Kyle Weber – He Built a Multi-Million Dollar Roofing Company on Relationships, Not Leads

It's never wrong to do the right thing no matter how you spin it.

You know, it's is just your homeowner brand know if I see

one of their estimates on a homeowner's table while I'm

doing our presentation, you're going to get taken care of no

matter who you choose. So we did 2 1/2 our first year,

we did 4 1/2 our second year. We did right at six last year

and hopefully our goal this year was 7 1/2 to 8.

Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show

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thinking leaders by telling the stories of those that have been

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Building a life that they love with their hearts, their hands

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Today, I'm pretty excited. I have Kyle Weber joining us.

He is from South Carolina where he runs Hometown Roofing as the

COO. Kyle has helped grow Hometown

Roofing considerably. A fifth generation roofing

company. They perform residential and

commercial roofing with shingles, metal and single ply

membrane. So, Kyle, thanks for joining us.

Yeah, man, thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Awesome. Well, we like to start every

show just getting to know you a little bit and learning about

what kind of a background produces Someone Like You.

So do you mind going clear back to the beginning and telling us

a little bit about your childhood and what it was like

growing up? So I grew up like most normal

kids, you know, I had AI, had three sisters.

My mom and dad were very involved in my childhood.

And from a young age my dad made it a huge importance of earning

whatever you have and if you want something, you're going to

work for it. And started my first long melon

job when I was 12. Worked for a farmer for 3 or 4

summers picking watermelons in North Carolina where I'm from.

Then all through high school worked for a starter and

alternator shop. I'm big into the outdoors, so

that's an expensive hobby. And my dad was always, hey, if

you want this nicest, newest gun, you're going to go work for

it, you know, So at the time, you know, some of my friends

were, they got all this nice stuff for Christmas.

And obviously my parents, we, we got Christmas gifts and stuff

too. But it was frustrating at the

time because I didn't get the same stuff that my friends got.

But it taught me a lot that my friends didn't get taught of a

work ethic and working with your hands and learning to trade and

kind of gave me the foundation for where I am today.

So that that was really my childhood was outdoors and my

dad was a brick Mason on the side.

He's a full time pastor. But he did some brick, brick

Mason stuff on the side. So I was this mortar kid mixing

the mortar for him so he could he could keep working.

And that's kind of where I got my feet wet in construction, so.

So what did education look like? Did you pursue any college

education after high school? I went to a year of private

school out in California. My dad, like I said, was a

pastor and so I went to a year Bible college out there to

potentially look at going into ministry as well.

Wasn't for me. So after that year I I left that

college and went right into trades.

Looking back on it, how do you feel about that decision?

Was was that the right move for you?

Do you ever regret not finishing a degree?

100% actually just shot an episode of of my podcast on

Friday with another guy who's my age and that that's all we

talked about was the the opportunity for kids these days

that it doesn't have to be college.

You you can run a trade and and make a a different and not it.

It's not for everybody, you know, and for some people it is.

And if that's you, great, happy for you, but it it's it's not

for everybody. So yeah, definitely the right

that's. Perfect.

Yeah, I I agree 100%. It frustrates me that I think

I'm guessing you and I are probably pretty close in age and

at least in my region growing up, man, it is in high school,

you just got funneled into college.

It's like that. That was if you didn't go to

college, there's no way you're going to be successful.

It was kind of a failure not to. That was the only option.

And it's pretty frustrating because there is incredible

opportunity in the trades and in different vocations for those

that they might be very smart, they might be very capable, but

school's just not their thing. They don't do indoors, they

don't do sitting still and sitting at a desk.

They're they're capable in other ways, a lot more tangible ways

sometimes. So yeah, I think there's

incredible opportunity there for people that college, this isn't

for them and and those that are, we need those people as well.

Yeah, that's why I was like, I want my doctor to go to college.

You know, the guy who's doing surgery on me, he better have a

degree, you know? But there's so many other

options for that. So.

Yeah. Are you in the construction

industry and super excited about the services you get from your

material supplier? Did your material supplier pay

to take you on an all inclusive vacation this year?

Do you always have what you need, when and where you need

it? If you answer no to any of those

questions, make sure you check out MacArthur, MacArthur,

co.com, give them a call and find the branch nearest you, top

materials, the best prices, and only the best service.

And ask them about their customer incentive trips.

Man, great. Well, you mentioned quite a few

jobs that you had growing up. Can you tell us about, you know,

right after high school, early workforce, did you go straight

to work for Hometown Roofing or did you have a few other jobs?

No. So I like I mentioned earlier, I

grew up in North Carolina and right after I left college, I

won't work for AGC up in North Carolina.

And we did everything, windows, doors, framing, siding, flooring

in everything. We had a contract, how I got

into roofing was we had a contract with our County School

system for all 42 of their buildings.

So we did maintenance on their, on their commercial properties

once 1/4 and then, you know, once a year we'd have some major

project for one of those 42 roofs, you know, that re roofing

something. And so that's, that's where I

really got into the, the trade side of construction, you know,

learning a lot of different things and roofing was kind of

my, my niche that I enjoyed. We did a ton of windows and

doors too, for the biggest builder and in my area back in

Greenville, NC. And so I, I hated that and I

knew I did not want to keep doing that.

And then I, I got a call from a buddy of mine who was running a

different roofing company down here in South Carolina.

And he is like, hey, we're, we're starting a repair division

and you actually know how to do the work.

So I need somebody to run this division of the company.

So I was with them for three years until middle of 2022 and

then that's when hometown started.

So. All right.

And I know it sounds like hometown kind of reformed with

you as a key piece of it in 2022, but you guys have quite a

history. It's a a fifth generation

company, yeah. Could you give us a quick

summary or background of kind of how that company started and and

how you guys got to where you are today?

