Erdmann Outdoor Living has grown to nearly $24m by cutting unprofitable siding, roofing and windows to focus on decks and motorized pergolas.
Becca Erdmann says what works at $5m does not work at $10m, the mistake that keeps contractors from ever scaling.
Arizona opened in February after its manufacturer said the local dealer was failing, but permitting is harder than expected and revenue is behind plan.
How a stuck $5m contractor reached nearly $24m
Erdmann Outdoor Living is a second-generation Chicago exteriors company stuck near $5m for years. Becca Erdmann joined in 2020 as a designer, found no systems, and built them. That gave the owners numbers they had never seen, and the numbers showed their product mix was the problem. Cutting the unprofitable work and narrowing to outdoor living took revenue to nearly $24m, with about 75 employees and a first branch in Arizona.
Takeaways
Tracking the numbers broke the $5m plateau. The exteriors business sat near $5m for years. Once Becca built systems and began reading the P&Ls, the data showed which work made money and which did not. Cutting the unprofitable lines and narrowing to decks and motorized louvered pergolas took revenue to nearly $24m.
The designer re-sells the job after signing. Becca put a designer in front of the customer after the sale, which she describes as a second sales system. The point is to make sure the customer gets what they want on a large investment.
Twenty percent close on a $75,000 ticket. Projects run from $10,000 to $300,000 and average about $75,000, with a 20% close rate and 60% of customers financing. The team runs a thirty-minute morning role play and a two-hour Monday sales meeting, and Dustin Rhodes reworked their sales language.
Arizona came from a book, then a call. Kyle credits Brian Gottlieb's Beyond the Hammer with changing how he wanted to lead. Two months after visiting him, their manufacturer called because the local dealer was failing, and they opened in February. Permitting has been harder than expected and put revenue behind plan.
What works at $5m fails at $10m. Becca says the systems that carried the company to $5m stopped working as it grew. They built custom GPTs with a Stanford AI professor, and a new leadership layer sits between the owners and the crew, each leader selling the vision to their department.
One rule they never break is communication. Kyle runs Rocket Fuel's visionary and integrator split, and says the months apart between Chicago and Arizona were harder than working together. Their one unbreakable rule is communication. Since they hired everyone from 2021 onward, only one person has quit, over drive time.
How Erdmann hires
Screen with DISC from TTi plus gut feel, and tailor job ads to the profile they want so more of the right candidates apply.
Use a custom Erdmann GPT to write red-flag interview questions.
Give a fifteen-minute test the same day and hire on the spot at the second interview.
Rescind offers that are not accepted quickly.
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On this episode 3
Show 1
Becca never calls references and asks about adversity instead. For sales she wants a high D with an above-average I.
Kyle's rule is that skill can be trained but will cannot.