How Austin Fricker Built a $6 Million Roofing Company with Only a $5,000 Line of Credit

On today's episode Mike has on Austin Fricker of A. Fricker roofing. Austin built his business from the ground up with a $5,000 line of credit and hard work!

Today A. Fricker Roofing is a $6 million company, and he shares in this episode his methods on how he got there.

He attributes his growth to buildng a QUALITY team up, knowing how to be a true leader, having work/life balance, having structure & trusting the process.

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[00:00:00] Austin: It actually worked out a little bit backwards for us because we didn't start at the top and go down. We started at the bottom and went up.

Mike: You can't teach experience, right?

Austin: Marketing in, in a saturated market. You have to have, and you have to be good at it, and you have to have somebody that is good at it and consistent.

[00:00:25] Mike: And we live episode three of the Mission Control Podcast, brought to you by yours truly, Mike Stearns with Ascend Digital Agency. Say we've got a very special guest, Mr. Austin Fricker, with a Fricker Roofing Austin, welcome.

[00:00:40] Austin: Thanks man. I appreciate you having me on today, brother.

[00:00:43] Mike: Did. I appreciate you being here.

Anyone that's willing to spend more than five minutes in a room with me, I give 'em a lot of credit, so we appreciate you. So take. There you go. Every day is an opportunity to grow. So you are in the Tulsa, Oklahoma market. What got you into

[00:00:58] Austin: roofing man? Uh, kind of a crazy story to be honest. Um, I got in some trouble in my past.

They sent me to a center where I got to be a roofer, um, for a small local roofing company in the area. And that was just kind of the start. It was kind of, you know, it was a blessing for sure. It was one of those things where I absolutely hated it at the beginning. I wasn't selling roofs, I wasn't managing projects.

I was literally hand nailing shingles all day, every day. So that was my start.

[00:01:32] Mike: Okay, perfect. So how long ago was that?

[00:01:38] Austin: Oh, seven years. Eight years. Seven. Eight

[00:01:42] Mike: years. Okay. That's, that's quite some time ago. So what did the road from coming from that point to where you're at now, what does that road look like for Austin?

[00:01:53] Austin: Okay. So unlike most people in a lot, in, in the ownership of a roofing company, I feel like these days is, uh, somebody starts off in sales, maybe a project manager. Then they, you know, have a lot of clients that go out on their own. Maybe they have a background in marketing and then they want to try owner.

Mama's just a little bit different and I mean, it is normal this way. Maybe it's a little bit more old school though. So like I said before, I was just out there hand nailing shingles all day, every day for a local roofing company out of eight Oklahoma. Then, you know, I got a girlfriend, kid, things like that.

They were in Tulsa. Toss is a much bigger market. Eight is like 10,000 people, greater Tulsa's like a million. Okay. Um, I decided to move into, uh, back to Tulsa. Got into the commercial roofing industry. Um, also, still as a, a laborer applicator. Worked my way up at that company to a foreman, superintendent, things like that.

And then, uh, from that point I started getting some side works, some repairs, things like that. And the company I worked for only did commercial, no exceptions for any reason. So a lot of what we did was somebody. That we did commercial work for, had a residential property, right? And the company couldn't fit those needs.

So I would get leads like that. And then, uh, and then one day I was just like, you know, I can't take this on anymore. It's just too much working 10, 12 hours a day there, getting off work, picking my son up from, from daycare, rolling around with my son doing repairs in the truck, things like that. It just got to be too much.

And then, uh, and then Covid. And I was like, Okay, yep, it's time going out on my own. And then from there it's just been counting blessings, just blowing up

[00:03:41] Mike: left and yeah. That's amazing. So just for context, you are in what year of your company?

[00:03:48] Austin: We are. We've been in business for two and a half full years.

[00:03:53] Mike: Okay, perfect. And what do you, what did you finish at last year? What are you projected to finish at this?

[00:03:59] Austin: Uh, we did a 2.4 year, one, 3.9, year two, and this year we're, we're definitely gonna do over five. Our, our push goal is 6.05. It's a very exact number, but that's what we're pushing for. But I know for sure we're doing, we're doing five minutes.

[00:04:18] Mike: I mean, that's, that's really good year over year growth. Have you been able to, to keep your margins where they need to be?

[00:04:27] Austin: You know, it's kind of funny because, uh, at the beginning, whenever I was actually on the roofs installing the roofs with my guys, I was charging. I mean, I, I had never, I'd never had any experience in, uh, estimating sales, finances, marketing, any, none of that.

So what I would do is, okay, I got my materials. It's gonna take me a day and a half with these three guys, plus, That's gonna cost me, you know, this much money and I wanna make $800 in a day and a half. And to me that was like insane. I was stoked about that. So that's what, that's what it was like at the beginning.

You know, if I made $4,000 on a roof, that was just insane. I was static. So then year two, I brought on sales reps, project manager, things like that. Got an office, got multiple trucks. So at that point I realized, okay, whatever I'm doing before I can't do roofs and make a thousand dollars anymore, I'm not gonna keep my head above water.

So then we started getting into insurance work, supplementing things like that, growing our maintenance and repair division. Um, and so then our profit margins really went from like 10 to 20% to 20 to 30%. And now they're more like 30 to 40%, which, you know, it's kind of hard. Think about. Cause you're like, okay, the bigger you get, the lesser the, uh, especially whenever you're earning that growth phase, the bigger you get, the less you're gonna make.

Cause you're spending all this money on marketing dollars, hiring guys where, or girls where there's a high turnover, investing in sales reps, training, things like that. And then it doesn't work out. That's just money down the drain. Um, so it actually worked out a little bit backwards for us because we didn't start at the bottom or at the top and go down.

We started at the, uh, bottom and

[00:06:20] Mike: went down interest. Yeah, that's a, an atypical path I'd say. Um, for sure. . So look, you mentioned something that grabbed my interest and I've heard a lot of debates on both sides of this, and you mentioned like a repair service division, right? So Yes. When did it get to the point where you found the value enough to dedicate roles for this within your company?

[00:06:47] Austin: So, you know, like I said earlier, I. I used to do repairs myself for the company and on the side and things like that. The first company I worked for, they'd do a little bit of repairs, but I was never the one doing 'em. The second huge commercial company I worked for, they had a huge maintenance and repair division.

I mean, their repa