004 | Bringing Professionalism to The Construction Industry | Local Business Breakthrough Podcast - Local Business Breakthrough

Episode Transcript
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Brian Davis (00:00):
Chris. Chris, so good to have you on the Local

(00:09):
Business Breakthrough Podcast.
I'm excited about having you.
This is Chris Dyck from Augustroofing and solar, and they not
only operate in Simi Valley, butmost of Ventura County all the
way up into Santa Barbara andthen down into LA County. Yes,
we have Santa Clarita. You know,we have the valley. Of course,

(00:32):
we have Malibu, we have all ofthese places. But one of the
things that I am most excitedabout August roofing and solar
isn't the work that you guys do,but it's the reason why you guys
do the work that you do, and soshare, share with us, share with
our audience, what your missionis, and unpack the why behind

(00:53):
why that matters to you, and whyyou would create a company that
is pursuing this Mission. Okay,well,

Chris Dyck (01:01):
it's a little bit of a story, but it goes back to
actually, when I actually gotinto roofing. So I've been
roofing since a week out of HighSchool, graduating high school,
I was worked at a gas station.
How many? How many years ago,since? Well, 85 was when I
graduated. So was that almost,almost 40 years now? Wow, yeah,

(01:24):
40 years, and in about a half ayear. So, yeah. So I worked at
this gas station, and ithappened to be in an area there
was a lot of constructionhappening. So, you know, right,
as I was rolling in from highschool, you know, 334, o'clock,
that's when all the constructionworkers were rolling in, filling
up their trucks and stuff likethat. And so it was back in the
day when you you worked at a gasstation, you didn't sit in a

(01:48):
little booth. You were out onthe island collecting money and
stuff like that. And there wasthis one guy, he was a
superintendent for a roofingcompany, and he kept bugging me
say, Hey, you got to come workfor us when you graduate. It's
great job. And, you know, kepttrying to get me to do that. And

so why, why do you think that he was doing that
with you?

Chris Dyck (02:06):
I don't know. I'm I'm kind of a extrovert. I guess
he would say, I like talking topeople, and I would just always
make relationships, especiallyif you I started to see him come
again and again. So just builtup a relationship with Him. And
so he

saw something in you that, you know, yeah, I was
different than other people.

Chris Dyck (02:26):
I don't know. I was young, and they needed people to
work. So it was business like,you know, business is booming,
and so they need guys. And yeah,I've never really thought about
it that way, but there'sprobably, you know, obviously,
something that he saw. And then

also, I mean, if you if you're friendly, if
you're striking upconversations, he's probably
like, who would I want to bestuck on a roof with for eight
hours a day? Yeah? Likesomebody, somebody that it's
nice to hang out with, yeah,yeah, could very

Chris Dyck (02:53):
well be. So anyways, get to the week before I
graduate, and I go to him, I go,Okay, well, tell me about this,
this roofing thing. So he startstelling me about it, and I'm
like, Yeah, this sounds like agood job. And, you know, the
real thing that got me was thethe it started off at $9.65 an

(03:13):
hour. And so for a littlecontext, minimum wage was 335 so
I made a couple raises. I was afive, so I was still looking at
doubling what I was making, andI really wanted to move out of
the house. And I was like, okay,boom, I'm going to do this,
because I want to move out ofthe house. I can do it at 965,
an hour. And so

that's amazing. So was it that you was it? Was it
just that this opportunity cameup? Like, had you had previous
experience with construction orbuilding things or anything, or

Chris Dyck (03:43):
none whatsoever.
Wow. I mean, yeah, I guess Idid. I do like building things.
I mean, always loved playingLegos with a kid. And I mean, I
like the free form blocks morethan anything else, while they
didn't have the special, fancymodels that they have today,
that my kids have today, and in,in my in my Lego playing age,
but I always loved that. So Ilove building stuff, I guess, in

(04:07):
that sense, but never really haddone any construction
whatsoever.

So then you, you know you're working at a gas
station, a construction guykeeps on coming and offering you
this opportunity, yep. So thereason why you're taking it, or
one of the main reasons whyyou're taking it, is because
it's just financially going toenable you to move out, kind of
start the next chapter of yourlife. Correct? Was there? Was
there? What was, what was theexpectation? Right? Like, was

(04:34):
there any expectation that youwere going in because you're
looking at the money, you'relooking at the freedom that it's
going to afford you. But, like,work, like, roofing is hard
work, yeah. Like, and you'regoing from like, walking around
talking to people, you know,handling money a little bit here
and there, like, how, how wasthat transition for you? Well,

Chris Dyck (04:51):
that's the funniest story of it all. Is the first
day that I worked on the roof,my back hurts so bad that I
actually stopped at seven. 11and got a newspaper to look
through the want ads, and I saidto myself, I'm not going to roof
for the rest of my life. Oh,man. And so here I am, 40 years
later.

So what happened?
Still roofing? It wasn'tanything better in that.

Chris Dyck (05:14):
I guess not. Either that or I got got through that
initial pain, yeah,

initial pain, then you got stronger. Yeah, right,
and that's what, that's whatpain does, yep, doesn't kill
you, makes you stronger 100%okay, so there you are. So
you're learning, you're learningroofing. You've now kind of, you
know, taken a new direction inyour, in your career, so to
speak. So how do you go from I'ma new guy. I'm the newest guy on

(05:42):
the roofing crew to owning yourown roofing company.

Chris Dyck (05:45):
So like I said, it was booming. Business was
booming, and the company that Iwas working for was large. So
this is back in 85 and they had350 roofers. So this was a large
organization, and so there was alot of opportunity. And I just
kept working up. And I got, youknow, worked up to becoming a
foreman, where you have your owncrew. And that in itself, was

(06:09):
kind of like a minientrepreneurial situation,
because this company, what theydid was they piece worked. So if
you were a foreman, you got Xnumber of dollars per roof for a
house. And it changed dependingon complexity and size and
stuff, of course, but then Icould go out and hire people.

(06:30):
Now they would be under thecompany's, you know, workers
comp and all that sort of stuff,but I would tell them how much
to pay each man out of the piecework. So we obviously had to go
by, you know, minimum wages, andfollow all the rules. But so I
kind of was like, my own companywithin the company, that's

interesting is that what happened when you
originally got hired is that youwere, yeah, I got hired on this
guy's career, and then youworked your way up so that now
you had your own crew, yeah. Andso it's like, it's an
opportunity to, almost, like,run, kind of your own
department, yep, or business,

Chris Dyck (07:08):
and be rewarded for being successful and working
hard at it. And, you know,that's kind of where I was, you
know what I've been what I wasalways taught was work hard. My
dad, my grandpa, always workedhard. And so that was, you know,
easily modeled for me. So herewas an opportunity. All, all I
did was apply myself, yeah,yeah. So,

so this opportunity, you decided to go
with it, yep. And there was,there was something about it
that you must have really liked,like, what was there something
about it that, like, kind oflike, opened your eyes to like,
oh my goodness, like, I this,this is what I want to do, and
this is what I want to continueto do, and I don't want to just

(07:49):
continue working for thiscompany, but I want to have

Chris Dyck (07:52):
my own right, yeah?
Well, the thing that intriguedme was the entrepreneurial
aspect of it, right? I mean, ifI figured out how to organize my
guys better than I can make moremoney, right? I, you know, kind
of configured things from mytruck and my toolbox and
everything to make us superefficient as a crew. And then,

(08:12):
you know, moved up in favor withmy boss, and I got larger and
larger projects. At times. I gotentire subdivisions that I got
to handle, but again, I couldmake some decent money then, and
so that, that's really what,what drew drove me. I've always,
you know, this is the funnything is, as a kid, I remember,

(08:33):
you know, I didn't want to be afireman or a policeman or, you
know, a lot of little kids. Iwanted to own my own business,
and I didn't have any idea ornotion around what it was going
to be. I just had this yearning.
And so this kind of like, youknow, I'm 20 years old, and it

(08:53):
fulfills that yearning already.
Yeah, it's amazing, yeah. So, Imean, I, you know, I don't know
if I'd still be there today, butI would last a lot longer if
there hadn't been some, youknow, there was a a kind of a
moral issue. So my boss viewedus. He wasn't the greatest guy.

