Every founder I know has replaced something that didn’t need replacing at least once. For example, a CRM that worked fine, but felt dated, or a salesperson who wasn’t performing well because they needed more than cookie-cutter coaching could provide.
Replacement can feel an awful lot like smart leadership in situations like these. The truth is, sometimes it’s just what we know instead of the best option, and I can honestly say I’ve been fooled by that myself.
It’s easy to get excited about something shiny and new because the potential for innovation and success is easier to visualize than the risks. But that’s exactly what also makes it scarily easy to stop asking if it’s the best option available.
I Spent Years Giving the Same Advice
When I started roofing, every contractor in the country was giving homeowners the same advice: when your asphalt shingles start wearing down and performing poorly, tear them off, haul them to the landfill, and put on a new roof.
Nobody questioned it at the time. The shingles really were failing, and doing nothing wasn’t exactly an option. So we defaulted to suggesting replacement, and for many of us, that meant we weren’t spending a whole lot of time considering whether there was a better fix.
The answer was right there in the asphalt mix, by the way. The oils that keep it soft dry out over time. When I eventually discovered a way to restore them, everything changed.
I was thrilled (and admittedly a little annoyed) that the fix didn’t become clear sooner. But if I hadn’t kept digging for it, I might still be in that same replacement-first mindset today.
“So You’re Telling Me Not to Innovate?”
I get that question a lot when I talk about this, and no, that’s not what I’m saying at all. The whole reason I found the fix for aging shingles was that I refused to accept the status quo.
Being stubborn paid off in a way I never saw coming. Once we started offering restoration instead of just selling replacement, we discovered a whole new market of homeowners that were being written off solely because, for whatever reason, they weren’t ready to go for such a big-ticket change.
So, by challenging the same long-held industry assumptions that made roofing so successful in the first place, I found something better. You start seeing the same pattern at every level of your business when you score a win like this, and that’s a good thing.
Growth Isn’t Always Proof You’re Doing It Right
Growth is the easiest thing in the world to mistake for proof you’re doing it right. At the time this all happened, revenue was up, replacement jobs were bringing in big money, and the roofing industry itself was running hotter than ever. By every metric I could manage to track, we were getting it right.
But something just wasn’t sitting well with me: that new market didn’t come from anything I bought, built or developed from scratch. It was the very same trucks, crews, and processes that helped us get to a point where we could sell the roofing business and focus on restoration full-time.
Challenging the status quo was what surfaced the idea in the first place, but really, it was our existing assets, people, customer relationships, and business investments that made it work. It restored the passion the whole team had when we first started out almost as much as the roofs we worked on.
What I Want You to Take From This
Start paying attention to when you feel a little too comfortable with the way things are and when you’re feeling that itch to seek out something new. Do it even when you’re pretty much convinced it’s the best way forward and are ready to spring into action.
I know things move fast, but thinking time and curiosity are a big part of what it means to be a founder. Let the people you trust run the business for an afternoon, then walk it in the steps of a stranger. Look closely at the assets you’ve either handed off, stopped thinking about, or are ready to close out, then ask yourself if there’s a different way to leverage them that would drive more sustainable growth or long-term value.
How to Apply This to Your Business
I’m in roofing, but you can apply this to almost any business. Let’s say you’re in landscaping, and your business slows every winter while your trucks and crews stay idle for months. Your instinct is to just lay people off and close down until the spring. It’s what so many small local businesses do.
Put a plow on the front of the same trucks, and you can easily offer snowplow services and help with storm cleanup all winter instead. With one simple change, you can keep servicing the residential and commercial lots you already maintain year-round. Take it a step further, and you might even be able to score municipal contracts and slowly expand into a valuable service everyone needs nationwide.
Be willing to question if there are ways to step ahead of the crowd by innovating the same services you already provide, too. Ripping out a struggling lawn to re-sod, or pesticide applications might bring in money, but what if you could find an eco-friendly way to treat the lawn instead?
One Last Thought for the Road
Now I’m going to say something that sounds a little contradictory. None of the examples I just talked about are really the main point. It’s really a mindset shift that comes from giving yourself permission to stop making replacement (or total departure) the only choice.
It’s the best way to stop being at the mercy of every limitation and expensive default your industry swears by, which is how you find opportunities to restore and innovate in the first place. Honestly, the peak of what you can achieve when you’re making those calls yourself is so much higher than you think.
