The Key to Growth is Hiring the Right People
Chris Baldus built Ridgeline Roofing from scratch in 2020 with childhood friend Scott Bullard after leaving their prior employer. He credits hiring driven people, strong culture, and financial discipline for growing to multiple locations, and recently brought in private equity backing to fuel geographic expansion.
Questions this video answers
May–June 2020
Six locations in four states (with two additional locations planned to open in the next 3–6 weeks)
Bertram Capital
Host referenced growth figures: $8M → $13M → $24M over recent years (context: rapid multi-year growth)
Chapters
One thing I've learned about a lot of people that have had success is they all have big goals. And I make every one of my employees write their goals down at the end of the year. But business or personal, obviously personal, they don't have to share with me. Business, I make them share with their management team. And I want to know what your goals are. And by the way, I highly recommend you write down personal goals. You don't have to share them with anybody, but you should have goals. It doesn't have to all be business. Like, you should live off of making a goals list and making sure that you stay on track and maintain that. So what do you got to do to hit those? And I'm a big believer in that. And so finding people that are willing to do that. There's a lot of people out there that they're perfectly content with what they are. They don't have a big drive or passion to, you know, to get to that next level. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with that. If that's what makes them happy in life and they come from it, good for them. And there's nothing wrong with that. But in this business, in this business space and kind of what we're looking for, we gotta find people that are pretty driven and passionate and want to grow. And so we're just reading those people and trying to figure out if we can find the right.
Hey, everybody. Welcome to Contractor Radio. I am your host, Jim Johnson with Contractor Coach Pro, where we help contractors. Contractors lead their businesses better so they can grow their businesses and then achieve that personal and financial freedom they were chasing when they started their business. And I'm pretty excited today because I've got a guy on that looks like he's been able to do that track quite well over the last three and a half years. And I wanted to interview him because you don't see people grow like this quite the way he has. And then what his plans are to continue growing, how he's maintaining it, some of those hurdles that people run into in those first three years, because a lot of times you'll see people grow in that amount of time, but what allows them to maintain and sustain for longer than that tends to be a common theme in this industry. And so I want to hear him share a story with you guys. But before that, if you're looking to grow your business and get control of it through great leadership, go check us out at Contractor Coach Pro. You can go there. Contractorcoachpro.com, click on the Take assessment button, and we'll do a little assessment of your business, which will then allow us to have a coaching call with you. That's free, not a sales pitch, but we'll actually coach you on the two or three things that you could probably do next to propel your business forward. If you like coaching, want to work with us, great. We'd love to have you. But if not, at least we served you well and we're helping our industry be better for the consumer out there in general. So without further ado, I think we should bring our guest in today. From everything that I've seen, heard, researched, and everything, pretty impressive. Chris Baldus with Ridgeline. Hey, Chris, great to have you on the show today. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your history, how you got into this industry, and then what's happened with Ridgeline over the last three and a half or so years.
Yeah, absolutely. So got into this industry back in 2010. It was not too long right after the Great Recession, obviously a tough time for anybody that. That worked or lived through that area. It was a challenging time in a lot of different industries and spaces. I had a pretty good job. Unfortunately, due to the economy crashing, the company I worked for went bankrupt. And I was out of a job. I had to figure out what to do, right? So during that process, I just bought my first house. I was six months, Six months or less than a year into my new home. And all of a sudden, I don't have a job anymore. I'm a, you know, early 20s, mid, early mid-20s guy with a. With the house and no job wasn't nice. And I remember it like it was yesterday. So I immediately, being the personality type that I am, I'm a go getter. I immediately went out trying to find something to do. I actually got a job with Lowe's and got hired in as a manager. I started out as a team lead for about a week or two. They upped me to department manager over building materials. Did quite well there in a few months time. And they ended up transferring me out to another store. And right when I got to this new store, it wasn't a few weeks and roofing company came in and said, hey, we want to buy materials from you. I'm like, okay, but we need really competitive pricing. We're a new company in town. This is what we do. Can you help us out? Needless to say, I did everything I could. I ended up winning their business and we started selling a lot of roof and material to this particular company, and they immediately started recruiting me to come try to sell for them. They were telling me how the grass is greener on their side. And, you know, one of the guys that was recruiting me actually was a sales manager, which was a higher position than I was with Lowe's when he had left from another state. And they just continued to push how great this roofing space was. And, you know, it's the best thing that you could ever be a part of. And let's face it, you don't make a killing. Or at least then during the recession, as a new hire as