When I made the decision to separate from my long time partner I knew I would be walking away from many years of building a company brand and starting from scratch. The roofing industry seems to have a contractor on every corner and now my task was to find a way to stand out from the crowd. First, I knew I had to carve out a my company principals to live by and in every case put the best interests of clients before making a profit. We recently had strong winds blow through the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex and many homes had shingles blown off…some just a few and some had major damage. In almost every case the damage was less than the homeowner’s insurance deductible making it not worth filing a claim. I will never knock a roofing company or any company for that matter, for wanting to make a fair profit, but I know of several roofing contractors that raised their prices because they knew they could. So how does this tie back to branding my new company, Perseverance and Doing the Right Thing?
During that same storm, we did over a dozen repairs at cost…no profit. Now, let me say that I own a for profit company and I do not plan on doing this all the time. I say that because mixed in with the “atta boys” were people saying “what’s the catch” and “nobody works for free.” So why did I do it? The Bible is loaded with verse after verse telling us to help others in their time of need. Verses like:
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:16
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phillippians 2:4
Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
The second part of the last verse says “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” God is good! It was measured back to me in the form of online ratings. My new company now has more 5 star reviews than almost every roofing company out there. He is helping me build my brand and with Him on my side it will be stronger than anything I tried to build on my own at my prior company.
Author: Dustin Eatman, Owner of James Kate Roofing