Couples in the Roofing Industry

Living and working together isn’t for every married couple. But the ones who can successfully navigate the tricky waters of mixing business with pleasure often find that the process strengthens their relationship and creates a true partnership, at work and at home.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we talked to two AtlasPRO contractors who run their roofing businesses as husband-and-wife teams.

The Simmonses

Brent and Hannah Simmons are the owners of Restoration Roofing in Memphis, TN. Although Brent has been running the business since 2014 (as a DBA under a parent company), the couple converted it to a standalone company at the start of 2022.

In the beginning, Brent was doing all the office work, marketing, appointments and production. But fortunately, after their kids were all in school, Hannah was able to step in to help, making it a permanent position.

Brent holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Memphis and Hannah has a mechanical engineering degree from Christian Brothers University. Although she never pursued a career in mechanical engineering, she says she was smart enough to earn the degree and knew there weren’t a lot of women in the field, which means it could come in handy.

“But I met Brent two years before I graduated. So, as soon as I graduated, we just kind of did our own thing,” she adds.

Married for over seven years and together for nine years, the couple has three children — two boys and one girl, ages 10, 5 and 7, respectively. They also have three dogs (two Cava-poos and an “old grandma dog”), three parakeets and one cat.

“We’re a little over our heads with all these pets, but, hey, it keeps everyone happy,” Brent says, shruggingly.

Luckily, they’re not in over their heads in the roofing industry, as they continue to happily grow their business together.

The Dyes

John and Priscilla Dye, owners of Modern Roof in Indianapolis, IN, started their roofing business a little over a year ago, although John, who considers himself a professional entrepreneur, has been involved in different parts of the industry for more than two decades. Priscilla, who attended a small college in St. Louis, joined her husband in the business about six years ago. Before that, she worked at a children’s home, where she oversaw a program for kids in need, with the goal of reunification and creating whole, healthy families.

In addition to working for the couple’s roofing company, John teaches a 5-day Signature Supplement Training course, offered online or onsite, as well as a 3-day, mini version of the course on Contractor Skill, and he is the owner/host of “The American Contractor Show” podcast.

John and Priscilla will be married five years as of March 2 but have been together for six years total. Although they don’t have any biological children, they are taking care of Priscilla’s 14-year-old nephew, whom they refer to as “our kid.” They also have two dogs — a mini Aussie-doodle, John’s “biological dog,” and a very tall Golden-doodle, Priscilla’s dog.

“Roofing has always been something I’ve enjoyed and it’s a fun business to be in,” John explains. “There are a lot of exciting things that happen day in and day out. No two days are ever the same. You get to build something with your hands and build a cool business. Priscilla, what inspired you?”

“Inspired me to what?” she asks.

“To pursue a career in roofing,” he replies.

“I married a roofer,” she answers, playfully.

That’ll do it, won’t it, Asphalt Lifers?!

The Questions

We asked these couples to share what it’s like to work together every day, what their love story was, their favorite things about each other, how they celebrate Valentine’s Day and how they keep romance alive in their relationships. Here’s what they told us...

What is the best thing about working with your spouse?

Brent: I get to see her every day, so that’s pretty cool. We do lunch a couple of times a week. From a business standpoint, she’s in the books. I trust my wife. She’s so smart that I don’t question the money stuff. I know it’s right.

Hannah: Getting to see each other, getting to go out to lunch and stuff, but also just being part of it. Because, when I wasn’t working here, I would hear some of the frustrations when he came home at night, but there was nothing I could do to help him. So now that I’m a part of it, I’m able to. We can talk about and figure out things and take care of them together.

John: For me, I love the fact that we do things together.

Priscilla: It's pretty unique, because we know a lot of people who have tried to work together or currently work together, and it's either great or it's not great. For us, it works. We bounce ideas off each other too.

Are there any disadvantages to working together?

Brent: A hundred percent. For me — and I struggle with this — it’s been very hard for me my whole career to turn it off, especially on the marketing side. I’m just obsessed with that. I used to take appointments at 10 o’clock at night. Before she was working with me, I think some of that stuff drove her crazy. We’ve had a lot of conversations and we’ve had to have dates where we put our phones up. And even that’s very hard for me to do.

Hannah: The work stuff running into the relationship time — never having a good cutoff of when it should be just family time versus work time, because it all kind of runs together.

John: Sometimes it can be difficult to have to be in that mode all the time. The biggest disadvantage for me is I struggle to turn it off. I work a lot, and the lines are pretty blurry at times. It’s sometimes difficult for us to truly disconnect from our businesses and what we’re doing because it’s always going in that direction.

Priscilla: He does have a really hard time separating that, whereas I don’t really. Once I’m home, I’m home.

What advice would you give to others about running a business with their spouse?

Hannah: To both have clear and defined roles. Brent’s over sales and marketing and out in the field, and I would never try to tell him what to do there. And with the books and office stuff, he knows not to come into my territory either. I think that could be hard for spouses who don’t have a defined, clear separation — where they can start “picking.”

Brent: Even though you’re married, and you talk about this stuff all the time, you still need to have your lane. You almost have to treat each other as coworkers in that respect because there can’t be overlap.

John: There has to be mutual respect to be able to work together and live together.

Priscilla: If you don’t like each other at home, don’t work together. I think that’s the clearest advice.

How did you meet?

Hannah: I worked at a gym, and he went to that gym. So, we met there and then didn’t really reconnect until a few years later.

