TrueWorks Roofing: 3 Years Update | Business Hats Podcast
welcome back to business hats podcast this episode is brought to you by job Nimbus the only CRM I recommend for contractors CRM that I used in my roofing business for many years and a lot of my friends use as well check out job numbers tell them admission sent you welcome back everyone to business hats podcast today I have a very special guest Laura and Joel Patzke owners of true works Roofing I actually had the privilege to visit their company I believe in their first year in business was there not even complete year right you were like right there at the end of the first year I believe and today we're gonna do a follow-up on them so it was what year and a half ago so how long you've been in business now it'll be three years in March man time flies fast so I have a lot of questions because I want to capture that time business ownership from first year to end of third year so pretty much last two years uh last time when I visited you guys you have very tiny office I remember it was you did have a meeting room space but you have very small room where we try to do the meeting um where you guys now I've seen social media post you you upgraded you moved to the warehouse now uh guide me through your move how your business life changed since you made the decision to upgrade yeah we were working out of a uh Regis so like it's like a shared space we did have our private office but it was about 300 square feet I mean it would be like four of us crammed in there cranking out estimates and then they had a conference room that was available for rent and so when you came so once a week we would rent it for our team meetings for like the full team to come and uh you know as we grew we had everything um our storage shed or our little garage of our own personal place um was packed you could barely open it um full of like extra material and the catch-all and different things like that and uh so we definitely you know with the growing team needed a bigger space um we found a good uh space that was in a retail business park which I really liked so it's like a high-end retail business park it's in the exact zip code we wanted um and we kind of went client facing so we did it like a showroom basically so we have all these little mock-up uh model homes with our different roofing systems that we install in here and clients can come in and see them and tour it and that's been pretty cool we've gotten several deals just from the location that we picked people driving in and out to these other high-end places and then these little roofs we take to uh Home and Garden shows so they kind of work that way as well so pretty cool love it I know in the roofing business you don't have high traffic from the homeowners I mean a couple jobs out of hundreds it's not bad I mean definitely nice bonus but that's not the reason we're getting offices usually people will drop a check mail use something that's one of the reason to have office but my question is can you tell our audience the difference between running it from small office or home to actually have uh your office because just yesterday I was talking to one of my students in Roofing school and he is three months in business and he asked me would you recommend getting office and here's what I want to tell you I've never met one roofer in my life who took Faith step right so jump in it because usually when we start we don't have extra money we don't have extra 1500 bucks two thousand dollars to spare but I've never met one who regretted that decision says I never should have rented a warehouse it's always the same story You Gotta Wear a house and then you see benefits you did not expect before so there are a lot of contractors out there who work from homes from the garage and they think that they save money by working from home but they're missing on a lot of other opportunities meeting clients meeting Subs meeting employees interviews all of those benefits I want to hear it from you did you regret moving and if not how did your life change business life once you move to bigger space I mean it's been it's been nothing but great um it's you know it's going to add to your overhead but you know your Roi on it is pretty pretty fast um especially I mean like as you mentioned you know hiring um it's a great first impression for you know you can only you can say so much about your company on indeed or any of the you know online job application sites but you know whenever they walk in and as you can see we have a green wall behind us it's not just a green screen it is everywhere in our office and um it really like screams our brand name and you know uh it looks very professional you come in you see the the homes that we have set up it's just such a great impression for somebody they get psyched and ammed and then they're also in here with you know we usually whenever um if we're doing a hiring we do kind of like a hiring Fair um so there's a lot of people here at one time kind of and they get a whole PowerPoint presentation which they get to sit at our big conference table they get to see us at our uh watch our interactive Vibe board and you know PowerPoint presentations Joel usually gives them um as the owner I think it speaks volumes so really getting a higher quality and a better expectation for the the company that you're applying for it just we've reaped great benefits from that we've we've found All-Stars for our team that that you know I think it would have been a little bit harder not to sell them on the dream but to really just visually show them because this is what we're about to believe in you I mean talk yeah talk is cheap so many people want them to follow you but then if you did not take a risk if you can't even rent a Warehouse around the office what a risk are you taking you work from home I work from home why do I need you what do you have that I don't have would you say hey would you say it pays for itself absolutely I mean that sense of home you know um so the the guys you know everybody always says oh you know there's their you know their salesmen so they're always out in the field you know that's not like they come sit at a desk and that's why you have an office that's not the whole reason I mean our guys come in all the time and know that you know the door is open to them for any questions that they have they can always come up and pick up extra material so they're never out we don't have to like really meet them anywhere and you know they can come eat