From Classroom to Rooftops: Todd Hauser's Journey to Roofing Success

Pete: All right. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Roofr report. I am your host, Pete McKendrick, and I enjoyed today by Todd Hauser. And if you guys have seen our past. A year or so of the Roofr of the month. They've been a, a great series that we added here to the, the podcast showcasing some of the, the roofers in the industry, some new roofers, some more experienced more established roofers, and just kind of getting everybody's insight into, where, where they've come from, how they've gotten to where they're at and, and where they're hoping to head with their business.

And so excited that we have our Roofr of the month for March. Todd Hauser on with Hauser Home Solutions, right Todd?

Todd Hauser: Yes. Thank you very much, Pete.

Pete: So excited to have you, man. Excited to learn a little bit about you and the business. how long have you guys been around? How long has Hauser been around? How long have you been running the show over there?

give us a little insight, a little background into Hauser Home Solutions.

Todd Hauser: Sure. So Hauser Home Solutions has been around for six years and that's been my experience in the roofing industry. We recently obtained, well, I recently obtained my own license and now I'm running jobs under Hauser Home Solutions as the Roofr itself, and that's been for the last year and a half that Hauser Home Solutions has been doing their own job.

Before that, I was doing a lot of foreman manship on other jobs, just running projects. Really learning the biz and it's a lot to take on, but it's been so much fun and every day I'm learning something new.  

Pete: Yeah, that's a, yeah, an interesting approach. And it's always interesting to have these conversations 'cause everybody kind of gets to this point in a different way, right? We've had guys that have come up in the family business, we have guys that have just kind of fell into the roofing industry one way or another. So an interesting approach here. You kind of we're working for other roofing comp, I guess, right?  

and what kind of brought you to the home services side of the business anyway? Did you, is it a

family thing? Did you kind of just decide to go into business?

How

did you end up here?

Todd Hauser: it's a little funny. So I actually went to college to be a teacher and I was a teacher for 12 years in the public system down here in Orlando, Florida. I enjoyed that. I really enjoyed coaching, wrestling was the main thing that I was doing in the high school classes that I was teaching.

I even had a wrestling class, I got into roofing and didn't realize how much that was what I was built for until I ran across a buddy who used to be a teacher who was no longer a teacher, and I talked to him about what he's doing now. He said he's gotten into roofing. He is been doing it for the last year.

It's so much fun. Todd. You would be great at it. and I said, you know what? Look at your tailgating stuff. It's so much nicer than mine. And I'm talking to him at a football game, by the way. I'm like, you're making some money doing what you're doing. teachers are not the most profitable people on earth, but.

So I gave it a shot and I went on a ride along with him and he kind of showed me what he was doing. He was working a job over on the other side of town, and he showed me like what his responsibilities were, what he kind of did. And I just started studying. I just started looking at videos online. I started looking at everything I could about roofing.

There was a course online that his company had access to that I, I took the whole course. Nobody else was even taking the course, and I took the whole course. And then by that summer I kind of dove into it and did what he was doing. It was a sales project management kind of a job. And I started doing that.

And then when it was time to go back to school the next year, I had a meeting with my principal and I said, you know what? I think I found my calling because I love what I'm doing here and I just, I think I'm gonna step away from teaching. It was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life, but it was the best move I ever made in my life as well, because now I'm on this track.

Where I just enjoy coming to work each day and enjoy, finding the next level of what I can be doing to be better. it's been an exciting ride to get to this point.

Pete: Yeah, it's interesting. I was also a teacher, believe it or not,

Todd Hauser: Really.

Pete: in a formula. Yeah. I started out, actually same thing. I went to school, came outta school, thought I was gonna be a teacher taught high school English and later special education. And then same kind of thing, like really I liked it, but I, I just didn't see myself really doing it long term. And like you said, you're, you're never gonna really, you gotta really love it. 'cause you,

you're never, it's never gonna be a profitable business venture there. So. Kind of moved on from there and, and have slowly ended up here. So that's interesting. And also another conversation for afterwards.  

