How to Grow a Family Roofing Company Past 7 Figures
- Build past 7 figures: Diversifying beyond storm work is how a family roofing business grows past seven figures without burning out or selling out.
- Give family real roles: Each of Mark Aumen's three kids owns a function, from operations to sales to the field.
- Market with goodwill: A donated roof became some of Colorado Preferred Roofing's best marketing ever.
Most roofing owners get stuck in the same trap. They are great on the roof and great at the door, so they keep selling, keep producing, and keep running every decision through themselves. The company grows to a point, then stalls, because the owner is the bottleneck. Growing a roofing company past seven figures means getting out of that seat on purpose.
On the Roofing CEO Podcast, host Mike Abramowitz sat down with Mark Aumen, who started Colorado Preferred Roofing in Littleton, Colorado in 2017 and has spent 15 years in the trade. Mark runs it as a family business, with three of his kids holding real roles. His story is a clean blueprint for owners who want the company to run without them.
Why Diversifying Beyond Storm Work Protects Your Growth
A roofing company that only chases storms is exposed every time the market shifts. Mark built Colorado Preferred Roofing as a full-service exterior company so a slow storm season does not freeze the whole business.
That diversification matters more this year than usual. Mark pointed to a shift he is watching in real time at the homeowner level.
When deductibles climb and budgets shrink, a storm-only shop runs out of work. A company doing retail, commercial, and public-sector jobs keeps producing. Mark's oldest son has started bidding bigger commercial and public-sector projects, which opens a lane that does not depend on the weather at all.
How to Move From Selling Roofs to Running the Company
The hardest jump for a roofing owner is going from doing the work to leading the people who do the work. Early on, Mark carried production, admin, sales management, and selling all at once. Growth came from handing each of those off.
Mark got into roofing the way most people do, by accident. In 2008 he was doing land development in Denver when the banks crashed and the job disappeared. A buddy with a roofing company offered him a summer of knocking doors and selling roofs, and he did well enough that first year that he turned down the chance to go back to land development once the market recovered. A big storm in 2017 gave him the seed money to break off and start Colorado Preferred Roofing on his own.
He now has a full-time production manager, a director of operations, a sales manager, and a team lead. That structure is what let him stop being the person every job depends on. But he did not disappear from the field.
The lesson for a year-one owner is that the skills that sell roofs are not the skills that run a company. Mark named the early challenge plainly: finding the right roofing crews, then the right gutter crews, then the other trades, then people who actually wanted to get out and sell. Building the team is the work.
How a Family-Run Roofing Business Divides the Roles
A family business only works when each person owns a real function, not a vague title. Mark's kids each run a defined part of Colorado Preferred Roofing.
His daughter Madison was the first to join and runs operations.
Madison oversees the marketing consultants, the books, accounts payable and receivable, permits, and inspections. His oldest son Alan is in sales and has grown into bidding commercial and public-sector work. His youngest son Braden, who is 21, handles field management, making sure jobs run clean and crews stay on the right side of OSHA and the HOAs. Outside the family, a production director named Danny handles materials, scheduling, and homeowner headaches. Everyone has a lane.
Is a Community Roof Giveaway Actually Good Marketing?
Yes, and Mark called it some of the best marketing his company has ever done. He gifted a full roof to a single mom on Mother's Day, and the goodwill paid off in ways a paid ad never could.
The idea started with a phone call from Josh, who runs a Denver nonprofit called the Bella Joy Foundation that helps young single moms. A mother with a seven-week-old had a house in serious disrepair and no way to fix the roof. Mark pulled materials at cost from his supplier, Gulf Eagle, lined up a labor crew, and turned a discount request into a gift.
He brought a marketing crew to film the whole thing. His advice to owners who find the numbers scary is to stop overthinking the cost.
This is not the first time Mark has used a business as a force for good. At a previous company he ran peanut butter and jelly "feeding frenzies," making sandwiches every Sunday for five years. By the end they had fed over 100,000 people and pulled in more than a thousand volunteers, with local news stations covering it.
A newscaster named Bobby Lewis brought his own kids to help and said on camera that it was where his family got to live out what they learned at church. Community work like that builds social capital that no paid campaign can match.
How to Stay Sharp as You Scale a Roofing Company
Scaling a company runs on the owner's energy, so staying sharp is not optional. Mark's answer is that it starts at home, before it ever reaches the business.
He works out with his wife, runs challenges like 75 Hard, and treats his fitness, relationships, and faith as the base everything else sits on. He also keeps a simple daily habit for his head.
The habit is counting wins against setbacks at the end of each day. Mark said that even on a day where you feel like the bug and not the windshield, you will usually tally more wins than losses, and that is what lets you sleep at night and show up again tomorrow.
That mindset also shapes what he wants the business to leave behind. When asked about legacy, Mark did not talk about revenue or the size of the company. He talked about work ethic, and a specific kind of it: not working hard for the sake of money, but working hard so you have enough resource to show up for your community, your church, your family, and your friends in a way that actually matters. For a family business he hopes his kids and grandkids inherit, that is the real asset.
How to Grow a Family Roofing Company Past 7 Figures
Use these steps to build a roofing business that grows without burning you out:
- Diversify your revenue. Add retail, commercial, and public-sector work so a slow storm season does not stop the company.
- Build the team before you need it. Hire a production manager, operations lead, and sales manager so you are not the bottleneck.
- Give every role a clear owner. Whether family or not, each person should own one function end to end.
- Keep leading from the front. Get in the field a couple of times a week so you stay close to the crews and the customers.
- Market with goodwill. Do one community project a year and film it; the story travels further than any ad.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you grow a roofing company past seven figures?
Stop being the person every job depends on. Diversify beyond storm work into retail and commercial, hire leaders for production, operations, and sales, and give each role one clear owner. Mark Aumen grew Colorado Preferred Roofing by building that team while still getting in the field a couple of times a week to lead from the front.
How do you run a family roofing business without conflict?
Give each family member a real, defined role instead of a vague title. At Colorado Preferred Roofing, Mark's daughter runs operations, one son runs sales, and his youngest handles field management. Clear ownership of separate functions keeps everyone accountable and stops the overlap that creates tension inside family-run companies.
How do you move from selling roofs to running the company?
Trade doing the work for building the people who do it. Mark carried production, admin, and sales himself early on, then hired a production manager, director of operations, sales manager, and team lead. The skills that close roofs are not the skills that run a company, so the owner's job becomes recruiting and leading.
Is giving away a free roof actually worth the cost?
Mark says the goodwill and marketing value far outweigh the cost. He gifted a roof to a single mother through the Bella Joy Foundation, pulled materials at cost from his supplier, and filmed the project. For a seven-figure company the number can feel scary, but a few hundred dollars on a camera crew turns one roof into lasting marketing.
How does an owner stay sharp while scaling?
It starts at home. Mark keeps his fitness, relationships, and faith strong, runs challenges like 75 Hard, and makes intentional time for himself. He also counts his wins against his setbacks every day, which keeps a hard day in perspective and lets him show up for the team again the next morning.
Conclusion
Growing a roofing company past seven figures is not about working more doors. It is about building a company that does not need you in every seat. Mark Aumen diversified beyond storm work, gave his family and his team real ownership, and still gets on the roof to lead from the front. Add a community project that does good and markets itself, protect your own energy, and you build a business your kids can inherit or a buyer will want. That is the work worth doing.
