Bigger. It's what Victor Smolyanov always envisioned for his roofing company when he started out subcontracting with a major player in the greater Detroit residential market in 2008.

He had no other direction to go, considering he got into the profession on the ground floor — following his uncle and father to roofing job sites not long after their family emigrated from Ukraine in the 1990s. He toiled away during many hot summers, but something about the job stuck.

Elements like working with his hands, completing tasks with precision, and leaving a customer satisfied or with more peace of mind than when he showed up became too strong a draw to be limited by others' expectations. Smolyanov could see a better way to treat customers and turn them into some of the company's strongest advocates. He was also driven by an attitude that if there were roofs to do, his crews would be doing them.

By 2014, he left subcontracting behind and generated roughly $6 million within two years with a model centered on retail work and customer care. While Southeast Michigan is traditionally not a storm-prone region, Smolyanov said he primarily opted to steer clear of insurance work because of the potential complications and delays. Without those payment concerns creating cash-flow pressure, he instead focused on niche marketing, leveraging social media and incentivizing customers to build his brand.

Growth continued consistently over the next three years, and Victors was pushing $20 million in revenue by 2020. Sales took a slight step back during the COVID-19 year, including a company rebranding and expanding services to include windows, doors, and bathroom conversions.

Once the changes settled in, revenue nearly doubled to $37 million by the end of 2022 and stretched to roughly $59 million in 2023. That impressive growth fueled a private equity partnership with Alpine Investors to create Vertex Service Partners, a home improvement services platform with companies from New Jersey, Florida and Indiana.

With that backing, Victors Home Solutions is bigger than it ever has been and is projected to draw more than $100 million in revenue this year.

"We actually had that on our 10-year vision board by 2028. It was a big, audacious goal, and I wanted to puke every time I said it," he said. "But the next thing is always scary."

Smolyanov has attended as well as presented at multiple Best of Success conferences, sharing his insights into marketing and growth.

Guiding the Market

Scary could be one way to describe what's next in Victor's vision for his business. With a strong foothold in Detroit and a few other locations in Michigan, he expanded the company to Cleveland, Cincinnati and, most recently, Chicago. Branches in Columbus and Indianapolis are set to open in Q1 2025, bringing the total to nine locations and roughly 300 employees.

There are a lot of ingredients to mix. Still, Smolyanov is confident that the business model of grass-roots marketing, multiple touchpoints with customers, consistent pricing and exceeding expectations fits everywhere.

"For us, it's just our bread and butter, and we don't want to overcomplicate it," he said. "Keeping it simple and just repeat it. And as you look at more locations, [it's] just trying to do the same thing at a different zip code."

While it sounds easy, Smolyanov acknowledges that branching out to different markets does have its ups and downs and comes with unique learning curves. For example, customers in different markets respond differently to marketing and sales messaging. But once that's figured out and mixed with the consistent training employees receive on safety, customer service and pricing, the process seems to work, he said.

"We just go in and do what we've got to do," he explained of entering a new market. "And we compete with ourselves, meaning if we didn't sell a project, it's because we suck, not because of a competitor or someone else. So we're able to make a change."

Staying flexible also allows them to guide the market, not just go with it.

Smolyanov said that Saginaw, Mich., and Cleveland stand out as examples of where their professionalism and knack for customer care made major impacts early after arriving in town. While public perceptions and even market studies signaled a depressed housing stock and dwindling household incomes due to inflation, both expansions were successful out of the gate.

Homeowners used to handwritten estimates taped to a door, and sales calls without a demo presentation or proper follow-up were now getting face-to-face interactions with Victor's crews. They're being educated about specific problems or potential issues with their roofing systems and how they affect the overall health and value of their homes.

In just the first year, the Cleveland branch generated $11 million, Smolyanov said. In Saginaw, a much smaller city of about 45,000 people about an hour's drive north of Detroit, all the economic indicators pointed to a negative outlook for profits in the first few years. However, business is booming with homeowners seemingly happy to get responses to calls and accurate completion dates for jobs. Smolyanov said the branch is projected to generate more revenue in its first year than the company's Grand Rapids, Mich. and Toledo, Ohio branches did when they launched.

Each branch location is operated by a general manager, service manager, sales representative and small staff. Smolyanov still prioritizes having people in the right roles, which can take time and trial and error. When it comes to sales, all sales managers are homegrown and focused on more than just volume.

Chasing squares or pushing leads to generate more jobs will help the bottom line, but he learned during the COVID year that it's easy for people to wear down and clog the revenue stream. Instead, he opted to raise prices, which stung at first but has been worth it.

In his home market, the marketing strategy is a multi-faceted media blitz where Victor's image and voice appear regularly on local television and radio during prime-time hours. Mailers and neighborhood notifications, when crews are working nearby, are still effective, and they continue to enhance the company's social media footprint with videos, referral posts and swag reveals from customers. They're also directly engaged with the community, showing up with a tent at local festivals, farmers markets and other gatherings.

Located from the start in the Detroit suburb of Canton, Smolyanov is on the verge of moving into a new headquarters currently under construction in nearby Plymouth, Mich. From there, he intends to centralize shared services for the branches, including accounting, call centers, financing, marketing and recruiting. The headquarters is slated to open in 2025.

"I love guiding a market because you can change it into a more professionalized roofing space," he said. "We know we're going to be the most expensive roofer in any market we go into. It's teaching our team that we're different. To believe in answering the phones, taking care of the problems and delivering at the end of the day."

Giving Back

Smolyanov believes part of going forward also means giving back. Several years ago, he established the Give Back Through Victors program as a way for the entire company to serve its neighbors. For every 100 roofs they replace, Victors' crews give back one for free to someone in need in the local community. Through community nominations from the Victors website, word of mouth, or from one of their very own roof inspectors, Victors has helped dozens of local families literally keep a roof over their heads during the past year.

"Last year we were blessed to give away 23 roofs and this year it's going to be 40, and that has a huge impact," he said. "For us, it's one out of 4,000 roofs, but for them it's potentially a life-changing event so they can live more comfortably not having to worry about moving their bed when it rains, or having a tarp on."

Once the program was formally organized and evolved into its current version, it became a great source of pride for the workers, who all take turns rotating who get to volunteer their time to help. That very spirit illustrates that the people at Victors love what they do.

"It's super-motivating because [you] want to work for a company that cares, and when you get to see these families get a free roof, and you're part of it, it really makes you feel so good," he said. "Our people come to work feeling a lot more empowered."

Dreaming big when it came to profits was easy when you're an entrepreneur at heart starting out. But the people piece of it, the ability to uplift and impact the lives of others through the job, is part of the bigger picture he didn't really see when just starting out. And maybe he wasn't supposed to.

"It's been a ride and a lot of work," he said of the recent growth strategy. "You think you're going to get to a single point and be done, and you just never arrive there. You go as far as you can see, and then once you get there, you're able to see further. And you just keep going."