Yeah. So my my business partner Tim is

his great granddad actually had a roofing company in Indiana.

What were they're from? And so his granddad ran it and

then it went to his grandma and then his dad and then it kind of

dissolved it. It wasn't named hometown.

And then we in 2022, when stuff kind of hit the fan with the

other company, they reached out to me that we had other

connections through his other business.

He owns a executive transportation company.

So I was doing stuff on the side for them for like logistics for

that. They do big events like Super

Bowl and all kinds of crazy events.

I've been to like 8 Super Bowls with them and it's we, we've

been friends for a while. And obviously he knew I was in

the industry and we had, we talked frequently of what was

going on at the other company. And he's like, well, I don't

know roofing, but I know business.

So you know, roofing, you want to, you want to give it a shot.

And here we are, almost four years later so.

That's a great story and it seems like you guys are doing

quite well. Can you tell me a little bit

about that, that startup process?

I mean, what was it like when you decided to go all in and and

do your own thing rather than getting a job at another roofing

company like you had been? It was very stressful.

It was a lot of a lot of long conversations with my wife,

assuring her that everything was going to be OK.

You know, I've always been a hustler and I'll go work at

McDonald's if I have to, to pay the bills.

I don't care. You know, I'm going to make ends

meet one way or the other. And I've always had that back to

my childhood of the way I was raised of a just a go get it.

When I set my mind to something, it's going to happen.

So it was, it was tough. You know, the, the 1st four to

six months when you're really laying the groundwork and

building relationships and trying to get jobs off the

ground, we're really not making money.

You know, it's, it's tough. So I, I would say the, the most

stressful part was, you know, the, the conversations at home,

you know, when you get home after a day and no steady pay,

there's no paychecks, There's no anything really coming in.

It's just, you just got to trust me.

It's, it's going to happen. We'll get there eventually.

You know, I don't know when eventually is.

I have XY and Z in the works. It's it, you know, we're, we're

working on it. But that was probably the most

stressful part was trying to, I don't want to say convince my

wife, my wife believes in me as my biggest supporter, but assure

her that we'll be OK. We just got to give it some

time, so. Yeah, well, now four years in,

has that assurance landed? Does your wife feel good about

where you're at? Is she excited about the

direction you're headed? 100% yeah, yeah.

So my, I told her my, my number one goal of hometown was when we

have kids one day to be able to retire her and you don't have to

work. She, she still does work,

doesn't need to really right now anymore, but still does because

she just doesn't want to sit around the house, you know, But

that was that was a huge goal of mine to be 100% able to, you do

not have to work. So that's great.

I think that's an admirable thing to put your wife in a

situation where she can work if she wants to, but doesn't have

to and can raise kids. I I hope that for my kids in the

future that they are in that position so that they can choose

what fits best for them, their family, instead of being stuck

in a position where they have to.

Yep, exactly. Well, I know you mentioned you

worked for a a general contractor and did a lot of

different things. You said windows and doors was

definitely not your thing. What was it that really drew you

to roofing? What?

What is it about roofing that get you excited?

It was really like the, I mean when residential roofing it's,

it's shingles, you know, it's a new house, new color, same thing

everyday. You know, I really like

commercial roofing and the challenges that come with it.

And even like in our market here in Charleston, it's, it's very

unique in the ton of different, like the architecture that we

have and the styles of the styles of roofing that we have

slate, copper standing seam shingles, a barrel tile like

that. We, we have every cedar, cedar

shake, you know, we, we have everything here.

And so the, the, the learning, the different types was really

what, what I enjoyed in the beginning.

And still, I mean, I'm, I'm still learning that there's

still stuff which I'm sure we'll get into that of mess ups that

don't do that again, you know, of just the somewhat of the

unknown and the appeal of not knowing, hey, I've never done

this before. Let's learn it and let's try it,

you know? Yeah, I can relate to that.

That was probably the the thing that I enjoyed most about

running a roofing company. We did exclusively single ply

membranes. But even within single ply

membranes, you know, new new hires or people that were

interested in what we do would ask me, you know, what does that

entail? And like, well, which project

exactly? Every one of them's a little bit

different. Which, which, which taper are we

talking about? And which, you know, like that.

There's so many variables that I love it.

I love it. What kind of a deck are we on

and how much insulation? What kind of insulation?

Where's this drainage come from? Is it structurally sloped?

Are we doing a taper system and cover board some vapor barriers

and unique details and different building designs And man,

there's, there's hardly any two jobs that are exactly the same.

You're, you're designing something new every job you look

at. So awesome.

Love it. Well, you told us a little bit

about you and Tim kind of throwing together, starting the

business, having to provide that assurance to your wife that that

you could do this and you're going to make it.

Tell us a little bit more about getting the business off the

ground. What, what did that process look

like? What were some of the struggles

or maybe the the big turning points where you felt like you

kind of levelled up and passed a milestone as you were building

it? I'd say the biggest, the biggest

struggle was the getting the initial brand out there because

of how saturated most markets are with roofing companies.

Getting the, getting the brand awareness and getting known for

doing good work. And not just by your friends and

family who are obviously going to refer you to people, you

know, actually having a, a footprint in the community.

And what, what really helped jumpstart a lot of where we're

at now is just the in like very intentional networking in the

beginning with real estate agents, property managers,

insurance agents, I mean, a ton of you name it, we were there.

And then like we, we set up a booth at the farmers market here

in Somerville. We go to it's, it's called third

Thursday, where every, the third Thursday every month in our

little downtown square, they have a little, it's almost like

a vendor show essentially where they have food trucks and stuff.