lunch you know and take a break and talk to the owners talk to the office managers help you know talk through their pipelines and everything like that so it's just a really good home base for them as well I think it I think that helps um actually you know our percentage of closing deals because that availability is there not just through an app or a phone call it's that you know person-to-person face-to-face communication as the owners do you guys work from home every once in a while do you believe in working from home you know I like coming into the office and my mindset you know if I if I get to sit in my PJs on the couch on a laptop you know I'm gonna get work done but I don't think as diligently you're not as productive and not you're not you know you have the availability to go walk into your kitchen and snack all the time or you know just I don't know stare out the window or something but um yeah I mean there's something about getting up putting on a true work shirt every morning and coming in to a you know a building that has foot traffic you know so um we never know who's going to come through our door because it's open to the public and as Joel was telling you we're in a big retail space so everything in here is high-end it's a it's a very nice side of town um there's a a lot of you know retail spaces and also for families to come like do Taekwondo there's indoor soccer you know so everybody's seeing our sign and they come in all the time hey I've got a leak I just saw your sign you know right my kid does Taekwondo over here and I see your guys stuff all the time um so being being able to be in that you know kind of uniform professionalism in the the office and ready for whoever's going to walk in whether it's an employee or a client or anybody yeah I think it helps separate work from home that too a little bit I mean we're already you know married we're already at dinner talking about someone's roof I mean of course I'm answering emails and texting and things like that but it does help separate a little bit where you know you come here you're focused a laser focused 100 on work and you get to you know when you get home have that little bit of Separation okay now it's family time so yeah I think that helps a lot with that I remember last year I had a call with the contractors who had been in business for 20 years always work from home which is a great home office but I think if we're honest with ourselves we're never as productive at home as we're at work I always wanted like I need to leave and go somewhere and opportunities are endless but when you come to the office eight to five right like everybody hates on AIDS 5 jobs but in reality that's where you're the most productive you know you go somewhere like treat it like it's your job which is it is you just work for yourself but anyway last year this guy called me he's been doing it for 20 years he wants to hire people he wants you know one-man show I mean he has sobs he has reliable help maybe a sales guy I don't remember all the details but he's like give me advice what should I do I'm like number one you rent office it's like why well you've been doing this for 20 years you never grew more than I think you said like 700 000 a year you never pass 700 000 you want to either keep repeating what you've been doing but obviously it's not working so if you're tired of your results change something I'm telling you what I've done in 2013 I rented office after being in business for three months my company is still there I sold it and they're still in this same space you know 1500 bucks a month and then we got another unit so we pay three grand a month for the past nine years now and everybody knows the location everybody knows where my business is it's awesome it's great feeling but this guy some people are stubborn like that I've done it for so many years why do I need to change well you calling me asking for advice I'm giving you advice and you're not willing to listen then do you be you work from home we're we're different my next question is let's move to another topic otherwise we'll be here for hours let's talk about you growth so what have changed in the last two years how many employees do you have how many jobs you do Revenue if you want to share yeah so we have 12 I think right like full-time employees at this moment and then our one uh group of one set of installers so technically they are 10.99 but if they're the only ones we use um as far as Revenue goes we did you know I mean we're we're real small of course for the Houston Market we did like two and a half million last year and about the same this year so it really didn't grow um but I think did you improve your margins did you improve our margins we improved um a lot of we improved in a lot of other areas as well I think the most exciting thing for us has been our step into Commercial Roofing um so United Airlines is one of our clients now we've done tons of work out there all of them what what do you do for them and how did you get that yeah so all of the work that we've kind of done in commercial really has been through the product ecader from castagra and I know you know tats and I talked to him before awesome guy great team the product is honestly my favorite product of all the things that we uh you know sell or partner with or install because you know we love Malarkey Malarkey's great but there's it has some differentiators but it's still a shingle you know this product is really there's nothing else like it on the market it's truly revolutionary patented proprietary like just um blows everything else away from what we've seen and um so we have probably we're doing a job in in Fort Worth today a coding job um we have like four or five million dollars in proposals out right now for huge jobs um that I expect will get a couple of those and they wanted to wait until you know the first of next year to kind of make those big decisions but I think that's been the most exciting part of uh our journey that's been different since we probably saw you last time very cool what kind of growing pains are you experienced now I know different size different years always have them what's happening at the end of year three I mean we had a you know we had a big change in our core admin staff um we turned over everybody once and got rid of um a lot of you know I say a lot but you know a couple of positions that were um hurting us for now that we can look into um you know in a few years maybe next year uh depending on our growth but we're