Staying Lean, Winning Retail, and the 60 Second Response Time

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:13:01

Speaker 1

Discipline is by far like the biggest thing I never really knew. I was a sales person until I started. It just got to a point where, like, you know what? I just think I'm going to take a risk. I really have nothing to lose. I have my whole life ahead of me. Why not do it? And here we are.

00:00:13:02 - 00:00:29:01

Speaker 2

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.

00:00:29:03 - 00:00:47:12

Speaker 3

All right. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Roofer Report. I am your host, Pete McKendrick, and we are back again with, you know, another great episode of our Roofer the Month series. This has been a fantastic journey for us. You know, just meeting tons of roofers, getting to hear their story, getting to be part of their journey. And this one's no different.

00:00:47:13 - 00:00:54:17

Speaker 3

Excited to have on own Atherton from Rocket Roofing out of Minneapolis. So really excited man. Welcome.

00:00:54:19 - 00:01:09:00

Speaker 1

Yeah thank you I appreciate it I I'm not going to lie, when I first got the email I think I said this in the video, but I thought it was a scam. Like completely thought it was. It just kind of caught me off guard. But I did a little bit more research and I'm like, okay, I think it's probably real.

00:01:09:01 - 00:01:29:02

Speaker 3

Yeah, this is the that's the best reaction that we've had, I think to a roofer of the month presentation. Yeah that's cool. Yeah. Now man I'm excited for this and excited to feature you and the company and kind of get to hear the story a bit. So yeah, let's get into it, man. I mean, let's talk a little bit about you and your background and kind of how you got into roofing.

00:01:29:03 - 00:01:42:15

Speaker 3

Like, we always joke, you know, you don't find roofing. Roofing finds you. And so it's usually an interesting story about how everybody got into the roofing industry. So let's hear you backstory a little bit a little bit about you. And, and then we'll dive into the company a little bit.

00:01:42:19 - 00:02:07:00

Speaker 1

Yeah. That couldn't be more true for me I so I went to school in college, like my, my ride to the roofing industry is kind of wild. I'm not really heard about a lot. I went to college to be a doctor. I completely planned on. Yeah, I completely planned on being a doctor. Studied five years in college, I studied medicine, and I loved every bit of it, like the plan with my wife.

00:02:07:00 - 00:02:24:16

Speaker 1

And I was to go to med school and that was the plan. So I also played baseball in college in 2020 was Covid. So they basically gave us like a like a redshirt year, but it was like a medical year. But we still played so they could say we could play like they told us we could play five years.

00:02:24:18 - 00:02:44:22

Speaker 1

So me being the competitive self that I am, I spread out my credits to do that. So the full plan is to play five years studying, go to school for five years. But then my junior year came around. I broke my hand like the first game of the season. So I was out for that year. And then that summer we got married.

00:02:44:22 - 00:03:05:10

Speaker 1

And then the first game back my senior year, I tore my hamstring on the first game of the year. Just super unfortunate events back to back and I knew I couldn't afford now that we were married and we needed to pay the bills, I couldn't afford to go back to school and play baseball because I wouldn't be able to have a job and wouldn't be able to provide.

00:03:05:11 - 00:03:28:15

Speaker 1

So it was a super difficult decision to, I guess, part ways with the idea of going to med school. So I actually had a buddy of mine who was a teammate my freshman year who was in the roofing industry. He was selling roofs for a company here near me, and I reached out to him and got an interview and was hired on the spot and started about three years ago and roofing sales.

00:03:28:15 - 00:03:49:10

Speaker 1

And I never really knew I was a sales person until I started. I enjoyed it, and then it just got to the point where both the companies that I worked for just weren't really structured well. They didn't really teach me much. It was like Trial by Fire. They just basically said, go knock as many doors as possible, figured it all, figure it out along the way.

00:03:49:10 - 00:04:07:15

Speaker 1

And like I just I basically taught myself what to do. For the past three years, the only thing I'd have to learn now is back end stuff, ordering materials, scheduling crews. And I've talked with many other people in the industry and they said, that's the easy part about any roofing company. The hardest part is generating leads and selling.

00:04:07:15 - 00:04:21:02

Speaker 1

And I've already done that for three years. So it just got to a point where, like, you know what? I just think I'm going to take a risk. I'm 23. I really have nothing to lose. I have my whole life ahead of me. Why not do it? And here we are. So it's been a while.

