Cleveland Roofing Company Designated Woman Business Enterprise. Angela Wyatt Profiled.

By Lauren White, RCS Reporter.

Starting as the secretary, Angela is now the president of a Woman Business Enterprise.

“I have worked really hard to get here.  I am a businesswoman. It really is all about business, regardless of my gender.”  Angela Wyatt wears many hats day-in and day-out. She is a mother to her two sons Chase and Colt, a wife to her husband Terry of 36 years, serves as the president of Cleveland Roofing Company in Cleveland, Tennessee, and manages rental properties with her son Colt, a business they run together.  In her spare time she likes to hunt and fish with her family.

This dedicated businesswoman has succeeded in a male-dominated industry.  Starting as a secretary for Cleveland Roofing Company, Angela has worked hard to become president of the company, which is now a Woman Business Enterprise.

Angela and her husband met in high school and married after they both graduated.  They lived and worked in Nashville for years. In 1984 they moved to Cleveland to work with her father-in-law who had bought what is now Cleveland Roofing Company.  

After having her first of two sons, Angela wanted to work part-time.  In her interview with Cleveland Daily Banner Angela shares, “I had taken typing, shorthand...and had worked for nine years in the dentistry field.  I had all these skills I could put to work right away...But I started as a clerk, basically, at the very bottom of this company.”

The senior partners of Cleveland Roofing passed away, which provided Angela and her husband the opportunity to become the company’s owners.  After her father-in-law passed, Angela and her husband took over the company in 1991. “As she continued to grow in her abilities and responsibilities, it was decided that she would become the company’s president in 2012,” the Cleveland Daily Banner reported.

Two years later, in 2014, the state of Tennessee’s Diversity Business Enterprise program recognized Cleveland Roofing as a designated Woman Business Enterprise.  The certification process was tough and took Angela over a year to complete. This recognition “...opened the company up to additional federal contracting opportunities, though all so far have been outside of this area,” according to the Cleveland Daily Banner.  Going through this process, Angela dealt with many people who wanted to “walk all over her.” She learned “to be a businesswoman who is kind, but also very firm,” Christy Armstrong wrote.

Cleveland Roofing Company is a small business, and as the president, Angela is involved in every aspect of the company’s operations.  “I’m also one of only five female roofing contractors in the state of Tennessee...I pretty much leave the roofing work to the guys, but I am not afraid to climb up on a roof with them and let them show me something they’re talking about,” Angela shared.  

As the only female employee of Cleveland Roofing Company, Angela describes that at home and at work she is “absolutely surrounded by men.”  While she hasn’t had any issues with her employees, she’s had a difficult time making a name for herself in a male-dominated industry. She explains, “I’ve gotten bullied by vendors and salesmen coming to me and telling me how I’m going to do this or that.  They’ll talk to me in a way they wouldn’t dare talk to my husband...They’ll say ‘Listen here, little lady,’ and I’ll say, “No, YOU listen here.’”  

Having been in the industry now for 28 years, Angela is focusing her efforts on bettering the company.  She is working towards “adding to the company’s employee benefits and doing other things to promote employee retention,” as reported by Cleveland Daily Banner.  Additionally, she is focusing on maintaining a drug-free workplace. Angela shares, “Roofing is hard work. You can’t imagine all the people who will work one day and quit...Our core group of employees is great though.  I take great pride in them and in this company.”

Businesswoman, president, manager, mother, and wife.  Angela fulfills many roles in her life and has worked hard for each one of them.  Being a female in an industry that mostly attracts male workers isn’t without its challenges, which Angela knows all too well.  However, she shares, “I do feel really fortunate...At the end of it all, I love what I do.”

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