(09:15):
He viewed this as, you know,kind of like independent
contractors. And so there was afew things that happened on some
jobs that he felt that that weremy responsibility, that were
covered under his liability. Sohe decided to start taking him
out of my paycheck. Oh, wow,yeah. So

I went to, is this something that he told you
about? Or all of a sudden yousee your paycheck and you're
like, what

Chris Dyck (09:39):
happened? No, all of a sudden I saw my paycheck, and
it was just light. Oh, that's,yeah, that's definitely the way
to handle your peopleabsolutely. And then I asked my
superintendent, who's the nextguy in line? He goes, Well, I
don't know. And then it took twoor three weeks he and I finally
said, you know, and this, Imean, I'm 20 years old, and I'm
gonna go and see the owner ofthe company. And I'm like, I
gotta go talk to this guy,because it's not right. Mm. So

(10:00):
went in, he explained to me whathis opinion of it was, and I
said, You know what, you don't,you don't pay me for the
liability. You don't pay meenough to cover the liability of
these situations. And you know,that's under that's, you know,
those things are yours. And hegoes, You know what, I really
don't need people with anattitude like you so you're

(10:21):
fired. Wow, just sent me out ofthe office right then and there,
and it was the greatest day ofmy life. That was when August
roofing was born. So you're

like, Okay, I fine.
I'm gonna go do this myself. I'm

Chris Dyck (10:34):
gonna and we actually, actually did end up
competing against him a numberof years later, probably about
10 years later, on a few numberof jobs. So that's kind of a
little good karma for me.
Anything Did

you since you guys were continuing in the same
field and then competed witheach other some, some years
later? Did you ever talk to himabout it again? Did that ever
come up or like, No,

Chris Dyck (10:57):
we never. He was, you know, he's like a, I guess
it was a different level thanme. You know, very large
organization. We never, hedidn't hang around the same
like, associations and stuff.

So never got to you guys weren't in the same
circles. Yeah, exactly,

Chris Dyck (11:14):
yeah. We didn't hang in the same circles. And I don't
think ever, ever talked to himagain.

So being 20 because you were 20 years old when that
happened, right? Yeah. So being20 years old, did you have
somebody that was kind of likespeaking into you to give you
that perspective of like, Hey,you're not paying me enough to
cover this liability. Or wasthat just like, as you were
looking at the situation andlike it was just from your gut,

(11:39):
like, kind of, like, your ownunderstanding of like, hey, no,
this is like, if I'm going totake this liability, then, like,
there should be a different typeof pay scale, correct?

Chris Dyck (11:49):
Yeah. No, it was really. It was really my up
being, my upbringing, my being,right? And it really, it set up
what our purpose, August roofingpurposes, is to redefine
professionalism in theconstruction industry. I felt
that it was entirelyunprofessional. That was
obviously the biggest but therewas a lot of other things. You

(12:11):
know, we didn't have healthinsurance. I mean, if we didn't
work, we weren't getting paid.
You know, there was no paidholidays, stuff like that. So to
me, it just like the wholeindustry. And this is one of the
largest companies in SouthernCalifornia and that. So you
think you'd be at the pinnacleof benefits and stuff like that.
So if this is the best that isout there, oh my goodness, so,

(12:36):
and this is just not the way Iwas brought up to, you know,
brought up and or what Ibelieved, you know. So talk to
me a

little bit about that, unpack that, a little bit
about what it, what it is thatyou believe in, and how that
informs the decisions, and, youknow, your why of starting this
company,

Chris Dyck (12:56):
I just felt that roofers should be treated as
with as much value in the worldas, let's say, a doctor or
lawyer. And it just didn't feelto me that there was that kind
of equality. And so my goal hasbeen like I said, redefine
professionalism in theconstruction industry, and that
meant going through and andlooking at the various things. I

(13:20):
mean treating your customers,right? I mean, if you want to
talk about a corrupt section ofconstruction, unfortunately,
roofing is horrible. I mean, wejust the other day. I literally
just heard this story thismorning. The head of guys, they
did a nice old lady did ainspection for her, came down

(13:43):
off the roof, and they showedher the problems, and she
started crying because she hadhad the roof done already, and
they literally did nothing. Oh,man, literally did nothing, and
that. So that's what thisunfortunately, you know, if
you're doing an interior remodelor something, it still can get
away with stuff. But you know,your eyes are right there. How

(14:06):
many people are going to climbup on the roof and make sure
that they're getting theunderlayment that they want and
everything like that? Now, Idon't want to make a wholesale
thing. There's a lot of greatguys out there that do great
work, but unfortunately, thegeneral way the industry acts is
not very professional. So I setout to up the bar, right, yeah,

(14:28):
and then everybody can follow.
And so I figured, not only am Idoing a service to creating a
great organization that willtake care of people, employees
and customers, but you canelevate the whole industry,
right, right? Because if that'swhat customers and employees
start to expect as the minimumstandard or as the goal, then

(14:48):
you'll elevate the wholeindustry. So that was, that's my
why.

Wow. So not only, not only making things better
for. For the employees, right,and taking care of them, but as
you do that, then they are goingto take care of the customers.
And I think that that speaks alot. And I'd like you to talk a
little bit more about this.
We've you've talked about howthere wasn't benefits that were

(15:17):
offered, there wasn't holidaypay. There wasn't any of these
things. And so, like, and a lotof the workers in the industry
are subcontracted, and so theincentives, right? Like, the
incentive lies in them trying todo work as quickly and cheaply
as possible, correct, right? Sothen you've taken a different
approach, and kind of like, talkabout how an August roofing and

(15:40):
solar crew, the guys that areshowing up and getting on the
roof and doing the work, youknow, taking off the tiles and
putting them back on, installingthe solar what, what is their
incentives?

Chris Dyck (15:54):
Well, the My goal was to really create a job for
roofers, right? Like, it's notlike, Okay, I got a job. I got a
roof for you to do today, andwhen it's done, come back and
maybe I'll have another roof foryou to do, because that's kind
of the subcontracting industry,the kind of the way it goes. And
again, I don't mean to paint thewhole industry that way. There

(16:16):
are some great contractors outthere, but for us, it's, a
regular job. And, you know, Iunderstand my my most employees,
they need to work 40 hours aweek. So we go out of our way
to, you know, if they're done ajob and the next one's not quite
ready, you might put them withanother crew. And you know, this
kind of the standard thing wehave, we have pay for them. We

(16:38):
have also created a career paththrough our roofer development
program, and we've createdmultiple different levels, and
there's different skill set thatyou have to reach, and then once
you reach that, you get a a payraise to the next skill level
set. So a lot, lot like the waythe union was structured before
it disappeared. Well, thereunion is still around for

(17:01):
commercial, if you're aresidential there it was gone
back in the day that I wasworking on the roof, you know,
again, paid holidays, the, youknow, the six days everybody in
the office gets paid for. Rightnow the roofers get paid for.
So, you know, the company wantsa day off. Everybody wants the

(17:23):
day off. But the roofers, ifthey got that, means they only
got a four day week, right?
Yeah, like on your Fourth ofJuly or whatever. So that hurt
them, actually, right? And sopaying for that, then as they
move up and as much, dependingon how much time they spend with
us and what position they canget, you know, a week or two
weeks of paid vacation, also,which is pretty unheard of for

(17:46):
construction workers, yeah. Andthen we, finally, we put in, got
health insurance for everybodytoo, where we cover a portion of
it, not all of it.

