Ep. 24: How David Smith Built, Grew, and Scaled a Multi-Million Dollar Roofing Company with Over 7,000 Customers

Transcript

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Welcome to Scale Tales – the business storytelling podcast where entrepreneurs, executives and experts share firsthand accounts of those magical moments when they achieved something bigger than even they could have imagined.

I’m Alicia Butler Pierre. You know what I love the most about business? It’s so universal. There’s more than one business model and there’s more than one way to build a business, grow it, and scale it. But one thing is for sure, as an entrepreneur you will encounter resistance, insurmountable challenges, and you’ll earn quickly to diversify your sources of leads and income. Bali is the setting of our next scale tale and it features someone who defiantly protected her business from a major threat and emerged victorious

This is Ep. 24: How David Smith Built, Grew, and Scaled a Multi-Million Dollar Roofing Company with Over 7,000 CustomersI’m David Smith, the CEO of Legend Roofing Corporation. I’m currently in Atlanta, Georgia, and this is my scale tale.

It started in August of 2009. It’s really interesting because I never thought that I would be in the roofing business. It all kind of happened by coincidence. When I first started the business in 2009, I went about it not quite as an operator, but looking into this as a bridge until the economy bounced back. We started out doing three, sometimes four roofs during the course of a month. When we started, we were averaging about $2,500 for each roofing project that we did.

That’s net profit. So our profit was running between $10 and $12,000 a month. On a good month in 2009, when I got to my fourth roof, I realized the total net profit of about $4,800. And I said to myself in 2009, I wonder what it would be like if I could do
10 of these roofs every month, then my net income would bounce up to about $48,000 a month. And I set out with that as a goal in mind. it’s amazing how you surround yourself with people and they help you to elevate and achieve your aspirations. I met with a business consultant and we spoke…

“Well, David, let’s position your company one day where perhaps your net revenue runs close to a million dollars a year.”

At the time, I certainly couldn’t fathom that sort of money and revenue coming through the company. But sure enough, within a few short years, we started eclipsing the million-dollar mark. Legend Roofing has serviced now over 7,000 customers in the metro Atlanta area, in the surrounding counties, and we have delved into the commercial sector.

In 2023, we recorded a revenue annually of $3.7 million. It’s fascinating because oftentimes people will ask me questions and they’ll look at me and they’ll speak to me more in a present tense, and they’ll talk about how successful the company has become and the amount of business that we’re doing. But, oftentimes they don’t see the nightmares and the long nights and the stressful days and the situations that pop up that are very challenging to a business owner. All that glitters isn’t gold.

I think that we’ve become a society, in large part, that has always looked at the end product and not really looked at the journey involved to get there. I do want to say something that’s really important for any entrepreneur that wants to scale their business is that they set goals, they write them down, they review them, and that their mission statements and their goals are clearly outlined to themselves, their customers and their teammates if they have employees working for them.

I think that a clear, concise vision is uber important. That’s going to be some of the challenges that we face in this coming year as we expect to 5x our revenue and break the $15 million annual revenue mark. There’s a lot in the pipeline, I know that there’s going to be a lot of challenges that we’re going to face.

But David is not one to back away from a challenge. As he sees it, overcoming challenges and obstacles are simply part of that journey he just mentioned. In fact, as a native New Yorker, he managed to escape some of the trappings of living in a large city and, in many ways, started over when he relocated to Atlanta and began a career in sales.

I remember it vividly as though it was yesterday. In my previous life, I had a 20 year career in the car business and not just any car. We sold exotic cars – Ferraris, Porsches, and I was involved in management positions with high end European car dealerships. One day I just happened upon a conversation a group of guys was having and one of them made mention to the roofing business. It really didn’t take me long to figure out that every structure that we seek refuge in – our homes at the end of the day, the office that we drive into, the place of worship that we go to worship they all have roofs.