Todd Hauser: Oh yeah.

Pete: so then you kind of get into roofing, and, and interestingly enough, 'cause I think a lot of guys. Get into it, say, go a year, let's say a year in sales or something like that. Have a good year. And they're like, Hey, I could do this for myself.

And they just jump right into owning a business. And the fact that you took a couple of years to kind of really learn the ropes and learn the business and, and feel comfortable with it before you decided to get licensed and go out on your own, I think, speaks to the teacher side of you a little bit.

and the fact that you're, you the planning and the. The more calculated approach to it, not so seat of the pants, but yeah, I mean, how has it been since you decided to take off on your own?

Todd Hauser: it's been exciting, I'll be honest. When you work for other people, they don't share with you a lot of the stuff that they do because they know that you could probably do this on your own. So it's a lot of questioning people who you trust and finding out information and calling people and just talking about the ins and outs of it,  

The one place that I didn't ever have a problem because I was involved with it beforehand was my CRM. I didn't ever have an issue because I was already using Roofr CRM before I decided to take the leap. I already knew the power that that I had as far as that software went. your estimates are still cheap, but you used to be known for $10 roofing measurements and, and I came to my company that I was working for who was paying $70 for a roofing measurement.

And I said, what are we doing here? Like, why don't we use these guys? I mean, this is. Such a better deal that measurements are the same. What, I mean, what's the allegiance to this other company? And I got them on board with that and saved the company a bunch of money. And they were, they were happy with me.

And I also said, you know what? For these guys who don't know what they're doing, this program teaches them how to draw the Roofr. It, it allows them to do a free report and draw the Roofr. And I'm like, and it's, and it's totally free. And it just, it's baffled me, but it. That people weren't already all over it, and I know a lot of people are, but that my company was unaware that something like that out there existed.

Well, it's interesting that you say that because, we talk to contractors every day and we run into a ton of contractors along the way that, have been running sometimes really, really large, successful businesses that have been in business for years. And don't use a CRM still, or maybe still have guys out there manually measuring or whatever the case may be.

Pete: And just to have it embraced technology. So I think, it speaks volumes to you that you've recognized the capabilities of it, and just employed it from day one because so many people don't. Right. a lot of businesses were started and have been running long before. The CRM became prevalent and all of this other technology. So, if it's not broke, don't fix it kind of thing. And it's just like, they just stick with the way they're doing it. But, there's just so many advantages to using these products that it's almost like you said, it's kind of a no brainer. It's interesting that you said the educational piece to the guys that don't know what they're doing. Because we have a contractor that I know of that uses it to educate the homeowner, but that's the first reference I've ever heard of actually using it as an educational tool in-house. To really teach your guys, like, hey, draw the roof so you learn the roof, right?

So, what have you found to be probably your biggest challenge along the way here as you've as your business has grown?

Todd Hauser: That we're, we're a little bigger, I have a great person who is. Pulling all my permits and getting registered with municipalities andthe backend paperwork stuff that I was doing, but I was really having to teach myself to do it, to constantly, have the paperwork in, have the permit packet ready, doing all that stuff on my own.

That was a challenge for me, just, just mentally to. To do that for every job when I was kind of just completely on my own. As we're growing now, and I'll tell you more about our company and how big we're getting here in a minute, but I've got people who can do that and I've, I've passed off those responsibilities to, someone who can just focus on those, and I've found that frees me up to take care of a lot of other things. So I'd say as far as the most challenging thing, just making sure all my i's are dotted and my, my whatever the other t's are crossed. that's been the challenge that I've been able to overcome now with, with good hires.

Pete: Well, and it kind of leads me to my next question that I try to ask everybody is now that you're growing and you've got some people under you, and the business is kind of booming a bit. What would you see as probably since the beginning you started out on your own. What would you see as the most integral hire that you've made?