a department manager at Lowe's, and I was getting behind on all my bills, literally months almost in foreclosure, months behind on my car, months behind on my medical bills. Just was in a really bad spot. I was literally working at Lowe's as a manager and mowing grass out of my Honda Accord in the afternoons or in the mornings, depending on my schedule, to try to make ends meet. And I still. I still could not make ends meet. I was literally. My power was getting shut off. Every, basically every two months, three months, they would shut my power off and I'd have. I basically would have to cycle which bills I could pay that month to try to not fall behind. And it wasn't because I was going out or having fun. I was working every day, you know, living off ravioli and anything else that came in a can, just trying to survive. Had a young. A kid on the way and was, you know, quite frankly, scared, and I had to make some adjustments. So I called a friend who was actually. Who's actually an insurance agent and just said, hey, this company keeps asking me to come work for them. And this is what they say. And his advice was simply, chris, you're basically at rock bottom. What do you have to lose from a financial standpoint? So I tried it and went out, signed two contracts my first day, zero training. I didn't get a lick of training. They gave me a contract. I said, where do they sign what information I've been filled out? What am I looking for? And that's what I did. I went out there and I did it. And within about six weeks, they asked me to become the manager there. They had a few guys leave to go start their own company, and the rest of them were going back up north because it was about to be spring and it was time for them to get back to their. Their home base. They came down for the wintertime to be able to sell during their off season, I guess you could say up North. And needless say, I accepted it again, I didn't have anything to lose. I started selling part time on the side for the first couple weeks just to give it a try. Ended up accepting that job. They gave me a really small salary, just enough to kind of help pay for gas and a little bit of bills. And that's how I got into the business. I started it, and within six weeks, I was running an office. It was me and a secretary. And I ended up being the general manager and running that company for roughly 10 years. Yeah, so we. I was there. I'm very loyal to the people I'm with and the people I work for. Brought my best friend in from kindergarten, which is Scott Bullard. He's my business partner to this day. He came in as operations manager after about six weeks with me, and he actually helped me sell part time. And then when I took the GM job, he eventually came in full time about six weeks later as operations manager. We stayed together the whole time. Best friends since kindergarten. We literally went home day one in kindergarten. We went home together after school. And that was 35 years ago today. And he's still my business partner.
And.
And it's a unique relationship and it's a big part of our success of where we got to today because of that. And super thankful for the relationship not only with him, but his family's like my second family. And it's just been a really, really cool journey from that perspective. But we ended up running the company, and we did that for 10 years. Really thought that we would take over that company. The owner was getting close to retirement, and we just could not have come to an agreement on our views of how to run the company and kind of what we wanted. And that's okay. You know, we. We decided to part ways. And that was in 2020. In June and late May and June, we started Ridgeline. And you know, three and a half years later, here we are. Got six locations in four different states, about to open up our next two locations here in the next three to six weeks and growing. Got a partner here recently. We now have a private equity backing partner, which is Bertram Capital. They're my new partners. And Scott and I are new partners. We've been working together for about six weeks now, and it's been awesome. Been a phenomenal ride with it.
Wow, man. Quite a story. Well, can I ask what you were doing before you got into, like, the recession happened and it lost. What were you doing before that?
Putting in irrigation systems in. In new construction homes, Putting in Irrigation systems in their yards. I was a foreman for a truck and that's what I was doing. Digging in dirt 12 hours a day, 70, 80 hours a week.
Something you knew you weren't going to do the rest of your life, right?
No, yeah, it was good money. I was young, you know, I was 20 something years old, made really good money and you know, 21, 22 years old. I was in the golf course industry before that. I really enjoyed the golf course industry as well. I was, I actually was a superintendent of a golf course at 19 years old. So I ran. At 19, I was a superintendent over a semi private golf course, which is pretty cool. I really thought that was going to be my career. And, you know, some other offers came along with the irrigation, offered me significantly more money. It was hard to decline. Ended up doing that and got a little comfortable with that. And then obviously the economy crashed and things changed. Yeah, but all for the better.
Yeah, you learned some pretty good things. I think we got to kind of go through those things to be good at the other things, right?
That's absolutely.
Yeah, man. I sit there, I'm like, yeah, it sounds like me, like, but earlier way before you. I'm probably significantly older than you are, but hard times, hungry, you know, willing to maybe take a risk here and there and, and it seems to have played out well for you. What were some of the things that you would say were the. Because I noticed like you were there 10 years. That's a long time in this industry for somebody that's good to be working for somebody else. What were some of the things that you found to be valuable for spending that amount of time that helped you actually start your own business?
