"Slow down. Plan more, promote less"
Joe Casalese Tweet
After years in the roofing industry, Joe Casalese found a better way to deliver a quality roof service and quality leads to contractors which solved the problem for both parties by providing an easy, trustworthy and transparent process.
Prior to the roofing industry, Joe started a fitness consulting company, Health Integration Services, that focused on connecting the fitness industry to the medical industry. He spent 15 years in sports and fitness prior to starting his company. Joe is married to his wife of 17 years, Jamie, and has two kids that keep their business with their sports.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for joining us today. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They want to know you, some of the background story to bring some context to your interview.
Joe Casalese: After years in the roofing industry, I found a better way to deliver a quality roof service and quality leads to contractors which solved the problem for both parties by providing an easy, trustworthy and transparent process. Prior to the roofing industry, I started a fitness consulting company, Health Integration Services, that focused on connecting the fitness industry to the medical industry.
The first business I started was with my wife called Sweet Caroline. It was a children’s clothing business sold online. Through all of my experiences I have failed repeatedly but then learned and succeeded with lessons learned. Any entrepreneur that says they have never failed is lying. It’s a part of the process to be successful.
You are a successful entrepreneur, so we’d like your viewpoint, do you believe entrepreneurs are born or made? Explain.
Joe Casalese: Entrepreneurs are made. You can have something inside you that drives you to “want” to be an entrepreneur but you aren’t one until you work hard through many obstacles. You are no more born an entrepreneur than you are an Olympic athlete. You are made into one through years of hard work and learning from your failures.
If you were asked to describe yourself as an entrepreneur in a few words, what would you say?
Joe Casalese: I am a creative problem solver that makes a business out of solutions.
Tell us about what your company does and how did it change over the years?
Joe Casalese: Roof Bids started out as a way for me to get paid for bringing roof jobs to different contractors instead of just working for one. When I stepped back and started working ON Roof Bids instead of IN Roof Bids it became much more. It became a great lead source for roof contractors. It became a great service to property owners that didn’t want to hassle of vetting contractors and dealing with bad salespeople and then trying to compare different estimates. It also became a business for other roof salespeople that wanted to control their own destiny instead of working for one roof contractor.
Thank you for all that. Now for the main focus of this interview. With close to 11.000 new businesses registered daily in the US, what must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business?
Joe Casalese: That they are creating a business, not a job. Entrepreneurs aren’t a slave to their business(s) but are free to create, grow, and flourish. You must assume that it will be better to work ON the business rather than IN the business if you want to succeed. If you don’t then you can assume that your likelihood of completely failing is very high. Assume to fail small, but learn quickly and grow because you have planned for it.
Did you make any wrong assumptions before starting a business that you ended up paying dearly for?
Joe Casalese: Yes. I assumed I could be a better marketer than other roof contractors. I wasted a lot of money on the wrong marketing methods until I learned what worked and what didn’t.
If you could go back in time to when you first started your business, what advice would you give yourself and why? Explain
Joe Casalese: Slow down. Plan more, promote less. Talk to more people that have failed and succeeded. Wait to launch regardless of what you think the market is ready for.
What is the worst advice you received regarding running a business and what lesson would you like others to learn from your experience?
Joe Casalese: Get out there and grow your business. This was said to me before I even knew I had an actual business. As I have said before, you must create a business, not a job or you will be stuck working IN it forever. That’s not why you wanted to be an entrepreneur.
In your opinion, how has COVID-19 changed what entrepreneurs should assume before starting a business? What hasn’t changed?
Joe Casalese: Just be careful to pick the right service or product. The best ones are going to survive regardless of the economy, politics, or pandemics.
What is a common myth about entrepreneurship that aspiring entrepreneurs and would-be business owners believe in? What advice would you give them?
Joe Casalese: That you take something you know how to do or are passionate about and just start doing it as a business. The best advice is to learn, learn and learn all that you can before you do anything. You will save a ton of money if you learn the best way, make a plan and then test it. Revise the plan and test again. Then slowly grow your business with as many pieces in place that you don’t do directly. Stay in control of processes but if you ARE a part of the process that you can’t get out of then you are stuck IN a job.
What traits, qualities, and assumptions do you believe are most important to have before starting a business?
Joe Casalese: Willingness to learn. Be ok with looking foolish (be humble). Strong determination to see things through. An intense drive to find solutions to problems (big and small).
How can aspiring leaders prepare themselves for the future challenges of entrepreneurship? Are there any books, websites, or even movies to learn from?
Joe Casalese: Things are changing but they really aren’t when looking at a business. There are a ton of books that you need to take 3-4 good nuggets from such as “The Great Rat Race Escape,” “The E-Myth Revisited,” “Titan, The Life of John D Rockefeller”, “Marketing Rebellion”, “The Common Path to Uncommon Success”
You have shared quite a bit of your wisdom and our readers thank you for your generosity but would also love to know: If you could choose any job other than being an entrepreneur, what would it be?
Joe Casalese: Professional fisherman.
Thank you so much for your time, I believe I speak for all of our readers when I say that this has been incredibly insightful. We do have one more question: If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, but not a politician, who would it be; why?
Joe Casalese: John Wooden, UCLA Basketball coach.
His leadership wisdom has been revisited and retold all over the world. He has crossed borders from sports to business to politics to raising young people. Huge effect quotient!
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Joe Casalese for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Joe Casalese or his company, you can do it through his – Facebook
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