00:04:21:03 - 00:04:42:05

Speaker 3

Brad I love it, man. This is. I don't want to completely derail our conversation here, but this is super interesting because I'm a baseball guy as well. I grew up playing baseball. I played baseball in college as well, and this is really interesting because I just literally did this earlier this year at the, you know, the big Roofing Expo.

00:04:42:09 - 00:05:06:13

Speaker 3

I did a speaking engagement on stage where I spoke about the correlation between running a roofing company and being an elite athlete, and how you see so many athletes in this industry excelling right and doing really well. And a lot of that, I think, has to do with, you know, the drive, the competitiveness, the discipline that you learn when you get to play sports at a higher level like that.

00:05:06:13 - 00:05:21:19

Speaker 3

So I find it very interesting that you played baseball in college, you know, and and how that has equated, you know, what are some of the lessons that you kind of you think you learned along the way, playing sports at a higher level like that, that have helped you, you know, early on in the roofing space.

00:05:21:21 - 00:05:40:05

Speaker 1

Discipline is by far like the biggest thing. Like you wake up at 530 for team lifts and then you go to school for all day, and then you go to practice and then you get home, and then you have to study for school or test the next day, and you do it all over again the next day. It's the same with the roofing industry.

00:05:40:07 - 00:05:58:04

Speaker 1

It just really and just like the highs and lows, the roller coasters of sports and academics and stuff like that, it really trained my brain how to handle that type of stuff. Because in business, one day you could get zero calls, you're absolutely bored out of your mind. And then like a day like yesterday where I can't seem to have a minute to breathe.

00:05:58:06 - 00:06:18:12

Speaker 1

It's just. That's how running a business is. And having that in my background and dealing with that in college has made this a lot easier for me. And yeah, the discipline of the motivation, I guess, to keep pushing because if I don't, I'm, I'm going to fall behind tremendously. So yeah, the discipline, I'm like you said, the athletes, I've seen that a lot too.

00:06:18:13 - 00:06:38:05

Speaker 1

I think it it helps you a lot if you have that background, if your motivated athlete, I mean, there's a lot of athletes out there that really don't really do much. Yeah. But if you really have if you're driven enough, if you're driven human being an individual, you'll find a way to make it work no matter what, no matter how tough it is.

00:06:38:07 - 00:06:58:07

Speaker 3

Yeah. And I think the one thing that I've noticed, you know, that I think someone that has an athletic background like you do, that played at a higher level, you know, got to a higher level of playing like that is the ability to handle the adversity right. The ability to stay level headed in those situations. Like, you know, like I like I said, I played baseball in college.

00:06:58:08 - 00:07:17:11

Speaker 3

I was a pitcher. I was a relief pitcher. Like I loved that pressure situation. Like that was, you know, that was what I wanted to be in the in the game, you know? So I think that it equates really well to running a business. And that's high. Like you said, you get in those high pressure situations where things are crazy, things are chaotic, and you have to be able to keep a level head.

00:07:17:11 - 00:07:37:12

Speaker 3

And so I definitely think that it gives you a competitive advantage, you know, especially early on running a business, you know, to be able to keep everything organized and stay calm in those situations. So very cool, man. I didn't want to read. I didn't want to derail the conversation, but it just fits so well with, you know, something that I've kind of been preaching a lot about recently to a lot of people.

00:07:37:12 - 00:07:54:10

Speaker 3

And, you know, it's funny because I, like I said it very timely. I just did that speech at this year about that. So, you know, what makes what makes you lead athletes elite. Right. And how you can more or less equate that to your business. And so a lot of lots to learn there. So but very cool man.

00:07:54:11 - 00:08:07:23

Speaker 3

So talk a little bit about Rocky Roofing. So you guys are fairly new right. Fairly new company. Yeah. Tell us like where you're based out of what type of work you guys are doing. How big is the company. You know, do you have any other employees. What's going on.

00:08:08:00 - 00:08:36:17

Speaker 1

Yeah. So we're out of Minnetonka, Minnesota, which is like 20 minutes west of Minneapolis. So super close. We do all of our work mainly in this west metro area, but we'll go anywhere. I mean, work is work if it's, I guess, worth the drive. Yeah, the company is just me for right now. It's me and my crews. I was lucky enough to fall into a situation where my buddy of mine, he owned a roofing company in my hometown for about 2 to 3 years.