You know, the biggest thing, I think that if I had to look back and really think it through, I run my business pretty significantly different than my previous employment. But I did learn about the industry in general. I learned a ton about the insurance side of things, especially from supplementing the importance of, you know, getting proper documentation. You know, just understanding the industry, where it was going and really just understanding that, you know, everybody needs a roof, right? You gotta, you know, it's pretty important thing that you have. I, you know, early on in my career, I always said, this is too good to be true. There's gonna be, there's gonna be too many, there's not gonna be enough roofs. We're gonna run out. And, you know, they explained to me, well, if you really think about the cycle, how many roosts are in an area, what the percentage of them, the Truth a year, it really plays itself out. And. And that kind of registered a little bit. I'm like, yeah, you're right. And sure enough, it's. That's never slowed down. Matter of fact, I would argue it's the opposite of that. And it's been pretty significant, so. Which is crazy when you think about it. But, yeah, that's probably my biggest thing.
Is that, yeah, it's a thing that's gonna have to be replaced. It's required, you know, every 20 or so years. And if you have a market that's any decent size, you kind of get this repeat customer thing. And with the storm stuff on top of that, it makes a big difference as well. So there's a big difference between running a business for somebody else and then owning your business and all the stuff that comes in with that. Are there. Were there some things you weren't expecting or did you have enough time before that? You didn't have that big new piece of knowledge that you had to figure out as an owner?
No, I think I'd actually expected it at all. I think the whole recession, almost losing everything I had really kind of in hindsight, set me to where I. Where. Where we are now and became is. I got really. I got really strong minded about finance and how to operate not only my personal income and my personal household for my family, but even in business, you know, even though I didn't do anything wrong in those scenarios, the economy, you know, what happened, happened. And if you're not prepared, you get in trouble. Well, it's no different running a business. If you're not prepared, you get in trouble. Right. And I've made it very clear to myself that I was never going to put myself in that position ever again. And I've kind of lived by that motto ever since, including running a business. You know, we just believe in doing things the right way. We stay out of debt. We don't owe people money. You know, we pay our vendors off weekly. We just. We've always believed in that. You don't spend more than you make. Right. And I think a lot of contractors forget that because they don't pay attention to what they're doing or what they're spending or they're not looking at their P. Ls, they're not looking at balance sheets. They're just doing all these things. And you can sell as many roofs as you want. But if you don't know how, if you're not watching how you run your company or spend your money and make sure the Right. Resources in place. You can very easily disappear. You as well as anybody knows that from where you came from and all that. I've seen companies that were really big revenue companies that bottled out very quickly. And you're like, how in the world could you have done that much revenue and completely disappeared? You know, they don't take care of themselves. They didn't, they didn't pay attention.
You said something that was really key there. Don't spend more than what you make. But I think a lot of contractors don't know what money they've made. They kind of know what's in that bank. Right? They know what's in their bank, but they're not watching those P. Ls, they're not watching the balance sheet. They're not watching cash flow and work in progress. Really understanding what. They kind of have this about thing about them. And what I mean by that is they know about how much money they have. Like, hey, I know I got this much going out in bills for their labor, and I got this much going out for material. So I got this much kind of left over. They're doing a lot of that kind of about and that kind of thing instead of, I have exactly that amount of money because 1 or 2% off. And that can really put you in.
A world of hurt.
So is that a background that you had coming into it as a pretty strong financial background? Because usually I see companies go out of business for one of two reasons. One is they have a lack of just business knowledge and leadership abilities or they have bad financial abilities. Is that something that you just naturally picked up or did you get some training somewhere? How'd that work?
Yeah, I would say it's more naturally picked up, but again, the, the recession is really what, you know, when everything was at the, at the very bottom, I had to figure out how to make it. And that then taught me about finance and what I, you know, I started listening in, I started listening to podcasts, I read a bunch of books about finance and proper, you know, taking care of money, having a rainy day fund, you know, saving for a house and all those things. And then as you learn that, you kind of start learning a little more about, you know, the business cycle of it and then sales and everything. You kind of just put it all together. Never had any special training, but I did read, I did listen. I enjoy finance. I've joked today if I wasn't in the roofing space, I'd probably be in the, like a financial advisor space. I love it. I preach it to my guys. I preach to them about the importance of life insurance, 401k, retirement, all those things are really important to me and I really push on my team members about that because I want them to have as much success as they can. I don't want them to have to work for the rest of their lives until they're 80 years old. And I also don't want to see them, their family ever in a bad time of need. And you know something, you know, they can't sit there and provide for them. So that's a big, big part of what we are and what we, what we push our guys.
