Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Carter
Hi Zach, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Growing up, Ive always been in the blue collar industry. My father was a Truck Driver and was on the road for months at a time and my mother was a waitress, throughout my childhood I spent my weekends or breaks from school learning different blue collar trades from my Father and other uncles. The first time I stepped foot on a roof, I was 12. I was helping my uncle with a tear off and was told to carry shingles back and forth from the pallet to the roof. At that moment, I told myself id never want to be a roofer! In high school, I was a ranch hand and found myself on a roof again, tearing off 25 squares single handedly with a 12 inch crow bar and yet again I told myself I would never want to do this for a living. 9 days after I graduated high school, I shipped off to Marine Corps bootcamp for 13 weeks and spent the next 4 years serving in the Marine Corps. My wife and I got married after bootcamp and we had our first son after being in for 2 years. I received a lot of recognition for my hard work in the Corps and was promoted meritoriously to Corporal (E-4) only after 2 months of being a Lance Corporal (E-3). I got out as a Sergeant of Marines (E-5) after my family convinced me to leave a successful enlistment to come home and be closer to family. 3 days after leaving the gates of Camp Lejeune, I found myself in the West Texas Oilfields doing dirt work. My first day on the job I was carrying concrete bags back and forth to build a fence around a pad site and my instant thought was “what are you doing here…?”. I went from an enjoyable Marine Corps career where I truly loved what I did and loved the team I worked with to now breaking my back in the blue collar industry again. I worked a year to the day in the oilfield and spent every week gone from my family and sleeping in a camper, only coming home twice a week to my 2 year old and new born son. The Oilfield lifestyle was exhausting so my wife and I would take trips to DFW every weekend just to get away and spend time with each other. One day after a hard days work in the oilfield, I told my wife “Why don’t we just move to DFW, we will figure it out”. My uncle told me I should apply at ABC Supply, I saw the career he had and what it has done for his family so I figured it would be worth a shot! The man who interviewed me actually turned out to be someone my uncle hired 20 years ago. ABC supply changed his life the way it has my uncle. I started with ABC Supply in April of 2019 as a warehouse worker and I thought ABC Supply was it for me. I planned on making it a career the same way my uncle has. I was promoted after 3 months in the warehouse to Dispatch handling all of the logistics for the branches 20 Truck drivers making sure product was delivered on time and our clients were happy. After being the dispatcher for 6 months I was promoted again to be the purchasing manager where I built many relationships throughout the roofing industry with local reps, business owners and manufactures. My goal was to run my own branch one day so my manager was training me to know how to perform in every area of the company. After a year or so of Purchasing, I was promoted to Outside sales. Outside Sales was one of the most sought after positions within the company. Outside sales taught me a lot about myself as a salesman and even more about the roofing industry as a whole from a business owners perspective. When Covid happened, I learned that no matter how “Safe” you feel with your career, things can change rapidly. ABC Supply kept most of who they had on staff but I saw layoffs affect friends of mine and family members who were with other companies. Covid taught me that no matter what, you’re never really “Safe”. After long back and forth talks with myself, I decided to start my own Roofing company. It’s rare that someone with no roofing sales experience, especially coming from a distribution background, succeeds as a Roofing company owner. I never expected to end up in the industry but I’m very thankful that I did. This industry has a lot of ups and downs but I’ve learned to love every bit of it. Many of my peers and people who I worked with told me not to do it. I was told I was setting myself up for failure and I was told to “Stay with the Safe route” because everyone thought it made the most sense having a wife and 2 kids. The thought of never taking the leap and living with the regret was the reason I went for it. I left ABC Supply, was honest with what I was about to do, and never looked back. Every Year we have doubled and this year we should triple, We are on our 4th office space due to growth and are in the nicest office park in Frisco. Our team is constantly growing and every move we make, we want to make sure our customers are our TOP Priority. We pay our sales team a lot differently than most in the industry which allows us to incentivize our clients with a better overall product and provide world class customer service during every process of the transaction. We also pay our team faster than anyone else! At Founders Roofing & Construction LLC, We do it different!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has been far from smooth! The beginning was extremely difficult due to having to compete with other established businesses. We didn’t have any online presence or reviews in the beginning so it was an uphill battle to win projects. Also, trying to keep up with my personal expenses while constantly investing into the business and fighting slow winter months made it extremely difficult for me and my family at times
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in residential roofing for storm restoration across DFW. We are known for our overall efficiency as a company, our raving reviews and the product we install. I am most proud of our brand as a whole. I feel like because of our brand, we appear larger than we are and we are viewed as a more premium roofing company. We set ourselves apart with our world class customer service and the product we install.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I view myself as a massive risk taker. LIFE is a risk. Your risk your life everyday driving to your 9-5 job. Everything we do is a risk. Always take the risk, there is no reward without the risk. Leaving ABC Supply with no guarantee of making a living was a risk, increasing our hiring budget and trying to expand even in the slow months is a risk. I’d rather risk and fail then to not try at all!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foundersroofing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundersroofing?igsh=ZXd0bGhkZDJvODR5&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoundersRoofingandConstructionLLC?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: @FoundersRoofing
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@FoundersRoofing24
- Other: Personal Instagram: @Friscoroofer
