by Mike Feazelco-founder and CEO of Maxx roof
In 1988, my brother Todd and I started one of the largest and most successful roofing companies in the Midwest. For most of the next 15 years, anyone looking at the situation from the outside would have rightly assumed that we were wildly successful based on what they saw.
They weren’t wrong. The business I had started from humble beginnings by borrowing my father’s ladder and attaching it to my car had grown into a true regional powerhouse. Our trucks were everywhere, we were a household name, and Dad finally got his ladder back.
But the truth about what was going on under the hood? It was less simple.
By almost any metric you would use from the outside, the company was a complete home run. And yet, we were still struggling to take it to the next level, because being profitable and scalable are not the same thing.
It wasn’t that the work we were doing wasn’t lucrative. At this point, it had exceeded our expectations. But without scalability, it felt fragile in a way that only Todd, my brother, and I could really understand, given that we were in the “weeds” on a daily basis.
If we wanted to take it to the next level, we would have to open at least one more site, if not more. And with just the two of us leading the band, that just wasn’t going to happen.
Now, Todd and I are pretty allergic to the idea of giving up, so that was never an option. Instead, we stripped everything back to the basics, threw everything on the drawing board, and began ruthlessly scrutinizing every fragment of the business for opportunities to improve.
It was as if the sun was finally coming back after years of rain. We were finding ways to put new systems and new people in place that would allow the business to thrive even without our help.
Slowly but surely he started to move towards success and scalable the business was in place from the beginning, and by the time the right offer came in, the sale looked good.
It turns out that when you’re in the thick of it every day, sometimes you can’t tell the forest from the trees. It took taking a step back to realize that Todd and I had unintentionally created the same obstacles we were trying to combat in the business with every decision we made along the way.
We had built something that could only grow as fast as Todd and I could physically move, and burning ourselves out trying to be everywhere at once wasn’t the answer. So when the next opportunity presented itself, I knew what I needed to do to make it even more successful.
Todd and I began developing the Maxx roof product, an environmentally friendly treatment that restores flexibility to aging asphalt shingles shortly after. We went from being replacement specialists to helping the same people extend the life of the asphalt shingle roof they already had.
The very first question I asked was how to build the business around this, because I had just spent 25 years stuck in the exact same cycle. I could have executed this same playbook in my sleep, but what I really wanted was a business that scaled because it simply worked rather than because I was there.
Todd and I considered options as we continued to develop the product, and for a while we considered turning it into a franchise. A good friend of mine who helped design the dealership model for Andersen’s Renewal warned me not to go that route and I listened.
This is the true gift of a second time around. You’re not smarter, but you finally know what questions are important and you know enough to ask them of someone who’s already answered them.
The dealership model changed the calculus of the entire business. Franchising can work for pizza and burgers, but in many of these systems the business makes money through upfront fees whether the franchisee prospers or not.
Roof Maxx only earns when a reseller buys a product, and a reseller only buys a product when it gains customers. Their growth and our growth are ultimately the same thing, which means the business could easily grow without growing me or my brother.
After just five years, we had hundreds of dealers in all 50 states. The amazing thing is that as a virtual company, we would have become the largest residential roofing maintenance company in the country, and the only building the company owns now is the factory, and I can confidently say that it is both profitable and agile.
So if you’re building something right now, I want to ask you this: If demand doubled next year, what would actually have to happen for you to be able to meet it? If the answer is that you just need to work twice as hard, you haven’t found your limit. You have found your design and you are allowed to change it at any time.
Mike Feazel is the co-founder and CEO of Maxx roofa groundbreaking green technology company that is revolutionizing roofing sustainability. With over 30 years of experience, Mike co-founded Roofers Success International and built one of the nation’s leading roofing companies before launching Roof Maxx in 2017. Roof Maxx’s innovative, safe and all-natural product restores aging asphalt shingles, extending roof life up to 15 years. Mike is a recognized industry leader, contributing ideas to his former column in Roofing Contractor Magazine and establishing partnerships with institutions like Ohio State University. His leadership continues to shape sustainable solutions in the roofing industry.
