Five Generations Strong - Tim Brown Jr. And His Roofing Journey

By Cayden Wemple. 

Listen to some of the invaluable advice that Tim Brown Jr. has learned in his roofing career on a new episode of Stories from the Roof.  

Roofing is in the Brown family’s blood and Tim Brown of RGS Exteriors is the fourth of five generations of roofers. A stigma that Tim’s dad bought into was that roofing isn’t a “career,” it’s a “job.” But Tim didn’t believe that philosophy.  

He told host, Megan Ellsworth, on a new episode of Stories from the Roof, “As I worked in the industry, I fell in love with it. And then I went to college, went to a pretty good business school, and while I was in there and I graduated with my undergrad, I had some decisions to make, where to go, what to do. I had some pretty good opportunities outside of the family business, but ultimately decided to partner up with my dad at that point in time.” 

There have been a lot of valuable lessons learned from Tim’s time in roofing management. When asked about some of these lessons, he answered, “Hiring the right people and getting them in the right [field]. And the other thing too, to go along with that, and this is really important, and something I didn't do well at first, is to not micromanage. If you feel like you've got the right person, let them run with it and let them run their department. The last thing you [should] do is micromanage and over-manage. All that's going to do is frustrate them. It's not going to benefit anybody.” 

The other thing Tim encourages others to do is get involved in the industry. “Get involved through organizations like Certified Contractors Network, CCN, or other organizations like that to learn and grow.”  

Listen to Tim and Megan’s full conversation about Tim’s experience in the industry here.