Todd Hauser: Well, it's gonna be the same person who.

Pete: That's what I'm thinking.

Todd Hauser: It's my wife, so

she's the one,

Pete: Nice.

Todd Hauser: but I made her leave a big job that she had to do that. She's very happy she did it. She loved her old job. But

you know, it's a family thing now where she's very involved and knows that she can make a difference and is pushing in the, in the ways that I'm not good at, which is, which is a lot of things I'm good at a lot of things, but she's very talented on the computer.

I mean, you've gotta see her make a spreadsheet. It's. Instant and insane how many different categories she traces and stuff. So that's been my best hire for sure.

Pete: So tell us a little bit about the company and how you guys have grown over the last couple years and where you're currently at.

Todd Hauser: Yeah. So, dove in, started my own company after I got my roofing license. Hauser Home Solutions has been around for six years, but I decided to make it its own company backed by a roofing license about a year and a half ago. And. We had a really good year down here.

I wasn't planning on necessarily having a big year like we had, but we had another hurricane come in through Southwest Florida and West Florida. So it led to a lot of business, a lot of things moving, a lot of, getting up at 5:00 AM and not getting home till 9:00 PM a lot of days. So that was fantastic for us in our first year. And it also led us to expanding, And so now we are Hauser Home Solutions, but we're going to be operating under a different DBA, we're gonna be Native Sons Roofing. I've taken on two partners, equal partners, and we're really looking at expanding and growing the company and making hires and all those little things that first year and a half really.

Gave me a jump course on now I'm using that to, blow the business up and make it bigger than I ever thought it was going to be. To be honest, I thought it was gonna be a small family business. We do, a few roofs a month and we're happy and we're able to go on vacation, but now it's pedal the metal.

I'm probably gonna be working my butt off at least for the next couple years here. Just making everything grow and it's a great challenge though.

Pete: That's cool. Now, do you guys do mostly residential work?  

Todd Hauser: Yeah,

Pete: What's the mix of work that you guys are doing?

Todd Hauser: so we're, we're a hundred percent residential and I'd say we're a split between 50% insurance and 50% retail business. Yeah. my partners who are involved are very good at insurance work and they've done a lot of that in the past. the good thing about the program that I use is that I can do retail bids very, very easily, which used to be the pain point at the companies I worked at is if you wanted a retail bid, it would take two, three weeks to get one back from your, from your manager who was creating those.

And get those out to the, to the customer. Now I've got a situation where, hey, you want a retail bid? Scan my QR code, you're going to get my instant estimator. That's going to give you a ballpark price on what this is gonna cost and I'm gonna go home and look at it and it's gonna take me less than five minutes to correct things 'cause it's auto calculating already.

All I'm doing is putting a few choices in. It auto calculates what my materials are gonna cost with their taxes. I know what my profit margin's gonna be, and I send it back and it's a beautiful template, something that the homeowner never gets. They get a piece of crap paper that has some lines on it that means nothing to 'em.

I've got pictures, upgrade options that he can click on. I am killing it on my CRM proposal side. Where I am amateur in other divisions, I am above and beyond other companies. In fact, I have homeowners who think that I'm a huge company just because of my proposals and how they look, and they go with me because they think I'm so experienced that my proposals look this good, so the roof's gotta be 10 times as good as these other guys.

So that's one thing that's going very, very well for me right now.

Pete: Yeah, it's funny that you bring that up. I did a podcast in the very early time when we were first doing the podcast. with Latif, he runs Boss Up Solutions, or did Run Boss Up Solutions, and they're like a back office management company, third party. And we did a. Podcast about how to essentially, what would you need to start a roofing business, right?

Like what would be the suggestions that he would make if you were someone just starting from scratch? And it was interesting that the first thing he said was, you need a proposal tool. Like you need a really good professional proposal tool. Before you need anything else, right? you don't even have enough business to really warrant needing A CRM potentially, but you need a proposal tool because of that exact reason, right?

