Using equipment in recruiting - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Sam Beiler of Equipter, John Kenney of Cotney Consulting Group and Jason Reisman of Eustis Roofing. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

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Karen Edwards: Welcome to another episode of Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeShop. I'm your host, Karen Edwards and today we're going to be talking about how you can use equipment in recruiting for your roofing business. And we've got a panel of some great folks here to talk about this topic today. First, Sam Beiler from Equipter. Sam, welcome.

Sam Beiler: Thanks so much, Karen. Glad to be here.

Karen Edwards: John Kenney from Cotney Consulting Group.

John Kenney: Thanks, Karen. Always great to be here.

Karen Edwards: And Jason Reisman from Eustis Roofing. Welcome Jason.

Jason Reisman: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Karen Edwards: Okay, so I did the introductions, but I would rather you guys just say a little bit about who you are and your background and what you do. And Sam, let's start with you.

Sam Beiler: Yeah, thanks, Karen. So Sam Beiler here. I'm with Equipter. I kind of grew up with the Equipter company. Equipter's a family business my dad started in the early 2000s, where we manufacture innovative equipment for the roofing industry with our... Our flagship product is the self-propelled drivable dumpster, basically, the Equipter 4000. That has had a great reception for the... in the roofing contracting industry the past two decades or so.

Karen Edwards: Alrighty. Thanks, Sam. And Jason, please introduce yourself.

Jason Reisman: Yeah, my name is Jason Reisman. I'm with the Eustis Roofing Company. I'm the CEO. I've been here for the past 14 years. I grew up in roofing as far as installing the roofs. I moved on to NASCAR for 10 years and worked in that and then bought back into the roofing industry and grew a company from eight employees to over 200 employees that install the roofs now. And it's... I think our biggest accomplishment to date was 2021 Roofing Company of the Year with Roofing Insights. So it was a big deal for us.

Karen Edwards: Nice. Congrats. There's a lot of ties between racing and roofing, so-

Jason Reisman: [inaudible 00:02:22].

Karen Edwards: ... that's fun to hear. All right. John, please.

John Kenney: Yeah, I'm John Kenney, currently CEO of Cotney Consulting Group. It's a consultant group that I have where I worked specifically with roofing contractors in the industry on business operations and training. Prior to that, I was 45 years as a roofing contractor in the industry. So always great to get with a bunch of group of people from the industry to discuss some very important topics like this.

Karen Edwards: Oh yeah, for sure. So I mean, we all know that there's challenges today in regards to labor and even retention. So I'd like just to... Jason, why don't you get us started talking about some of the challenges? You grew from eight person to over 200. So firsthand what those challenges are.

Jason Reisman: Yeah. So especially in Florida, it's a really hot climate. So roofing in Florida is a challenge to just start with. Also on the heights that we have here. But getting guys to do hard labor is very, very difficult and for us to create, we create incentives to get them to succeed at doing that, but also the equipment that helps them do that. But as far as consistency is always the main thing that I look for.

If we can provide consistent work, that really helps with the challenge. But the biggest challenge is you have a lot of seasons, so you have a lot of rain and then you don't. And so when you... or hurricanes. And then in the winter, it's not the same. So the idea is to keep consistent work for those guys, keeping them busy and be able to change your model into different seasons is kind of how we have managed to do that.

Karen Edwards: You're somebody that's working with contractors all the time. What are you hearing?

Sam Beiler: Yeah, a lot of it is centered around the experience of work. We have to remember we're humans, and we like to do things and there's certain things we don't like to do. And so looking at it from the perspective of, okay, how many of the negative experiences from the job site as a whole can we eliminate?

And by doing so, you're creating a better working experience for the actual laborers on the job site. So that's kind of the lens that we look through when it comes to the workforce and creating an optimal experience that can hopefully create a better company culture and ultimately attract better talent.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, I think you mentioned remembering that we're humans. That's so important. And John, maybe you could speak a little bit to how important culture is.

John Kenney: Yeah. And [inaudible 00:05:09] thing I'd like to jump in right prior to culture is, statistically, the labor retention and labor force is harder today than ever. [inaudible 00:05:18] issue for the past three or four decades, but depending on the part of country you're in, it is a two to three retirement ratio to every one person coming into the industry. So right there, you can look at the numbers and know how many people are leaving the industry due to retiring out compared to those coming in.

So definitely, especially within the younger generation, culture really matters. And the three key things is how do you get somebody attracted to come to your company, right. Let's look at our job sites. Roofing's always been hard. It's always going to be hard, but it doesn't necessarily have to be ultra-manual hard, right. There's three things that matter. You run a safe job site always first. You run a quality job site, and you run a productive job site third. Those three things are great for retaining and recruiting people within your company.

