My journey out of and back into roofing

I'll be honest. Growing up I wanted nothing to do with roofing. In high school, I experienced first hand the grueling nature of the job while working on the repair crew for my dad's company . Clocking in before the sun was up, I'd pile into a van with a couple of life-timers to head to a job where we'd spend 14 hours on a black rubber roof in the middle of July. I'd come home with glue and fiberglass particles itching my forearms, eat dinner, and crash out to be ready to do it again the next day. This was my exposure to the roofing industry, and so I decided quickly that it wasn't for me. I poured effort into school, excelled as a student, and planned to be an educator.

Despite my best efforts to escape roofing, my fate was tied to this industry long before this. Some of my earliest memories are of my father and his brothers running their startup roofing company out of our house. I'd bug the crew to play catch while they stuck around for an after-work drink in the driveway.

It's amazing to look back on those days and to see what has sprung from that startup company. Today, all 4 brothers have built their own successful roofing companies. These businesses are the backbone of our family. Roofing sustained us through the '08 financial crisis and the pandemic years; spouses, kids, cousins, and friends work at these roofing companies; and it was there for me to fallback on when I graduated into a shutdown economy in 2020.

When I returned to my father's company as an operations manager, business was booming. It wasn't all peaches and cream though. The company was dealing with the classic conundrums that businesses face as they move to new stages of growth. Opportunities were plenty, but now the struggle shifted to managing people and coordinating across teams to streamline the process that our jobs took from first contact to final payout.

That is why I founded RAES

It began with building technology that created a more controlled handoff from our sales team to production and from production to accounting. Over time, that solution developed into a full-scale business management platform designed specifically to streamline operations and enable higher production volume for successful roofing companies.

Our system focuses on filling the gaps in your company’s process, building accountability within and between your teams, and ensuring that you, as an owner, have full visibility over your operations.

While every company is unique, the reality is that there is a formula to operating a successful roofing company. Follow it; your business can grow steadily with limited chaos and headaches.

Our mission at RAES is to help you execute that formula. We do it through a combination of business management software and personalized consulting services.

Roofing has been good to us. Now, it is time to pay that fortune forward and help contractors like you to live with the same comfort and ease.