So setting up there and just being repetitively seen in the

community and doing some like charity roofs and stuff like

that for a Little League team, you know, that that needed a new

dugout roof for just little stuff like that that gets you

seen in in the visibility and then making the connections in

the the different trade partners that need you, you know, and

that's a huge struggle for really anybody in real estate or

property managers, insurance, you know, anything like that

where people that answer the phone show up when they say

they're going to show up. And then it's really not that

hard to gain their trust when you hear the last three guys no

showed three times, you know, like that's all I have to do is

show up like this is easy, man. You know the.

Bar is pretty low. Yeah, very low, very low.

So that that's really what what jump started it in the beginning

was just the the intentional networking and our our first

year in business. I can 100% say with certainty

that's what what we did almost two and a half million our first

year in business. Wow, that was.

That's impressive. That was just strictly

networking, referrals and relationships, so.

Oh man, yeah, that's really impressive.

You guys hit the ground running and and made it happen.

So I know I was having a conversation just this week that

like I said, when I was running my business, we did a a very

particular niche of roofing and even within single plies we kind

of specialized in a couple products.

And so a lot of people that would call us, you know, the

answer was I'm sorry, but we don't do that.

Yeah. But I, I tried really hard to

return every message, even if in the message they gave me enough

information to know that we weren't going to be a good fit.

I would try to return the call just to return the call.

Be polite, let them know, maybe give them a referral somewhere

else. And I got a number of referrals

from people that we did not do work for, but we returned their

call. Yeah, yeah.

And, and they would tell their friends like, oh, call this guy.

He'll actually call you back like that.

That was the standard. Yeah.

And then like we like saying what that there's some stuff

where either like for instance, windows, a good buddy of mine

owns another roofing company in town and he, I, I, I don't do

windows, but his company does. So when somebody wants windows,

I refer them to him and then but he doesn't do commercial

roofing. So even inside we're, we're

technically competitors in the residential side.

We're we're very good friends, but we pass referrals back and

forth just from having to trust with each other and our

customers know that we're going to answer the phone.

And if one of us, you know, can't do it, I got, I got

somebody who can, you know, that that I trust.

So it's that's huge. Yeah, that's great.

I love that you can have relationships like that and

we've been discussing that a little bit recently.

That seems like a bit of a new development in the roofing space

that, you know, 10-15 years ago. This is a pretty cutthroat

space. And it seems like over the last

decade it's really opened up and there are a lot of people

willing to help each other out, share information, share

knowledge. And as a whole, the industry is

really levelling up and providing better service because

competitors are working together to become better at their craft.

Is that what you see in your area?

100%, yeah. And there's, there's probably 3

or 4 guys here that in my market that I know if I see one of

their estimates on a homeowner's table while I'm doing our

presentation, you're going to get taken care of no matter who

you choose, you know, and like the, the other OC Platinum in

our market, great guys. You know, I know that if they're

going to get taken care of if I lose a job to them, we're

friends. Yeah, what I love the business,

but at the end of the day, the homeowners going to get

protected the way that they need to be.

You know, and I got the first podcast I shot on, on ours was

with a competitor and just talking about collaboration over

competition and, and how we can bring our industry up as a whole

because there is still with the way the industry's shifting and

it I feel like it is getting a lot better.

Yeah. And for our listeners, what is

your podcast? If they want to check that out,

we'll make sure we get it in the show notes as.

Well, hometown roofing podcast. Hometown roofing.

OK Yep, on YouTube. Awesome.

Well, I'll get that in the show notes so they can just click the

link there and get some more information.

Check that out. I know we talked about it a

little bit. You guys do commercial and

residential, you work in a lot of different products.

Which is your favorite what? What do you prefer as an

installer and a business owner? Probably standing seam metal is

my favorite OK, and that's 24 gauge steel, copper, aluminum,

you know, anything like that. I, I like the, the challenge of,

especially in our market were coastal, so the different

products that you have to have depending on how close you are

to the, to the coast. So the, so the panels don't

rust, you know, and the different coatings and learning

about what finishes are better for different environments.

And these are going to mildew quicker and you're going to have

to clean these more, you know, like all that different stuff.

What we just did a big copper and cedar roof in in Iowa Palms

just on the beach down here. And that was a first for us.

And it was like the coolest thing I've ever like.

It's getting framed in the office.

It was a phenomenal project. Loved it.

It was the coolest roof that I probably will ever do It's it

was awesome. That's great.

That is a lot of fun. I, I said we kind of did

strictly single plies, but every once in a while we took on a

unique project and actually we had a, a copper and cedar roof

that was put on a 1/4 barrel and the, the barrel roof had two 45°

angles in it. It, it was like a breezeway that

changed directions. And that was probably one of the

most complex, most interesting roofs that I ever did it.

It turned out beautiful. And you did that with Cindy Fly.

No, we did it copper standing seam and then.

You got radius panels. Yeah, radius panels and then

having to find a way to make that angle on that over barrel

because one side of the barrel or the the angle in the barrel,

one side is a Ridge, the other side is a valley and it goes

completely flat on top. It was a.

Yeah, it was. Interesting.

Yeah, I'm, I'm picturing that in my head right now.

That's yeah, that's interesting there.

Yeah, yeah, it was quite a project.

I would never do another one of those, but it was really fun to

do once and the same thing, although we only have one and in

our world that was a relatively small project.

Photos of that made our website, they're hanging in the office.

It was a. Fun project.

It was cool. Everybody's going to know we did

this one. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, there was a a lot of problems to solve.

It was fun for me to figure out. I actually when we were tackling

that of, you know, yeah, how do you make it watertight with

radius panels transitioning over an angle from a Ridge to a

valley? We are using a Firestone product

and I wound up on the phone with Firestone support and they had

never seen a heard of that before.

So they called some guy that had recently retired that had been

their metal guy for like 60 years.

You know, he he wrote the book literally.

And they got me in touch with him.