Karen Edwards: I think that we talk about making things a little easier, and one of the ways to do that is investing in equipment that can make certain parts of the job easier. And Sam, you see that from the... As a manufacturer of something that really helps with debris and waste removal, you probably see that a lot, don't you?

Sam Beiler: Yeah, and I'll kind of go back to our origin story a little bit at Equipter because Equipter, the idea, the invention, was born out of the necessity on the job site. My dad, Aaron Beiler, started roofing company in the 80s and for over a decade, was roofing before this idea was born. And so the idea came from just him. It was I'm thinking about a million dollar, 2 million dollar a year roofing company. So had a couple of crews, but he was very tied to the experience of roofing, not just the selling of roofing, but the actual labor side. We employed all of our own laborers.

And so it was just looking at the daily, like what's worst about the experience of doing the roof, doing the job of roofing? And one of those things was the cleanup process and having the ability to keep a job site clean, but then also the labor that it took to clean up a job site after the day was done and things like that. That was, at the end of the day, what was one of the most annoying parts of performing a roofing project. And so that's really what I feel like equipment... that's what a good idea is. You're eliminating a core problem. And some of the best inventions, even in the roofing industry, have come that way. Like the nail gun.

Karen Edwards: Yeah.

Sam Beiler: And I feel like our piece of equipment is one of those as well where you're eliminating part... portions of the labor that just aren't fun and that are very labor-intensive and that take up a lot of time, like useless time. Where's elements of that that we can reduce and hopefully eliminate?

Karen Edwards: I think, Jason, in your roofing business, you've made investments in equipment to help people do their job more efficiently with less maybe hard work that... less manual labor. How has that gone over in your business?

Jason Reisman: Yeah, I think it all goes back to the culture too. If your employees see that you're willing to invest in equipment for their future or their safety or the production side of it, they're going to want to work for you. So it kind of solves... The other problem that we have is finding labor retention. And one of the things that we've done is we have CNC machines for metal so that the guys can put some of their own style into the roofs and make them more customized, and they're not going to find that at a roofing company, so they're going to want to work for you.

But one of the biggest things for us, honestly and I love to be on this show because of it and Equipter. So Equipter makes it a lot easier for the job site. It makes it more productive. So those are some key things that they're going to want to work for you if you can do that. And then we use it a lot in our advertising too because we can talk about, "Hey, this is going to keep a cleaner job site for the homeowner to see, but also for somebody that might want to work for us." It looks like they want to invest in your company.

As an owner, when you're buying these equipments, the people that want to work for, you're going to see that and they're going to want to work for you. But also, if you can talk on the fact that you're making the job site easier, more productive for the employee and you can kind of talk about that in some advertising, it's going to make homeowners want to buy from you because 98% of people work for somebody. So when you show that you're creating a workplace that's safe, more efficient, it's... and it helps the person working on your roof, you're kind of selling to both.

Karen Edwards: [inaudible 00:09:57], you have such a long tenure in the industry. You've probably experienced this many times as... even when nail guns came out. And what's been your experience with when you're providing the right tools, are you getting the right people or better people, maybe?

John Kenney: Yeah. I think, and first of all, as you're a contractor, you're always looking at return on investment, right. You have to. You have to be thought of mind. So Jason brought up some really great points. Return on investment is more than just productivity. Return on investment is what does it do to capture my client and customer, which absolutely if I put on my homeowner hat when I have something working around my house, I want a contractor that is going to be clean, respectful and doing something more innovative than just the average person.

So that's a great return on investment. The other one, which I'm finding, is we used to look at it strictly from a productivity standpoint. I'm even getting some manufacturers coming to me, and we're going through these discussions. With labor being as tight as it is because it really is, you're only... you're really going to take... move from one crew from somewhere else to you if you happen to be in an area that has that opportunity. But the way to look at it's if I have a crew, say, of five people and I put on a machine like the Equipter here and now that can replace one person. I don't want to replace one person, so I no longer have them in my company.

How many of those crew [inaudible 00:11:19] with where now I have another crew out producing income on profitable revenue that this equipment is, that's part of your return on investment. So not just overall productivity, but you can actually grow and create additional crews by having less people on a crew because you have the equipment of different variables or whatever you're using it for, to actually replace the person, but allow them to go become a trained journeyman type roofer to lead another crew. So I think that's a big positive in today's world when you're looking at it.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that's a good point. It's not really getting the equipment to replace somebody. It's doing more with less, I guess. And then having maybe additional crews that you didn't think you had the manpower for.