Yeah, no, that's, that's awesome. So then the
August and so August roofing andsolar crew, their incentive is
to do good work, correct?
Because, instead of trying tocut corners and maximize their
take home for each day of work,right? It's like, what they're
doing is they're trying tomaximize their career, right? By
doing excellent work, byincreasing their skill sets, so

(18:22):
then they could continue growingin the company. Yeah, and now
earning more money, moreresponsibility, and so then at
the at the end of the day, theeverybody benefits, but like
especially the customer, sure,right? Because they get people
that are showing up instead of,instead of people trying to a

(18:44):
crew that's just trying to geton and off the roof as fast as
possible, as cheap as possible,they're getting a crew that
shows up and want to do theabsolute very best that they
could do and make sure that thiscustomer is taken care of
because their careers are ridingon it,

Chris Dyck (19:04):
right? Right? Yeah, absolutely. And they've got
pride in their work too, right?
What type of difference

has that made in the lives of the of the crew
members? Because I'm sure thatyou've got guys that come and
start working for you that haveexperience working for other
crews, where it's just not thatway, that's correct, and then
they get a job with Augustroofing, and it's just 180
degrees different, yeah. Solike, what? What are some of the
things that you've heard themsay? Well, the,

Chris Dyck (19:32):
I guess, the biggest things that happened that speak,
that spoke to that was a numberof years ago. Most of our guys
now are actually created fromwithin. We don't hire many guys
from that are like roofers orhave skills because of our
internal process. And I like tokeep everybody moving in

(19:55):
internally, so unless we have ahuge demand for a certain
position, well, you. Usually tryand move people up. And so
again, It just strengthens thethe bond and the loyalty of the
employee, right? Because theyknew they're gonna get taken
care of. But we had a coupleguys that we hired in that were
from another company, had goodskill set. It was a good

(20:17):
company, so I figured, okay, I'mwilling to take a try. They
weren't really super happy withthe hourly pay. Because, again,
the the piece work mentality is,is like, sometimes they'll work
1012, hours, you know, the doestill you the job gets done,
right? Yeah, and we work aregular eight hour day. We don't

(20:38):
normally. I mean, very rarely dowe work on the weekends again?
Because I figured these guys gotfamilies just like everybody
else. They're taking their kidsto soccer and, yeah, all that
same kind of stuff. So why? Justbecause your construction
worker, do you not have thatyou're not afforded that kind
of, those kind of simpleluxuries in life, right? So

(20:59):
anyways, I hired these two guys,and they weren't super happy
with their pain. It didn't taketoo long, and they're like they
laughed, and they took anotherjob at another company, and it
was over the almighty dollar.
But they didn't really calculateeverything, because it wasn't
about three months later theykept they called and said, Hey,
can we ever job back. And thenthey so, they really, they

(21:22):
really understood. They thatthat it was, it was different.
Now it takes a different mindsetto understand that it's
different. Because, you know, ifyou know, those guys will throw
a lot of dollars at you, butthat's all it is, you know. And
some of them don't even pay intoSocial Security or anything. So

(21:44):
they're not, you know, they'retotally running under the radar.
So you're not even gettinganything towards future social
security or potentially noinsurance if you hurt yourself
on the job. So

yeah, there's a big difference, you know, in the
cost, in the cost for a personto be an employee of a company,
rather than somebody to be acontractor or subcontractor.

Chris Dyck (22:11):
Yeah, for us, it's like almost three quarters. So
if I pay a guy, you know, 20bucks an hour, it's costing the
company 35 bucks an hour to keepthem on the roof, just from, you
know, that doesn't include,like, the the days offer it is,
including those benefits. It'sjust insurance and what the

(22:32):
government wants and stuff likethat.

Yeah, and that's that, that stuff is always
important to take intoconsideration. You know, it's
almost like a hidden cost. Oh,yeah. And then once, once they
start getting hit with it, thenthey're like, Hey, wait a
minute. Like, back at August,roofing is a little bit better,
right? You know, with your, withyour business mindset, right?
Because you've been, you've beensuccessful in business, what

(22:58):
would you say are some of thethings that have helped you to
develop that, you know, it'slike, there could, there could
be, I don't know, just kind oflike intuition, you know, but,
but you, from our previousconversations, it also seems
like you're somebody that enjoysreading, that enjoys getting
into things. So like, what havebeen some of the main influences

(23:23):
as you've been developing thiscompany, and kind of like your
own, your own business skills,like you developed your roofing
skills, all right, you know? Butlike now you're running the
running a company. How have youdeveloped those business skills?

Chris Dyck (23:36):
It's totally different. The number one thing
is you, you hit on it. Justunderstand you don't know what
you don't know. Right? Read,talk to other people in the
industry associations, hangingout with other guys that are
doing the same thing. A italways amazes me with the
technology that we have and the,you know, the the super computer

(23:59):
in our hand, that literally,there should be a book. And if
you wanted to start a roofingcompany, you could just buy that
book, and you would know how tostart it, and it would be
successful. But that's not thecase. It's each one is as unique
as like a fingerprint, right?
And each guy has his own thing.
And so just meeting other guysand listening and talking to

(24:23):
them, sometimes I'm like, Oh,wow, that's a hell of an idea.
Only been doing this 40 years,and I didn't think of that. So
that's, that's a that's a bigthing. Play the long game. Yeah,
right. Just know that it mightnot work out today, or
especially in the money thing,right? You have to make some

(24:44):
decisions that are the right forthe long game. And then all of
being flexible, like everybodyin the office knows I'm Mr. Plan
B, right? Gotta have a plan B,and being okay, if you got to go
to plan B, you. It's just anature of business. So those are
probably the three things that Ihang a lot of the foundation of

(25:07):
what I how I'm successful inbusiness.

Yeah, I like that.
You don't fail if you don'tquit, right? Just keep on going.
Talking about businessdevelopment, one of the things
that you guys have done is yousaw the solar energy or solar
panel boom happening and so soshare with us, kind of how you

(25:32):
guys went from just being aroofing company to now a roofing
and solar company. Yeah,

Chris Dyck (25:40):
so it was 2015 is when we officially launched into
solar. But the years previous,and there must have been a, like
a really heavy rain year and 12or 13 somewhere in there,
because it was all of a suddenwe were getting, like a huge
amount of calls from pastcustomers that the roofs are

(26:02):
leaking hadn't talked to themsince I put the roof on 1012,
years ago. And even newcustomers too, and we're going
out there, and it was a solarpanel installation, you know, in
2012 that's when, literally, thesolar, you know, this new solar
boom started, and it only tookabout three years before we

(26:23):
started selling seeing thedamage that their attachment
systems were doing to our oldroofs and to the roofs of other
contractors. And so early in thein the situation, I had a
friend, a business partner, thatwas a solar contractor, and he
and I worked together. He wouldtake the solar system off, and

(26:46):
then I would do the work, andthen who put the solar system
back on. But another thing thatthat I'm not a big fan about is
subcontracting stuff. I mean, weliterally do everything in
house, yeah, and when it got tobeing more than like one a
month, and it was like one ortwo a week. Then I'm like, Nah,

(27:07):
we gotta, we gotta learn how todo this. And so that was our
first real reason for evengetting into solar was just to
help out customers that had, youknow, poor installations, and we
had to go fix them, right? Andthis way we could do, again,
have this great service, get in,get the job done and get out,
not, you know, because anytimeyou got to bring in another

(27:29):
subcontractor, you can just slowdown the process, right? Just
makes the the situation longer.
Oh, definitely

trying to balance schedules right. So now his
workload, you don't have controlover that. So it's like, you
know, these customers, they'vedone all this wonderful,
beautiful, high quality work ontheir roofs and stuff, and then
they get solar. They're excitedabout that. A handful of years
later, they start getting allthese leaks. Were these

(27:57):
customers? Like, were theythinking that it was the roof?
Were they surprised that thesolar was was causing these
leaks? Like, kind of, yeah, andhow did, how did that mean?