Boy, I was sure wish more companies had that mentality of. Because it seems to be that when we look at our sales guys, it's, it's hey, go sell as much as you can. I've even seen people that actually like to see their sales guys poor because that means they're hungry like that they want them to go buy the big trucks and the big houses and the big expenses and boats and stuff like that because they think they'll continue to stay hungry and they're in this mode of always having to keep up with the bills. You sound like you're pretty responsible about this stuff and you actually provide some coaching and teaching and financial advisory aspect to your team. Why do you feel that's so important? Like you went through the recession. I can see that part of it. But how have they received it from you? Do they take the advice or do they go, yeah, whatever dad.
I think that they accept it pretty well. Our team's pretty young and, and they're very driven. You know, again, kind of a separate thing is kind of like you just said and I completely the opposite of what you said. Like when people think about all they care about is the sales. Yes, we have to. We want good salesmen that are going to make it. But I want good people, good culture. A lot of these companies, if they think that that guy can sell one roof, they'll hire them. They don't care about what's their background, what's their, what's their five year plan, what have they been doing, where did you come from? They don't even look at that stuff. They just care did they sell a roof or not. And that's just not my way of thinking when it comes to doing business. I want one of my big things. I say it to every single person I hire and I sincerely mean it with all of my, with everything, my everything. I got all my mind that when you come to work for us. I don't want it to be a job. I want it to be a career. That's the type of people I'm looking for. I'm not looking for someone that needs a job. I'm looking for someone that wants a career with a good company. Now, does every single person make it? No. Some people just don't make it in this space. Or they just. Sales might not end up being for them, but we're very picky with who we hire. We don't hire just anybody. We turn down way more than we hire. We go look for people that we think will come in, buy into the culture, buy into the team, buy into the process. Want to have a really good, successful career, grow. Grow their career, grow their family life and be part of something special. That's who we're looking for. We're not the everyday guy that's going out and trying to find someone that just can go sell a roof or two. That's not who we are.
It sounds like you may have gone to work for the same type of company I went to work for whenever I first got into this thing. But like, hey, I could fog a mirror.
I can remember I was.
I was in an interview that was a group interview. There was like 10 of us all in there and they gave like a presentation about the whole thing. I had gone through a similar situation to you. I got laid off. I was slinging concrete is what I was doing. And I got laid off and I went and got the classifieds. That's how long ago that was, still classifieds in the newspaper. And I saw this job. $75,000 to be a home inspector. So I went to the interview. So I got laid off in the morning at 7 o' clock in the morning and went to interview at 10 o'.
Clock.
By the time my wife got back home, I had a job and so I should go to the training that next Monday. And all 10 people were there. I was like, wait a minute, there is no criteria. I fought in here. You could get in. This ought to be interesting. And I was a little heebie jeebie about it. Like, I don't know if I want to be in this or not. But I kind of figured out what it was about this industry that made it so attractive. And I had a sales background. Like that was the advantage I had coming into this is professionally trained. Like I've been to anything and everything you could ever imagine in sales. And not just like to a seminar, but like certified in it. And you put Me into this world where it really isn't sales, it's, hey, would you like this brand new Mercedes for 500 bucks?
Yeah, you sell a boat, right?
But then there's more to it than that. There's serving the client, stewarding your money. Well, there's all these things that you're talking about that I don't hear many owners talk about. Where does that come from? Like, I get the recession made a big impression, but was it the way you were raised? Is there some value stuff there? Where does that all come from?
Yeah, I think so. You know, I had great parents, had a great family life. You know, I always had a good uprising. My parents were super hard workers. Unfortunately, my dad died when I was a teenager, but he owned his own company, he was a machinist, worked, I mean, dusted on every day, just the machine shop was right outside the home and got to spend a lot of time with him in that machine shop and working for him and doing the fun thing. And funny story, as Scott did too, who's my business partner. Scott can tell you as many stories about my dad as I can because he was there, he was part of it and, you know, learned a lot about value and hard work. My mom still works to this day. Super hard worker. As a matter of fact, I think I might actually have more of my mom in me than I. Than I thought. She's. Our personality's kind of like, she's kind of one of those things. She just can't quit until it's done. That's kind of how I've always been when I get going on something. But yeah, you know, another thing, I always joke about it because, you know, we, we came from a very small school, so we came from A1, a classification school. We had a graduating class of 32 that Scott and I was in. Okay. And we were in the middle of the country. We had one gas station town, as we called it, was about 15 minutes away and another area where the rest of the schools are. So we were kind of up on this mountain by ourselves and we just had a really great group of friends and really good. All those friends had really good upbringings, great families, great parents, and we always stayed close. And every one of those friends to this day has all had a ton of success. And I don't know if you can tie to one thing or another, but I do think that a really good upbringing and putting. Surrounding yourself with good people, good friends, good mentors, I think that's extremely important. And then you just gotta want it right. Like you just gotta want to have. You want to have to have all that stuff. You want to have to have success. You want to be able to have a good life and provide for your family. You want to have good friends. Whatever it is that you believe in, like, you. You got to want it, you got to push for it. It's not given to you. You. And that's kind of how we were. We were brought up. And that's where, you know, I think that's probably a big part of, you know, our raising, I'm sure helped with our mentality on things. And then you just continue to learn and grow as you get older and, you know, and take it, take it even further.