Our favorite restaurants that we eat. And none of them last forever. And oftentimes they require a good bit of maintenance and their timeframe for replacement can vary anywhere from five to 20 years. It makes it that sort of product that everyone’s going to need. I spoke to the gentleman a little more. I asked him, “Why haven’t you gotten into this business if it’s so great?” And he made a statement that I often hear when I’m out and about meeting with people. And it’s just that he was so comfortable in the role that he had as a car salesman that he didn’t want to take the risk of trying something new

Well I quickly asked him for the phone number and the name and contact information for the manager at the roofing company, and I went right over and I interviewed, and he hired me on the spot, and the rest is history. I worked for this company for six months, and I figured out how everything worked, and I took a risk and I started my own.

And David never looked back. At the time of this recording, it’s been 15 and a half years since he started Legend Roofing. He remembers those early days when he was able to put his years of sales experience to use. 

Starting a business, you really don’t have a blueprint, you kind of do what’s right and what feels uncomfortable. There were a lot of grassroots or guerrilla tactics, that I implemented. I did reach out to my existing client base that I’ve had over the years in the car business. But I also did things like get up every morning and go to areas where geographically and demographically I knew that the roofs were ending their life cycle.

And I would go door to door, I would create my own flyers. I really don’t have any graphic design expertise, but I did the best to print a document which got a message across very clear and concisely. And I brought it door to door with me every day. And just about every day, I came home with a contract. The business just grew because people were so impressed with the quality of work. I think that’s a really big thing that people need to focus on is the quality of their product and the dedication to making sure that the goals of the customer are met.

I joined as many organizations as I could, and I made a commitment to myself that anybody that I came into contact with, whether it was at the gas station, while I’m filling up my truck, or if I’m in a restaurant and I get up after paying my bill, I always leave a business card, and I always share with everybody what I do, because, let’s face it, there’s a large percentage of homeowners in the Atlanta metro market, and there’s a large number of people who will become homeowners in the next few years.

One of the other tactics that I’ve had real big success with is social media. I make sure that every one of my projects, I record some content. And I really encourage people who have maybe a personality is introverted or they claim to be shy, and they may feel uncomfortable in front of the camera to step out of their comfort zone and use some of these technological resources.

We’re implementing a lot of artificial intelligence into our program this year, so we hope that that sends us off spiraling in a different direction as well. Always let people know what you do because it’s not the best companies that make the most money. It’s the companies that more people know about. So constant branding. Constant branding.

And I can attest to this. Being that our offices are in the same building, I’ve seen David in action and, I must admit, it’s incredible. No one is a stranger he has a knack for starting conversations with any new person he sees. It really
is true that people don’t do business with your company, they do business with you and the people in your company.
With growth comes the need to hire more people. David has a customer facing team that provides the roofing services as well as a back-office team that provides the administrative and customer support functions. He explains how he’s built both teams.

Initially, I wanted to make sure that I knew every aspect of the business. I was on every job site, and I would be the one out there picking up a lot of the trash. I wanted to learn every part of it. I would oftentimes drive through a neighborhood and see some people working on a roof, and I would park maybe a couple of houses down across the street, kind of watch their techniques, watch how organized they were, watched how clean they kept the property.

And then I’d ask, is there a foreman on site or somebody who’s responsible for the crew? And many times I was lucky enough to get an independent contractor who was the owner of his own business. We always make sure that our crews maintain workers compensation insurance and plenty of general liability insurance, so that’s a requirement. But once we do a few projects together, you’ll find that like in anything, treating people correctly, treating people the right way, respect breeds respect, and you’ll develop relationships.

So, I’m happy and proud to say that the majority of people that are staffing our crews now have been with us for close to 15 years. And although they’re independent contractors, they work to maintain the highest standards of excellence because they know that they’re representing the Legend Roofing name. And I’ve watched multiple generations of their families expand. Children being born, grandchildren come in. And, it really is a good family. A lot of great synergy between myself and the people
who have made us successful.

