Ken Kelly knew his market, and knew how to work storms after cutting his teeth in the business winning roofing jobs after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992. Yet, over the years, he still saw out-of-town roofing contractors that didn’t know the neighborhoods, but knew how to work storms, pull business away from his crews serving the greater Naples, Fla., area.

“A resentment built up,” he told RC in this latest installment of the Contractor Chronicles series. “I was the hometown roofer and was asking myself ‘how could I get more of that work? How could I become more effective at earing insurance work and executing?’”

He started tinkering with a plan that would allow Kelly Roofing to scale up when needed in times of heavy demand, and dwindle down when the market slowed. And it didn’t take long for him to have to implement it when Hurricane Irma devastated South Florida’s west coast in 2017.

Kelly recounts that story and shared how the hurricane response changed his business in this continued conversation with RC.