They called him in out of retirement and I explained to

him what I was doing. He said, I've never seen that

before. I don't know how you're going to

do it, but send me pictures when you're done.

Yeah. Thanks, man.

Thanks for that help. Like, Oh yeah.

And then you get into with that on that specific copper roof.

We had the architect, I wanted to shoot him on this one.

Like it was, it was 2 hip roofs that meet in a dead valley and

then there's a transition in both of the hip roofs that also

meet in that dead valley. So the whole, the whole roof was

hand turned. But it was, I mean, it was

probably that section was only 1/4 of the roof and it took us

like 3 weeks just to do that one section.

Whereas the rest of the roof only took us a week and a half

to do. Just like making sure hand

turning all the valleys into each other and the transitions

and oh, shoot me. It was a it looks great now, but

I hated, I hated life during doing all that.

It was a it was a nightmare. So.

Yeah, yeah. If you do this for very long, we

always have that project that it was miserable to get through,

but once it's done, it's the one we're most proud of.

Yeah. For sure, for sure, man.

So standing seam metal maybe especially the copper you said

was kind of your favorite. Which sector of your business is

most profitable, residential commercial?

Is there a product line that's more profitable than others?

I would definitely say Standing Seam is our most profitable.

Yeah, OK. Yeah.

Yeah, our shingle like the, the, the, our everyday residential

stuff. We we have to be our, our

because our market is so competitive.

We're, we're very, I don't want to say low margin, but we're,

we're not where I would want to be just to get to get the jobs.

I can't charge, you know, my normal markup, what I would like

to get or or I would never get a job, you know, So, yeah.

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That was that was always my answer when somebody wanted us

to do residential shingles was I don't know, different areas are

different with contractor licensing requirements and

things like that. But two guys are the pickup and

an air nailer is a shingling company.

And in, in order to do the other projects that I do, I have an

office, an office staff and forklifts and dump trucks and

highly paid skilled roofers to do the more skilled stuff.

And you know, two guys in a pickup and an air nailer,

they're making great money at a price that I'm losing money.

I I just can't compete. Exactly.

And especially the states that have no licensure.

I mean, anybody's a roofer and, and even like here in South

Carolina, you, you could today go get a contractor's license to

do roofs in South Carolina. If you have 3 referrals from

three of your buddies that said you did their roof and whether

they're lying or not, they're not going to check.

You could go get a license today and start doing roofs next week.

It is so easy here. So the even though we have a

licensure, there's really no checks and balances of that

licensure, you know? I think a lot of places are

still like that. It seems like they're either

like that or they're a little over the top.

Yeah. And, you know, there's a

significant barrier to entry that's probably unfair to the

startup companies. I don't find a lot of places

that have a good balance that I feel works well.

Yeah, it's either a free for all or extremely limited.

Yeah, I would agree with that, yeah.

So judging by your story about that copper roof, I'm guessing

you guys have some in house labor that you a self perform

self perform projects with? Do you guys use subcontractors

at all? We do use Subs yeah.

So my my metal sub has been with me since day one.

They were actually we use them at the prior company too.

So I knew they did really good work and I've had the same the

same crew for almost four years now.

They're the only people that touch my jobs and I on some of

this stuff have helped train them and get them to where they

need to be, but on a lot of stuff that they know what

they're doing. So although they are Subs,

they're mine and they do work for some other companies, but

90% of their work comes from me and they're the only people that

touch my jobs. And I know every single one of

their names. I shoot him a deer every year,

take it to him for Christmas, you know, like we, we, we hang

out on the weekends sometimes. They're, they're friends of mine

and they do phenomenal work. So.

Oh, that's a great setup. And so I guess maybe did I get

that wrong. Do you guys have any in house

labor that actually performs installs or do you kind of

exclusively use subcontractors? All we use is sub.

So all of my guys, I've trained all of them to do their own

repairs. So each of my salesman knows how

to do repairs if it's a small shingle job or something like

that. But even my repair guys is a sub

as well so. Oh, cool.

Yeah. Well, I know that's something

that often gets debated at least in the area that I'm at is kind

of the, the value and the value proposition for the customer of

you know a roofing company that utilizes sales subcontractors

versus in house crews. Do you have any thoughts about

that? I mean, is there a reason you've

chosen to use subcontractors and stick to it?

What what are the pros and cons in your mind there?

I would 100% second that notion for the companies that don't

know who's showing up to their jobs.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of companies that run Subs that

it could be 1 of 10 crews. They don't know who they're

getting that day you know and that's why I have hand chosen

who is my sub knows I only want these two shingle crews ever

once again know all their names none for four years since we

started and the metal crew that that's only one crew anyways but

or metal and specialty stuff. So I, I would 100% agree that

with other companies that are using Subs, if you're not

vetting your labor and knowing who is coming to your jobs and

like we have a project manager on site all day too, that is

100% checking every part of the install.

Because, you know, you get guys that filter in and out.

They got a new guy on the crew, which you've never seen before,

you know, but for the most part, everybody that we use is people

that we know and have used since day one.

The, the cons are in house labor is probably significantly

cheaper. So there's that.

But to me, like the, the only argument that somebody could

have against a sub is if you don't know who they are and you

don't know who's showing up to your jobs and there's no checks

and balances system to make sure that they're doing stuff the

right way. So.

I agree wholeheartedly. That's something one of my

questions we'll get to later is something that you've kind of

changed your mind about. And and that's one for me is for

a long time I was very firmly in that camp of, you know, we use

in house labor and that's the right way to do it.

We're in control, we control quality.

There's no, there's no question marks.

And as we grew and expanded a little bit, we explored using

some subcontractors and almost the same thing you said, they

are very highly vetted. A relationship was built.

We had a project manager on site watching every day, every step,

everything they did with the primary sub that we used.