The laborers do a very difficult and very dangerous job. My hat goes off to them. It’s imperative that as an entrepreneur, you realize that if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in fact in the wrong room. I really look for the shining stars, as it relates to things like IT, Clerical skills, customer satisfaction skills. I have sought out people with MBAs essentially everyone who’s worked for the company has had an advanced degree.

And what we do is we strive to make sure that they love their position. We’ve managed to assemble a great team over the years. Now, again, finding good people is one of the most challenging things that a business owner is going to encounter. It’s going to be one of the toughest things.

So you may find that there’s a little bit of turnover, but it’s important, as I share with a lot of my entrepreneur friends, that, if something’s not quite right and it’s not giving you the return on your investment that you think, then you need to change that person out sometimes. And there’s going to be some tough moments. There’ll be some good people we’ve got to let go, but there’ll be other people who are just really not up to represent what’s so important to me, and that’s my business.

Having the right people is so critical to preserving the integrity of your business. Assembling the right team is a common challenge that many of us have as business owners and project managers. But that’s not the only challenge that David has experienced in scaling Legend Roofing. There’s building business infrastructure, ensuring business continuity during natural disasters, and scaling to meet growing customer demand. 

With roofing, we deal a lot in square feet just because the size of the projects get larger doesn’t mean that the fundamentals of the project, or in fact, the fundamentals of your business should change very much. Start with a set of core values, and you strive to adhere to those values, no matter what the size or what the number behind the decimal point or in front of the decimal point, as it would be, is.

Realize that life and business oftentimes is a numbers game. It’s important to get in front of more people. But getting in front of more people requires that you have to have an infrastructure in place, and everybody’s got to be clear on their mission, because you don’t want to get to the point where you have so much business coming at you and you don’t have the infrastructure in place to properly maintain customer satisfaction. So that’s been a challenge.

Our business is tied directly to the storm insurance claim business. So when hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms come through overnight, you could see a shift in your business. And it’s for the best. But being able to make sure that you can handle all of the business that comes your way is one of the greatest challenges that we’ve had to learn to be successful with in recent years, as the number of our clients have both grown and then the size of our projects have grown.

That growth in clients and project size is the result of quality, consistent work and work ethic. There’s another important factor that is attributed to Legend Roofing’s longevity in business. Coming up after the break, David will share details about that factor and offer some practical advice that every leader should hear.

Some small businesses fail not from the lack of customers, but from too many. When your business receives positive publicity, it’s exciting! The spotlight attracts more customers and the cash flows in. But too much growth too soon can be catastrophic especially if your organization lacks the business infrastructure to support this growth.

Behind the Façade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success is a book that introduces a proven framework for building business infrastructure. The book is structured into six relatable stories of entrepreneurs who apply this framework, giving you an inside look at how they solve their fast growth issues and how you can too! Pick up your copy today at ScaleTalesPodcast.com. ScaleTalesPodcast.com  

David Smith is the founder and CEO of Legend Roofing, a 15-year-old company based in the metro Atlanta, GA area. Atlanta is known for its probusiness climate as evidenced by its booming entertainment, tech, medical, and financial industries. This sets the stage for discussing another major factor that explains David’s success in building, growing, and scaling Legend Roofing. That factor is community. Listen as David explains more. 

My mentor, Brian Tracy says if you focus on the relationships, the business and the cash always takes care of itself. For example, we have helped a grandmother recently in downtown Atlanta. There’s four generations of people living in our home. She’s on a fixed income, a modest home, but she’s having a difficult time keeping it up. Her insurance company didn’t quite see things the way that we saw them in terms of the damage on her roof.

So they chose not to replace the roof or not to contribute funds to replace the roof. And we saw fit to go out and do the roof for her at no cost to her. We took care of it. While I was in the supply store buying the material, another contractor overheard the conversation I was having and anonymously donated some of the shingles to us. And so we got a lot of the other accessories.

