At the moment, Remodeling Concepts has 220 reviews on Angie’s List. And, not by coincidence, half of the company’s leads come from Angie’s members—450 last year alone. Half of the company’s jobs are exterior—mostly roofing, but also siding and windows—and the other half is inside work, done with an in-house designer and the help of a kitchen-bath showroom.

If that seems like an improbable division of labor, it’s owed to the fact that Dave Martin knows a lot about building. Martin, who describes himself as a “fast-paced guy,” is not used to sitting still. He became a remodeler in college when a landlord who knew he had building skills asked him to construct an addition. He hired some buddies, built that, then another, and in 2004 started a business that grew steadily until 2009.

In 2009 Martin hit a point where volume was dropping off and overhead was way too high. “I was losing money every month. It made me reflect on some things,” he says. He cut overhead by 30% and joined Remodelers Advantage. The consulting group “made me dive down into my financials,” he says. One of the first issues he wanted to tackle was not so much what his company does as how best to present it to the public.

He consulted two marketing companies to try to figure out if he should have two companies with two names. Both told him the same thing: Keep the name and figure out how to cross-brand it. He’s still working on that.

Takeaways

  • Remodeling Concepts builds a lot of roofs—“We do more roofs than most roofing companies,” Martin says. The advantage to homeowners is that if an issue is detected that goes beyond merely replacing the roof, such as a cracked rafter, Remodeling Concepts can fix it.
  • The company uses BuilderTrend software for job scheduling, allowing customers to have access to the calendar and know who is going to be at their house every day.
  • As the company creeps toward the $4 million mark, Martin says that he will create a “solid split” between exterior and design/build, with one person managing production for one division and someone managing production for the other. “We need more infrastructure,” Martin says. “I used to say: Why do I need people in the office? [Isn’t it] just more overhead? But that’s a huge part of the customer experience. That’s how you get all those reviews on Angie’s List.”