Because it adds a level of professionalism to you immediately that you don't get from anything else. So, like you said, it's actually it making you look more experienced and more professional maybe than you even are at the time, right? Because you have this polished tool.  

So, I know I saw in their packet you talked about material orders, right? You said material orders has been a big one for you. So talk a little bit about that and how that's helped you.

Todd Hauser: Yeah. So material, when they brought that function out, I was ecstatic because now instead of trying to email the different material suppliers that I'm ordering stuff from, It auto-populates. What I need from my proposal exactly the amount of shingles I need, exactly the amount of ridge cap, all that stuff is auto-populated.

and now it's also backed by my material supply price, like it is strung through the company where it gives me, 'cause my prices are fluctuating constantly. And that's how it is. Roofing is. You know the supplier's gonna charge this much this month, but hey, you get a price hike all of a sudden Month, I, so things are constantly changing, but I know exactly what my profit margin looks like because those numbers are auto cal auto auto calculated. And then it goes over to where I can order it and I can write any kind of notes I need to, to my, to my supplier on the order.

I tell 'em what date I need this stuff delivered and just to confirm it, and then I get a confirmation from them and my. My products are on site the day that I, that I need to do the build. So the, the other thing that I just got prepped on this morning that they're working on, I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about beta products, but

I now, instead of it going to the not going through an email system, it goes right into their system where you're like placing an order with them and they have to look at it.

I did have once or twice where my, my rep at my supplier is very, very busy and he missed an email and we had to make up for that by getting product out there right away. Now they can't miss the email. It's gonna go right to their I don't even know what the acronym is, but it goes right into their system.

I'm very pumped about that. And I've also used that material order system to do something else that I see that you guys are doing, which is work orders. So I use my material order to send out my work to my subs for the labor, for gutters, for dumpsters.

It's all done very, very quickly and instantly. And I don't have to remember emails and I don't have to, make sure they got 'em 'cause I know they're getting them. And then I can even see when they agree to it, I can have 'em click something that says like, yeah, it's confirmed. It's that part of it has been a game changer for me because it's so much quicker for me, and when I was just working on my own, it made things much, much faster.

Pete: Yeah. I mean, and that's the thing that I think so many people don't realize. We actually had a conversation internally just last week, about how. Much time is saved by utilizing, by really leveraging these tools, right? If you put 'em all into play and you have 'em all working together in concert like it, it just saves you so much time.

And really at the end of the day, time equates to money, right? And that's what a lot of people don't realize, they don't realize that part is, like there's a bottom line effect to this, I used to work for another CRM and one of the things we used to say is like, Hey, if this thing saved you a day, a week, like one day out of the week, what could you do with that day?

Spend more time with your family, sell more jobs, just be more efficient on the production side. There's just so many things that you have the option to do with that extra time. That really equates to dollars, it could save you money, it could potentially save you having to hire an employee by being that much more efficient.

So, it's great that you know that we've been able to help you so much with that. And hopefully as we continue to evolve it, it just makes you more and more efficient with all the tools we continue to bring out. So, I mean, that's the whole reason we do it.

Todd Hauser: Yeah, the thing that Roofr has going for him, and I've used other CRMs quite a bit. I know what they do. They're kind of what they are. Whereas Roofr is constantly listening to roofers and what will help them and adjusting their system to be better for them. So I just like the fact that I'm growing along with Roofr and it's super easy anyway.

the fact that I'm understanding the system as it's changingand the changes make sense. To guys like me who are in the business and are not just techie guys who think this is the best thing for everybody.

They actually listen to Dufus is like me on what would help me? And they've made those changes and it's, it's been great for me. So I'm looking forward to the future for sure.

Pete: mean, a huge part of it is, is the customer research and the customer feedback for us always, 'cause obviously, we're not out there every day, right? Like, we're not the guy out there selling the Roofr and installing the Roofr. We're physically not out there every day anymore.

