, this goes to this, this goes to this. And it just, and then in between, I just started typing and filling stuff out. And it was, like I said, it was just a living document I would just work on when I needed to work on something and figure out like what's

Pete: Yeah. And I think the thing about it is, is people don't realize how much visibility it gives you into your company when you do that, right? Like, like that, the first thing we would do, like when I would train people on CRM is I would literally say exactly that lead comes in. What happens next? Tell me what you guys do next, right?

Okay. We schedule an appointment.

Corey Combes: have, you have a method to

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're, you're doing something, right? Like you have some type of method, whether you have it written down or not, you have some sort of a process in place. Let's figure out what it is. And then, it was always amazing to me when you put these processes into the CRM and you had this workflow bill, how they would then look at it and say,

Corey Combes: Maybe like,

Pete: Oh, we don't really need this or, Oh, geez, we're completely missing a step.

Right. And we used to say like, it would take people two or three times of tweaking that workflow to get it ideally how they wanted it. Right. So, and if you don't ever write it down on paper, you don't ever realize that There's those opportunities in there. So

Corey Combes: And, and, and when it's there, like sometimes you look at it and you just have like these aha moments and you're like, okay, okay, I changed this. I can do the, and it just brings this level of clarity that's, so helpful.

Pete: yeah, it's crazy. What when in the process did you decide to implement, and I kind of know the answer to this, but for the viewers, when did the, when in the process did you decide to put technology into play in a company, because like we had a conversation the other day internally about how there's 110, 000 roofing companies out there on any given day.

And there's probably what, maybe 20, 000 of them using a CRM. Right. So you guys did it right from day one.

Corey Combes: Day one. Yeah, that was another hindsight benefit that I had. The last company that I worked for, you know they were a big company and they had this, this super clunky estimating system and this super clunky CRM. And it was like, I just, I mean, we had, we had a full, we had a full time guy, his entire job, his name was Doug. We all knew Doug really well his entire job was to debug what you were working on at the moment. I mean, it was so frustrating, man. So I, they had the right idea and then we, they were also really good at training us and I'm sorry, taking us to trainings. And we went to this, we went to this training one time and it was inadvertent.

It was a, it was a it was a design training actually, as a matter of fact. But the guy that was doing the training inadvertently was talking about like estimating and estimating software CRM. And, and, and I was like, Oh, I don't, let's talk about that. You know what I mean? And so that was like my first. Like real dive into like some of those different and the software that was out was terrible at the

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: way, but, but it was something that had the right, like system and mechanisms in place. So everything flowed the

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: And then I, I was working in this company and I'm like, this doesn't work. So when I opened my company, I'm like, all right, I know all the problems. Like, let me find some things that actually solve those issues. it was, it was, it was a good from an experience standpoint of like all of the problems, now I had a framework to look at stuff and say, okay, I know what the issues are. How, what is the piece of technology

Pete: solves it. Yeah.

Corey Combes: Yeah.

Pete: Cool. What so what is, I guess, what's currently going on at South shore, right. We want to talk a little bit about life in Florida right now. And then , what is the future hold for South shore?

Corey Combes: Life in Florida is interesting right now, just with, the insurance carriers that have left. And, we, we, know we have that whole situation to deal with. We've had some pretty big storms. We've had a lot of people that have decided they can't afford to live there anymore. so there's, it's just an interesting situation. And what's happened is some of the bad actors in the restoration industry have left a really bad taste in a lot of people that live there's mouth. And so roofing contractors aren't held in the highest esteem. At the same time, economically, I don't think Florida is doing that great on a, on a personal level because people are really holding onto their money right

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: And so we had, last year people wouldn't even bat an eye. We're $2000 higher than somebody. They wouldn't even bat an eye because they're, they, they want to pay for quality and they're okay for that with it to now that really matters to people, they're like, look, I really want to use you, but I just don't have the extra 3, 000, but I have to replace my roof because of my insurance company. so it's, it's, it's very challenging in that way. So salesmanship will only take you so far.