That's pretty interesting. I thought the smallest class as I ever heard of was my son's. It was 55 kids that graduated in his class. But you win.
Well, that's a big school.
Yeah, that was big school. And. And it's similar. Like he had, you know, like nine friends that they were all really tight and really close. Six of them that really, really were like the core. And those guys are still friends to this day. They're all, they're all becoming very successful. You see them really becoming something special. And I think it was a lot of that small town community just you had a lot of support from the other parents and stuff. They were always hanging out at her. Like most of the kids hung out at our house or the other two houses of the parents. And we facilitated it. We're like, I built a house just for those kids to have a place. They had 35 acres to run around on and not, you know, get in trouble. He had a 24 by 24 bedroom with bunk beds and stuff in it so like kids could stay over and stuff.
Yeah.
And just that fostering that. I. I don't know what you would call it. High character is important and it sounds like you bring a lot of that to the game. Now, Scott, your best friend, are you guys different? Are you the same? Is one of you kind of more visionary, the other guy's more processed? Like, how does that work?
Yeah, we are very different. So I am definitely visionary. Very top A personality, very go, you know, orchestrated, business minded. Scott's very laid back. Chill. But Scott comes from three generations of roofing. Scott was on roofs when he was 10 years old and his dad is a roofer. His cousins are for. His brother's a roofer. His. All of his uncles are roofers.
You knew you were gonna get whenever you got.
He ended up you know, it was pretty easy. You know, Scott just happened to be in the roofing space. And that's why whenever I did start we with my previous company in 2010, he was my first call. Like, hey, come try this with me. I. I don't know what I'm looking at, but I'm. I'm pretty good at talking to people and explaining processes. You want to come help me? So he's kind of, he's that guy that he makes sure he can answer any question. If it's a technical question, he. He usually knows the answer or will find out the answer and it'll be spot on. I learned very early on watching him with insurance adjusters and now, you know, general contractors or whatever it may be customers. He's just really good with people. He's got a lot of patience, people like him. He's very likable guy and he's just really good at those things. And that's what he focuses on. Like, he makes sure that the crews know things. He teach project managers things. He makes sure if there's ever some kind of problem, he finds the solution for it. So that's what he does. I. And you know, Scott and I, the one thing that we got really good at a long time ago is we stay out of each other's lanes. He knows that from the operating, running the business side, that, that's where I'm. That's where I live. That's what I'm good at. That's what I've done for a long time. When it comes to how to install a roof properly, that's. That's his line, you know, and he's the best I've ever seen at it still to this day. And I've met a lot of people in the industry, a lot of good people in the industry, and he's still the best I've ever seen. He's phenomenal. And it makes a very good combo.
Well, I've noticed that this is something that seems to be a common theme for the really successful companies is you got One guy that's Mr. Business and Sales. He's that guy and he's pretty visionary. He wants to grow a big, huge thing. Then you got the other guy that's like, hey, I know how to build it. I know how to make him better. I know how to make customers happy. Usually pretty, even key heal, not emotional type of person. I would put my buddy Jim Miller up against Scott. It'd be a great match to see who, which one is the one he was processing 2,500 jobs a year and keeping his cool all but one day. I can only remember one day where he actually got really upset. It was probably my fault for not staying in my lane. Right. And we were good about that too. Like, hey, I'm gonna go over here and run the business and we're gonna make a bunch of sales. You better figure it out over there because we're gonna crush. And he did such an amazing. I like, he's still one of my best friends ever. Just an amazing human being. So it sounds like you got a guy like that. And so listeners, as you're listening to this, you have aspirations of like having a big business. You gotta have that guy or that girl. We've seen a lot of really good female folks on the production side of things that can execute really, really well. What, what makes that relationship so special? Like, I know you've known each other for years. He kind of handles the, his lane and production and, and you handle your side of things. But is there anything else that makes that relationship special?