00:08:36:17 - 00:08:56:17

Speaker 1

And then he got into the property management world and he couldn't speak highly enough of them. So I reached out to them and they've been absolutely phenomenal. That was my biggest, I guess, scare coming into this roofing industry is finding a reliable crew. I mean, you're only as good as your crew and they have like they have been awesome.

00:08:56:17 - 00:09:25:03

Speaker 1

I, I can't give them enough praise. I mean, just craftsmanship and and trust and communication. It makes my life so much easier knowing that I can trust them when they're up there doing their stuff. And yeah, so right, right now it is just me because, I mean, I don't need to do a ton of revenue in my first year to make good money, and I believe in staying as lean for as long as possible is the correct way to do a business.

00:09:25:05 - 00:09:47:11

Speaker 1

You see a lot of these businesses, even the businesses I was a part of when I sold. They tried to scale so quickly and then they would crumble because like it'd be a slow season or you name it and people would get laid off and it's just the company wasn't structured well to do that. So when it comes to a point where I'm where I have a bottleneck, where I'm like, I can't do this anymore.

00:09:47:16 - 00:10:10:20

Speaker 1

That's the time to hire for me. So yeah, it's been it's been fun doing my own thing. It's it's a lot more, I guess, fulfilling for me just because it's like I did that from start to finish rather than just selling someone and then basically not really communicating them with the rest of the time. So yeah, it's been it's been a blast.

00:10:10:22 - 00:10:29:14

Speaker 3

Yeah. That's cool man, I like that. I like the way you're approaching this. Right? Like I think more and more we're seeing companies that are trying to stay really lean as long as possible. Right. Managing costs, you know, not hiring unless we absolutely have to, which is a completely different model than, you know, say 5 or 10 years ago.

00:10:29:15 - 00:10:54:03

Speaker 3

You know, we we would see these companies that were, like you said, fairly inflated, you know, a lot of like a revolving door of employees, you know, door knockers and sales guys just constantly, you know, in and out of these companies and, you know, huge staffs to, to make, you know, at that time what was decent money, which now, you know, some people are making that kind of money in the first couple years of business with two people.

00:10:54:03 - 00:11:13:20

Speaker 3

So there's a lot of things I think that have gone into that talk a little bit about one of some of the stuff that you've done on from, you know, you mentioned earlier, you know, getting leads is a tough is a tough part, right? What have you done to to kind of make yourself stand out, to be able to grab some leads early on and get yourself your name out there a bit?

00:11:13:22 - 00:11:35:01

Speaker 1

Yeah, for sure. So I'm different than most companies, especially in Minnesota. I know it's not a brand new thing nationwide, but I don't really do restoration work or storm work. I'm primarily a retail company, a roofing company, so just out of pocket for my first three years in selling, that's all I did was storm work. Like all I did was Dornoch for restoration.

00:11:35:01 - 00:11:56:15

Speaker 1

I just got sick of it dealing with insurance companies. And I got to the point where, like, I'm sick of relying on something I have zero control over. I'm at the mercy of an adjuster or whoever to put food on the table. So and cash flow wise, to retail roofing is just far superior. You don't have to wait for checks on end from like two months.

00:11:56:15 - 00:12:13:21

Speaker 1

Sometimes you're not getting paid out and you have crews to put, you have crews to pay, you have to pay for supplies. All this stuff, you just so many moving parts with retail roofing, it's like you collect the deposit up front. Day of the job's finished. You get the the rest of the money. It's like it's it's so simple.

00:12:13:21 - 00:12:40:21

Speaker 1

So for a retail roofing company, you just have to have a really, really good marketing plan, a really good memorable brand. So I do a lot of direct mail. So it's like you just basically blast direct mail to people's mailboxes with an offer of like a discount or money off or and a lot of its brand awareness to you can use like a tool on the USPS site where you just send it directly to your zip codes mailboxes, which is super nice.

00:12:40:21 - 00:12:57:10

Speaker 1

I've gotten a lot of leads that way, and at first, as a new company, it's hard to gain traction. I mean, you've never existed in the space before, so at first it starts slower and it acts like a snowball like month after month. You have to keep doing this every 30 days, no matter what. And I do that.