We played a significant role in their training.

We provided a lot of the training that they did.

And so it was, it was almost like having, you know, all the

pros of an in house crew, but they are kind of on call.

That worked well. Well, it sounds like you guys

are off to a great start and are growing pretty quickly.

But is there something that delayed your growth?

And if So, what would you do differently if you could do it

again? Yes, 100%.

Not having systems and processes in place to be able to handle

the growth. We had a massive hailstorm in

June of 2024, I believe it was Yep, June 10th.

So we're coming up on two years and at the time had three

salesman plus me. So it was great in the fact that

we got a ton of business, but we didn't have the processes in

place to be able to capitalize and get even more business.

And that the business that we did get, I mean, we were doing

like 15 roofs a week after that storm.

So it was just nuts. It was crazy.

And we could have had we had the right systems in place, been

doing 25 or 30 a week. I can't imagine that because the

15 was a nightmare. But at the time that was, if I

could go back, it would be setting up the systems on the

front end to where if something like that does happen, you know,

and then obviously we're scaling to hopefully be to that point

consistently. But obviously when you have a

massive storm, business is going to go through the roof, no pun

intended. So that that's what I would do

differently 100%. And So what would it look like?

I mean that's significant scale in a very short period of time.

What would it look like to be prepared to scale at that level

that quickly? What I mean what kind of things

do you now have in place with your systems because that's

going to take staff and a significant amount salesman and

crews and how do you position yourself such that you can scale

up that significantly that quickly?

It would like your the, the the CRM, like setting up your CRM

and your your checklist of OK, what does what?

What does a contract appointment look like?

What does after after we get a contract signed?

What does it look like from the time that the contract signed to

the time where it actually goes to production?

Who needs to touch it? What are our checklist?

OK, it never even gets to the production calendar before XY or

Z is happened. You know, like now it's all

automated. Like we build our CRM out to

have like a checklist that the the salesman has to follow

before they send it to production.

Then production has to follow before it actually gets

scheduled. And then the the customers

getting automated text and, and, and updates on where we're at in

the process, you know, so everybody is.

And then it's, it's all documented in the CRM too, of

who touched it, who did what, you know, where we're at in that

process. The stage of the job really

that's if you can't pull up any job right now and your CRM and

know exactly where it's at in the process, that's a problem,

you know, and that's, that's kind of where it was It was just

like it was phenomenal for business.

We, we killed it that year, but it was the most stressful 8

months of my life. I mean, it was insane.

It for like 2 weeks after the storm, we, we were working 18 or

20 hour days, you know, signing 1520 roofs a day.

You know, it was just, you weren't even having adjuster

appointments that everything was smoked, that there was, send me

photos. Here's a check, you know, like

it was, it was wild. So that that's where like the

setting it up to where you especially with the technology

now there's no reason why you should not have automated

processes in your, in your production or contractual stage

or whatever it is, you know so. Was there a process to finding a

CRM that worked well with your workflow and how your business

is set up it? It seems like there's a million

of them out there nowadays, and a lot of the contractors I

talked to end up building their own to get one that really does

what they wanted to do and work the way that they work.

What did that process look like for you?

We've had the same CRM from day one.

It was not as much of finding the right one.

It was using all the tools available in the one that we

have. And because we did hit the

ground running so quickly, I did not prioritize actually taking

time to do the CRM trainings that they offer for free,

knowing the processes of, oh, cool, I can automate all of this

in my CRM. I just have to click this

button, this button and this button, OK, now how do I add

this task for each salesman? OK, all I have to do is click

that button. But you don't know where to go

if you don't or how to set all that up if you don't prioritize

doing that, you know, and it was great, we're signing jobs, cool,

we're busy. But there was no, there was no

actual process for that of what that actually looked like from a

management side of things, you know, So it was just learning

the CRM that we had and actually utilizing what we pay for so.

Yeah, there's a lot of tools out there, but some of them take a

little bit of a learning curve and it blows my mind what what

they're capable of nowadays. It's so different than when I

started, Yeah. Insane.

Yeah, it's kind of overwhelming. Yeah, it, it, it really is.

It, it's like drinking from a fire hydrant.

I mean, all the different like tools and stuff that it, it's

just insane. And and they all can talk to

each other through the back end and they're taking notes while

you're saying like, it's just wild.

It's wild. Do you guys do any of the AI

customer interactions? Do you have a a system set up

where customers can text with an AI?

Yep. So we just, we just on the

border with Alibo and they it's a so like our, our business

hours are 24 hours. So after 5, when my admin leaves

the office, the phones get transferred to the AI agent or,

and then we have like the chat button on our website and

through Google or whatever and they can text and the agents are

trained for roofing to answer questions and ask specific

qualifying questions, you know, And then they both link to our

CRM to where I can go back and listen to the whole phone call

that the AI agent had with the customer.

And then if the customer wants to, they will because it's

linked to our calendars too. They can book an appointment

through the chat or through talking to the AI agent based on

their problem and which salesman is assigned to handle these

specific problems a little bit better than somebody else.

Or if it's just a standard roof replacement, it can go to

anybody, you know, like, and we can tell the software all of

that to where it's tailored specifically to it's, it's wild.

Oh man, that's amazing. Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, it's mind blowing what people can do with technology

nowadays. So, well, I talked about one of

these for me earlier, but is there an opinion you once held

strongly that you've changed based on your experience?

Man, that's a good question. Probably the first one that

comes to mind is the small, that your small jobs like your repair

jobs and stuff, are just for going for future business and

that they're not really that profitable.

OK. If you're selling repairs

properly, they should be your highest margin ticket.

And not only are you, if you do a good job setting up future

business, but if you're doing a lot of repairs, you can make a

lot of money doing repairs because not a lot of people want

to touch them. So that's, that's that.

