Get Your Hands Dirty: Interview with Michael Werner, Founder and CEO of HomeX
I recently went one on one with Michael Werner, founder and CEO of HomeX.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Michael: I’ve been in the home services space for decades and each experience led me to where I am today — leading HomeX, a family-run business that’s reshaping an industry I’ve worked in for so long. I put myself through college by painting houses and after graduating, I started my career in finance. I eventually went on to work for my family business, Werner Ladder Co., for fourteen years and then served as CEO of Globe Union. All of these experiences, setbacks and challenges included, played an important role in shaping where I am today.
We started HomeX in 2017 based on the family values I learned at Werner Ladder and with a goal of radically improving home services for consumers and providers and helping local family-owned businesses prosper. Today, we are making work better for technicians and consumers, with products like HomeX Remote Assist, which connects technicians with homeowners for guided repairs done virtually, while our local providers service millions of consumers. And most importantly, we are living my family’s core value of being a positive force in our industry and communities.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Michael: After decades of working in home services and understanding how fragmented the industry was, I saw an opportunity to build a business that leveraged today’s technology to remove those friction points. While painting houses to make money to pay for college, I learned how challenging it is to run a contracting business, and then working at my family’s company, Werner Ladders and later as CEO of Globe Union, I really learned the ins and outs of the industry, working with contractors, builders and people across the trades.
With all of these experiences, I saw an opportunity to build a company that filled the voids for both consumers and service providers. Homeowners were missing what I call the 3 Ts: trust, transparency, and the control of time. And for contractors, the backend side of the business takes up a lot of the time they could be using to complete jobs, so our platform allows them to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably. Uniquely, our business is augmented by our platform, which includes a two-sided marketplace, where we have the ability to remotely diagnose issues, match technicians, and more, creating a seamless experience for all players in the home services space.
My biggest piece of advice for coming up with and executing great ideas, especially when trying to disrupt a category, is to understand it from the operating level. In addition to all that I learned painting houses for six or seven years, I also spent a lot of time out throughout my career in the field working with and understanding both the customers and contractors. Understanding the perspectives of both sides of the business helped us create a company that thinks through the entire end-to-end experience.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Michael: I saw three major shifts in our society and economy that really helped me see the opportunity for HomeX. First, our economy has become an experience economy. From Airbnb and Starbucks to Apple and Disney, it’s all about experiences. It’s not just about what you own, it’s about how you enjoy it and how you can do it. That’s why we called our company HomeX, because it’s all about the home experience.
The second is the current gap between demand and supply. As we have all experienced while spending more time at home over the past couple of years, the demand for home services is very high (it’s nearly a $600 billion market today), and like I mentioned, the 3 Ts have been missing for the consumer.
This increased demand has led to a major strain on providers. Contractors are working as hard as they can, but at times, they don’t have enough workers or help on the backend to be more productive, which is why we built a platform that provides the software and services to simplify their operations and improve the end-to-end customer experience.
The third major enabler is the dramatic advancements in technology. These technologies have begun to touch nearly every aspect of our lives, and we saw an opportunity to leverage that technology to reimagine home services.
With those three things together, we saw a great opportunity to fundamentally change how home services operate by building a first-of-its-kind technology company that can reshape the home services market. My advice is to look at the economy and society holistically to understand the void your idea will fill and then how you will execute on that idea.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Michael: When I was working at Werner Ladders, my cousin once gave me a plaque that said “If Michael can dream it, we ‘might’ be able to do it.” What he was telling me at that age is that I tried to do too many things at once. I had so many different ideas and dreams, but they were hard to do all at once. For others trying to take their businesses to the next level, my advice is to really break down things into more digestible pieces and not try to do too many things at once, but get the first one working really well first. Then get the second one working, then the third one, and so on.
Additionally, make sure you have an end vision of where you are headed and make sure your business is built based on a real need that needs a new or better solution. Be able to answer the question of why you are uniquely positioned to solve it. Then be ruthless in your prioritization and focus. Of course it’s harder in practice, but those principles are our guiding north stars.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Michael: To me, the best way to acquire new customers is to create the best experience for your current customers. There is no more powerful marketing tactic than word of mouth, so when you create an amazing experience for your customers, it pays dividends.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Michael: An effective leader understands every aspect of the business. You don’t have to be an expert at everything, but understanding the perspectives of everyone allows you to be an effective, empathetic leader and see the business from a holistic view. For example, spending time in the field or doing ride-alongs with both contractors and consumers has provided me with a unique perspective of how to not only lead, but create the best experience for all parties involved, which at the end of the day, is our main priority.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
Michael: Working within my family’s business at Werner Ladders earlier in my career taught me a lot, but what I’m most grateful for is what my family members taught me about leadership. My great uncle, who had started the business, once said, “Michael, I’m going to teach you the three most important things. 1) Take great care of your employees. 2) Take great care of your employees. And you can guess what #3 is: Take great care of your employees. If you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your customers, and then your customers will take care of everything else. Starting in my family business, the most important thing I learned is to make your people the most valuable asset.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Your team is your most valuable asset.
Be willing to take the time to get your hands dirty and understand every aspect of your business from the ground up.
Don’t try to do too much at once. Only move onto the next step after you’ve perfected the one before.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Michael: One of my bosses from earlier in my career once told me about the power of three. When aligning on a business decision, first break everything down and look at the positives and negatives. Then, when making your argument for a certain decision, make it in three points. Because if you can’t make your argument in three, then it’s not a strong enough argument.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
Follow Adam on Instagram and Twitter at @adammendler and listen and subscribe to Thirty Minute Mentors on your favorite podcasting app.