00:12:57:10 - 00:13:23:19

Speaker 1

I do Facebook ads. I did door hangers at the beginning. I don't do those anymore. And then I put like yard signs at like intersections, busy street corners and stuff like that. It's all about just being in front of your consumers face as much as possible for consistent like for as long as possible. Like if you people understand, it's like going to the gym, like you go to the gym for one month, you might see some results here and there, you might feel better, but if you quit, all momentum is lost.

00:13:23:20 - 00:13:43:02

Speaker 1

It's the same thing with marketing. You just can't stop. No matter how busy you are, you have to do the things that got you busy in the first place. So that's basically it's super simple, super simple marketing plan and you just have to keep doing it every 30 days. Same homeowners being in front of their face for as long as possible.

00:13:43:02 - 00:13:49:17

Speaker 1

And I've seen a lot of other roofing companies do the exact same thing. So yeah, it's super fun.

00:13:49:22 - 00:14:13:14

Speaker 3

It's great advice. I mean, I had Dave Carroll, who's also a, you know, from dope marketing, he's also another Minnesota guy and had him on a couple of months ago on the podcast. And you know, obviously big marketing guy. Right. Obviously that's obviously what they do. But print marketing right there, they're kind of bucking the system, gone back to that traditional way of marketing, really pushing the print marketing.

00:14:13:14 - 00:14:40:16

Speaker 3

And he had some great advice and more or less same thing, right. Figure out where your customers are going and just get in front of them, he said. If you know the local coffee shop is where your customers go every morning for coffee, stick a yard sign there. I mean, he even said he figured out where his customers, what neighborhoods he wanted to target, and parked a wrapped one of his vehicles and parked it on the exit where they were getting off to go to their neighborhood.

00:14:40:16 - 00:14:57:12

Speaker 3

And so they had they had to drive past his truck. He, like, put it in a gas station parking lot or something like that. You know, like simple things like that. You don't think of it. It's just being in their face over and over and over again. Right? Like you said, a yard sign here, a door hanger every month or a postcard every month or whatever it is, right.

00:14:57:13 - 00:15:19:15

Speaker 3

Just so that they're seeing your brand and they're starting to recognize you. You know, it's great advice. I mean, so obviously, you know, starting out, it's interesting that you made the investment to go down the road of of, you know, how much, how much do you really think you're spending on marketing? I mean, obviously, you know, your small business starting out, you're watching your dollars really closely.

00:15:19:16 - 00:15:35:19

Speaker 3

You know, we hear quite often, you hear a lot of new businesses being saying things like, oh, I don't really have a ton to spend on marketing or like, I can't really work with marketing guy. Like, I got to be creative about this, but how have you? Obviously you've made a conscious effort to dedicate money to marketing every month.

00:15:35:19 - 00:15:49:17

Speaker 3

And so, you know, just for the guys, maybe some other guys that are listening that are fairly new, like, how did you decide, like, hey, this is what we want to spend on marketing. This is why it's important, you know? So we're going to dedicate some funds to it every month.

00:15:49:19 - 00:16:11:22

Speaker 1

Yeah, I did a lot of research honestly, just in the industry to see like what type of returns you got like Roas return on Aspen ROI. And I mean, all businesses are about taking risks you don't like. You don't produce income. You don't. There's like no successful people that I know that don't become successful by taking a risk.

00:16:11:23 - 00:16:28:21

Speaker 1

You can say all you want about not spending money on marketing. If you truly want your business to grow and scale and want to make it work, you need to take the risk. You'll figure out if you need to get a part time job somewhere else to pay for the marketing. If you wanted that badly, you'll do it.

00:16:28:22 - 00:16:48:17

Speaker 1

You know, for me, I was fortunate enough where I my parents paid for my college, so I basically saved up. I am very I don't spend my money like at all. I saved it through like sales and roofing. Saved it up just because I knew in the back of my mind I probably would start my own company someday.

00:16:48:17 - 00:17:10:05

Speaker 1

I just didn't really know. And I knew like, there's no what what industry do you are you not going to pay to acquire a lead? This industry is full of people that only require, not require depend on door knocking. Like that's all I did. That's all I thought the roofing industry was. And it's not to say that door knocking isn't bad.