Chris Dyck (28:07):
Some, some people understood it well enough that
they're like, oh, shoot, that'sexactly the plane of the roof
where my solar is. Other people,you know, don't understand the
how a house goes together at thesame level, right? So they, you
know, they thought it wassomething a problem in our roof.
So,

yeah, because they're, like, the soldiers
brand new, yeah, we just putthat on things. It's like, well,
actually, then make these thingscalled holes, yeah, and they go
through your roof, yeah. So you,you had a lot of business that
were, you know, because of whatthese solar installers have done
right now, they don't know howto properly seal the roof right?
So, like, after, after fixingall of these solar, these

(28:49):
incorrect solar installations,you decided, hey, like, we're
gonna, we're gonna startinstalling the solar so that it
can be installed correctly.

Chris Dyck (28:58):
Yeah, really, what precipitated is, I haven't had a
good friend I've known in theindustry. He's probably, was
probably only about 10 yearsbehind me, so he's been in it
for about 20 years at that time,and he had actually worked on
all sides of he'd worked for aroofing contractor, he worked
for a solar contractor. He hadactually worked in installation,

(29:19):
and he'd worked as amanufacturer's rep. So he had a
wealth of knowledge from alldifferent areas. Yeah, and
again, he was kind of burnt outon the industry, the non
professionalism of it. And hebasically, you know, I don't
know we were having lunch orsomething, and he said, Hey, I'm
done. I'm getting on anindustry. I've got another
industry. I got job offer there.
I'm going to get out of this. II'm just, I can't handle this.

(29:41):
And I said, Give me, let me makeyou a job offer. Okay, just get
let me give you one. So hedecided to join us in 2015 and
that's when we started fullsolar insult, brand new solar
installations. And he really.
Launched the division withinAugust roofing. And so he worked

(30:06):
with us for about five years,and then it was time for him to
retire, and then we just keptgoing on.

But he helped you build up all of your processes,
right, exactly, get the crews

Chris Dyck (30:18):
trained him. Yeah, he knew all the you know, the
the solar mapping and like allthe technical stuff that that we
didn't know, so

and so and so. Now, when an August roofing and solar
crew come to install some solarthey're not just a solar
installation crew, but they'reexpert roofers that are going to
leave that solar installationproperly sealed, yeah, and not
cutting any corners,

Chris Dyck (30:45):
yeah, yeah. I mean, we're a full on solar company. I
mean, the level of installationthat we do, a level of
knowledge, and everything we're,we're a full on solar company
and a full on roofing company.
And we just, we know proper, weknow how to properly attach the
panels to your roof andwaterproof around them so that

(31:05):
you don't have any problems. Soit's you're getting the best of
both worlds. We're not roofingcompany that just kind of knows
a little bit of solar orsubcontracts it out. No. I mean,
we fully know it. Our our peoplein the office understand all the
components to it and pull ourown permits all the whole nine
yards.

That's awesome.
That's awesome now, well, one ofthe things you know, in a
perfect world, like everythingalways works out, yes, you know.
And you guys were working, youguys were installing solar panel
systems from the company SunPower, right, correct. And Sun
powers like the top of the line,you know, the most advanced

(31:49):
technology they had, the microinverters on every single panel.
Just everything. Everything wasflawless and high quality, super
high quality. And it wasdesigned specifically for the
installation. So it was makingthe installation as easy as
possible for the installers, sothat everything would be
working, you know, pristine. Butthen I think just a couple

(32:13):
months back, the news broke thatsun power is not doing too well,
you know, things are, things arekind of going a little bit south
with them. So what kind of, whatis your take on? What happened
with SunPower as they they wentinto bankruptcy, and now
they're, you know, they'retrying to figure out all of how

(32:33):
everything's going to look overthe next, you know, handful of
years. And now, what is it thatAugust roofing and solar is
doing now, you know, to bestserve their new solar clients.
Yeah,

Chris Dyck (32:48):
so the after my friend left that had helped us
get the solar department goingat August roofing, that's when I
started looking around. Youknow, I, I am constantly,
constantly looking at improvingmy organization. That may be
another thing that helps insuccess in businesses, is never

(33:11):
stand still, right? Yeah, keeplooking and so just notice these
Maxi and panels, super highquality, their their technology,
just the way they do things isdifferently, which, you know,
they're they're not just tryingto make a better mousetrap.
They've completely made anentirely new one. And so I'm

(33:32):
like, That's the panel I want toinstall. And so then kind of
reverse engineer it. I found outthe only way to do that was
become a SunPower dealer, so Iwent ahead and became a Sun
Power dealer. And that's how ourrelationship with SunPower
started. And it was great. Imean, they definitely, like you
said, the simplifiedinstallation, which, then again,

(33:53):
increases quality for thecustomer, right? They had, you
know, their rails wereproprietary in attachment to the
rails, you know, invisible mountthe whole the whole nine yards.
It was a well put togethersystem. I mean, they were
thinking about it. And then atsome point in time, Sun Power

(34:14):
and maxion divested. So like inthe rest of the world, Sun Power
and maxion are still onecorporation. And so at some
point in time they divested, Ithink it was shortly after
COVID.

So this is just like a US thing, yep, just in
the

Chris Dyck (34:31):
US. And they created two different companies. And so
the maxion side, they haveactual they make something right
panels. They have technology,Sun Power one now, all of a
sudden they're there. Theydidn't really do anything except
kind of like a franchise or holdall the processes together for a

(34:57):
franchisee. Yeah, ie Augustroofing. So. So that had its
value, my desire. The value thatI was looking at was the maximum
panels, yeah. Then all of asudden, after they divested,
they started having coral andthey no longer Maxi on, no
longer supplied panels to SunPower. Still a little

(35:18):
interesting. I don't know howthat all happens. They're the
same corporation one day,they're separate the next day,
and then they won't sharetechnology that made them but,
you know, I guess there's stuffbigger than, bigger than me. So
anyway, so we, we started, youknow, I stuck with Sun Power and
their processes and the newpanels and everything. I was

(35:40):
super thrilled. And, you know,there was some chinks in the
armor happening, and so we kindof were, we're already thinking
about, you know, do you know,looking at some other looking at
no longer being a Sun Powerdealer? Problem is, is when, you
know, there's a lot of processesand procedures that go with

(36:02):
everything. And so sometimesit's like turning the Titanic
right, that saying so to changeall of that. And so we are kind
of messing around with it,dipped our big toe on the pool.
And but the real, you know thingthat the real catalyst was when
they filed bankruptcy, yeah, sonow, you know, there's no more

(36:25):
support and everything likethat. And so then we just
started going, I go, we go,okay, there's only one way to
go, is forward, right? And so wejust sat down and we went
through getting our modeling,our financing, our our new
system, you know, the sun powerhad a system, and so we have a C
10 license, so there's a guythat qualifies that license, so

(36:48):
we have an electrician on staff.
And so he sat down and we, youknow, created new designs and
systems that would, you know,help the customer and have a and
he actually had some ideas forimproving on the the sun power
system. So, you know, we'regonna, actually, now we're
looking at having a bettersystem where we have a greater
financial like we got leases andloans, and then I get Maxim

(37:14):
panels back. Oh yeah, that was,that was a big thing for me. So
I get all, I get the best of allthe worlds, and I'm more
competitive for my customers,

yeah, and also, there it's, it's not dependent
on just, like, kind of like, oneproprietary ecosystem, right?
Exactly. So, like, if somethingdoes kind of not working out all
that well, you could just go andlook for a replacement to that
component. The

Chris Dyck (37:43):
strength of the new process is this incredible rank,
because this, like you said, onecomponent drops off. It's easy
to replace that, and it doesn'ttopple the whole other part of
it. Yeah,

so that's, that's Sun Power, and that's Maxi and
what about Tesla? Tesla, yeah,heavy. You know what? Where are
you guys at with Tesla? Well,we're,

Chris Dyck (38:05):
we're Tesla authorized installers, so we can
do their batteries. They theydon't make any panels. So, I
mean, the only thing that reallyis that you need authorization
for, or to become a certifiedinstaller for, is the batteries.
And their batteries are off thecharts. They're, they're really
great. So, yeah, maxium panelswith Tesla batteries. And so

the Tesla batteries are part of that system that
you're talking about, that youguys have put together. Yeah,

Chris Dyck (38:32):
yeah. So it's, it's top notch. I'm really happy
about it. That's awesome.

