Here’s What It Really Takes to Support Other Entrepreneurs

Most founders who eventually find success remember their major accomplishments. But they also remember their close calls: the times when things almost fell apart because of knowledge gaps, missing resources, a lack of support or simple bad luck.

Most of us tell ourselves that if we’re ever in a position to set other entrepreneurs up for success, we’ll make sure they have the training, education and networking opportunities we didn’t have. But not every well-intentioned entrepreneur ends up with that chance.

When I set out to create Roof Maxx with my brother Todd, our main goal was to provide an alternative to roof replacement for homes with aging asphalt shingles. But along the way, we discovered a golden opportunity to educate members of the roofing industry and provide resources to help contractors across the country improve their services.

As former roofers who spent 15 years struggling to survive in the industry ourselves, that had personal value to us beyond what it achieved for the business. Here’s how the dealer network we established to scale our company also helped us give back to our community, and what it taught me about empowerment.

Setting people up for success is usually a resourcing issue

I will be the first person to tell you that culture and core values play an important role in mentorship. You want to create a supportive and productive environment that facilitates healthy growth. But all of that is just wishful thinking if you aren’t willing to put your money where your mouth is.

This can look different depending on how your company is structured. In a company where most of your employees are on salary, that might look like investing in paid training and upskilling opportunities or ensuring that department heads have the budget they need to comfortably and consistently hit KPIs so that they don’t experience widespread burnout and unsustainable turnover.

Roof Maxx isn’t built that way. Our dealership model means the roofers who carry our product are independent contractors who purchase it from us so they can sell restoration services to their customers. They’re not on our payroll, but we still have a responsibility to help them succeed because they’re our most effective brand ambassadors.

So for us, resourcing looks like investing in training and support. Roof Maxx Connect, our proprietary dealer management software, was expensive to develop and doesn’t generate a dollar of direct revenue. What it does do, however, is streamline the same tasks for our dealers that Todd and I found most grueling when we were roofers: handling leads, managing warranties, training with Roof Maxx University and more.

Dealers who have that kind of support are more efficient and provide more consistent service, which helps them sell our product and makes them more likely to keep purchasing it from us. As a former roofer who was once responsible for handling all those tasks independently and who almost went out of business, I see the impact every day.

Valuable partnerships depend on mutual benefit

Over the course of your career, you’ll probably meet at least a few businesspeople who think every deal needs to have a winner and a loser. I don’t just think this attitude is simplistic; I think it’s self-defeating.

This kind of win-lose bargaining strategy depends on securing concessions from others, which in practice means forcing them to settle for less. That may help you acquire short-term gains, but it is not a recipe for respectful and lasting partnerships. In my experience, people who think you’ve given them a raw deal tend to remember it, and they are rarely inclined to go the extra mile on your behalf.

Our dealers carry the Roof Maxx product, but they’re partners rather than subordinates. They don’t carry it because they have to; they choose to carry it because it allows them to offer genuine value to the homeowners they serve. In turn, we make a commitment to keep earning their business by working to ensure that our product remains competitive and effective. This is one of the primary differences between the kind of dealer model we rely on and a franchise.

Oversight is not the same as surveillance

As a roofer, Todd and I were personally involved at every level of our business. With Roof Maxx, we can’t afford to be.

Our dealership network currently extends across North America. Even with Roof Maxx Connect, it’s impossible to have total visibility into every single thing our dealers do — but more importantly, we don’t need to.

When you run a small business, handling everything yourself is a practical strategy for quality control. When you’re an eight-figure national brand, it’s a recipe for founder burnout. Moreover, forcing your dealers — or employees, if that’s how your company operates — to report their every move to you creates unnecessary operational obstacles for them and eventually causes friction in those relationships.

Thanks to our platform, we know how leads are being routed. We can see how invoices are fulfilled, check to see whether individual dealers have policies that comply with applicable laws and industry regulations, and view reports of completed jobs. We don’t need more than that, and to ask for it would put a stumbling block in the way of people we need as much as they need us.

At the end of the day, the best ways to empower an entrepreneur are by investing tangible resources in the tools they need, grounding your relationships on a foundation of mutual respect, and trusting their expertise. Every contractor I can give that to via Roof Maxx is someone I can trust to go out every day and improve the state of the industry for all of us.

Most founders who eventually find success remember their major accomplishments. But they also remember their close calls: the times when things almost fell apart because of knowledge gaps, missing resources, a lack of support or simple bad luck.

Most of us tell ourselves that if we’re ever in a position to set other entrepreneurs up for success, we’ll make sure they have the training, education and networking opportunities we didn’t have. But not every well-intentioned entrepreneur ends up with that chance.

When I set out to create Roof Maxx with my brother Todd, our main goal was to provide an alternative to roof replacement for homes with aging asphalt shingles. But along the way, we discovered a golden opportunity to educate members of the roofing industry and provide resources to help contractors across the country improve their services.