Aaron Christy has always carried an entrepreneurial spirit, but didn’t find the roofing industry until relatively late in his business career at age 35. And he’s sure glad that he did.

Christy started working full-time for the family business – in publishing – right after high school and excelled at sales throughout his twenties and early 30s. While the six-figure salary and monthly cross-country travel had its draw, the demands took its toll on his young family and his emotions. It wasn’t until he took a bleary-eyed glance at his hotel rewards balance that he realized how foolishly he was allocating his time.

“I did the math on it and realized ‘Oh, my God! I’ve spent six years of my life just in that (hotel chain). I’m gone all the time, missing my kids growing up. And I knew I just had to do something different,” he said.

So, Christy did what any aspiring roofing contractor with a proven track record of sales and marketing experience would do—and opened a discount furniture store in greater Indianapolis. In the process of launching that endeavor, a friend who recognized Christy’s knack for selling asked if he’d like a side hustle converting roofing leads. He had reasonable success but turned his focus to the furniture store, until realtors he met while chasing roofing leads kept calling. Here’s the rest of the story.

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt of the interview and has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

So you started a roofing company because market conditions dictated that you should?

AC: By the third or fourth call, I was like ‘Why am I turning down business?’ So, I opened a roofing company with the intent of when somebody calls me, I’d do the roof. And then we had a storm in August 2018 … and I did some grassroots, guerilla marketing to about 2,000 realtors I had contacts for, and it blew up. Next thing I know, I’m booking 10 appointments a day.

Did you worry if that would be sustainable or did it not matter?

AC: I realized because of what I did previously traveling around, and in talking to people and helping people with roofing, I liked that way more than selling discount mattresses at my furniture store. So, I handed that furniture store off and went into roofing full-time. I made the commitment that this is what I'm gonna do.

Without a roofing background, how steep was your learning curve?

AC: I had the marking and sales down, but I had to learn about roofing. So, I watched every online video I could watch; I went to every conference I could get to; and I reached out to other successful roofing company owners, and a lot of them were very helpful.

Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?

AC: You can’t always rely on storms, and we’ve shifted toward more retail in the last year-and-a-half. The insurance market is also shifting as a whole, and I think it's going to get harder and harder to get approvals. Which means it’s going to get harder and harder to get paid appropriately.

We’re doing a lot more retail. And we’ve responded by doing a full pitch for upgrades. I realized we’re kind of doing a disservice when we’re just doing a roof and not even offering them more options like impact-resistant shingles and other upgrades. People want quality.

Do you see your age as an advantage or disadvantage in this business? Why or why not?

AC: I didn't come from this industry, so I feel like that was a benefit to me because I didn't come in doing it this way my whole life. I didn’t have any skewed thought process because of how I was doing something already forever. I took an outside, unbiased view of it and then learned from people.

What area of the roofing business are you most passionate about? Why?

AC: I’m committed to life-long learning and as a business owner, you never truly clock out. You never really stop thinking about it, and when it’s something you want to do, you keep thinking about how you can improve, get better and make things better for customers. I really enjoy that.

What are you excited about next? What are your future plans?

AC: We'll see where everything goes with private equity and how what they're doing out there is going to shift the market. I’ve started an insurance brokerage and am a licensed insurance agent, as well, so if homeowners are getting any grief, I may put my agent hat on and help.

Any other advice for contractors?

AC: The one thing is the people that are successful truly care about people. They respond to people, they have conversations, and they want to help people.