That's super exciting. So we've talked about
the history we've talked about,you know, now that you're August
roofing and solar, correct? So,like, what's what's next? Like,
what are you looking towards inthe horizon, as far as leading
August roofing and solar

Chris Dyck (38:55):
into the future?
Yeah, we're just developing moreprograms. The next one that's
happening right now is we'relooking at a maintenance
department to actually, youknow, help roofs last longer in
the first place before you needto replace them. Also a big
thing these days is fire safety.

Yeah, I get those notifications from California.
Edison, yeah, you know saying,Hey, we're going to turn your
power off, right? There's toomuch wind, yep. So

Chris Dyck (39:21):
we have a opportunity to take help a lot
in that, right? So on the solarside, we could give you a
battery and help your family getthrough the power outage. And on
the other side, you know, thethe debris that's left on roofs
is super dangerous. And anotherthing that that's really come to
light in the last 510, years isthe vents that are on the roof.

(39:44):
If they're not properly done,the fire will start in the
attic,

really, yeah. Like, how does that work? Well,
because I've always thought oflike, the fire happening on the
outside of the building.

Chris Dyck (39:57):
Well, the embers get sucked in the vent. And drop
into the attic. So the firemarshal just changed their rules
and increased the or, I guessyou decrease the size of the
wire mesh that need to be insidethe event to knock the embers

(40:17):
out and increase the number ofmiles from the wildland fire
area. So again, there's,there's, there's millions
events, I mean, millions ofevents on houses that would
potentially, you know, cause afire situation for customers. So

(40:39):
Wow.

So then your maintenance program, for
customers that sign up for that,they're going to get somebody
from August roofing and solarshowing up and inspecting all
this stuff, right, exactly.

Chris Dyck (40:49):
And then we'll inspect solar too. So it's not,
it's a, it's a entire, you know,health checkup kind of for your
roof, you know, you know, when Isay roof line and above, make
sure that as to the best of ourability, that it's all
functioning as best as possible.
For you,

that's awesome and super good. Anything else that's
next, well,

Chris Dyck (41:13):
I'm always working on stuff, you know, we're, we're
constantly working on ourinternal processes. Yeah, yeah.
We just year ago, we created anew position called a project
coordinator. And so this projectcoordinator, my vision of it was

(41:35):
really to be an advocate for thefor the customer within the
company, so they literally arethe one point of contact with
the company. There'ssuperintendents and foremen that
are on the job site, and theytalk to the customers all the
time. But you need anything thisproject coordinator, they're
there to to help you. They getall the little they get permits.

(41:58):
They get the porta potties outon the job site, take all that
little stuff and just make surethat the customers have a great
experience from beginning toend. I mean, that's, you know,
we talked about changing frombeing a referred to being a
business owner. Now, you know,that's kind of what hit me back
in 2012 was I kind of decided,well, you know, I I'm not a

(42:22):
really roofer anymore. I'm aCEO, or whatever you want to
call me. And so I'm like, Yeah,okay, I guess I gotta get
smarter about this sort ofstuff. And and customer
experience has always been like,I'm pretty I'm pretty tenacious
about it. I if, if I feel thattheir customers not getting a
good deal because of the waywe're treating them, we'll dive

(42:45):
into it and figure out how tofix it pretty quick. That's
where the project coordinatorcame from. Even though the sales
process, you know, you know, alot of guys will just go out,
take a look at the thing andsend people a bit, email them a
bit, put it underneath the frontdoor. You know, three weeks
later, yeah, I want my guys tosit there and, you know, we'll,

(43:08):
we'll spend an hour, hour and ahalf, with the customer, yeah,
you know, my guys go there. Wetake pictures of the of the
roof. We come down, we show themto you. Go over all the
concerns. Help you understandnot, I mean, how many, how often
do people buy roofs? You know,probably once a once a lifetime,
really, maybe, maybe two orthree times, depends on how many

(43:29):
times they move. You know, Ireally want us to make sure that
they have all the information tomake a good choice. Whether it's
August roof here or not, I knownot everybody's going to choose
us. It's there's no way wecould, right? And so it's just
so that that's kind of ourcustomer service to the to the
world, right? And also we're,we're, we're raising the bar,

(43:52):
right, so now the professional,unscrupulous guys are going to
have a little bit harder placeto hide if we're educating
people.

Oh, yeah, right?
Because, yeah, if your your guycomes out, gives the inspection,
gives all of the reporting,shows photos of what's going on
in the roof, right? Like that,that eight year old woman that
you were just talking about,like, if she had that had that
experience, right? And then the,like, shady roofing contractor
then shows up, you know, for asecond or third or fourth bid,

(44:21):
yeah, and doesn't provide any ofthat stuff, right? You know, the
customer is going to be able totell the difference just from
those interactions before theymake the decision on who to go
with, correct? And hopefullythey're not going to go with the
other guy. Yeah,

Chris Dyck (44:36):
it doesn't always stop them from it, but, you
know, some people

like, you know, they like taking that risk,
taking that gamble, yeah?

Chris Dyck (44:44):
Like, you know, bungee, bungee discount, bungee
jumping, right?

Mm, hmm, yeah, yeah, it's, it's crazy, man.
Like, I don't get, I've hadexperience with contractors
where just the work just nevergets fixed. You know, you have
some. To come out to the houseand the problem is still there
after the fourth or fifth timethat they've come out, but they
keep on telling you that it'sfixed, yeah, but no, it's not,

Chris Dyck (45:09):
yeah. Well, that's another big thing for me, and
this was, we started this along, long time ago, because
that's that always bugged meabout contractors, is you'll you
have this little problem andit'll never get fixed, and they
just keep showing up and notdoing anything, essentially,
until it everybody gets sofrustrated that I, like, I'm not
going to call back. It's not youknow, you know. And for me, it's

(45:32):
like that, and that's usuallyonly, like, one or 2% of the
jobs, right, that that havethat. And so I started a
process. We call it a warranty,call process internally. But,
you know, we log them, we treatthem completely different. We
count them, we watch them, youknow, we, we, I see are they

(45:54):
going up or down, you know? Imean, it's a definite barometer.
And I want, I want zero. So, youknow, that's we're always
working towards. So, you know,it's another, you know, example
of an internal process that wehave. So, you know, we have the
sales process that we'reeducating people. We have a the
production process where we'rereally involved in making sure

(46:17):
the customer, you know, has agood experience. Like our
superintendents, we have a prejob walk and a post job walk so,
you know, and some people don'tcare for them. They're like, you
know what you're doing. You doit. But our goal is to have, on
the first day, superintendent'sgoing to be their first thing.

(46:37):
Get with you, walk around thehouse, take a look at the
contract, make sure everything'sgoing to be done right. Kind of
like, you know, when you go intosurgery and you're having your
arm amputated, and they thedoctor marks this arm right?
Yep, right. So it's the samesort of thought process, and
then then we can go about doingthe job, and then when it's all

(46:59):
done, we'll have the same kindof walkthrough. I actually, you
know, what we found supersuccessful is if customers
actually look at it every day.
And just because my foremen aregreat, they'll, they'll talk to
the customer, and if they, Oh,you don't like that, okay,
great, you know, becausesometimes a certain detail,
yeah, um, could be purelyesthetic, totally, right, yeah.

(47:21):
And you don't like it this way,but you like it that way. Okay,
fine, you know, yeah, right. Butwe're going to do this eight
times on this house, right?
Because it occurs eight times,and you don't say anything till
day at the end of the day after,you know, at the end of the job.
And that we should fix eight,eight situations. Or you tell us

(47:43):
on the first day, hey, could youdo this one that way? No
problem. And then we do all therest of the details the same,
and then it looks good. So, youknow, it's kind of an
interactive process. I mean,roofing kind of feels like
getting carpet put in your houselike, kind of a pretty simple
thing, but it's, it's much more,I it's much more of a pretty

(48:05):
major piece of construction onyour house. It really is, yeah,
you know, it's not, it's not onedimensional, right? You know,
we're fixing dry rot, there'slumber, there's sheet metal,
there's, uh, tar paper, there's,you know, there's a lot of
different things. It's

a whole entire system. Yes, you know, that's
one of the things that I hearyou talk about. It's a roof
system. Yeah, it's just not likeone layer, right? But there's a
lot of things that have to worktogether in order to make this
right,

Chris Dyck (48:31):
and then then throw solar in on top of it. Now,
you're really talking about, youknow, you got projects that are,
you know, 70 $500,000 project.
This is a good piece ofconstruction that's happening to
your house. So, you know,neither of us wants to take it
lightly, because if we worktogether, we can have just this
awesome outcome at the end, andeverybody's happy, right?