So, we rely on you guys to kind of feed us back and say, hey, times are changing. This is what we're doing. Like for instance, our prices are constantly fluctuating from our supplier. How can we better, see that in our CRM and just simple things like that that, giving you, giving us that feedback gives us a better understanding of what is happening and allows us to, like you said, just constantly adjust to.

To try to figure out a better way, a more streamlined way to do it. So we appreciate, all the feedback from you and all the other contractors that give us that stuff because it's huge. I mean, it, it really, it determines what comes next and what we improve on and so, keep it coming for sure.

So, I. Let's talk about a little bit of what's next, what's next for you guys? What are you guys looking for in the next couple years from out of the company? Like obviously you said things have changed, you, you thought you were just gonna be a, a little mom and pop shop and obviously that's adjusted a bit.

So, what's the, what's the new goals looking like?

Todd Hauser: Yeah, so I took on two monster guys as owners. So there's three of us now who own the company. We are changing the company name to Native Sons Roofing. We're super excited about the future. We still have tons of business from this last hurricane, but you know, the tools that are making it happen.

Roofr, putting our stuff in place, getting storage, getting trailers and just making the business grow and then also branching out and finding some employees to do certain things is super challenging. But we know how much we can help the people here in Florida because.

I mean, I don't know where it is, how it is around the rest of the country, but here, if you get 15 years outta your shingle Roofr, here you are, you are awesome, you're doing great. Hurricanes are coming through and making that not a reality. So there is constant, turnover on roofs and there is customers that are repeat customers and are referring you to other people.

And what I think that our. Biggest goal at this company is to really develop relationships more than just, turnover. I think where we kind of shine and where we always have shined is that we are very involved with our customers. We are almost friends with them in a way where we're talking to them past the point of the Roofr being done, checking in and seeing, what.

if they need anything from us in the future, I've got a guy working on emails now to come outta Roofr on a six months basis just to check in with our old customers and see if there's any way we can serve 'em. And we are finding that our best lead system comes from customers that we did right by.

So that is going to be our goal here, is to. Make customers happy and, know that they can rely on us. And I think that's gonna lead to our jobs and to the big year we're gonna have coming up here.

Pete: Yeah, that's awesome. 'cause we often talk about becoming that neighborhood Roofr like I always say, you have a guy for everything else, right? Like, if I gotta take my kids to the doctor. They're going to the same doctor every time. If I'm taking my car in for service, it's probably going to the same mechanic. I have that guy that I can trust. And I think we overlook that a lot of times in roofing. And just like you said, kind of a one and done mentality of like, Hey, I'm gonna slap this Roofr on. I probably will never see this customer again. Let me just move on down the road to the next customer. more and more I'm seeing guys start to rely on service work and maintenance programs to stay relevant, With that past customer, because like you said, no matter how tech savvy we get and all of these other avenues that we can get leads. The referral is still the number one. It may be digital, it may be coming more digitally, but the referral is still the number one source for quality leads. So, why not feed it right? why not stay on top of these customers and get them to feed us more business.

I liked we had a suggestion by Matt Meyer. I think he's from Hail Trace. Was on a podcast with me and said made the suggestion of why not send a customer a one year birthday card that says, Hey, your Roofr is a year old. Like, can we

do anything else for you? Like, I

thought that was a great suggestion.

just anything to stay relevant, and just have them remember who you are and, and be able to feed you some extra work.

Todd Hauser: Absolutely. I mean, I love those tips that I hear from the roofers that you talk to who will throw one out. There was another guy who talked about putting a QR code on a business card and just saying, do you know what's your Roofr is worth? I can't remember what masterclass that was from, but, he just left them out of business and he said that was I, I broke the system.

I did it. I love that kind of stuff. I love coming on these podcasts and hearing. Things like that because they help me to do what I'm doing. In fact, a few years ago at Roofr Con, I came up to you guys and, I said, you guys have this instant estimator. Show me how this works.