We supplied the manpower, and we got out there and we replaced the roof. we didn’t have any ulterior motives to let the world know about it. We do, in fact, realize that life is about energy, and there’s a lot of reciprocity and favor in the universe. There’s a lot of karma, too. But we knew that if we did the right thing and we made that part of our business model, that we would in fact, get more business.

We are always looking to help people. And we find that in most cases, when we replace someone’s roof, we are really helping them out in a significant situation. So, we’re out in the community. We look to train young men and women in the fundamentals about roofing, because we believe wholeheartedly in the statement that if you feed a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

That’s part of our business mantra as well. Plus, I really think it’s important for the community at large see successful African American entrepreneurs in their midst, because the media oftentimes pushes a false narrative that the only way to be successful is through sports or entertainment. That’s been something that has helped propel me and gets me out of bed every morning because I want to be more successful, but not necessarily for my own personal wealth, but for the wealth and the help that I could offer to the communities.

With David’s emphasis on relationship building as well as having such a strong online and offline presence, I wondered if the majority of Legend Roofing’s business is based on referrals.

Almost 70% of it is based on referrals. We build incredible rapport with our clients. 70% of clients actually wind up being my friends. These are the groups that I rotate within and rotate around. When people know that you care about them, they’re very quick and very intentional about referring your name out and putting it in the universe.

This morning, I woke up to three phone calls. All referrals who are ready to get their roof done. One of them, in fact, we did her roof in 2010, and now it’s time for her to get it replaced again because of a hailstorm that came through. So, referrals are huge. Always do the right thing.

Doing the right thing. Reciprocity. Karma. You’ve probably correctly guessed that David believes in the power of positive thinking and doing. In fact, David also believes in the power of writing down your intentions. 

We’ve got to realize that now more than ever, they there’s a huge quantity of information that’s being disseminated to us. Oftentimes we’re not even aware of how quickly it’s coming to us. It could be something as subtle as a car driving by with some graphics on it. It could be billboards we pass on the roadway. It could be the algorithms which are placing ads on our timelines on social media. So it’s important to slow things down.

A wise man once said, thought travels at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. We’re being given a lot of thoughts so it’s important to be patient, be still. When you can formulate a thought that you see as constructive and a thought that you know will elevate you or move you closer to your goal, that you take it from outside of your busy brain, outside of your busy mind, outside of the place where all of the thoughts are running together. And you write it down.

Now you’ve removed it from your mind and you brought it into the physical world or the natural world. It’s something you could see. Just the art of writing the letters…you know, they say that words are put together based on spellings. Well, if you take the root of that word, “spelling,” words oftentimes cast spells so it’s important that you also speak the right way. You harness the power of I am and you move challenging situations or you move situations where you’ve been successful into the present moment and you speak about them in the present moment.

Take down your business idea, write down a business model, but it should be followed by a list of I Ams. Like, “I currently make $15 million in revenue for my company this year. I currently have the best team of employees that work for me. I am no longer fearful of mixing around in the community and networking events. I step outside of my comfort mode every day.” You can continue in this vein

It’s important, David says, to remove words like “try” from your vocabulary. The reason is because those kinds of words imply doubt.

It’s really not tough once you make that first million, the rest is just following the blueprint, magnifying it, refining it, just going for larger numbers, going to speak to more people. But yes, writing it down increases the success of this dream, of these goals coming to fruition by as much as 80%. So, if anything’s going to give me an 80% advantage, then I’m going to go ahead and write it down.

As David sits in his office with his camera turned on, I can see a whiteboard behind him. It has different affirmation or “I am” statements written on it.

They might not make sense to a lot of folks. They might look like hieroglyphics, but to me, they’re a blueprint. When I finish this podcast, I’m going to rewrite them and make them a little more specific.

Now that we know the backstory behind David’s scale tale, and how he keeps himself and his team motivated, I am reminded of a time that I sat in his office troubled about something happening in my life. He said something that stuck with me. He said, “Alicia, you have to become the CEO of your life.” It’s a powerful statement and I find conversations with him to be treasure troves of these kinds of statements. With that in mind, I asked David if he had any additional resources for scaling that he could share with you in case you are unable to have a one-on-one conversation with him. 