(48:51):
Because, I mean, you know, I'vejoked a couple times with my
customers, is like, you know, atthe end, um, when I kind of did
the the job walks at the end. Iwas like, nothing, nothing much
against you, but I don't want toever talk to you again, right? I
mean, yeah, referrals and stuff,of course. But I thought, you
know, that's a that's a greattestament to a refer is, if you

(49:13):
don't hear anything from yourcustomer, it means his projects,
his products working, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, for at least 25 years. Yeah, right.
And then after that, then youwant to be the first one that
they call

Chris Dyck (49:27):
Yeah. With that has been another very exciting thing
that we've encountered. I thinkwe've done probably 10 where
we've actually re roofed our ownroof that we put on 25 or 30
years ago. Yeah, and same peoplehappened to live there. They
called us back said, Hey, yourroof lasted 25 years. It's time

(49:48):
for a new one. Let's just getsigned up and get it done.
That's amazing. Yeah, it'spretty cool.

And you could only say that because you guys have
been around for how long now?
Well,

Chris Dyck (49:58):
yeah, shoot the.
3033 years. 33 years, 91 Yeah,33 foot, almost morning on 34
years. Wow.

And that's, that's super rare, super rare in the
construction industry,

Chris Dyck (50:11):
yeah, especially for a guy after day one was not
going to spend the rest of hislife in this and

then 33 years later, yeah, wow, man. Or even
longer, because you worked it,yeah, you know, for a number of
years before you started your

Chris Dyck (50:23):
company, it'll be 40 in June, sometime in June, oh my
goodness,

are you going to celebrate that somehow? What are
you going to do? Chris, you got,you got to that's 40 years, four
decades. Four decades. I mean,you're not swinging the hammers
anymore, but 40 years theroofing industry, we got to do
something, what we'll figuresomething? Yeah. What would your
advice be to somebody that'slooking at getting into, like
the home services industry rightnow?

Chris Dyck (50:48):
Run? No, no.
Everybody always says it's it'sdifficult or it's challenging.
Everything's gonna be difficultor challenged. You know, like I
said, it's probably the threethings, understand you don't
know what you don't know. Playthe long game. Make sure you
just do right by your customersand your employees. Make sure
you get into it for the rightreasons.

Right What do you mean by that? Well, you

Chris Dyck (51:12):
have to do it because you love it, because
there's going to be times whenit's just going to be hard. I
mean, my 40 years has beenfraught with a number of times
where, you know, August roofingalmost ceased to exist. And the
only, the only way, was that Iwas not going to let it die. My
love for the for the company andfor what I was doing was greater

(51:33):
than the pain you were daggingme I was enduring. Can you,

can you share one of those? Or, yeah,

Chris Dyck (51:40):
was, uh, let's see 2000 So, and this is kind of
where, let's see, when I startedwith a company in 91 so I told
you I worked for that largeroofing company, right, yeah.
And so they did primarilyproduction work, okay, the big
tracks, the tracks of homes. So,

like, a bunch of homes would be, yeah, you know,
like 100 homes, or 300 homes,and then they would come in and
just do all the routes,

Chris Dyck (52:07):
all right, yeah. So big contracts, you know, that
kind of thing, volume work. Andso after I had been on my own
for a number of years, some ofthe builders that I had actually
worked for, for this company,they realized, Hey, Chris is
over here. And they were smartenough to understand that I was
the one doing the work. Yes, Iwas working for this company,

(52:28):
but I was where the rope wasmaking me meeting the road.
Yeah. So they're like, oh. Sothey started calling me and
saying, Hey, come on. You wantto come bid the jobs. And so,
you know, you know, kind of feltgood, you know, to bid against
my old boss and start winningsome but it that game kind of

(52:50):
burned me. It's a high volumegame, and, you know, I was
trying to compete, so I changedmy pricing to meet that, and I
didn't want. And the reality isI didn't do the the kind of the
workmanship that they, that theywas acceptable for them, right?
So it's got, you know, like yousaid, Quick, get it done. Quick,

(53:11):
and and so in 2000 It was, yeah,2000 I had to file a chapter 11
reorganization. So, you know,and the only way that got me
through there is just that Ilove my business, and I loved
the business more than the agonythat I was was going through,
and just worked through it. Andso that's gonna, that's gonna

(53:34):
happen if you're, yeah, totally.
If you don't care who you are,whatever your business is, just
be prepared for that, and that,that is one of the great things
to to if you're mentallyprepared for that.

So what was it like? Typically, like, as, as I
have seen, you know, a number ofother business owners go through
similar situations. It's usuallythey, they come out of it, they
either sell or they pivot right?
You, of course, didn't sellright. So what was it that you
kind of like pivoted away from,and what is it that you pivoted
towards in order to get yourselfout of that and then for August

(54:13):
roofing and solar to become whatit is today? Well, it

Chris Dyck (54:17):
was really defining my customer, the right customer,
and not trying to be everythingto everybody. Yeah, we want
customers that want to have agreat job, and they want to have
a quality product, right? Andthey're also willing to invest
with us in in treating everybodyprofessionally, and that is

(54:37):
something they get in return to,you know, this is like, like you
talked about earlier. It takescare of both, right? You treat
the the employees like realpeople and professional and then
they treat the customers thatway. So and then the customers,
they choose to work with aprofessional company, their
employees get treatedprofessionally. And so

(54:59):
therefore, the. The customergets a professional experience,
you know. So it's, it all washesitself. It all works together.
So that's what it pivotedtowards. And just, you know,
like I said, not and then youknow, kind of unique situations,
you know, like the solar thing,it presented itself. It was

(55:19):
just, again, to take care ofcustomers like nobody knew how
to do this right, even thoughit's in every roofing manual how
you flash a pipe. But nobodywanted to do it that way,

yeah, so because it cut in those corners, yep, yep.
It was, it was, uh,

Chris Dyck (55:35):
was too much effort, too much time in their brains.
They just wanted to get it onand get out of there real fast.
So there's

still some stuff that I want to talk to you
about, okay, okay. And I want totalk to you about your customer
journey. Okay, okay. And so thecustomer they sign up for a risk
free consultation, one of yourproject coordinator consultants,
one of your project consultants,yes, comes out. They get up on

(56:06):
the roof, they take all of thesephotos. They do a whole entire,
I think it's a 76 pointinspection correct. And then
they sit down with thehomeowners. They go through all
the photos, all their findings,so the homeowners know exactly
the current condition of theirroof, and then if there's any
issues, then they also walk themthrough all of their options to

(56:29):
get those issues fixed so thework that needs to be done, and
then also any all the paymentoptions so that they could see
how it could be affordedCorrect. What is it after the
customer has all that, right?
They're getting all thisinformation, right, right, okay,
and now they might still bethinking like, well, well,
what's actually going to happen?

