We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ami Feller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ami below.

Ami, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

We struggle in the construction industry to find laborers who are willing and able to do hands on work. While roofing has a very low barrier to entry compared to HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors, we still struggle to find workers. Funny enough though, we automatically discount about 50% of our workforce – women. In the roofing industry, only .5% of all laborers are female!

In 2020, I put together an all female roof crew. We focused on residential shingle reroofs. I worked with my manufacturer GAF, who facilitated a free training for these young ladies. This happened during Covid, so we had to work with safety protocols to do an in person training, but GAF was willing to accommodate us because they understood the urgency of the need. These young ladies I took to training had to be taught the most basic of skills – even how to properly hold and swing a hammer. At first, they were quite intimidated by the power tools, but quickly came around and fell in love with the power in their hands.

When we returned home from the training, I had set up the novice crew to reroof a local home where the homeowners had been turned down by Habitat for Humanity because their household income was just barely over the threshold for the organization. GAF agreed to compensate us for the materials, and we set to work.

It’s been quite a challenge and we have had some turnover, that is for certain. Currently I have 4 ladies on my crew and they are all doing an outstanding job. One young lady was promoted to my field superintendent position. I would like to have 2 more ladies on the crew to give us 6. Sam Perez is my trainer – he has over 35 years of experience in the industry. He is skilled as a roofer, but also very patient and an excellent trainer. I really don’t know how I would do this without Sam.

Women automatically discount themselves and their abilities. I have also watched women who were excited about the opportunity be quickly cut down by the men in their life before they even try. I think women would be shocked that many things that come innately to us are real advantages in this trade – attention to detail and customer interaction being two things that are top of mind. People ask, “Isn’t that hard work?” Sure it is – but so is cleaning your house from top to bottom! Women know how to work – we are not delicate flowers that melt at the first sight of difficulty.

I myself am a single mother who escaped an abusive relationship. I felt completely trapped by my circumstances and choices. I want to show women that they have viable options, and that there is a lot of opportunity for careers in the roofing industry. As I said, it has a very low barrier to entry, and we are willing to invest in them and teach them a trade where they can be well compensated. There is also so much room for advancement and many different jobs within the industry – from laborer to bookkeeper to manufacturing to production – the sky really is the limit!!!

My vision is to have a company where my workforce represents the demographics of the general population – so in New Braunfels, that means 50% women and 50% men. Currently my W2 employees are 75% female. I never want to be completely female – there are too many spectacular men in this industry to overlook them merely just because of their gender. And that’s a big vice versa!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have certainly had my fair share of hardships along the way. I think most small businesses have, but are not always forthright with their challenges. I try to be vulnerable with others because I feel like that in sharing our challenges we do a few things: we make others feel less alone with their own struggles and we can also provide some insight to perhaps allow them to not make the same errors that we did.

My biggest struggle has been growing too quickly and being profitable. I split off from my brother and sister-in-law in in 2016 and it was not completely amicable. We basically split the customer base based on geography and the sales person assigned. I went from $0 in revenue to having $3M in my pipeline literally overnight. It sounds like a first world problem until you really start to think about it – I had no supplier credit, not trucks, no staff, no crews. It was terrifying.

Along the way, I had a CPA that made a $500k error that almost bankrupted me. Honestly, according to many, I should have just declared bankruptcy, but I kept trying to hang on “one more month” and eventually we worked our way out of it. I also found out in December of 2020 that my bookkeeper had been embezzling from me. Overcoming the financial issues has been a huge challenge and very scary. I am still not where I want to be (are we ever?), but we are much more on the right path and I do sleep at night, for the most part.

I could probably write an entire novel on all of my business challenges, and maybe one day I will. Being terrified financially has been a lot to overcome, but I think maybe what hurt more was the sense of betrayal I have felt at the hands of people who worked for me and who I thought were on my team. It would be easy and understandable to never trust or love again, but that’s also not how I want to live my life. I have made the decision not to be bitter and to have faith in my team. It’s the only way I can successfully do life. But I do have a little PTSD from time to time!

I think the biggest thing I have learned through all of this is that my business does not define me. Sure, it’s a huge part of my life, I want it to be successful. It’s fun to win!! But I also know now that if for whatever reason that does not happen and it’s not what God has in the cards, I will be okay. It sounds like such a simple thing, but I just recently learned that. If I open up my life and take things one moment at a time, just concentrating on living in the exact moment I am currently in, there is a great peace to be had.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I had a lot of naysayers when I rebranded my company to “Roofer Chicks” in 2020. People argued with me that I had spent years (8) building up the brand of Feller Roofing. The company had a great reputation and was very well known. People felt like I was just throwing all of that away but rebranding to a new name. They felt strongly enough about their opinion that I really began to second guess myself. I also had men who worked for me who were not thrilled with the name, and I could completely understand how they felt, and I felt badly for what I was doing to them!

I wanted to change my name for a few reasons. First, I had split the company with my brother in 2016 and it was a very quick transition – I had a mere 10 days to file for an LLC, get insurance, set up supplier credit, set up my CRM, hire employees and find roof crews. There was really no time to sit and ponder what the name of my company should be. Second, without getting into a bunch of family skeletons that live in a closet, I actually have zero “Feller” blood running through my veins, so it seemed a bit crazy to me that I was trying to build some sort of empire under a false name. Third, almost every roofing company in America is someone’s “{First or Last Name} Roofing,” and their logo is their company name with some roof tops sticking out of the top. It seems to me that if I ever want to franchise or sell my company, I would be better off not to have my name on it. I am not currently planning on franchising or selling, but I can also see that those things are possibilities.

My brother had had “Roofer Chick” placed in my back window back in 2013 as a joke of sorts, and over time, I became known in town as the Roofer Chick. My marketing company, Ballistic Marketing, had also helped me develop a super hero who I named Lucy to represent the Feller Roofing brand. Between these two things, I did not think that changing the company name to “Roofer Chicks” was a huge leap, and I finally just took a deep breath and did it.

It has not been nearly as traumatic as expected, I am happy to report. Also, the men at my company are good with the name. I have learned that it is more important for them to feel valued and like they are a critical component of this company (which they are) than what the name of the company is. And honestly, there’s a lot of fun and great jokes (which I can’t tell here) to be had when you are a man AND a Roofer Chick.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.RooferChicks.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rooferchicks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RooferChicks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/56352323/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Fellerroofingnb
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/feller-roofing-of-new-braunfels-new-braunfels-2?osq=roofer+chicks