John Kenney: I mean, if you look at it, make it simple. If you got 50 people within your company and you could put some equipment on and the same 50 people... now that was five crews, but that same 50 people now can become seven crews or eight crews, that's a positive, a huge return on investment right there.

Karen Edwards: Yeah. Yeah. So when you're hiring, Jason, I turn to you because you've grown the business by so many people, are you talking about the environment, the tools, the equipment? Is that part of the conversations that you have during interviews?

Jason Reisman: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the thing is that you're driving them to you already. If you're in a neighborhood and you're doing a roof and you have a competitor in a neighborhood doing a roof, they see that any equipment like that, they're already going to want to work for you. That's kind of showing it to them. And for us, we always tell people when they come in, "Give us two weeks, give us two to three weeks to show you how we do things and how the Equipter can change your life and make it more productive." And they do, and they stay. They don't leave.

Once it's here, they're not going to leave. And the thing about it is if it doesn't start that morning, they don't want to work. They become so dependent on it's amazing. But at the end of the day, it does provide consistency still because you can get to a job where maybe it can't get loaded. Well, we can put the shingles in the Equipter and get it on the roof so you're constantly working or you can go to the next job because you have your own dumpster with you. We can call that with the Equipter, and then it's just so much easier. And production-wise, you're going to want to work for me because if we provide you with an Equipter, you're going to do at least another house a week, which is going to affect your pay as an employee.

And that's going to be an incentive, right. That's why we always ask, "Give us two to three weeks to show us our system, and then you might like it or you might not." And I've never seen them go away. And typically, in the roofing trade, we have bad systems in the roofing trade. We're behind technology, right. So when I can show them a piece of technology like this, it shows we're miles above the competition and they're here to stay. They're not going to go anywhere because they're going to make more money, they're going to be more productive and it's also going to be more consistent here.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, all good points. I love that it gives you some freedom. Like you mentioned, you're not waiting on the dumpster rental. You're not having it sit there for an extra day, the day before the job to the day after the job. It's less of a hassle for that homeowner.

But I love the retention that you mentioned that, "Just try our system and if you don't like it, you don't have to stay," but no one leaves. I guess that's how you get to 200 from eight so quickly. Wow. So Sam, tell us a little bit about, you mentioned in the beginning a little bit about the machines. There's different sizes and different... How do you know what's the right one for you?

Sam Beiler: Yeah, so our flagship product is the Equipter 4000 and if you're a residential roofer, even commercial roofer, that's most likely the model for you. Some of our other models are for more niche types of project, but for your average roofing project, the Equipter 4000. And some of the key features that make that product awesome and solves a lot of problems is number one, it's a trailer that drives.

So it's like about just under six foot wide. So you can take it to even the backyard of most residential properties. It has super wide tires that you're not leaving huge ruts in the lawn. But it's basically you can take your dumpster and drive it and then lift it right underneath the eave of the roof. So that's kind of the idea of the equipment is it's this drivable dumpster that you can lift up to the eave of the roof.

The problem that it solves is mainly in the tear-off of the job. Instead of needing to manually carry the shingles across the roof and throw them into the dumpster or the dump trailer that's parked in the front driveway or throwing all the shingles on the ground and picking them up later, now you can go directly. You don't have to handle the debris twice.

It's like you're tearing off the debris directly into the container. And that alone can increase your efficiency by 20 to 30% on most job sites because your crews are not double-handling the material. The second huge benefit of it is a lot of people use it to load roofs as well. Like on a one-story roof, you can put your material in there, lift it, up and have your own lift on your job sites.

Karen Edwards: [inaudible 00:16:40] safety for sure, because it's hard to climb a ladder with a bunch of shingles over your shoulder, but that's what happens on a lot of these roofing jobs. Let's talk about what factors contractors should consider if they're thinking about making an investment, whether that's in an Equipter or whether that's in some other piece of equipment. What do you want to keep in mind when looking into new tools like this? Jason, why don't you start?

Jason Reisman: Yeah. To add to his point. When you look at Equipters, there's several models and I have used every one of them. I even had the smaller ones that you can take around a community building where their pools are at, and you can get through the three-foot gates. I've used their 7000 model to save three weeks on a commercial job so we can get up to the height of it. The 4000 is typically the one that we buy for every crew, but it's the speed. It makes it much quicker and faster. And again, it's the retention. It's all the same. For our CNC machines that we have, the retention of those guys being able to type in what they need and make their own stuff right here.