(56:49):
What's actually going to happenif I go with August roofing,
what is it going to be like forAugust roofing and solar crew to
show up on my on my property anddo the work like, what is it
that they can expect? Well,

Chris Dyck (57:03):
to start off with, if you sign up with August
review, one of the first thingsyou'll receive is from Armand is
you'll receive a welcome letterand video. It'll just give you
some of the basics of what'sgoing to happen and introduce
you to a, you know, a few peoplethat will be helping you. And
then the next thing is,internally, you'll be assigned

(57:24):
to a project coordinator. Sothat project coordinator there,
my vision for that position isthey are your advocate to making
this a smooth project asseemingly possible. You know,
any kind of construction,especially a roof, is major,

(57:46):
major disruption, interruptioninto your life, your regular
routines. You know, can I brushmy teeth in the bathroom? You
know, you know, my regular wake,it's all going to disrupt that.
So we want this just to be asminimally invasive as possible.
So this person will be yourpoint of contact. You'll also

(58:10):
have point of contact of asuperintendent of the crew. And
then also there's a foreman onthe crew. Foreman stays there
through the whole job, and samewith the superintendent. He's
assigned that job, so you'llhave many points of
communication throughout theprocess. So the first person
you'll be talking to would beyour project coordinator.

(58:34):
They'll give you your schedule.
And then, as it comes closer, aswe understand construction,
sometimes the jobs go longer.
Sometimes they go shorter. Youdon't know if it's an old roof
you're tearing it off. You don'tknow what you uncover. And
sometimes it goes smoother, andsometimes it doesn't just it's
there's a few more challenges,right? So then she'll dial in,

(58:56):
or the project coordinator willdial in the, you know, as you
get closer, and they'll, they'llgive you an exact date. Okay,
we'll be there Wednesday at noonor whatever. And so then, so
you'll be kept in the loop, andthen you'll have an exact
starting date about a week out.
Then the the next step in theprocess is the first day of the
of the project, and sometimesthe day before, depending on

(59:18):
your schedule, thesuperintendent for the job will
come out and do a job walk withyou. And this pre job walk. You
take the contract out, you goover it, make sure that what
everybody's understanding ofwhat's going to get done is what
they want to get done. Andwe've, you know, we found a few

(59:39):
things in there. Oh no, no. Andit was, it's not that. It was
anybody did anything wrong. Itwas just interpretation, right?
And so, you know, it, it's justa great time to, you know, get
rid of any little potentialmishaps. And it's. Especially
when you do this on the firstday your your Foreman will be

(01:00:01):
there to get introduced to him.
They'll go walk around yourhouse. They'll take a look at
everything. See, you know, ifthere's anything that's damaged
already, we'll, you know, notethat so that, you know we don't
have any, you know, I hate hardfeelings, I hate change orders.
I hate all of that. I want allof my jobs to go perfectly. You

(01:00:24):
know, without any of that, no,that's not realistic, that it's
100% but we do our best to makesure that that that doesn't
happen. And so then the projectwill will roll along well after
tear off, there's an inspectionthat's necessary, right? And
again, the Project Coordinatorin the office will know when

(01:00:48):
this inspection is coming, aswell as your your Foreman will
know about that too. Thisinspection from the city, right?
Yes, correct, or whateverhousing authority you know, like
sometimes the county, or stufflike that. So they'll, they'll
do the inspection, and then fromthere, that's when they'll,
we'll, we'll start putting thenew roof back on. Obviously, we

(01:01:08):
have to do any dry rotreplacement. That's about the
biggest thing that we can'treally know. If I knew it, I
would let everybody know. I'dbuild it in there. But, you
know, rotting wood underneathyour roof system, can't always
see it, so that's the biggestunknown. And then we start
putting the new roof back on.
And then kind of the next majorthing for you, and a good thing

(01:01:31):
to do is, you know, every day,when you get home from work,
walk around your roof and justsee what progress they've made,
and see if there's anything thatmaybe doesn't look right to you
or doesn't feel right to you.
You know there, there arecertain finishing details on
roofs that can be done differentways. I have no effect on the

(01:01:55):
waterproofing of the roof. Itjust is, is esthetics. And if,
for some reason you're like,really like that. If we can find
another way to do that pleasesyou more visually, it'd be nice
that we can start doing that atthe beginning, not at the end,
and then have to go all the waythrough. Or, you know, some
people are super nice customers,and they're like, I can live

(01:02:16):
with it. I really don't want tomake you go do that, which, you
know, we appreciate, but Iwould, I would love to do it the
way you would like. And if wecan do that from the beginning,
then it works great foreverybody. And then the final
thing is your final job, walkthrough, the superintendent will
come back. We, if possible, welike to do it as the crew is

(01:02:38):
finishing up the final day,because then the crews up there,
we have tools out. We can makethe corrections immediately. And
when we walk off the roof, yourhouse is done. Understandably,
work and timing that can alwaysbe done. So if it has to be done
later, then you'll have a job.
Walk through with yoursuperintendent, go over

(01:02:59):
everything, make sure thateverything's up to your
satisfaction. Then the projectcoordinator will call for a
final inspection. We'll get thecity back out, do an inspection
of the roof, and then everythingwill be done as far as that. And
then we will create an invoice,and we'll email that to again,
remembering that we don't Youdon't pay until you're done and

(01:03:23):
happy. So then that way, youknow, after that final job walk,
we'll make sure that the happypart is taken care of. That's

Brian Davis (01:03:33):
it. That's a big difference. That's a big that's
a big thing. They explain that alittle bit more, right about not
like people don't have to payuntil, not only you guys are
done, right? Yeah, no money, nomoney down. Yeah,

Chris Dyck (01:03:47):
yeah. I should have probably started out with the
the process, because, I mean,that's the first process, is you
don't have to do anything, signyour contract, and then, you
know, you don't need to put anymoney down. Or throughout the
process. It's only when the jobis done and you're happy that
you'll that you'll make payment.
Wow.

So that's, I mean, that that's a great guarantee,
yeah, because there's, there'sother contractors out there that
aren't, they're taking a downpayment, and then, you know, a
certain percentage, way throughthe the the project, then
they're asking for even more tocontinue. Yeah, I

know I had the customer that, you know, wanted
me to, you know, match a priceof another contractor. So he
sent me a proposal, and I waslooking at his payment schedule.
I'm like, Holy mackerel. Youknow, it was $1,000 down or 10%
that's at state, California.
Lawsuit took 1000 bucks day one,when they started tearing off,
it took 50% more, whoa, andthen, like when the materials

(01:04:49):
were delivered, it was another20% and then another bottom
line. By the time the customergot to the end, they had 10% it
was all 11. Charge that they hadleft in the in the situation,
and, you know, that guy, what'sit gonna do if you're got a a,
you know, if you're in adisagreement over what should be

(01:05:11):
done? You know, he might justsay, ah, you know, 10% 1000
bucks, it's cheaper for me to godo the one, to go start on
another one,

right? Yeah, because again, 50% upfront from
the next one. Yeah. So, andthat's

pretty that's, that's typical, you know, that's
something to be, definitely bewary of. And, you know, I do it
more to keep my my focus on thecustomer where it belongs, yeah,
than necessarily it is for thecustomer's benefit, yeah, if you
want to, if you know what I'msaying, yeah, yeah, just keep

(01:05:50):
my, keep my mind in the in thegame.

So it's kind of your way of just like putting
blinders on, Yep, yeah,

keep focused, and that takes care of itself. Yeah,

yeah, it's good incentive, yes, you know, to
make sure that you keeping theimportant things important. Yep,
awesome. Yeah. So

did we finish all the Yeah, the final job walk
through, and then you'll get aninvoice from the office, and
then you can go ahead and pay wehave, you know, we might have
taken advantage of ourfinancing. We have lots of
financing offers that you cantake advantage of. We do take
credit cards and then obviouslychecks, so that'll be the

(01:06:33):
project will be all wrapped up,

awesome. And then you have your peace of mind. For
peace of mind, yes, knowingthat, like you got quality work
from a quality crew, right? Andif anything does come up, August
roofing and solar is just aphone call away. Yep, yeah,

we have a whole process. Should you find
something that's not workingcorrectly, you just call the
office and we'll put you in ourour warranty call process, and
it's tracked, and we make sureevery one of them gets done.
Because that's, that's just theway I want to be a typical
contractor that you call, yeah,I'll be there on Tuesday, and

(01:07:12):
then Tuesday comes and goes. Youknow, I want to, I want the I
want the job done.