we're realizing that going back to as Joel as you know uh mentioned a lot going back to more of a Grassroots type mentality um for the sales team um for I think for our admin team as well is making sure that you know it's just so because you know we've been in the hospitality industry for years and you're used to recurring clients the same clients the same clients bring their friends you know and you just you see them all the time and it's weird to go into Roofing because it's like it's a one-time thing you know and you go through all this stuff with them um whether it's insurance or retail and then the roof is done and it's almost awkward you're kind of staying there and you're like well I guess this is it you know but it doesn't have to be you know because if you're really you know preparing the client for you know hey share it with you know you know referrals with friends and family or you know download our referral app that we have and you know there's you know some incentives there and really making sure that every client produces another client or a possibility to get your name out there because they I mean I'll brag on ourselves we're almost at 105 star reviews and I mean there's stories and the fact that people are harping you know like just just really preaching from the rooftops about the great customer service quality and all of that that they're getting from us I really want that to really translate into all of their friends and families and neighbors because why not you know that's there's nothing there's not a better feeling than you know getting a great recommend or giving a great recommendation um so a kind of distanced off there but um but really getting back to the Grassroots not trying to grow so fast um and you know as he's saying you know we are meeting around the same you know 2.5 million this year but with with what we've seen in the industry and it being slow and the fact that we you know added on all this overhead and we've grown physically um as a company the the mentality needs to really go back to the client and really just making sure you're making the most of of each of each client yeah yeah it's been a it's definitely been a tough year we had um a marketer we were paying a ton of money to um that wasn't really producing results we had an accountant that um I was and that's shady but uh a lot of self-interest negligent you know for sure and um so we've we've fixed those issues um we had a lot of turnover people that were definitely like family um you know some of them doing little like side deals I mean you know all the all this stuff man I mean it's been it's been a crazy crazy year for sure but now we're like in housing our marketing doing it ourselves doing it more grassroot we have an accountant now that's uh incredible um and we you know use like some really cool software um one's called live plan and we really have a good grasp on our numbers now for the first time you know like a really solid grasp on our numbers uh we're kind of building like our own CRM and airtable and in that we're able to forecast better so like we have a pipeline where um we have all of our projected deals so all of our clients are in it for the next several months you know and we have like a percentage placed on those to close so we have like this funnel basically with and we're just able to kind of predict and project Revenue better so all of the like struggles uh that have happened mistakes that we've made um where we we're like better for it for sure so we've fixed that and kind of come out the other end and are stronger because of those experiences love it I want to reflect to that really quick um I want to say that when you put a business hat on we usually as a business owners we want to be positive we want to share with the world positive news we're growing and stuff like that but doesn't it feel sometimes like everybody's out to get you like just what you shared your accountant your marketer like your phone actually starts reading non-stop the moment you get that LLC the moment you get that Google listing marketers Services estimators I mean you named it and you have to learn how to say no more than to say yes and it just it does well people do think that we make way more than we make and it sucks because early on everybody's after you and I think that's in a sense good because you know that's how you become better that's how the fittest Will Survive and the weakest will go out of business because if you don't learn how to say no and manage those people and if you're trusting everyone people will take advantage of you so thank you so much for sharing I want I want to talk about your podcast Houston roofer podcast what's the story behind it and your experience so many people out there that want to start a podcast because everybody's on YouTube on I mean that's like next big thing right but attention is harder and harder to get because there's so much noise you guys doing phenomenal job with your show how did you come up with the name what's the concept and how's it going yeah so the podcast is is fun it's it's really like a you know labor of love we enjoy having guests on there I'm not sure um anybody really listens to it other than like our moms you know but uh well they do yeah they do but 150 uh plays on one video and I'm pretty sure it's Phil's mom but but um it's good for SEO it ranks really well so like we're Houston roofer podcast um and the the kind of intent behind it was there are of course a bunch of roofing podcasts but we wanted to create one that was geared towards the homeowner or property owner so to talk in an unbiased way about you know our opinions on what are the best roofing systems you know we just had you on talk about directory so any resources that a homeowner business owner would be able to that would be a benefit to them we want to kind of provide that education and that knowledge because I felt like that was a little bit lacking um and we have had some people call us because of the show and so they you know they were Googling whatever and the show pops up and they are like that's kind of interesting and it's just a way for them to kind of learn more so it's fun I think it's just a great uh resource you know like like you're saying I mean if I was Googling Brava roof tiles I mean it's a newer you know composite you know a lot of you have to do a lot of research your own research especially since it's a higher end and then you have this video pop up that's like a q a with Brava or just our experience