You showed me how it works. We were in the middle of a hurricane. And I said, that's it. I mean, I, that's all I need. And I put 'em on business cards and I started handing 'em out and I said, Hey, scan that you're gonna get an instant estimate. And they were, they loved it and they scanned it.

And I got so much business just from that little tool and tip that I, I gained from Roofr Con that it, I realize these little tips, if you're on 'em before other people, you're really gonna grow your business quite a bit.

Pete: I mean, we have a contractor in Texas who figured out getting his QR code for his instant estimator on the back of the grocery store receipt. So when you get your receipt in the grocery store, the back of it has his QR code, you scan it takes you to his instant estimator.  

Todd Hauser: Oh

Pete: yeah, there's so many good things, these guys figure out some incredible stuff and it all helps.

Right.

Todd Hauser: yeah  

Pete: so are you guys looking, now, you guys cover Central Florida mostly, right?  

Todd Hauser: Yeah, we're, we're pretty much, I wouldn't say all of Florida because we try to stay out of the panhandle. Dade County and Broward County, like down in Miami, that's a different animal.  

Pete: That's its own here.

Todd Hauser: Yeah, pretty much. The rest we're good with. the main part of our business is between Orlando and Sarasota area is where we're doing most of our business.

Pete: are you guys thinking of expanding that as you grow into other areas or potentially even maybe further north, like Georgia or South? The Southeast.

Todd Hauser: Look, we've already expanded more than I thought we would.  

Pete: crazy, right?

Todd Hauser: yeah, right now I think we've got a plan and we've got a lot of growth we can do just in those areas.  

Pete: a couple years worth of work there, right?  

Todd Hauser: Yeah, I feel like a hurricane leads to about two years of work when it's a good one. Like the ones that have come through, and I say good, but I feel like a jerk. I mean, every time a hurricane is coming towards Florida, everybody's like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? I'm like, yeah,  

Pete: This is terrible. yeah.

Todd Hauser: No, that's bad. But it is, it does give us work, obviously. So,

yeah. but yeah, I mean, roofing's awesome because there's so much to learn. There's so many, different avenues from it. I was talking about Roofr Con earlier. If you went to Roofr Con and you're a Roofr, you wouldn't know what to do.

Like if you're just a Roofr, like you're nailing. The shingles down, you would say, what is this? Because it's all technology now. You go and it's all,

it's all CRMs, it's lawyers, it's measurements, it's sales, but you've gotta know that if you're in charge of a company, you've gotta know how to do all of it.

So there's gotta be, there's gotta be a real Roofr con somewhere that's just roofing. Roofing, like tools and stuff.  

Pete: I-R-E-I-R e's about split in half. Now. It used to be, it used to be just a small corner that was our of all tech platforms. But now I think we're about 50 50 with, tools and machinery on one side and tech and all that stuff on the other side. So, we've taken over about half the floor, but you still got all the other stuff there.

Todd Hauser: Yeah.  

Pete: From metal roofing machinery if you want in there, but so it's not, it hasn't turned all into software yet. but that's a good one if you get a chance to go.  

Todd Hauser: Okay.

Pete: But yeah man, I appreciate you jumping on. It was great talking with you and it looks like a big year ahead in 2025.

So excited to have you as the Roofr of the month for March and wish you guys the best of luck and thanks for jumping on, man. Appreciate it a lot.

Todd Hauser: Thank you so much, Pete.  

Pete: Alright, thank you. if you guys have not seen the Roofr of the Month series. they're a bunch from last year, so be sure to check those out.

You can find them on the Roofr dot com webpage and if you go all the way to the resources section all of our masterclasses, all of our podcasts are in there. So, be sure to jump on there and check out some of the Roofr report. Also on Spotify and YouTube and all those other podcast platforms.

So, be sure to hit us up and we will see you next time on the Roofr report. Thank you everybody.