Brent: I used to go up to the counter every day when she was working and ask for change to go buy a drink — even though I didn’t even want to buy a drink — so I could talk to her a little bit. And it was probably three years later, I looked her up on Facebook and slid in the DMs.

John: Super millennial — we met through some friends and some Facebook groups we were in together. We would talk all the time, but she was not interested in hanging out. But I appealed to her helpful side and convinced her to come help me hire a new assistant, and she never left. She’s still looking for that assistant.

Priscilla: I was enjoying my life and didn’t want more than just friendship. I was traveling the world. He drove through my city three different times when I was there and tried to see me.

How did you propose?

Brent: We planned on getting married, and we even picked out the ring together, but she didn’t know when I was going to propose.

Hannah: He had this really sweet scrapbook made for me of all my life’s memories, and the last page was supposed to be a proposal page, but the lady was taking a super long time to finish it. So, when we went out on a date around my birthday, we went to a park, and he proposed there. I still got the scrapbook though — it was just a little bit later.

John: I had a whole proposal planned out at Disney World — whole nine yards — and then I couldn’t get permission. I ended up proposing in our living room later on and went the complete opposite direction — really simple. I was like, “You know what? It was a bad day. If you can handle me on a day like today, you’ll probably be able to handle me forever.”

Tell us about your wedding.

Brent: We got married on Orange Beach, AL, in front of a few family members. Then we had a reception at a resort. I never saw myself having an extravagant wedding.

John: We had it at a small venue here in Indianapolis with close family and a few friends. It was a really cool spot, over a coffee shop. We still go to that coffee shop.

Priscilla: I really wanted to get married on a mountain with just us and our immediate family, so this was my compromise for John because he wanted a larger wedding than I did. So, we put it together. Even though I’m a bit of a procrastinator, it all fell together so perfectly.

What is your favorite thing about your spouse?

Hannah: My favorite thing about Brent is that he always wants to be goofy and laugh. Things could be going crazy, but he will still come up and pick on me in a funny way, just to get a laugh out. It’s just that positivity.

Brent: Hannah is the most kind-hearted woman I’ve ever met. And when she starts talking goofy, she talks a certain way and doesn’t even know it — she has this kind of face she makes. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

John: That’s tough because there are a lot of things I love about Priscilla. Priscilla is amazing. She’s such a supporter and is the brains behind what we do. She’s always right when it comes to a lot of the things that happen in our business. She’s just an amazing person to bounce ideas off of and she encourages so much of it. I couldn’t imagine doing life without her.

Priscilla: He is very much a giver. He will give anyone an opportunity and a second, third, fourth, fifth chance and still look at them the same. It doesn’t matter what they do, what they’ve done, who they are, their background, anything — he’ll just give them the same opportunity as if someone just walked in with a total clean slate. Nowadays, so many people hold grudges and are so quick to anger and hold onto stuff. Whereas John can literally be upset about something and then, the very next second, it’s gone for the rest of eternity. It’s really cool to watch him, not just with that kind of grace and compassion toward people, but also never looking at people and their circumstances and forming an opinion of them at their worst.

How do you usually celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Hannah: We’re kind of the least romantic people. I mean, we have a lot of love for each other, and we’ll go out on a date night.

Brent: We’ve got a couple restaurants that we frequent, so we usually just go to one of those.

John: I’ll buy a gift, but we’ve never done dinner because it’s always so packed. I’m not a huge fan of going out on Valentine’s Day because we go out all the time.

Priscilla: I usually buy him a gift and a card.

Do you have any special Valentine’s Day plans this year?

Hannah: We’re getting massages a few days before Valentine’s Day this year.

Brent: We’ll probably pick the kids up, get them down for bed and play some PlayStation. That is something we do almost every day. We play Call of Duty together online. We have two TVs that are side by side, really nice recliners and two PlayStation 5s. We put on our headsets and team up and play for a couple of hours. I’ve been gaming my whole life and she’s better than me now. So, that’s our favorite thing.

Hannah: If he ever tells me, “Hey, I got the kids to bed early, let’s go play Call of Duty,” that’s the No. 1 best night of my life.

Brent: That’s her love language — Call of Duty.

Partners who live and work (and have kids together) sometimes find it tough to make romance a priority. What are some of the things you and your spouse do to keep the “spark” in your marriage?

Hannah: We try to go on a date at least once a week. We do prioritize dates — even our lunch dates. Sometimes, it’s just the little things that Brent will do, like making me breakfast and my coffee.

Brent: If we weren’t working together, there would be more moments. We’re kind of in the process of figuring all that stuff out.

John: Early on, we had season passes for Disney World. We had a boat for a while. We still travel a lot. We spent a month last year in Colorado. We’re very spontaneous in that regard.

Priscilla: We travel together a lot, but we also travel a lot individually, so it gives us time to be alone and reconnect with ourselves so that we can then reconnect with each other.

Practice Makes Partnership

As the Frank Sinatra song goes, “Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage” — which is a great metaphor for a married couple running a roofing business together. Because if each partner is trying to steer a horse (their business) in different directions, the carriage (their relationship) may wreck.

That’s why, although we’ve heard about how Brent and Hannah and John and Priscilla do it successfully, we know that living and working together isn’t for every couple. It’s imperative that husband-and-wife teams clearly define their roles in the company, as well as at home. That way, they can keep their carriage on a smooth path and avoid veering off onto a bumpy one!

Happy Valentine’s Day, Asphalt Lifers!