No. I mean, obviously being friends since kindergarten and growing up together, I mean, I lived with his parents for, you know, fresh out of college. I say fresh out of college. My one year degree, I got in, I got one of those. Yeah. So I, you know, I live with his parents. Like, I mean, they're just a big part of my, I mean they're, they're practically like my second parents. Right. But no, we have very similar hobbies, just totally different personalities. We, you know, we get along great, you know, but when it comes to business, it's exactly what you said, very technical, I would almost say analytical. And where I'm type A, go, go, go, you know, and so our personalities are different, but our goals are the same, our locks are the same. We, we like, we like sports, we like doing this, we like, we have a lot of similar hobbies and we get along great. Our just our philosophies from a business perspective, because of our personality traits are different, which is great because it's what makes us so good at what we do.
Do you, do you do something in particular to keep alignment with him? Because if you're anything like me, I was like, dude, we're going to have the biggest, baddest company ever. We're going to have lots of locations and you're going to have to figure out your side of it over there. And I didn't just throw it out. Like, we actually had conversations, we sat down and strategized about it. We got agree like, anytime I felt like I was pushing them too hard, I'd reel it back in, and he would tell me, hey, you need to realize back in, we're not going to build 5,000, you know, this year. And do you guys have any kind of, like, rhythm or practice that you go through to stay aligned like that?
Not really. Kind of like you. We talk if we're ever, you know, feel like we're stressed or something. But, you know, the reality is me and Scott to this day have never gotten in an argument. Like, we've never raised our voices. And I'm 40. We're both 40 years old, so we've been together for 35 years now, and we've never got into an argument with each other. We've had a difference of opinion, but not. And honestly, not very often. You know, Scott, you know, I think one of the things that works so well for us is I can go if I need something done that I feel like that he. It's better for him to handle. All I got to do is say, scott, I need you to handle this. Okay, I'm on it. He goes goes off and does his thing and make sure it's handled. And again, I think that's why we work so well together. He, you know, he. He's really good at what he does, and he lets me do what I need to do. And if I ever need something that I feel like he's the better candidate for, I just asked him to please go take care of it, and he does.
And that's super special, man. You don't know how special that is. Maybe between the two, like you, you can see a lot of other companies out there. That type of relationship is difficult to find. I'm. I'm very happy for you. That's the case.
We figured it out over the long time. And all the friends, you know, the school and the vacations we went on together growing up, I mean, we just. We just found that, you know, that rare, very rare match where we can just get along very well together. And, you know, again, kind of goes back to two. You're raising, too. Scott's just a phenomenal human being. Good guy, cares, will give his shirt off his back to help anybody, literally. You know, I've seen him help more people than I can ever imagine, you know, seeing someone help. And we just. It just aligns very well. We have really high goals. Yes, we want to have a great, successful company, but we want to have great, successful employees, great successful customers. We just align very well with our vision. Of what we want to see out of people, and it takes it a long way.
So we're going. We're going to get to the good stuff now, I think. So you guys haven't had some. It's all been good, don't get me wrong. Like, but you guys have had some amazing growth. 8 million, 13 million, 24 million, if I remember the numbers correctly, over the last three years. What's allowed you to keep that managed? Because that's not easy, Especially six locations like you got. Like, you and Scott are not in every one of those locations. So what's this secret recipe that's allowing you to, like, go open those locations and have them run smoothly?
People, that's an easy question. People, you got to. Again, it goes back to the big mentality of hiring good people and not just hiring Bill that comes over and says, hey, man, I can sell a million dollars in roof. She let me run an office. Okay, great. Where you want to go? Like, that's. That's just not really how that works. I mean, I guess it can work. I've never seen it work out well or in the best interest of whoever did it. Right. Finding good quality people that again, have the same philosophy and can see the vision that you are putting out there. It all boils down to the culture and the people. We've been very fortunate to make some really good hires from day one, all the way from our very first hire to where we are now, and put a lot of good people in place to make sure that everything stays maintained and nothing slips through the cracks. That's the big part of it. You got to kind of remember that when you're pushing at a hundred percent, if you're at 100 and you're behind, it's probably time to fill a gap. Right? So, and I kind of live by that philosophy is like, hey, when we're close to 100%, when I know we're giving our all and we're barely. We're barely keeping up, it's time to fill the holes and let's bring some more people in, whatever department those might be in, and make sure that we don't get behind and start making mistakes. Because you can get into trouble really quickly if you let that happen. So it's, you know, how do you avoid that? Well, you. You monitor it and you watch it really closely, and you hire good people. And you don't just hire anybody because it's a job and you're just filling a hole. And with anything you can, you gotta go find the right thing to put in that hole. Go, you know, go make it right. And that's what we do.
