Educating Dwayne Lee
July 19, 2010
Roofing Contractor Finds Out What Business Is All About
Like
a lot of young men, Dwayne Lee thought he had it all figured out. “When I was
16 years old, I knew everything there was to know, so I quit school, got out
the phone book, and called everyone in construction, looking for a job.” He was
offered a job in roofing in his hometown of Elon, N.C., but he found he hated
working for someone else. “I had a problem with authority figures,” he said.
“No one was going to tell me what to do. So, I quit and started my own business — Dwayne Lee’s Roofing
Company.”
He was determined to succeed on his own. “The first chimney I flashed, I
removed the flashing pieces one by one, laid them out, cut the new pieces one
by one, and put them back in the order I took them off,” he
recalled.
Lee taught himself to install roofs, but he found running a business was harder
to grasp, even after he’d been in the industry for decades. “I would give an
average of 15 estimates a day,” he said. “I’d jump out, run up the ladder,
write a price down and head off to the next one. I was giving low bids to get
more work. So, even though the gross annual income grew, our bottom line profit
didn’t.”
Cash flow was a mystery. “We never knew how much money we were really making — or if we were in the red or
the black — until the end of the year.
We never had a budget, never had goals — just jumped out of bed, worked hard, and prayed
for the best.”
Lee’s wife, Yvonne, suggested he change the company’s name to All About Roofing
to move up to the front of the phone book, but the Lees had no idea how to
improve cash flow or shorten the long workdays.
“My wife and I knew that how we were running a business was not the way to go,”
Lee said. “We knew how to roof. We didn’t know how to run a
business.”
Lee knew he needed an education. He considered enrolling in a business college,
but he worried that a lot of the courses wouldn’t apply to his company. Then he
received a postcard in the mail from Roofers’ Success International® (RSI) and
wondered if they could supply the training he needed.
“RSI was geared right to roofing, and college would be geared to general
business,” Lee said. “So we went to the Profit Day we had been invited to by
RSI and were very impressed. It’s been a great fit.”
LEARNING FROM HIS PEERS
All About Roofing employees take part in the Christmas Parade, with the company’s work vehicle standing in for Rudolph.
“All five companies meet at one company’s location and go through their procedures,” Lee said. “We shared ideas, and I’d never had that before in my life. Around here, the competition is just that — competition — and no one shares ideas. If something is working well, people just keep it to themselves. That’s probably the greatest asset of being a member of RSI. The biggest asset for a member is the other members. Having other professional roofers to bounce ideas off of is just invaluable.”
Lee credits RSI with teaching him how to improve every phase of his business, from answering the phone, to sales, marketing, and production. Lee says the key was learning the financial side of the business: accounting, budgeting, estimates, pricing, cash flow, and payroll. The company now sets goals and tracks performance. “RSI taught us how to price our jobs to be a profitable company,” Lee said. “I now know how to run a business — a profitable business. We grew 20 percent in a down economy. We did 17 percent fewer replacements, but we had a 38 percent increase in profit.”
Lee soon realized that marketing was an area he hadn’t even explored. “RSI introduced a 10 Digit Marketing Plan, and that struck me as a pretty good idea,” he said. “Before, we just put an ad in the Yellow Pages and that was it.”
Now the company has fully wrapped trucks and uniforms that show off its redesigned logo. “We changed our logo entirely,” Lee said. “I found a local artist who drew my son and I as a cartoon. It definitely gets people’s attention.”
Other marketing efforts include a monthly newsletter, the Sales Spotters program, and a referral program that is generating a lot of leads. “Our referrals are just off the charts,” he said.
Lee also found he learned a thing or two about installation. “The RSI Rhino Roofing™ System is a process of installing a roof,” he said. “It’s a better-installed roof system — better than I was installing before, better than anyone in the area is installing. We go above and beyond what the manufacturer recommends.”
Lee also learned to explain the benefits of the system as part of the sales process. “RSI taught us how to go into a home and show them the value — show them why our price is more expensive,” said Lee. “They taught us a system of how to explain the value of our company compared to other companies and explain the difference in price.
All About Roofing teaches homeowners about the Rhino Roofing System, explains that all employees have background checks and drug testing, and offers a full-year 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. The company conducts a 17-point inspection of every home and educates owners about the importance of attic ventilation.
Another RSI program that has benefitted the company is the Overhead Care Club, a roof maintenance plan that includes an annual inspection, gutter cleaning, and debris removal. This past winter, All About Roofing employees made their first Overhead Care Club service calls, and the results have Lee determined to sell more of them this year.
A DIFFERENT WORLD
Business
at Lee’s company is up 15 percent this year after increasing 20 percent last
year. “Everywhere we go, the No. 1 topic is the bad economy,” Lee said. “At All
About Roofing Company, we have no idea there’s a bad economy. We don’t see it.
We all just stopped watching the news.”
Things have definitely changed for the better, and for that Lee thanks God. He
also gives a lot of the credit to RSI. “My whole company structure is different
now,” he said. “I have a foreman on the jobsite and my son is a salesman, so
I’m not sure what my title is. Before RSI, I never took a vacation — I never had the money or
the time. Last year I took my family to Disney World and Las Vegas. I took two
vacations last year — our first year with RSI.
Using their systems, we were able to pay back what we paid them to join in
about six months with profits we didn’t have before.”
Lee has learned a lot about running a roofing business, but he is now quick to
admit he still doesn’t know everything. “I’m 46 years old, and I learn stuff
every day,” he said.