personally installing it it's it's almost like a how-to guide to uh all basically all the questions that you're you know searching answers for so I think it's um really beneficial especially when you can go down a Google rabbit hole and all sorts of stuff will pop up especially the first page is all ads you know you don't really know who to trust and where to go especially I think one of my favorite ones that we've gotten the the most positive feedback on is uh the insurance claim um one and we've done a few where we kind of break it down because it's a monster um all insurance claims but really educating this is this is the conversation that we have with all clients whenever they're about to start it and it is this in depth but a lot of people will want to look on the internet and do their own research before they you know trust somebody who knocked on their door so the fact that we can still reach them and give them that high level of education and break down all of the frequently asked questions um I think it's doing great job yeah you know you just have so such an educated clientele now that really likes to do their own research and so it's just another Avenue for them to be able to find us and I think our team likes it a lot being able to share like you know your the clients asking about a deductible and we're like you know there's some validation there and credibility where they can say look our owners just did a podcast and a YouTube you know a video on deductibles and what's legal what's not what's right what's not let me send it to you real quick and so it's kind of a cool resource for them as well I love it I mean there's so many benefits I cannot find any cons of making the content I mean you don't have to repeat yourself you establishing yourself as an expert when people searching for you for your company I mean company who does have a podcast will stand out from any competition in any industry because immediately people like well they're here for the long term right uh haul they're here to stay they're not going anywhere I mean they're doing the show they've done 250 episodes they must be real right and maybe they'll talk about me or my job or my experience yeah who knows yeah absolutely yeah I mean you know the the real the best way to sell of course is I mean listen always but educate and so that's the the purpose of it is to really educate who would you call biggest partners in business now like we mentioned monologue um other products other like who's who do you get credit to so um we loved the relationship we've established with our different you know manufacturers and partners um any uh thing that we kind of partner with they really have to be meet three criteria that's kind of the values of our company they have to be very Innovative so kind of be the most Innovative in their space have durable products and having an some kind of eco-friendly component to them so for shingles Malarkey is that we've loved our relationship with Brava Roofing um you know we're their preferred contractor here in Houston and really in Texas and have gotten to do a lot of those jobs those jobs are really fun I I do believe you know depending on what happens with solar I mean composite roofing is going to have a big part in the future of roofing just no grain annuals you know one piece construction it just makes sense and I know there hasn't been a lot of incentive in the you know Market to make a product like that because everybody's making a lot of money um everybody likes replacing everyone's roofs every 15 years or whatever um and then and you know I just appreciate the Innovation and what they're doing there and then of course castagro with uh ekadur um we have a metal shingle we install from Castlewood they're kind of under Isaiah Industries that we love a lot to kind of differentiate from standing seam and looks beautiful and it can pass in HOAs so I think those probably been the biggest and we you know those guys come down and talk to our team I would say once a quarter probably we have somebody come in and talk to the whole team and like kind of educate and train the team on that product specifically um all of them have been incredible as far as like teaching Us best installation practices and things like that just a lot of support and so we definitely appreciate that I mean it does feel like a true partnership got it uh two questions left one is um not popular topic not many people want to talk about it but I'm gonna ask because we ask tough questions you cannot make money on every job have you lost money on jobs this year oh yeah for sure yes yeah we actually we just had a um a big standing seam job metal job um go go south on us so how much did you lose in that one I lost 60 Grand on one standing same job those metal jobs always so promising we really only our loss on it is only maybe a couple of grand we really only lost about three thousand dollars but we were you know supposed to make about 20K um so there's you kind of could look at it you know like losing 23k and a lot of time probably a lot a lot of time um and uh yeah we ran the the panels um and you know it was just a big mistake I'm like I wasn't there to check every panel and we ran you know seven eight thousand feet linear feet of coil and then at the end notice that on one little Ridge they all had ripples in it you know and you have those conversations where you're like I mean people are telling me like man they're not going to notice that you know it's such a small detail they're not going to notice and I'm like I I notice you know and I wouldn't put it on my own house and so you have to make those tough decisions I would rather lose money on this job and do it the right way um because you know that's what we I mean it's plastered on our wall you know true to our word true to our work and like doing the right it just means doing the right thing no matter what and um and especially at that price point that's what you're paying for you're paying for a professional like job to be done yeah so and then we just had one it's one of those jobs where we had one issue after another and yeah you mentioned it yesterday when we were interviewed interview like you know there's this uh one job that you have no matter how many times you go back it just can't can't seem to get over that hill and we did finally took a lot of resources but we the homeowners are really cool we've had a few other ones where you know that um you have that certain homeowner that is just like so OCD nitpicks