That's probably one that I've changed my mind, yeah.

Yeah, I can track right with you there.

That's an attitude shift that I had as well.

So yeah, what mistake have you made that cost you the most

money? Missing a taper package on a

commercial roof? Yep.

You know, you, you one of those mistakes you only do once and it

you know, like with when you're stat, you know this well, I'm

sure what when you're stacking A taper package, if you miss one

run, you just miss, you know, like it's a the specific one.

It was, it was 100 foot, it was 100 foot wide building.

So we're stacking. I mean, what would that be 2525

rows of foam? You know, you missed, you missed

one row though. By the time you get, by the time

you get to the 25th row, yeah, that, that's the same amount of

taper as the first whole quarter of your roof, you know, and that

was a, that was a, that was a costly one there.

Yeah. Oh man, that's good.

Yeah. That's good.

Yeah, If you could go back, I'm I'm going to split this up.

If you could go back to when you graduated high school, or if you

could go back to 2022 and had the option to do it all over

again or pick a different track, what would you do?

The same thing. Yeah.

Yep, Yep. Earlier start, start right out

of high school, you know, yeah, for sure.

But I wouldn't be here in Charleston, you know, I would

still be home, you know, if if I'd have done it right out of

school. You know, it's just life.

Life throws stuff at you and you make the most of it.

So. Good.

Are you happy with the move? Do you ever miss leaving?

No, best decision I ever made. I grew up in a super small town

and it was a like the, the people that most the people that

grow up there and stay there are generational people that their,

their mom was there, their granddad was there, you know,

and it, they've been there for 100 years, you know, and it's, I

don't want to say a black hole, but it's kind of a black hole of

people that have been there their whole lives and are going

to stay there their whole lives. And nothing wrong with that if

that's for you. But there's so much more in the

world that you're missing. And that was that.

But but it was hard because all of my friends, my family,

everything was that I've ever known was there, you know?

But no, I would never go back and change it.

I would. The best, best thing I ever did

was getting out of there. Not in a bad way.

Good to hear. Yeah, Yeah.

Well, we talked a lot about mistakes.

What has been your biggest win as a leader?

Biggest I would say getting getting employees to trust you

as a mentor and not just their boss and know that you actually

care about them as a human being.

And not just a revenue side of the business, which obviously is

important too, but having somebody tell you they

appreciate that your doors always open and that that you

actually genuinely care about them as a human being too.

Good stuff, good stuff. I know you said when you guys

first started you hit the ground running and did a 2.5 million in

your first year. Do you mind letting us know kind

of what your growth track has looked like, what what has it

looked like growing that business in your market?

So we did 2 1/2 our first year, we did 4 1/2 our second year, We

did right at six last year and hopefully our our goal this year

was 7 1/2 to 8 so. Oh man.

Yeah. That's an impressive growth

curve, Yeah. What kind of lead activities

have you guys been taking on to consistently grow on that scale?

I mean, you guys have been adding 2 million a year every

year. What are you doing to produce

that kind of growth? Really the same thing we've done

from day one, it's, it's been a lot of organic partnerships,

referrals getting in front. We have our core group of

property managers and real estate agents and all that stuff

that we work with. But continuing to build that

network of, you know, custom home builders and people like

that that need your service and one quality and just continuing

to nurture the current relationships and build more

relationships. As far as leads go, it's been,

you know, we hired a social media lady to run all of our

funny but also informational stuff on social media.

Consistently, consistently posting on social media because

I just didn't have time to do it.

And it wasn't, it wasn't getting done, you know, or, or just your

typical roofer, here's a before and after photo or here's a

Google review that everybody does that makes you not stand

out at all, you know? So, yeah, investing money in on

those fronts too has been a big thing.

So. OK.

It seems like you guys have a lot of organic growth and and

kind of natural growth just serving your market.

But you just threw out the word investing.

What does your plan look like for marketing?

Do you set aside a specific percentage of revenue for

marketing? Do you just invest when you see

good opportunities? What what is your approach to

allocating those marketing dollars?

So that's one thing that we're kind of overhauling right now is

our marketing strategy because right now, no, we don't, we

don't have a percentage. It's kind of like you said,

we're in this neighborhood. All the roofs are old.

Cool. Let's let's hit them with the

mailers, you know, or we just got a ton of rain.

Let's run a Facebook ad for a little bit, you know, just

randomly here and there. But in order to continue on the

trajectory that we want to be on, we know that you can only

get so much from organic. And if you're going to keep on

the, the green trajectory, you got to start setting aside

certain things of, like you said, a percentage of what has

to be done to where it's year round consistent marketing.

And so that that's where we're, that's kind of where we're at

right now almost through year 4. We're about to rebuild the

website and get rid of the day one website that we just kind of

threw together, you know, and start getting an actual game

plan together for marketing. So.

And you guys have grown pretty rapidly through some pretty

significant benchmarks there. Are there any that kind of stand

out in your mind that were significant turning points, felt

like you kind of levelled up and hit a new benchmark or maybe a

growing pain that you had to had to push through and overcome

something to hit that next level?

Probably the commercial side of the business because of how many

national commercial roofing companies there are, especially

once you get into like the new construction side of commercial

building, the relationships with builders and GCS to get our foot

in the door with those because it's so tough with the guys that

source their own materials have inside in house labor, you know,

and I there's no way I like you said about shingles, I'm losing

money at what they're selling it at, you know, and somehow

they're making money, you know, that was probably like the last

year. I feel like we really broke into

the the commercial side of the business and actually getting a

lot more opportunities on that front.

So. What did that look like?

I mean, how if you're in a market that's kind of dominated

by some of those national firms that are man, just blowing stuff

out cheap because they have huge in house crews and source their

own materials and run their own warranty department and all of

those things. What is the What is the value

that you can offer a customer or AGC to convince them to go with

the the local guy or the smaller smaller contractor?