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: so what we've had to do is we've had to diversify not only the products that we're offering to try to meet people in that, in that budget crunch, I don't like doing, but it just isn't what it is. And then offering other services to fill the gap.

And we just, we just did our numbers. Last month we're down 20, we're down like almost 30 percent

Pete: Wow.

Corey Combes: year. Yeah.

Pete: That's crazy.

Corey Combes: And like I said earlier in the call, it's, I've had four other people that say, well, I'm done. I'm out,

Pete: Yeah. Well, and that's.

Corey Combes: we're we're doing okay.

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: I'm not,  

Pete: Yeah. But that, I mean, that speaks to the people who are, probably not running a decent process and are a bit seat of the pants that, don't, I can't float through a time like that.

Corey Combes: They can't hide. They can't

Pete: Right. Yeah.

Corey Combes: no, people aren't throwing money at you. know, people just aren't throwing money at you anymore. And so, know those, those, those bad processes or those bad, I don't want to say bad companies. You know what, I truly believe that most people get into it with the best of intentions.

I really do. I don't

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: of people out there that are, really have that bad of

Pete: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: can't be

Pete: No, they're not trying to start a corrupt company. I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: don't know how to deal with it and they hide. And they, they just, they get into a hole that they can't dig themselves out of. They, and they bury their head in the sand and then they, the inevitable happens.  

Pete: So what is from the, for the future of, of South Shore then, obviously, hopefully that economy picks up down there, but besides that, like, what do you guys, what does the future for, for South Shore look like?

Corey Combes: we're going to, we're, we're, we're, we're still going to do over eight figures. So I'm, my earlier comment with a grain of salt. I mean, it's, so what, what's next is just going to keep. Trying to improve and try to improve our internal processes and get better and better and better at what we do. I give you a good example. Like we we've started picking up a lot of other work, windows and siding and all of that stuff, which by the way, windows are quick turnaround and high profit

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: The pro the profitability is almost as good as roofing. So we really leaned into that.

If you have the right partner, you know how to do it. You can do it efficiently. You can make some money there. so we're going to continue to lean into that and get better at providing those services. but, the story I wanted to tell you is because we're, team is relatively newer to those types of projects.

Um We had 100, 000 window job that we're doing in a, 25 million house, and. production manager is telling me that my installer doesn't want to do the job. And I'm like, okay. So I call my installer and say, Hey man, what's, what's the problem? And he's like, say I don't want to do the job.

He said, I can't do the job because I don't know what's going on. What to do, right? Like you need more

Pete: Yeah,

Corey Combes: the language barrier

Pete: sure. Yeah.

Corey Combes: on a phone call and I said, look, guys, here's what we're going to do. Everybody's going to meet at the site. We're going to talk about the job.

We're going to talk about how was sold. We're going to talk about the challenges. We're going to, come up with a game plan for literally everything. We're going to label all the windows. We're going to label all the openings. We're going to make it dummy proof, right? And I just talked to everybody this morning.

We had our meeting. They had their meeting. I talked to everybody this morning. I said, how did it go? And they were like, oh my god, it was amazing. Like, we got everything worked out. Everybody knows exactly what's going on. This, that, and the other. And I was like, weird, right? Let's do that

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: on for all of these other projects. And so, that's what I mean by just trying to get better at our, our processes and what we do, because seem to be different a lot of times, but

Pete: Right.

Corey Combes: just apply the same logic and process to that you do. And it typically

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: So I'm trying to train my team on. Thinking through that and not, when, when our installer says I can't do the job, or I don't want to do the job, like asking the next question and trying to work through that instead of saying, well, I don't have an

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.  

Corey Combes: So, so that, that's, what's next for us. And, I'm acquiring another company. So, we're gonna, we're just going to try to, going to try to do really, really high end, good contracting in

Pete: Nice.

Corey Combes: So that's, that's, what's next

Pete: That's cool. Carve out a nice little niche there, right?

