If I Hadn’t Jumped on Board ... I Would Be Bankrupt By Now
by Maya Dollarhide
April 27, 2010
Jared M. Dean, owner of Superior’s Rhino Roofing Systems in Warrenton, Va., has been in the business since he was a 12-year-old. He worked hard. Still, building a successful roofing business wasn’t as easy as simply working hard — if that is all it took, every roofing company would be successful.
Dean’s current success has created numerous opportunities for family travel and more leisure time. He now spends his weekends with his children, doing volunteer work for his church, riding motorcycles, and playing sports. “I am making up for lost time,” joked Dean.
However, all joking aside, getting to a point where his business could run well enough to enable him to have ample time with his family and volunteer efforts seemed an impossible dream before Dean joined Roofers’ Success International (RSI). “If I hadn’t jumped on board …, I would be bankrupt by now,” said Dean.
Growing up, when other boys his age spent their school holidays hanging out and their Saturdays goofing off, Dean worked for Superior through his summers, weekends, and holidays, to earn $50.00 a week. His experience, determination, and hard work paid off when 10 years later he bought the company from his boss, who was also by then his father-in-law. When he took over the business, Dean worked hard to bring in new customers. “We advertised by word-of-mouth, through networking, direct mail, newspaper ads, cross-marketing, charity events, anything we could think of, we did it.”
“All those summers I spent working, I now can take those vacations I never had time for. This freedom has really given me a different outlook on life and business.” His childhood sweetheart and former boss’s daughter, Kelly, has stayed by his side the entire time. “We’ve been married for 15 years and we have three wonderful kids, Mackenzie (13 years), Declan (almost 11 years), and the youngest, Sully, age 8. Kelly is a stay-at-home mom and home schools all three children,” said Dean. “It keeps her super busy. In addition, she leads worship at the church and is very talented musically at singing and the guitar. It’s awesome.”
Dean and his wife attend Success Group International (SGI) expos and enjoy tacking on days to their trips for leisure time. He also enjoys just staying at home, now that his business is on solid ground. “Because I have great managers in place, I no longer have to do the day-to-day, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule, anymore. These managers allow me to spend more time with my family and my church. “I was able to use my technical and business skills to help our church with its new building campaign,” said Dean. His success has also allowed Dean and his family to travel the globe. “We’ve been in Antigua, which had amazing food and beautiful restaurants right on the beach. We’ve been down to St. Kitts, Las Vegas, and Orlando, among other places.”
While his wife is a stay-at-home mom, she too was impressed with what she learned at SGI’s expos. “My wife sold in-home for us for about a year and a half, after she attended the Million Dollar class,” said Dean. “Kelly was really fired up and she was a phenomenal salesperson. She spent a week in St. Louis at this class that trains salespeople how to sell over one million dollars of replacement business, and with what she learned, she came back with a profession.”
GROWING A COMPANY, ONE FRANCHISE AT A TIME
“We … started really caring about the roofing division and it made a huge impact in revenue and profit. RSI offered me that business plan.”
However, his involvement with AirTime 500 was not as quick of a decision. “Six years ago we were just another new construction contractor. I was skeptical of AirTime 500 at first. But when I attended their Profit Day, I was amazed at how much they knew about the business, even my business, and they knew 10 times what I thought I knew.” Even so, Dean wasn’t 100 percent convinced after his initial seminar, but after a very candid and convincing conversation with Terry Nicholson, group president of Clockwork Home Services, Inc., Dean left his skepticism at the door.
“I was sitting in this meeting room with 50 other companies, and Terry Nicholson was there himself,” recounted Dean. “When I went to leave, still unsure about signing up, he stopped me and asked me his questions, his closing questions, and two hours later I signed with AirTime. I thank God he was there that day, because it not only changed my business for the better, it changed my whole life.”
Dean said he is very thankful for his success and credits Success Group International for showing him how to learn to let down his guard and go forward with his business. “It was so cool to be involved with AirTime in the beginning. This was six years ago and it was a smaller organization so you really got to know folks on a personal level. I wanted to make sure their beliefs and ethics were in line with mine, and they were.”
STRONG COMPANY IMAGE IS KEY
After joining RSI, Dean refocused his efforts on the company and he took away lessons about focus, branding, planning, and the business system, to grow and improve his company and its image. “We started wearing uniforms, which was a first for folks in the roofing business. We’d show up in our black pants and white shirts with our lettered vans and customers would say ‘Where are the roofers?’ Roofers’ Success International courses taught us the importance of customer service and focusing on both the business side of things as well as the technical aspects of the job.” Superior Rhino Roofing Systems uses tools like offering the RSI Straight Forward pricing program for repairs and a unique tracking tool that shows Dean how the company is doing on a day-to-day basis called the Daily Management Essentials Report.
Dean said his team’s continued focus since joining RSI has really paid off. “We even starting dialing back our more expensive marketing due to a lack of response and tried something a bit risky — a special offer for all our past clients that RSI helped us to create,” he said. “We simply got on the telephone and called them up with the offer and people loved it.” The new tactics paid off. Dean reports that his biggest growth happened last year; had it not been for what he learned through RSI, 2009 might have just been another down year for a roofing business during a recession. What recession?
Around the same time Dean joined RSI, he purchased a One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® franchise, and recently he acquired a local Mister Sparky electrical franchise, combining it with another local electrical company. “We are budgeted to double our revenue from last year,” said Dean. “Since joining up with SGI just six short years ago, we now have three brands that we would have never had without them. What I’ve learned about business systems from the groups, I’m able to run all three brands out of one office. The continued support from Roofers’ Success International and its people really has gotten us through tough economic times.” He has been so financially successful that he decided to give back to his community in an unusual way. “Last December we bought our town lunch,” he said. “We went to our local, and much-frequented, Chick-Fil-A and bought everyone who showed up a lunch from One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning. It was crazy.”
VICTORY FOR THE DARK HORSE
Dean is responsible for 19 full-time employees and three part-time employees. The company that he started working for as a boy is doing extremely well, despite the economy. “A year ago we decided to opt out of the recession. We focused on our daily training, on a mountain mover attitude, realizing we were in a needs-based business and that if anything good was going to happen, we had to be the ones to do it. We did pull things around and although last year wasn’t easy, it was better than the year before, despite the economy. Our revenue in roofing is up 60 percent and profits have risen 17 percent in the past year.
“I firmly believe we have to be a company where the client knows that we’ll be on time, and they can’t lose.”
As a final note, Dean said he “is very thankful for his father-in-law, Lynn Campbell, for taking that spoiled, troubled 12-year-old and teaching him how to be a good man, and a great servant in the homes of his clients. The Superior legacy will live on.” For more information about Roofers’ Success International, call 866-225-9316.
Maya Dollarhide