00:17:10:05 - 00:17:28:12

Speaker 1

It is. It just isn't really that efficient because you show up at their door and then you're gone. They never see you again. It's like kind of what the marketing thing we were talking about, where if you're in front of their face all the time with these different avenues like direct mail, yard signs, Facebook ads, SEO and or knocking, you're going to kill it with door knocking.

00:17:28:12 - 00:17:45:16

Speaker 1

But if you're only doing door knocking is your only source of marketing, your results are going to be very sabar compared to if you did all of these other things. So once you understand the return on ad spend and ROI, it's just like pulling a lever and knowing what you're going to get out of it. It's an ATM.

00:17:45:16 - 00:18:05:10

Speaker 1

I'm going to put this much money in. This is roughly what I'm going to get out. And you can retroactive not retroactively. What's the word I'm looking for? Might be actually that word. Figure out what how much revenue you're going to be producing off of sediment of money spent. And yeah, I mean, there you have to take the risk there.

00:18:05:10 - 00:18:22:11

Speaker 1

Just you have to pull the band aid off. Its here. It was super scary for me to do it too. Credit card bill was higher than it's ever been. But it actually for me, I mean, it lights a fire under me to go out and do the thing that you're supposed to do. Like, you know, you have to do it or else your company is going to close.

00:18:22:11 - 00:18:38:05

Speaker 1

So it's just it's a motivation thing. You spend the money, you know, what you have to do. You know, you have to put it in the work to do it. And you just trust the results. And there's it's going to work. It's just going to take a little bit of time. People want this instant gratification. They think you're going to become rich overnight.

00:18:38:05 - 00:18:48:21

Speaker 1

But all these companies, it takes a year. It takes two years to really become successful and be where they want to be. So you have to take the risk. It's just there's no other way around it.

00:18:48:23 - 00:19:14:04

Speaker 3

Yeah, I like his good advice, and I love that you guys are focusing on the retail model. We're seeing more and more people start to steer away from the insurance side of things, and not necessarily that there's not insurance work or, you know, insurance. Obviously insurance is getting harder to deal with. But the biggest thing that I'm hearing is people are just realizing how much of a pain it is to run a business with the cash flow issue, right?

00:19:14:05 - 00:19:33:23

Speaker 3

Like the cash flow issue is huge there. You know, the delays that are involved with dealing with an insurance company and waiting on that check, like you said, running a small one man business. It would be near impossible right, to to float you these jobs for as long as it takes to get paid. And like you said, you have crews that need to get paid.

00:19:34:00 - 00:19:50:20

Speaker 3

You've got suppliers that need to get paid, right, and you're sitting on a check. So, you know, it's very, very difficult to go down that path as a new company. I mean, you almost have to be a huge established company to even entertain that kind of work. It seems like at this point.

00:19:50:22 - 00:19:51:00

Speaker 1

Yeah.

00:19:51:01 - 00:19:53:22

Speaker 3

And talk a little bit about go ahead. Good.

00:19:54:02 - 00:20:19:15

Speaker 1

Yeah. I forgot to mention to where while I was in sales, I knew networking is something I think that's very underappreciated and slept on. And this industry, for some reason when I was in sales, I made it a very big priority to network with other business professionals like realtors, restoration companies, custom home builders, stuff like that. To where, like, I scratch your back, you scratch mine, develop a relationship over time, build trust.

00:20:19:15 - 00:20:39:17

Speaker 1

And I did that all throughout my sales journey. And that takes a very long time to build trust because we're such a high ticket industry. And I didn't see referrals come in for like a year or maybe even two years. But to start out, to start out, people that I've networked with knew I opened my own business and they were able to pass me referrals like right off the get go.

00:20:39:18 - 00:20:52:22

Speaker 1

So I think networking is huge. Like everyone needs to do that, whether it's cold calling, networking groups, stuff like that, just getting lunch, you know, that type of thing. It's it's super, super beneficial.

00:20:53:00 - 00:21:17:16

Speaker 3

Yeah. It's funny because I just did a podcast with another individual out of Texas and he preached the same thing. He said, like, his business is two years old and it's been built. He calls them referral partners. Right. And he's essentially built this network of referral partners. And that's exactly what it is. It's just it's just relationships that he's established, you know, over time where he said, hey, give me a shot, I'll earn some trust.

