Success Story: Aviation Buff Reaching New Heights
by Chris King
April 26, 2010
A licensed pilot and flight instructor as well as a licensed airplane mechanic, Steve Andersen moved from Michigan to Texas to work as the director of maintenance for an aviation company in 1980. As the economy languished in the early 1980s, another friend suggested he sell roofing for him. Andersen took him up on the offer, and for a time he continued working four 10-hour days in the aviation business in Dallas and selling roofing on the weekends. It was tough on his family, but soon Andersen found he was making more in roofing than he was working on airplanes.
In 1988, Andersen moved over to roofing full time, and eventually he and his wife, Debbie, opened up their own company — Centennial Roofing — in Dallas. They had some good years, thanks in part to a lot of storm work. But they also had some bad years, and the company struggled to make a profit. “We had up and down cycles,” Andersen remembered. “During a good year I would pay off the bad year that came before it.”
In 1995, following up on some storms, Centennial did the most work the company had ever done — but at the end of nine months Andersen found himself $100,000 in debt, most of it on his personal credit cards.
In 2000 he took on a partner in hopes of growing the business, but that didn’t work out either. “I had so much debt the bank wouldn’t work with me anymore,” he said. “Then things really went south. I had to start over again.” One priority was settling his accounts with his suppliers. “It took me two years, but I did get all my suppliers paid back,” Andersen said. “We had a lot of rough times,” he continued. “We were just hanging in there.”
Now the company is enjoying record profits. In the teeth of a tough economy, Centennial nearly doubled its sales in 2009. The Andersens have gone from sleepless nights worrying about how to pay the bills to exciting days implementing new ideas at their business. Andersen said they just needed to be pointed in the right direction, but they weren’t sure where to go for help.
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE
Members of the Centennial Roofing team include (from left) Kelly Santiago, Tim Andersen, Heather Neihoff, Debbie Andersen, Ryan Andersen, Steve Andersen and Nic Paul.
In the end, it was the money-back guarantee that convinced them to give it a try. They called RSI and asked to join, and made plans to attend the group’s next Expo, which was also in Dallas. “They said we had two days to attend and if we didn’t like what we saw, they’d return our money,” said Andersen. “We went ahead and pre-wrote a letter telling them we had decided not to join and took it to the meeting with us.”
When they took part in the Expo and met the RSI staff, Andersen and his wife were impressed by the people and the presentations. “It was awesome,” he said. “There was so much information. If the Profit Day was like a garden hose, the Expo was a fire hydrant. It was overwhelming — so much great stuff.”
At the Expo, the Andersens told RSI’s President Terry Nicholson that they had decided to join after all. “After the third day I went up to Terry and showed him the letter,” said Andersen. “I told him we’d already prepared this letter, but we decided to join. ‘We love it. We’re in,’ I told Terry.” He credits the ideas and systems he learned from RSI with turning his business around.
PROPER PRICING
The first breakthrough was in fully understanding the financial aspects of the business. “The biggest thing I learned right off the bat from RSI was that we were not priced right for the market,” said Andersen. “We didn’t have our overheard figured properly. We had to raise prices, but in order to raise our prices we had to add more value.”
They started adding value by making sure their technicians had thorough background checks, drug tests, and had the proper training. They advertised this with the RSI Technician Seal of Safety on everyone’s uniform.
Centennial also started using the RSI StraightForward Pricing Guide. Service work soon picked up, and average ticket prices increased as well. “For example, one of my first calls after we adopted the StraightForward Pricing involved a wall leak,” Andersen recalled. “I addressed that problem, and I found several others. Instead of a $250 repair, we did $1,250 worth of work, fixed all the problems, and guaranteed the work. We offer a five-year warranty on repairs. Our ticket went up $1,000, and they got the problem fixed. When the job is priced right, you have the time to do the job right.” He continued, “We’re not overpriced. We have a fair price.”
It wasn’t long before the Andersens noticed things were improving. “I realized my business had turned around within the first month,” said Andersen. “We had a profit.”
Had it not been for RSI, Andersen thinks his company would still be performing a lot of $250 repair jobs with little profit to show for it.
They used the newfound profit to implement some marketing ideas through their RSI involvement. They got their trucks wrapped with graphics and purchased a vanity phone number. Sales crews benefitted from training as well. “I’ve got probably 17 volumes of tapes for in-house training,” said Andersen. “RSI offers a slew of training classes for salesmen.”
A NEW OUTLOOK
The company’s financial picture has improved dramatically. “At the end of 2007, for the first time we had our CPA say, ‘We have to go out and buy something.’ So we bought a new diesel truck.”
According to Andersen, that kind of success would never have been possible had it not been for attending the RSI Expo that day in Dallas in 2006. From a point where the Andersen’s could not even afford to travel out of town to a CPA telling them to “buy something,” it’s been a great ride at Centennial Roofing.
In 2008, the company moved into a new 2,300-square-foot office and warehouse, and invested in the team that could help take them to the next level. They hired a new call taker, a salesman and a production manager, freeing the Andersens up to work on the business. The company now has three salespeople, and they are looking to add another.
The Andersens’ two sons, Tim and Ryan, are now working for the company after serving in the Marines. “The boys have grown up in this business,” said Andersen. “They rode with me when they were three years old, and they know the industry. If they ever want to take over the business, we want them to have that opportunity.”
But before things turned around, Andersen wasn’t sure they would find the offer appealing. “Before we joined RSI, one of my sons said, ‘I don’t know that I want this business because I’m not sure it is a business.’ Now things have changed. We’ve made huge strides in the last couple of years,” he said. “We grossed $1.2 million in 2008, and $2.1 million in 2009. RSI — I have to give them the credit for giving us the knowledge to advance like that.”
Chris King