That's pretty awesome. Is there anything to the plan of hiring great people? Is there something kind of format you follow? Are there particular questions you ask is, do you set some expectations early on, share your vision, like, what is it that's getting you to get good people? Because everything I hear out there in the world is people are lazy, people don't want to work, you know, that kind of stuff all the time. What is it that's allowed you guys to find these good quality people?
You know, I think some of it's just time, you know, time in the industry, time and knowing people. And most of our people don't come from this space, by the way. We bring people. The majority of them come from outside. I'm a pretty big advocate of hiring outside the industry. I think out of all of our employees, probably six of them are probably from the roofing industry originally, before working for me. And the rest are from outside the industry. I just find people with the right characteristics. Anybody can teach roofing and sales and production and whatever it may be, right, Proper picture taking and dealing with insurance processes or retail processes that all can be told. But what you can't teach is people's drive and passion to want to have success and to do good for their family and to have good moral values and, and, you know, want to be part of a team. I, I think those are the things that we're always looking in, the people.
How do you know they are?
I think you just got to get to know people and, you know, you, you can't just sometimes, you know, it pretty quickly. I mean, you're, you've been around enough people. I'm. I'm sure Jim's a pretty good read a character, right. And I feel like I've gotten pretty good at it myself and, you know, but just knowing people, learning a little more about them, listening is a big part of it. Looking at their past, you know, what did they do? How did they get to where they are? Where do they see themselves five years from now? You know, one thing I've learned about a lot of people that have had success is they all have big goals. And I make every one of my employees write their goals down at the end of the year. Business or personal? Obviously personal. They don't have to share with me. Business. I make them share with their management team. And I want to know what your goals are. And I, by the way, I highly recommend you write down personal goals, you don't have to share them with anybody, but you should have goals. It doesn't have to all be business related. You should live off of making a goals list and making sure that you stay on track and maintain those. So what do you got to do to hit those? And I'm a big believer in that. And so finding people that are willing to do that. There's a lot of people out there that they're, they're perfectly content with what they are. They don't have a big drive or passion to, you know, to get to that next level. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with that. If that's what makes them happy in life and they're comfortable with it, good for them. And there's nothing wrong with that. But in this business, in this business space and kind of what we're looking for, we got to find people that are pretty driven and passionate and want to grow. And so we're just reading those people and trying to figure out if we can find the right one wins. And you know, a lot of it is just meeting them, talking to them, learning more about them, what is their goals, what's their five year plan and kind of take it from there. And sometimes we can tell really fast, sometimes it takes a little longer to figure out. And every, every now and then we miss and we think that someone's got it and they don't, you know, and that's part of it.
What percent of the people that you talk to that are thinking about getting into this industry have a five year plan?
Out of the ones I interview, probably about 10%, you know, not many. But you know, every now and then you just find this person, you're like, my goodness, he's got it figured out, or she's got it figured out. You know, that's the people that I look for is. And look, they might not hit their plan dead on, but the first fact that they're thinking about it and trying to figure out what they got to do and how hard they got to work to achieve it, that at least has them in the right steps. Right? Like that's at least on the right track.
Yeah, I, I used to always before an interview, you know, I'd tell them to be prepared. So I want to know your top five goals that you want to accomplish in the next 12 months. Whenever you come in for the interview, just let me know what they are. And then whenever they would get there, I'd say, okay, are they in any kind of order of priority, like One's the most important one. Which one? If you could wave a magic wand and you could it tomorrow would be the one you want. And they'd be like, that one right there. Okay, that's the one we're going to go after this year. If you're coming to work for me, that's what we're going after. Do you do anything like that at all with your guys?
Man, I kind of like when I'm doing the interview process, I don't even go in with the list of questions. I go in very bland, and have a conversation. Like, I try to make it like a casual conversation. Let's talk. And I kind of just ask questions as I hear what they say. It just questions come to mind as I'm trying to read them and get a better understanding of who they are and what they're looking for and then just kind of roll with it.
There's a really great book on that because I'm similar. And I got advised to read this book because I interviewed the way I did. It was very conversational, and I was, you know, very. I asked lots of questions to get people to tell me some stories. And from those stories, I could kind of start to read them a little bit. And this book's called the Perfect Salesforce by Derek Gatehouse. We actually give it to all of our clients. Like, hey, this is one of those things you gotta learn. And it is. That's the whole thing. It's like no interviewing across the desk from each other. I want you to be sitting in a chair over here. I'm sitting in maybe even a lounge room or whatever, maybe at lunch or something, and just get conversational and you start to understand people a little bit better that way. Man, this has been really good. I wish I had more time to talk with you, to be honest with you. If you were going to advise somebody on going beyond one location, like, hey, I've got one location, I want to go open another one. What should they have in place first?
