"We can build bottom-up brand new homes if we needed to. I think the space we want to stay in is any kind of trade under a week long to complete... The reason for that, we find, is those jobs, the margins make the most sense and they're easy to get estimates for. The longer the project, the more there is for the estimate to be totally off but have you finished. With week-long jobs, our cost of labor is pretty fixed, any delays might be a day or two—it really helps us keep our margins exactly where we want them to be.

"I think I got lucky in that instead of having to find all of the individual people that we'd hire or sub work to, I just found my one partner and I've known him for years. He's done work for our families. Had this gone wrong, walking away was easy. I found one partner, he knew everyone else, and that's been the push."

"We began running paid ads day one... If the numbers work for you, they always work across any industry. What we found: gutter line of business, there's not that many companies running paid ads in LA and the ones that are, aren't doing it well. So from day one, the phones were ringing... Paid ads right now is probably half our lead source. The other half, in the first few months, was reaching out to existing and new customers—getting 50 reviews on our Google Business Profile. After that, we're averaging one call a day and booking every call to an estimate. We're closing about 40% of our estimates."

"Google is very easy because it's search term intent. If someone types in gutter installation near me, we want to be at the top. With Google Ads, the customer lands on our website, sees videos, photos, our team, reviews—we craft what they see and convert much higher. Facebook was much harder... It's a need, not a want. You can't target that as easily."

"First few months it was my phone—I wanted to know exactly what these calls looked like and answer within five minutes. Now, we have people answering 8am to 8pm... If a lead comes in, we call back in minutes or answer every call. Installation jobs, which are our sweet spot, get instant scheduling, estimator out there next day latest. Within two hours of being out there, the estimate’s typed up and sent, then we have a really strong daily follow-up. Our clients rave about our communication—over-communicative, very responsive, and that's what we want to build."

"Even though we have a team of subs we use over and over, because they don’t work for us, we can’t dictate their calendar... Flexibility makes so much more sense. I might get higher margins hiring employees but then I’d need to keep two or three guys full-time. Right now, we only pay per job. Unless I knew I could get two jobs a day, five days a week, it doesn't make sense for me. Flexibility is way easier."

"If I give any advice… if you’re waiting a year to acquire some company in this space, just build. I’d never been on a roof before starting, had no idea about gutters, and in six months we built this company. Most home service companies aren’t recurring revenue. To acquire a business that doesn’t have any recurring revenue, to me, makes no sense. You're just acquiring a website, maybe a truck. Much cheaper to build it yourself."