It depends on the GC. Some of like the local builders

and stuff want to use local, which is appreciated, you know.

And then like a common pain point in roofing is you got to

call, you got to call 3 different people to actually get

to the guy that you're trying to talk to, you know, whereas with,

with me, if you call and ask, ask for, you have a problem, I'm

showing up. You know who's showing up, you

have my personal cell phone number and you're getting the

same customer service every single time.

There's no hoops to jump through of oh, well, he's not the right

guy for this. That was this guy's job.

Or you know, he's this is our guy for this.

Like, no, you know, you know who exactly who you're getting.

It's one of four people and each whoever the person is that sold

that job is who you're getting. And if if I have to step in

occasionally I will. But you know exactly who you're

getting. You have their personal cell

phone number and it's a very personal relationship and not

answering service. Press 1 for commercial repairs.

Press 2 for, you know, like it's.

Or starting with press one for English.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Oh man. Well, I know you mentioned that

you started this business as a partner.

You're only a few years in. What has that relationship been

like? Are you still happy to have a

partner? Do you wish you would have done

it on your own? Have there been any

communication or relationship struggles that you guys have

learned to work your way through being a partner in a business

this size? Yeah.

So I mean, at the time it was a great opportunity for me to it

was a it was a shot of, hey, we see your work ethic and we want

to bring you in on this, you know, which I'm super grateful

for. And I have had nothing but great

experiences with my partner. He's a great guy, always treated

everybody fair or, or I wouldn't be in.

I would have never even considered it.

We really don't have any quarrels or like we don't what

we we align pretty much on on everything in the business.

So I think it was 100% the right move for me at the time.

Yeah, for sure. Thank you.

I appreciate that. That's been something we've

discussed quite a bit. Yeah.

So what has been your best resource to learn and grow and

get better? Like as far as like in in

roofing or like different skill sets or or what?

I guess I would leave that open. I I'm thinking mostly just

personal development, whether that's leadership, professional

sales, personal development. Is there a resource that you

lean heavily on to grow as an individual?

I've been trying to read more books recently read like audio

books. I, I don't read, I'll turn them

on in the truck. We, we, we have a pretty big

market here, so consistently have 45 minutes plus of drive

time between appointments and stuff.

So Chris Zimmerman has been a great resource for me as far as

he's kind of taken me under his wing and, and helped mentor me.

And hey, you should really read this book.

That'll help with this, you know, and really there's,

there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of men in my life who

have just taken the time to invest in me even from

childhood, aside from my dad, who have you've seen something

in me that they feel that they want to take the time to step

aside and, and, and invest in with time and advice and

different stuff like that. That I, I know for a fact I

wouldn't be where I was today without.

I can think of five off the top of my head, men in my life that

have really taken me under their wing and that that like the

personal development side of thing.

Everybody in their life, I don't care what stage of life you're

in, what stage of business you're in.

You need a mentor and you need somebody who is going to pour

their time and brain into you that is willing to invest in

you. Every, every person in their

life needs that, no matter where they're at.

I'd say that's probably been my biggest personal development

side of things is between the men in my life and then the the

books that I've read in the last couple years to help with

leadership and problem solving and conflict resolution and, you

know, all this different stuff that I've never dealt with

before. You know, I'm them swinging a

hammer before this, you know, like we got a problem.

I'm throwing a hammer at you, you know?

Like as somebody that you know didn't come up with maybe a

business pet pedigree, but was a practitioner that moved into the

business side of things. Is there something you wish you

would have known before you started your business?

Something that you've learned about the business side of

things that might help someone else trying to do what you've

done? Yeah, you got to know your

numbers. And that seems so basic, like

duh, I got to know my profit margins and all this.

Like you should be able to pull up any single job that you have

done in the last day since day one of business and know exactly

what your margin was, what your materials cost, what your labor

cost, what your salesman got paid, all of that stuff.

You should be able to track that to the penny.

And because if you're not tracking that, you're losing

money somewhere. And if you don't know your

numbers of we had 3/4 of a roll of high temp underlayment that

got thrown away in the dumpster, that's $100, boom, gone.

You know, knowing where, knowing where you're losing margin and

how to fix that and then implementing a process to fix

that will not only save you a lot of headache, but it'll save

you a lot of save you a lot of money.

And you're already, that's just straight profit that you're

saving it. It's just money in your pocket

that you're not getting. So that that would be my tip.

That's good stuff. Yeah, that's something I've

thought for a long time is I think every business, but

especially the the trades and and you're my experience

roofing, it's all about efficiency.

What what you said, every dollar you don't waste is straight

profit. That's money that you get to

keep if you don't waste it. And that's what this is really

all about. And I think a lot of guys get

caught up in in growth in volume and putting up big numbers and,

you know, being able to brag about the volume that you've

done. But there's a lot more money to

be made in maximizing efficiency than there isn't just strictly

scaling. Because.

If you're not making any. Good.

If you're not making any money, or if you're losing money and

then you double or triple the scale, you're still not making

any money or you're just losing more money.

And you just tripled your headache.

That's it. Yeah, Yeah.

You're doing 3 times as much work for not much money.

Yeah. Whereas if you can dial in that

efficiency and get it where it needs to be so that you're

actually making money, then when you start to scale it, it

magnifies in a big. Way 100%, so 100%.

Good stuff. Well, this is my favorite

question I ask every single guest.

I know you've kind of alluded to it a little bit with some of

your background, but are you a person of a particular faith

tradition? And if so, how does that shape

how you run your business and how you lead your people?

I am so I'm a Christian. My dad, my dad was a Baptist

pastor, so that that's how I grew up mentioned that prior and

there's there's some things that the way I grew up, I don't

necessarily agree with anymore. The main core principles of

Christianity. I still do.