Yes, absolutely. There’s one that…I see her usually once a week. She is a published author. She does travel the world internationally. Her name is Alicia Butler Pierre. You’ve got to really have folks in your corner just like you. And we’re doing this podcast and I’d love to flip the camera around on you because you probably don’t understand how much of an impact you make in the lives of those entrepreneurs and those people that you surround yourself with that are all successful in their own right.

Being a CEO of your life, you control who you spend the most amount of time with. I did meet Brian Tracy once. It was over 34 years ago. The Internet has just opened up an endless possibility of people that we never may have the good fortune to meet in person, to bring them into our living rooms, into our kitchens, and into our offices anytime. And most of these successful people are very open to sharing their secrets of success. You’ll find that it’s not a whole lot of secrets of success.

Most people ultimately are sharing with you the same information just from their perspective, but a lot of it is just already proven. It’s mathematically and scientifically in stone. If you do certain things, removing negative energy out of your life, Wise man once said, “In order to build, you must first destroy.” You must remove everything that’s taking up space or bringing negativity into your area of existence, your cipher, if you will.

And once you remove that, then it allows for the positive thoughts, the manifestations, the goals that you’ve written down to manifest themselves and actually appear in real time in your world, in your business, in your career, in your family. So with everything, either eliminate it if it’s not doing you good, because if it’s not doing you good, it’s doing you harm. And then once you got that room or that area cleaned up, then you can fill it with all sorts of great things, goals, aspirations. $15 million for 2025. I think I’m going to shake everyone’s hand and say, “Hey, how you doing? I’m $15 million to 2025.

There is a way you can contact Legend Roofing and potentially speak to David himself. 

We have a staff that answers the phone around the clock. There’s always a page that you can make inquiries on our website. You can find me on LinkedIn. I’m David Michael Smith. We have a presence on Facebook as well. You can feel free to hit me up on my personal cell phone because I’m really serious about what you put into the universe you get back. I am really anxious to help.                               That number is 404-851-4552.

Thank you for having me. I’m grateful.

Thank you, David, for sharing these incredible nuggets of wisdom. Here’s a
recap of some of those nuggets as well as some lessons learned: 

1. Do quality work always. Do right by your customers and your business will be rewarded.
2. Be customer-centric. This means keeping your customers at the core of every decision you make about your business and the impact it will have on them.
3. Set audacious goals. It’s one of the best ways to make sure you stretch yourself to become the best you can be.
4. Get physical business cards. They are still valuable, even in the wake of digitization. It’s like giving a tangible piece of you or your company to people who receive them.
5. Tell everyone about what you do. Everyone! 
6. . Find out the legal requirements for your business so that you remain in compliance. 
7. Surround yourself with people smarter than you. Iron sharpens iron.
8. Have a business infrastructure in place to handle bigger projects or orders and more volume.
9. Always do the right thing.
10. . Write things down. Speak words that empower you. Think thoughts that challenge you to be better. Together, what you think, speak, and write can propel you to achieve greatness. 
11. Be the CEO of your life! Whether you’re a team lead, project manager, supervisor, or founder, you are responsible for your wellbeing and the wellbeing of your team or organization.

A special thank you again to David Smith. Although he may joke around a lot, he is serious about business so take him up on his offer. Reach out to him. We will have his company’s website and social media handles available at
ScaleTalesPodcast.com. That’s ScaleTalesPodcast.com.

I’m Alicia Butler Pierre and I produced and narrated this episode. Audio editing by Olanrewaju Adeyemo. Music production and original score by Sabor! Music Enterprises. Video editing by Gladiola Films. Show notes by
Hashim Tale.

Thank you for listening! If you learned something valuable from this episode, please leave us a five-star rating and review wherever you’re listening.

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