00:21:17:17 - 00:21:35:18

Speaker 3

You know, I'll do some work for you. You know, you see what quality of work we do and then, you know, we go from there. I can do you a favor. You do me a favor, you throw me some business, and he's just expanded this network, and he's relying a lot on that network, you know, to help him find leads and get him work and stuff like that.

00:21:35:18 - 00:21:39:18

Speaker 3

But, you know, he said those relationships have been absolutely huge for him.

00:21:39:20 - 00:21:47:04

Speaker 1

Yeah. Can we pause for one second? One of my crew members just texted me, this is the the struggle of owning your own, running your own business.

00:21:47:05 - 00:21:48:11

Speaker 3

Love it man, love it.

00:21:48:11 - 00:22:07:02

Speaker 1

I'm huge on communication to like me. I pride myself on responding like I know it sounds crazy, but within 60s every single time when it comes to lead crews and stuff like that, I just think it's huge just for communication aspects and make sure like nothing is left between the gap.

00:22:07:03 - 00:22:24:07

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think that, you know, this is something that we talk about quite often speed to lead. You know, if that was a big topic for a long time. And you know, we talked about, you know, the communication piece we've always preached, Nick and I have always preached about it on masterclasses and everything, you know, and how important it is.

00:22:24:12 - 00:22:44:05

Speaker 3

And so, you know, trying to I think it's interesting that you took it a step further. Right. Like we always focus on the customer communication and talking to your customer, but how important it is to be timely and effective in your communication with your crew. Right. Yeah. You know, and the rest of your team as much as the customer as well.

00:22:44:05 - 00:22:53:21

Speaker 3

So, you know, obviously that all contributes to the customer experience, right? If your crew needs it has an issue or needs help, like you're right there, you can quickly respond.

00:22:53:22 - 00:23:10:15

Speaker 1

So yeah, that's the luxury I have as a business owner right now. I can be at every job site for as long as I want, just since we're not. We're not doing two roofs a day, one roof a day even. And I really, really enjoy that. I like to tell, like show my crews it's not just me out selling roofs.

00:23:10:15 - 00:23:27:01

Speaker 1

I'd like to do the dirty work with them. I help them in any way I can, I possible I help them clean up the job site, go get extra materials, help them in quite literally any any way I can get them lunch, get them water and stuff like that just because I want to show them how appreciative I am of them.

00:23:27:01 - 00:23:42:18

Speaker 1

They're the ones doing the work. I like to take care of everyone that, that works for me. And in the future when I hire a project manager, I'll just have them. Job shadowed me for a job one day, and it's like, this is exactly what you're going to do. Like, no exceptions. It's going to it's a really fun job.

00:23:42:19 - 00:23:56:00

Speaker 1

Like all you're doing is you're at the job site making sure they're taking care of, running to get extra material, stuff like that. So it's I that's a high priority of mine, is making sure my crews are taken care of. Well.

00:23:56:02 - 00:23:57:16

Speaker 3

Yeah, I like that talk.

00:23:57:16 - 00:23:58:15

Speaker 4

A little bit about like.

00:23:58:16 - 00:24:10:17

Speaker 3

Obviously you guys are just getting going here and you know, like I said, you're one man show at this point. But talk about what the future holds. What do you guys looking to do with the company, you know, say in the next 3 to 5 years.

00:24:10:23 - 00:24:37:12

Speaker 1

Yeah. So our goal for this year or my goal I did so weird to say our is to do I only like $750,000 in revenue, which for me where I'm at as currently as a business and my age like that's life changing money and just because we're so lean. But as we grow next year, I will probably hire a maximum of two people next year, a project manager and maybe someone to answer the phone.

00:24:37:12 - 00:24:57:07

Speaker 1

And then if we get when we continue to grow, probably a salesman. Two I say next year, I think at minimum, we're going to be doing like 2 to 3 million. I really do, just because of this, this, this snowball effect I was talking about. It's just all this marketing. We're not going to stop. It's going to continue to go through the winter through now, through next year.

00:24:57:09 - 00:25:18:01

Speaker 1

It's just really going to compound. I mean, it grows exponentially. So I think next year like 2 to 3 million and then in five years, I mean, I really honestly think we could be a $10 million company with ease. And that's just that's not me being arrogant. I just know the numbers. If you put like I said, you know, how much money you're putting into marketing, you know, how much is your returns going to be?