You know, first and foremost is that person to run it. And the biggest thing is, is don't be in a hurry. But you can't be in a hurry. And I know that kind of, you know, sounds odd because we're three and a half years in and we got six locations. But we had a plan and we had the right people. And look, there's probably one or two that, you know, I learned from that. We probably started, you know, not, say, too early, but didn't have the perfect plan in place. But the one Thing that you have to have in place is the person that's going to run it because you can't be there the whole time. You've got to have a like minded person again that you have a lot of trust and that you, you have trust that they would run that company as of it was you and you're not there. So finding that person is extremely important. So you start there. That's a no brainer to me. And how every place I go I start with the person and then I decide, okay, where's the location going to be? Okay, when are we going to start hiring reps? I don't even start until I have a person in place. Once I have that person in place, then we go shopping looking for the, the right place of location for the office and growing the sales force and all that stuff. But that's where you start and you got to have that person there and well trained to know that they don't have to necessarily be even a roof guru, but they need to be well trained in how to lead and manage a team and be proactive on how to grow a very new fresh office. And those are not easy traits to go land all in one person. Right? There's going to be a little bit of, yeah, there's a, there's a little bit of trial and error in some. But it all starts with the right person. Go find that guy that you really or girl that you think can, that can run the show down there and have success and do it the right way.
I'm going to assume you probably have some written processes and documentation on that kind of stuff and probably a bit of a training program. Is that a fair guess?
We have a company handbook, company training manual. You know, we got things in place that we, you know, we live and live and go by. Right. You know, we're very active on having team meetings. Everybody, Whether you're a two man team or a 25 man team, you should be having team meetings, keeping the culture and the morale good, working through things, making your team better. And that goes from management to the administrators to the salesforce. Everybody should be keeping that, you know, having those meetings, keeping that culture alignment there and making sure everybody sticks to that same vision. No matter what department you work in, you need to all be aligned. And if you do that, your likelihood of success goes up.
So last question, where is Ridgeline headed?
We're going to keep doing what we're doing. I think that we're going to continue to grow. Obviously. We got new locations coming. We're going to continue to pride ourselves on what we do and what we built as a company. We pride ourselves on our customer service and the culture of the people that we bring. We love to talk about our team and our culture and we like to show our customers that same experience where they see, you know, they see it the same way we do, which is from a quality service to caring and just being like minded with our views of having great success. And that's what we built off of. And I think we're going to continue to build across the Southeast and even up north and out the Midwest. I think that we're going to continue on that train and we'll see how far it takes us. So we're pretty excited of what these next several years bring. And I'm going to put every bit of effort I can into hopefully making it a success.
Well, if you keep the determination it sounds like you've had so far with the, the, the concept of getting great people, like, that's. I can't say how important that is. And you've obviously figured that out over time after probably a bunch of bad people, maybe even on early on in your past experience, like going into this and you're like, no more of that. We're going to just get good people. Chris, thank you very much for being. I wish Scott would have been here too. Maybe next time I'll get both of you on and get the whole story from. From him as well. But congratulations to what you've done so far and I look forward to maybe checking in with you in a year or two and seeing where you, where you've gotten to. Thanks for being on the show.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me and would love to come back someday. I think we're gonna have a pretty big year this year and look forward to seeing what it does and hopefully get to share it with you soon.
Awesome. Hey, thanks a lot for being on the show, Chris. And we'll stay in contact.
Thanks, Jim.
All right, thanks, brother. All right, everybody. That was Chris Baldis from Ridgeline Exterior. What an amazing story like this, this whole growth in what they've done. Going through some pretty hard times. I heard a lot of things there and it really kind of came down to one thing. Knowing what good people look like, having the experience to go, hey, that's a good person or not a good person. And I think a lot of it related to just how strong a character he had and his partner Scott, that character, it tends to attract people that are similar and to see that is really cool. There's a lot going on there with Chris. We'll put his information down below if you want to reach out to him. But thanks for hanging out with us on this episode of Contractor Radio. And if you're looking for somebody to help you out with your business, you can always go to contractorcoachpro.com, take our assessment there, find out what we do. Whether you're small and it's something where our Liberty League is great for you, or you're really growing and scaling and you need more than that. Some one on one coaching, we do both of those. We're here to help and serve you. And once again, thanks for being a listener. Talk to you later.