They can't get that anywhere else. We've tried every type. As a matter of fact, I have all the different sizes of Equipters and we use every one of them every day. I was on a job site yesterday where we were using the smaller Equipter to go on the side of a building where you couldn't get the larger one, and we're able to do the fascia and stuff like that. But community buildings, we can get in and out. And the thing about it is when you bring a piece of equipment in there, and people see you using that in a community center like a church or something like that, you typically sign contracts because people see that and they want you to work for them. You look different.

And so... And not only do you look different, but the retention is incredible for the employees to be able to have equipment that makes their job safer, easier, more productive. But like I said, the 7000 is one of their newest models and we use that in our commercial side of the business and we save time. And anytime that you can save time, you can put that back to the employee. The biggest thing is when you're purchasing equipment for your business is you got to find other avenues to use it. For instance, I always use the forklift as a good example because then you build pallet racks and now you can stack stuff higher and more efficiently.

And for us on the Equipter, what we do is we preload our jobs the week out. So if the guys finish early, at three o'clock, we can go to the next job. We don't have to finish the day at three o'clock. So trying to use it more effectively and efficiently. If you're going to buy it, you got to be committed. And so we train for about four weeks every time we get one on a crew. And so the commitment has to be there from the owner in any piece of equipment, and you have to have the idea of what you're going to do with it and how you're going to be efficient.

So you got to take it much broader than what it actually does. For instance, the Equipter is going to save a ton of time on the job site. Well, that doesn't mean we go home earlier. That means we go to the next job. And so by doing that, you're going to be much more effective productivity for you as a business, but also for the paycheck of that employee.

Karen Edwards: [inaudible 00:19:43]. And John, I would love to hear your perspective. I know you've invested in a lot of equipment throughout your roofing career, and what are some considerations?

John Kenney: Sure. Well, Jason's definitely got the right formula there with the training and everything, for sure. You've got it, and it's got to be from top-down owner. Just because you buy one doesn't mean it's going to make you money on its own. You got to get buy-in from the crews. They got to understand that they're not going to lose money because you're being more efficient, and they're also not going to be working twice as hard, doing more than they normally would do.

So it's kind of a culture thing as well. The other thing to look into is, for sure, safety. You got to be careful on when you're buying equipment. I mean, we're talking about equipment in general. What safety precautions? Do you need any kind of training? Is there an OSHA, a particular training required? Which it can be. And then most importantly also too is insurance. A lot of people forget when they buy these, does your insurance cover you for this, right? Have you updated your schedules?

When you buy a new piece, every time you buy, you've got to update that with your insurance company to make sure you're completely covered. And if you do those magic things, all three of them, as I mean, Jason, pointed it out absolutely perfectly, the culture aspect to it, then you've got success. Your return on investment's going to be internally culturally well. You're going to attract people to get with you. Your customers are going to want you. They're going to recommend you. And what do we always talk about? That's win, win, win all the time.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that's so true.

John Kenney: Yeah.

Karen Edwards: So true. And Sam you... Equipter has options for leasing. Do you find that after someone's rented an Equipter a couple of times they buy it?

Sam Beiler: Yeah, that's usually the experience. My early days at Equipter, when I was starting in sales was usually... that was my number one strategy was like, "Oh, I know if someone just rents it and uses it for a week, they'll eventually buy it." So that's usually the case.

Karen Edwards: How can contractors learn more about Equipter and how to get one?

Sam Beiler: Yeah, absolutely. So if this is something you're curious about, you've maybe seen them around before, but equipter.com. We're pretty thorough in explaining some more... getting the information instantly online. Just go to equipter.com, and you can get a pretty good perspective of, okay, the features of the product. After you're like, okay, you want to maybe check it out a little bit more, I would recommend we have a lot of rental centers across the US.

They are pretty accessible. If it's something you're not quite sure about the investment and you want to try it out for a couple of weeks, a couple of days, a month, whatever, you can look up this on our website as well. You can just find a local rental center and then give us a call too. We're manufacturers, but we... you buy from the manufacturer, so give us a call. We're a very personal type of company. We'd love to chat. So yeah, that's where you can find out more about us.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, I love the conversation today. This... And whether that's an Equipter or the CNC machine, like you said, Jason or the nail gun or the safety equipment, having the right tools for your folks in your company is really a game changer. And I just want to thank you all for being here and sharing today.

Jason Reisman: Yeah, thank you for the opportunity.

Sam Beiler: Absolutely.

Karen Edwards: Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. If you didn't catch that, how to find Equipter, you can visit their directory on rooferscoffeeshop.com. It has their contact information and information about everything that we've talked about today.

I want to thank you all for listening to this episode of Roofing Road Trips. We invite you to follow us on social media and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss an episode, and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.

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