00:25:18:02 - 00:25:24:12

Speaker 1

You can just figure out the math from there. So I think in five years, a pretty good goal is to be a $10 million company.

00:25:24:18 - 00:25:51:11

Speaker 3

I like it, and obviously you've started off early on by putting some pretty strong systems in place, you know, and I think we we preach about that quite often. I had a conversation with a contractor just two days ago. You know, where we were talking about systems and processes and how important they are to the business and how more and more if you're not putting them in place very early on, if not from day one, you know, you're in trouble, right?

00:25:51:12 - 00:26:10:23

Speaker 3

Like it's very tough to be competitive in today's market if you don't have a pretty sound system, a pretty sound process in place that you can run with because, you know, if the people around you are running, that your competition is running with a good process, like it's going to it's going to show very quickly that you, you know, are trying to just wing it in more or less.

00:26:11:00 - 00:26:27:15

Speaker 3

And so, you know, there was a there was a day where you could get away with that and just, you know, like we always joke there, you know, one of the processes is just to figure it the hell out process. And I think the figured the hell out process just doesn't really work anymore. Like, you really got to have it a bit more dialed in that.

00:26:27:15 - 00:26:34:01

Speaker 3

So it seems like you've got that going. So that's that's pretty cool man. Early on. So talk.

00:26:34:01 - 00:26:36:00

Speaker 4

A little bit about how tech, what.

00:26:36:00 - 00:26:54:11

Speaker 3

Tech has has played a part that tech has played. Like obviously you use roofer. You know we're featuring here roofer as the month. But you know talk a little bit about the decision to employ tech early on from day one pretty much in the business and and how that has helped you as far as staying lean and staying organized.

00:26:54:16 - 00:27:17:09

Speaker 1

Yeah. And makes my life so much easier to know. I have a platform that is so easy to use and navigate, like I use Job Nimbus for almost three years, and it's just so there's so many moving parts, there's so many things that you have to know how to use. It's just really complicated. And to navigate roofer and a platform to know that like oh my gosh, this was I learned it in 30 minutes makes my life so much easier.

00:27:17:09 - 00:27:41:14

Speaker 1

It's an all in one platform where I can do quite literally anything or anything and everything I need to order materials, order a measurement, report, work orders, communication, all of it. And it's like I said, it's just so easy to learn how to use. So yeah, it's made my life a lot easier knowing that if a lead comes in like the support team is phenomenal.

00:27:41:15 - 00:28:03:21

Speaker 1

Like whenever I order a measurement report, they say it's going to be within two hours. It's usually within like 20 minutes, which is which is pretty dang cool. So having a team behind me that that is really good at communicating like myself, like I like to surround myself with people and a company and a platform that is like minded and roofers been exactly that.

00:28:03:23 - 00:28:20:20

Speaker 3

Really appreciate that, man. That's some nice things said there. So yeah man we we appreciate it and we're glad we can help you out. I mean you know this has been fantastic I appreciate it I don't want to keep you I know being a one man show I know things are crazy busy. So but man, I appreciate you jumping on today.

00:28:20:21 - 00:28:38:16

Speaker 3

Hopefully there's some other new businesses listening. They got some good stuff out of this. I think what you're doing from a marketing standpoint, you know, from a system standpoint and how organized you are and the fact that you're able to run as lean as you are and you're already setting the goals that you have financially, it's impressive, man.

00:28:38:16 - 00:28:57:23

Speaker 3

It's impressive what you've been able to do in a short time. So keep it up, man, and excited to feature you here as root for the month and know it's not a scam. It is for real, so I promise. But also man. So for everybody listening man I appreciate you guys jumping on and listening. Oh and with some great advice there, especially on the marketing front.

00:28:58:00 - 00:29:15:16

Speaker 3

You know, if you guys are a new business in your first year or two, he has some great advice there. So so take it and run with it. And you know, take that risk. Make yourself stand out and well thank you man. This has been awesome stuff. And for everybody listening thank you for joining us. And we will talk to you next time on the roofer report.

00:29:15:17 - 00:29:17:15

Speaker 3

Thanks everybody. Hey everybody.

00:29:17:15 - 00:29:28:05

Speaker 5

Thank you for listening. Check us out next time on the Roofer 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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