What was your first job?Being a soldier in basic training! Wow! I recommend that to any of our young teens fresh out of high school! What a reality check! Taught me a lot of life long values.How did you get started in this business?I worked for a guy that did foam and fell in love with the business.Why did you choose this business?I didn’t like roofing—it is a hard business to do with the intense heat of New Mexico’s summers—but I felt that installing insulated roofs was important to our customers and not enough energy saving contractors installing these roofs were around back then.What is your business philosophy?Provide the best, longest-lasting roofs for the best price possible. A roof that will be trouble-free. Now who has ever heard of a trouble-free flat roof? We have. We install them all the time.What is your educational background?BS in psychology.What is your company’s greatest asset?Our staff. They’re hard-working, dedicated guys.Why did you choose to do business in Albuquerque?Albuquerque is very well served with spray foam roofs. The Phoenix area has more spray foam roof installers than any other type of roof. It’s a natural fit for our desert Southwest climate.What motivates you to succeed besides the desire to make money?Making customers happy and satisfied. I love visiting the customer a year after the install and they tell me how not only did they have no leaks but their home was so much warmer that winter and so much cooler that summer.How is operating your own business different than you expected?The challenges: The economic climate, it’s harder and more difficult to run a business (we’ve had to advertise more than ever) and the pressure to keep all our employees working.What do you offer that the competition doesn’t?We provide insulated roofs. Our roofs are a minimum of 11/2" thick! Ask the others how thick their roofs are! Most other roofs are the thickness of a dime! We also provide the longest fully transferable warranties in the business. How do you maintain your competitive edge?By keeping our prices reasonable and our quality the best.What do you think is the biggest obstacle in operating a successful business?Economic challenges, keeping our employees busy with plenty of work.What are your growth goals? No growth goals. We want to keep the same size, to grow makes it difficult to control quality.What is your company’s greatest challenge?Maintaining zero money owed to all creditors. By having no debt, we can afford to go through slow times.What contributions to the community (charitable or otherwise) are you most proud of?Donating all the labor to San Antonio Church in Questa. Questa is the town I was raised in. So being asked to provide a full price quote for the services you offer is big in a small town like that. Then telling them we are doing a $30,000 job for just the cost of materials made them very grateful and it made us all feel good to be part of this grand project.How has the internet affected your business and how do you think it might affect your business in the future?Before most people knew what spray foam was, we were concerned about optimizing search results to be number one in the spray foam category. That was when there were many companies competing. Now we are number one. We are working on being number one on roofing categories. We will get there. In what area of your business do you invest the most energy?Putting our name out in front of people so they know about us. Networking, talking to lots of people too.If you had to choose another career or start another business what would it be?I haven’t given it much thought but if I were to start another business it would have to be something that has equal value to the customer that no one else offers.What words of wisdom would you offer to someone starting their own business?Diligence. Don’t expect to be profitable the first year. Buy as much as you can on a cash basis without using credit. What’s your favorite saying or quotation?Quality remains long after price is forgotten.If you had a chance to live anyone else’s life, whose life would it be?Tori Ashley. She is goal driven, a hard worker, and determined to succeed. She is basically the female version of me, but with a greater capacity for love and craziness that I can’t seem to grasp. I would like to do a Freaky Friday exchange with her.What book are you currently reading or what’s your favorite book?Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsh, a N.Y. Times best-seller in the mid 1990’s.Do you have a hero or mentor–business or otherwise?Denis Waitley and Jim Rohn. Both have some great advice, as Waitley said "life is a perception through the eyes of the beholder" in other words "if the light is off inside of you—if you are sick or depressed, the light is off in the whole world, the whole world is sick and depressed" So TURN THAT LIGHT ON INSIDE OF YOU! Jim Rohn said, “If you don’t have a plan for your life you’ll end up fitting into someone else’s plan and chances are they don’t have much planned for you.” If there is one thing about Albuquerque or New Mexico that you could change, what would it be?Having more lakes and maybe a beach with an ocean! Not just endless beach! What do you look for in prospective employees?Loyalty, discipline and hard workers.What inspires you?Visiting with new customers and learning something new every day.Three passions outside of work?Lip synching or karaoke with the family.Anything else you would like to add?As I have developed my business, I have seen how much people really appreciate when I, the owner, talk with them and explain what’s wrong with their roof or what is causing their leak. Many are frustrated because they have just gotten a new roof (less than 2 years old—and it’s already leaking!) They want to have the confidence that we can solve their leaky roof.
This Is Albuquerque: A New Millennium Spray Foam Roofing
Alibi
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6 min read