I'm sure that makes a big difference for your
customers. Makes a bigdifference for you, makes a big
difference for your crew. Yeah,right. Because everybody that
works at August roofing knowswhat August roofing stands for,
yeah. How does it make them feelknowing that there's some that
they're a company out therereally taking care of others in
the community, right, and nottaking advantage of other people

Unknown (01:07:38):
right now?

And it's really, I think it really goes to what it
is that you're talking about,where it's it's bringing a sense
of pride and honor, you know,back into the roofing industry,
where, like now, everybody inyour company can be proud of the
work that they're doing, youknow, and proud to let everybody
know that's that's around them,that they work with. August,

(01:08:00):
terrific, installer, alright, soChris, yeah, and tell me, tell
me about the core values thatreally guide your your company.
Okay, so

we have two kind of categories. First is the kind of
people we hire. And we hirepeople that are humble and hard
working, work smart and theytake pride in their work. And
the second is kind of customers.
We really the kind of customerservice that we deliver, or how
we treat our customers. We'recustomer driven, we're
professional, and we give ourcustomers peace of mind. And,

(01:08:27):
you know, that's, that's theDNA, the heartbeat of August
roofing.

And so why? Why is it that those things are
important to you? I mean, whystart a company that that is
focused on those things.

Well, the honest goodness truth is that about,
let's see, when I was 10 yearsago. So after being business
about 25 years, I brought in aPatrick Lencioni consultant. And
we actually did. He was actuallya doctor of psychology that his
secondary career was working forPatrick valenciani, and I

(01:09:04):
actually knew him, so we had areally good session. And what he
did is he dug out of me, what,what, what was really my true
heartbeat. And so those are thethings that drive me, right? I
mean, I, I'm all aboutefficiency. I want to just run

(01:09:24):
an organization that. So that'swhy we're humble and hard
working, work smart, and we justtake pride in our work. Just,
just get it done and get itdone, right, you know. And then
customers are always big for me,you know. And still are. And
that's why we're, you know,professional is, is the biggest
thing for us, right? Thecustomer drives us. All my all

(01:09:47):
my guys know I mean that you cansee in the way they act. And you
know that when I walk away, wewant the customers just to go,
Ah, nothing else but ah. Uh,peace of mind, right? I can
relax, or could even be peace ofmind. And they sign a contract
going, I know, I know Augustroofing is going to just take

(01:10:10):
care of this chaotic time that Igotta have my roof done. It's
gonna be crazy. It's gonna be,you know, dirt all over my yard
and stuff like that, but they'regonna clean up every day.

That's, that's great. That's a lot of peace of
mind. That's what customersneed, yeah, especially with
something that can be sopersonal as as work done on
their house. Yeah?

So it's an intrusion, right? Our our home
is, really, is our castle,right? You know, let many people
in into that, yeah, innersanctum.

Yeah, it's our Safe, safe place. It's where we
keep all the most importantthings in people in our lives,
and

then somebody goes and takes advantage of that.
That's just sad.

Yeah, it is. Well, thanks, thanks, Chris for caring
so much, for caring so muchabout your workers, caring so
much about the community, caringso much about your customers, so
makes a big difference, man,

yeah. I mean, our guys all know our core values,
and we hire around them. So,

so yeah, and that's what you got on the side of the
trucks. Yes,

exactly. Oh, all the trucks, yes. And it's for the
guys. It's not for thecustomers. You can go around the
office and you can ask anybody,and, you know, shoot, they can
the sales, the sales. I hadsales meeting this morning. They
did off in unison, all together,yeah? So, you know,

they're all They're all programmed, yeah, so, but
the

you know that, but that's what you want, right?
Everybody to understand.

Oh, totally, totally. I remember when I got
my first truck, somebody got mea Jesus fish, right? You know,
to put, to put on the back. Andinstead of putting it on the
back, I put it inside, like onthe dash, so that I could see it
right? Because I was like, Ineed to be reminded of this, you
know. So that's, that'simportant. Now, put these

(01:12:01):
reminders. It's, it's really howyou build your culture, right?
You know how you build yourcompany culture, right? Where
these are the things that arecoming to mind, these are the
things that they're reciting.
And so then when it comes downto acting, you know, they're
going to follow through and actout these, these values,

right? Or the bigger thing, I think, is, is that when
they they don't have the abilityto get to a supervisor, you
know, because every employee atany point in time has to make a
decision that, like, kind ofjust falls on his shoulders.

(01:12:40):
Yeah, right, but the better heknows your company culture, he
will be able to make thatdecision more in concert with
what anybody else, hissupervisor or anybody else would
have directed him to do, becausehe understands the heartbeat of
the company. So

it's really empowering, yeah, it's
empowering everybody, not justthe the supervisors, the the
project coordinators, theforeman, but like everybody,
yeah, that puts on a an Arishirt, yeah? And

it works in reverse, too, because, you know, I'll
have some of my my directreports come to me and they'll
say, oh, you know, I we neededto do this for this customer
today to make sure that theywere happy. I just want to let
you know so it's they don't comelooking for permission because
they know they've made the theright decision already. Because

(01:13:38):
of our company culture, it'smore like, hey, FYI, yeah,
right, yeah. And so that that'sa, because then it's a, it's
almost a bottom up thing, right?
Rather than a top down. Thatworks way. It's another good
hack for anybody who wants toget into business, yeah,

yeah. Do bottom up.
So that, Chris, there's youtalked about that with all the
with all of the customers thatyou guys present to. You know,
it's unreasonable to to believethat everybody is going to go
with you. That's great, youknow, but so with, with some of
these customers, as they'regoing with these other
companies. And as you said, youknow, there's good companies out

(01:14:21):
there, but there's also a lot ofcompanies that are looking to
take advantage of customers andtheir ignorance and they're just
trying to make a quick buck. Sowhat has been your your
experience as you're takingthese jobs? Like, how? What?
What percentage would you say ofthese jobs that August roofing
and solar is taking is not justfixing problems that are from

(01:14:42):
just regular wear and tear of a25 to 30 year old house, but are
fixing problems that areactually caused by these other
contractors you know that arejust looking to take advantage
of these customers.

Probably. About a third, wow, yeah,

Unknown (01:15:03):
it's that much, yeah,

in in some way, shape or form, and

you would, and, I mean, this goes along with the
that story that you're justsaying, where that eight year
old woman, yes, you know, it hadthe same contract to come out.
How many times was it? Fourtimes the

I don't even remember. Yeah, it was the my
salesman just told me the story,and he was pretty moved too,
because, you know, he felt likehorrible for her, because he did
the he did the inspection, cameback, came down, showed her
everything, and and, you know,she started crying. And he was
like, what's going on? He waslike, he thought he did

(01:15:40):
something wrong. And she's like,Well, no, I had my roof down,
and they actually did nothing byshowing the pictures, yeah? So,
and then he was, like,overwhelmed, because he's like,
oh my goodness, you know. So wegot great people working for the
company, so they're empatheticthe same time, you know. So

that's the type of sales guys you want? Yeah,
because they're the ones thatare going to actually solve
problems, right? That's awesome.
Chris, well, how can people findAugust roofing and solar if
they're interested in learningmore about the company, about
what it is that you guys do moreabout you?

Well, we have a YouTube channel. It's got tons
of great YouTubes on there. Andpeople are really, you know, we
started that couple years ago,and people are like, coming to
us, knowing about us already,which is kind of cool get, you
know, it's a warm introductionthen. And so that's great place,

(01:16:38):
August roofing, the website, andthat's probably the best way to
get a hold of us. There's a formon there. Fill it out. It'll
come right to the guys at theoffice and we'll, we'll give you
a call and get get somebody outto give you an estimate.

Awesome, man. So yeah, so anybody wanted to get
into the home services? I hopeeverybody took notes. They've
got all of that down. Thank youso much, Chris for for coming
out and spending this time withus. I appreciate it, definitely,
man, definitely.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}004 | Bringing Professionalism to The Construction Industry | Local Business Breakthrough Podcast