Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Townsend.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I worked in several other industries before entering restoration construction, but I always wanted to own a business. When I was in college in the early 2000s, supply chain management was the hot field. Therefore, I elected to graduate from TCU with a double major degree in Supply Chain Management and Business Information Systems. After college, I helped to write graduate level supply chain management textbooks and then after the economy crashed in 2008, I entered retail. I worked my way up to be the general manager of a multi-million dollar clothing store for $1 billion company. We had a lot of success as a team and I’m very grateful for that time because it’s what really taught me about customer service, leading people, and how to work harder than anyone else. I left there to go back to school For a Master’s degree and ended up becoming a college professor focusing on philosophy, ethics, and business.
To help pay the bills, I took a job working for a roofing contractor. The original job was supposed to be a sales management position. However, I quickly realized that the industry was not prone to healthy business infrastructures. I spent the next two years consulting on business operations for various roofing contractors. Eventually, one of them, my current partner, Matt Muehlen, asked me to start a business with him. Knowing that he had a passion for educating homeowners, providing for his employees and subcontractors, and generally operating with a degree of excellence that I find rare in this world and almost nonexistent in this industry, the answer was an easy “yes.”
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My greatest struggles in the industry were dealing with the level of frustration that I find when things are not done with excellence. Texas does not license contractors. Most Texas contractors, especially roofing contractors are just salespeople who decided to start their own company so they could keep more of the commission. The entire industry is designed to harm homeowners. My greatest struggle as a business owner in this industry is figuring out a succinct way to communicate all of the many problems to homeowners so that they can be properly educated to protect themselves against insurance or construction companies that are poorly educated, poorly intentioned, or both.
There’s so many problems, so many ways in which homeowners can be harmed, and boiling all that information down into digestible information is challenging. It’s also challenging to compete in a price-focused market against competitors that have become very gifted at cutting costs by cutting corners that uninformed property owners won’t recognize. I can’t tell you how many heartbreaking calls I’ve received after losing a job to someone over price – only to have the property realize too late that they got what they paid for. All too often people hear what they want you hear, not necessarily what They need to hear. Of course, I help them anyway I can at that point, but often they’ve burned tens of thousands of dollars in funds only to have to start over.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Bearded Brothers Roofing & Restoration story. Tell us more about the business.
There are so many things that set us apart and so many things that I am proud of and so many things I want to make even better. Here are a few:
– We hire some truly amazing people and bring them through amazing training designed by the best minds in the field.
– Matt and I are both huge nerds in the beat and most complementary ways. Matt is a construction nerd. I love when he talks to manufacturers and he knows as much if not more about their product and its installation than they know.
That’s probably why they call him to consult and manage installs when contractors sell jobs they are ill-equipped to manage. He’s the kind of guy that will (and did) become truly fluent in Spanish just to make sure he can completely communicate with all customers and laborers whether they speak English or Spanish. And I’m like a mad scientist with systems. I frequently wake up at five a.m. and will work until midnight tweaking things, answering texts and emails, and running through diagnostics to make sure everything is running correctly. I can’t recall the last time I had to use an alarm to wake up. I’ve been operating like this for years. We are perfectionists. That’s not to say we’re perfect, but we work really hard to get as close as possible. We want all our customers to have the same experience and we want that experience to be mind-blowing good.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck (or whatever you want to call that incalculable factor) obviously plays its role. I’ve had a lot of privilege and a lot of disadvantages in my life. To me, it’s less about what luck I have or don’t have and more about how I prepare for excellence whether things work out the way I want them to or not.
Pricing:
- Free photo documented property inspections
- Free education sessions designed to help you pick a contractor and hold them accountable throughout your construction project
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beardedroofing.com
- Phone: 972-PRO-HOME
- Email: admin@beardedroofing.com
- Instagram: @beardedbrothersroofing
- Facebook: @beardedbrothersroofing
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