It's it's the same to me. But by saying that the meat and

potatoes of it of what my my core values are as a human are

the same and all of that. And that is really transformed

the way that in business like. You hear so commonly of like

people, people getting people getting screwed over or screwed

over their employees or not paying commissions or, you know,

not doing the right thing with a homeowner or whatever.

The, the, The thing is, is it's never, it's never wrong to do

the right thing, no matter how you spin it.

And especially when you start dealing with numbers and money

and stuff like that. Whether we're, we're going

through a job right now where one of my salesman did it wrong.

He missed a detail and the customer is, hey, this is what

we signed and we're sorry you messed up, but this is what we

signed, you know, and it's, it's a tough one because it's a large

financial mistake. And the, if I wanted to take it

to court, the, the way that the contract was worded is a little

bit ambiguous. And I could potentially win it

in court if, if I wanted to. But no, the right thing to do is

this is what you know, what you were getting them to sign.

And I would have to lie, cheat and steal to win that in court.

And probably make up some stuff that isn't true to win that in

court and take the loss, take it as a lesson.

There's how, how did that happen?

How can we make it not happen again?

And as the leader, it all falls back on me.

What, what checks and balances didn't we have in place to where

that happened? You know?

And so the, the, the morality side of the way that I run the

business is huge and the, it's, it's in every, every single day

of, of what we do. Like I said, it's, it's never

wrong to do the right thing, no matter how you spin it.

And especially with the people side of things like being a

employer when it, when it comes to mentoring and investing in my

employees, I, I don't shove religion down their throat or

anything like that, But there's definitely a, a clear walk of

they know where I stand and what I expect and what you believe is

what you believe. And if you want to talk about it

and have a man to man conversation about it, sure,

let's go grab a drink and what we, we can, we can talk about

it, but I'm not going to shove it down your throat.

And you know where I stand in the way what I expect in the way

that that transpires into, into the business.

So I don't know, I I feel like I said a lot there and maybe

didn't answer the question. No, there's some good wisdom

there and some good stuff in there and I appreciate that.

So well, I know you guys have kind of just been riding a

rocket here growing 2 million a year every year for four years.

You're you're relatively young in this particular business.

What's next? What you said, you guys are

shooting for about 8 million this year.

Is there an end goal? I know there's a lot of movement

in our industry with growing and selling businesses.

You know you're in business with a partner.

Is there an end goal to buy out your partner?

Is there an end goal to grow and sell?

Do you guys have some big goals for the coming years?

Not that I know of a don't foresee ever selling to private

equity or anything like that. Eventually there may be an exit

plan, but for now, no. So yeah.

OK, just keep growing at the rate you have and keep serving

your community. Keep grinding.

Yep. Good stuff, I love it.

Is there somebody that you would like to see on the show?

Somebody you know with a cool story, works in a cool industry?

Somebody that you'd like to learn more about?

Trying to think I know some good roofers that you can have on.

I think you would really enjoy talking with the I have.

I have a buddy who is a mobile welder here in Charleston and he

has a pretty cool business. He does some really cool stuff.

I think you may, you may enjoy talking to him.

As far as roofers go, I don't know if you've sat down with

Sheldon Murphy of TSM in Arizona.

I've, I've talked to him, I, I don't think we have any

scheduled anything. Scheduled yet, But now we've.

Been in touch? He he is a great guy.

I would definitely try to get him on.

He is a he's a great human being.

Awesome. Yeah, Well, I might see if you

could make a couple introductions offline.

And we've not had anybody in the welding space yet and especially

especially mobile welding. I know that's something that's

kind of on the rise in our area and that'd be interesting.

I know very little about that business.

So that'd be a lot of. Fun.

Yeah, I can definitely make a connection for you.

Awesome. Yeah, Well, our last question

here, I asked most of my guests to either fuel or settle the

debate. If you have a job to do that

requires A cordless tool, which brands do you prefer?

DeWalt. DeWalt.

All right. I think we're holding strong.

Yeah, I'm a DeWalt guy myself, and we've had a couple other

answers, but DeWalt and Milwaukee are the front runners

and I think right now Dewalt's pulling ahead by four or five.

So anything else is just your homeowner brand.

I mean, for everyday use, there's nothing else that I

would trust. And Milwaukee's great too.

I've just always used DeWalt so that's what I'll always.

Just I think those two are fantastic.

Just my personal opinion. I think sometimes Milwaukee

pushes the envelope in new and different tools.

But in my experience anyway, the way that we use them, the the

DeWalt just holds up a little bit better, is maybe a little

bit sturdier, especially there, you know, they all have their

different grades, but the the top end, the contractor grade

DeWalt, those seem to hold up and last.

Long I would agree. With you I've tried.

I would agree with you on that. Awesome, awesome.

Well, Kyle, thank you so much for joining me.

This has been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed learning about you

and your business and reaping the benefits of some of your

wisdom. I'm sure our listeners will as

well. I know we're going to put your

podcast in the show notes. If there's anybody listening

that's looking for a roof in South Carolina or maybe looking

to come on board and work with you guys at Hometown Roofing,

what's going to be the best way to get in touch with you or get

a hold of your services? So you can check us out online

hometownroofingsc.com same thing, Hometown Roofing, SC on

Facebook, Hometown Roofing SC on Instagram, Hometown Roofing SC

on YouTube, TikTok, call our office at 843-331-5850.

And that's that's really about it.

Awesome. Well, I will get all of those in

the show notes. We'll make it really easy.

They can just link right over there and get a hold of you.

And I really do appreciate the time.

Yeah, man, I really enjoyed it. I appreciate you.

And thank you guys for joining us here on From the Ground Up

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