Corey Combes: Mm hmm.

Pete: Cool. Well, I don't want to keep you too long, Corey. So congratulations on being the Roofr of the Month for September for Roofr. And yeah. Honored to have you you've been a friend of mine for years and I've been able to watch you guys grow and, and that's been incredible.

I don't care. I know a lot of people can probably say that. So, it's been cool to watch you guys mature as a company and, and see you find success and us, us be friends through all that. So very cool.

Corey Combes: you've been you've been a big part of it, man. I mean, we're we're currently on a on a text thread now. It's more, just

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: trash but but you know, even early on, it was just talking to you and and Getting your perspective from other contractors and what you dealt with on the CRM side and then going over to Roofr and kind of the things that you see globally, know, that are just issues across the industry. Knowing those things and talking to people like you has been extremely helpful because I get to learn, the challenges that, everybody's facing and kind of look at it from a different standpoint. And, we're, we're, we're doing some, some teaching and some coaching now and that one of the, one of the parts of that is Helping people understand the relationships in the industry too, because that's not talked

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: Yeah. And what those relationships need to be and how you need to, work at those relationships because you guys are super valuable, man. You're not just a technology vendor.

Pete: funny. I often tell people that the most undervalued people in this are people like our customer success or our customer support people internally, because their job, yeah, their job literally all day is to talk to contractors. They see hundreds and hundreds of different contractors, businesses, and how they're run, and they're getting a look under the hood every time.

So, they're seeing successes. They're seeing failures. They're seeing people that are creative in the way they do things. Different markets. I mean, you name it, they've, they've got access to all of it and they're probably, people don't leverage them enough, like, if you're on a CRM or you're on a, any, any, really any kind of technology platform, those people that are supporting you are just like an endless supply of information by default.

I mean, even if they didn't come from a roofing or a construction background, they've learned so much in a short time just from the conversations that they have. That they become just an incredible wealth of knowledge. So, people don't take enough advantage of them, I think.

Corey Combes: Well, I, and you, that's what you guys are doing really right because you're, not only are you talking to them. You're getting the, the perspective from them and the people that they're dealing with, but you're also going out to your, your users and you're, you're asking what's useful, what's not useful, what challenges are faced.

And then, you guys up at the, in the, in the management area, you have the benefit of speaking to sort of all of those people and you can aggregate that data. Yeah. And, the feedback and all of that stuff. Yeah, man, I, you're right. do not use their vendors enough and that's their material.

Pete: Everyone. Right. Every one of those guys. Yeah.

Corey Combes: roofing contractors. They'll call me and they'll be like, Hey man, how would you solve this? And I was like, first of all, did you talk to your product rep? And they're like, what? Dude, you need to call the product rep.

Like that's what they do. That's

Pete: It's their job to know that.

Corey Combes: I can tell you what I

Pete: Yeah.

Corey Combes: but it might not be the same as what you need to do up in your

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Corey Combes: It's just, but

Pete: No.

Corey Combes: They don't call their reps and it's like, wait, why

Pete: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Take advantage of them. That's what they're there for. They want you to take advantage of them. And what?

Corey Combes: yeah, so I appreciate this, Pete, man. And I appreciate you as always. Always a great conversation,

Pete: This is awesome, man. I really appreciate you jumping on and congrats on being a Roofr of the Month. And good luck in the, in the future with South Shore. I know you got some big stuff going on, so excited to see you guys continue to grow and and I'm sure I'll see you soon at one of the roofing conferences.

Corey Combes: Well, well, I'm working on some, I'm working on some stuff with

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true too. So, yeah, got a lot of stuff going on, so

Corey Combes: Got a lot of stuff

Pete: yeah. Alright man, well thank you so much and thank you everybody for joining us on the Roofr Report and we will see you next time.

Corey Combes: See ya.

Hey everybody, thank you for listening. Check us out next time on the Roofr podcast, but until then, be sure to like us, subscribe to us, and check out all our other episodes on YouTube and Spotify.

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