3d • General discussion
My first post (lots here but looking forward to hearing your thoughts, all)
GM all! I am happy to be here.
My name is Chris, and I am 35, have been married six years and have two children. We are hoping for more.
My life is a testimony to God's mercy through life and death times, provision, disciplining and patience. Psalm 118:18: "The Lord has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death."
I was a firefighter and a paramedic in my first career. It was the most intense and insane time of my life, and my life has been filled with insane and intense times. I have overcome a career ending back injury and multiple other major injuries. More importantly, I have overcome post traumatic of the level that for most is crippling for life, and I did so without meds. All by God's grace. Since 2020 I have built a strong network with solid Christian brothers, many of whom are entrepreneurs.
After the fire service, I transferred my skills and was briefly a nurse. God closed that door in my face by the end of 2022. Truly it was the worst job I have ever had. So, I flipped a house and quit nursing and took a year to figure things out, network and work with a carpenter. Within three months of working with the carpenter I was estimating and bidding jobs more effectively than him, which blessed him. Then I worked 14 months for a roofer as his catch all right hand man: marketing, estimating, project management, repairs, material runs, etc. I talked business with him as much as I could (and also with the carpenter), and learned over 14 months twenty years of insider information.
I also learned from the roofer what not to do, and he did most things wrong. I am going to write a book next year titled What not to do as a Roofing Contractor, and What to do Instead. Next winter I am also going to write a book titled Weaponized Recovery: Turning Systemic Betrayal and Personal Hardship into Unstoppable Entrepreneurial Fuel. In it I am going to describe the corruption and treachery I faced in the fire service and in nursing, the post traumatic, the major injuries I sustained, and how I overcame it all and have used it to fuel fatherhood, and entrepreneurialism. I have drafted both books, but I cannot in good conscience write them yet because I do not feel successful yet. I don't want to write these without proving my systems more thoroughly, though I have made some useful PTSD management strategies that are solid, and provide objective positive results.
In June I quit working with the roofer to put myself through builder school and then I got my license, marking the fifth intense state board that I have passed first try. My daughter was born September 2, right after I got my license and I took two months to help her recover and with the kids. Since November 2 I have been pushing hard to build the systems for my business, doing market analysis, networking specifically for this business and learn everything I can. I have also developed my 90 day plan that I will implement once I have some key software (mid/late December), my year one plan, and a five year plan+ roadmap.
I am focusing on roofing, and have a niche: providing a concierge worry free all inclusive roofing service for discerning upper middle class and upper class clients. I am along the I96 corridor in Mid Michigan and am perfectly situated between many upper middle class and premium neighborhoods and towns.
I still need to build a website, get the automation and roof measuring software I have researched, secure business insurance (gen liability, work comp), and secure funding for some basic cost of living + initial business expenses (thermal equipped drone, thermal and moisture sensing handheld device, and some other things). All of my time is wrapped up in building this, and there isn't a job that would 1) pay me cost of living without 2) ruining my chances at a solid startup in 2026.
I hope to be hiring a part time administrative assistant by summer 2026 who'll be promoted to chief administrative officer (my weakness is the administrative work that feels like busy work), and have an estimator and a salesman by the beginning of 2027. My 2030 plan is to have six employees and 2-3 subcontractor crews. My business model, ethos and quality of service will attract the absolute top guys to my business, and I will pay them extremely well because their abilities will warrant it and I want to bless them. I am hoping to find them through church networks (or Christian networks like this) or lead them to Christ.
I sound like I have it all together, but really I just prayed for an out from nursing and jumped at the first out, and prayed for opportunities and jumped at them in faith. I have taken these risks because the risks to myself and my family physically and legally were exponentially higher in nursing and the fire service, and because I only have associates degrees for the hyper specialized fields of fire and EMS and nursing, I am functionally unemployable- either massively overqualified or underqualified. And God made me to be a trailblazer, leader and innovator, not a wagie.
Brothers, we are all going to make it.
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My first post (lots here but looking forward to hearing your thoughts, all)
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