everything and we're usually really good with that type of homeowner ask lots of questions they like us and appreciate us and our attention to detail um but it just feels like that the jobs that go wrong is always with that one homeowner that like you just of all people why them so yeah we have another one now um some windows that are leaking that we we scratch their Windows during the tear off had to replace these huge bay windows now the windows are leaking um and we got to go back and fix that and that'll be a big L as well so um but they're all learning experiences and you just uh bite the bullet and do the right thing no matter what and um you know don't do it again feel feel that pain yeah and let that inspire you and teach you love it let's finish on your advice to a brand new startup because numbers don't lie you already way above statistics three years strong keep going so you're probably the top 10 percent I mean three percent is not a lot three years in business is not blood but in the roofing industry is a lot I mean a lot of people 80 cannot make it through two years what's your secret what what do you say to someone who's just getting started and Roofing where where are the blind spots where the most common mistakes that business owners makes man know your numbers the numbers don't lie people lie but numbers don't lie um you know Outsource any other friends that you may know that are business owners that have great accountants um it's just you always need to be looking forward it's not just what's next week how are we finishing out the month it's like what are we doing in five years you know and as long as you have you're you're out that far then you can build you know backwards how do we get to this and break it down into your daily routine um making sure that you really like can break down your systems and processes that's something obviously it's gonna it's forever changing in a company but as long as you're moving with that like your systems and processes are moving with your company then your gold and that communication with your admin team is just so key and really making sure that the expectations are there so really sharing um the we're very transparent with all of our team our sales team everybody our crew um about what our intentions for this company are and then you know our admin we we let them know you know financially how things are looking what what our goals are and how what we need to do to meet that and so they can step up in their role and you know help as a team effort to get us there yeah if it's if it's someone who's looking to possibly Branch out on their own um and start their own business I mean I would typically say don't do it you know don't do it just go work for a great company and um and clock out at five and forget about work and just be blessed and be happy and uh it's no matter what you think it's so so so so much harder and so much more work than you could possibly imagine um so just be ready for that and if you are then you know um I think you do want to be well funded as as best as you can so you want to save as much as you can you know there's every time you um if you're on Facebook or something there's always a guy saying like I started this from zero dollars and everything like that and that's good for him but of course the 20 people that also started from zero dollars that are no longer in business are not responding and saying you know they're not raising their hand um so for every one there's 20 or whatever the numbers are but I mean you know it you are going to have those really tough times where you're really strapped for cash and you may not be able to pay yourself and you got to pay your team first and things like that and we've um run into you know tough times financially for sure and uh are we going to make it are we going to make payroll this month you know and we've we've never had to lay one person off we've never missed a payment on anything uh and so have you paid have you paid people more than you paid yourself oh for sure everybody yeah everyone everyone on the team makes more than us for sure that's some real truth right there for sure but you know uh you have to there you wouldn't have a company without him you can't take care of your staff if they're if they're producing and they're 100 you know bleeding green true works you know and asking what can I do what can I do I mean why not you have to take care of them yeah yeah 100 but um you know so if you're prepared for how hard it's gonna be yeah know your numbers um make Sops for you know every single job position um we did that this year it was a really great experience um so we have you know great great training I mean we really have like I feel like a three years into it starting to feel like I know what we're doing and feel like we have a good business with good systems good is good hiring good training you know Sops for every position people really feel like they know what their job is what the goals are things like that but man it's been a struggle just to get here and I'm sure there's plenty more struggles ahead um but uh I mean it's fun it is fun yeah and uh the reward is amazing yeah you know um just being able to see the team succeed um come in and like if they buy a new car they buy their Christmas presents or they buy their like uh a new house you know because of the success of the opportunity the platform that we kind of provided for them it is like something that is very Indescribable kind of how you would say kids are you know you can't blame it that love you cannot explain it and it's the same type of feeling you just my happiest moments in work really are like their successes and seeing them better their lives and knowing that like we provided that opportunity we provided that platform for them to come in and do that and it's thrilling and rewarding and yeah love it love it thank you guys so much for sharing it is rewarding it is hard I love what Laura says you know make sure you know your numbers numbers are very logical they're not emotional there's no emotions in numbers so many business owners are emotional they go by what they feel it's not about your feelings numbers will never lie to you it's the most logical thing in your business forget about your feelings look what's on paper if it doesn't make sense on paper you should not be doing it thank you guys so much for your time absolutely thanks for having us for sure it's been fun man talk to you soon thank you have fun bye foreign
2023-01-09 03:04
