Sexton Roofing & Siding Thrives Under New, ‘Extreme’ Ownership

On the House

Owner Sasha Wilde

After almost 40 years operating the small roofing company that bears his name, Everett Sexton was looking to retire.

At the same time, Sasha and Tim Wilde, who had spent about a decade as project managers in the corporate world, were looking for a new, entrepreneurial challenge.

They found it in roofing, acquiring Sexton Roofing & Siding from its founder a little over a year ago.

“We did large-scale pharmaceutical construction projects, and we decided, after 10-plus years in that career, that we wanted to break out and do something on our own,” Sasha, now president of the company, explained. “A couple of friends of ours bought a business in 2022, and that’s when we learned about buying businesses. So I started doing all the research, doing analysis, reading books, listening to podcasts, just doing everything I could to get educated on the subject of buying businesses.”

The Wildes were living in New Hampshire at the time and wanted to stay in New England, and relocated to Western Mass. to buy Sexton, which is headquartered in West Hatfield.

“People will come to us for siding, windows, or they want to do their roof and their siding, or their roof and their gutters. So we like being able to be that one-stop shop for them so that they don’t have to go and deal with multiple contractors to try to get a project done.”

“Everett Sexton founded it in 1985 and just kind of slowly built his business over the years,” Sasha noted. “The amount of work that he did was very impressive. He had a really great work ethic. It was just work he did, and then, about 10 years ago, he started using subcontractors, so he was able to run one or two jobs a day for the whole roofing season.”

It was a model that appealed to her and Tim, who are among just four full-time employees — Tim is the sales manager and roofing and siding specialist, while they also employ a general manager and business manager — and the field work is subcontracted.

“She really did a lot of homework, and then used that to evaluate 50 or 60 businesses of all types,” Tim said. “She had a very elaborate spreadsheet to evaluate how much they make, what their staff looks like, all this different criteria. And by looking at so many in so many different sectors, she could see this was a good one. You have to see a lot to know what’s good and bad. She put in the time.”

A year later, they’re growing their presence in the region, and while the anxiety of going into business for oneself never completely goes away, it’s also been tempered by a steady flow of roofing jobs, as well as siding, windows, and doors.

“We were kind of buried with learning how to run it last year,” Sasha told BusinessWest. “So we spent a lot of our offseason really thinking about that, and trying to refine our core values, our mission.”

That mission, posted on the wall of their office, is simple: “to change the way people think about the roofing industry, one roof at a time. We lead with integrity, treat everyone like family, and strive to make a positive impact on our community. By taking extreme ownership of our roles, we lift our team members up and pave the way for a better future.”

When asked what extreme ownership means, she responded, “it really just means that we don’t make excuses for anything. We see something, and we solve the problem. We don’t wait for things to become a problem. This is a small business; there’s only four of us. So there’s no one else to do the thing. If we see a thing that needs to be done, we have to do it.”

Getting Up to Speed

Under new ownership, Sexton expanded quickly, Sasha said.

“When we got the business, he just did roofs — asphalt shingle and flat. We quickly ended up expanding into siding, windows, and doors because the salesman we had at the time really wanted to sell those things. And we said, ‘OK, let’s try it.’

“For the most part, we spend most of our marketing budget on roofing. That’s what we like focusing on,” she added. “But people will come to us for siding, windows, or they want to do their roof and their siding, or their roof and their gutters. So we like being able to be that one-stop shop for them so that they don’t have to go and deal with multiple contractors to try to get a project done.”

Like under Everett Sexton’s ownership, the company’s bread and butter is asphalt shingle roofing for residential and commercial clients, and it also offers EPDM rubber membranes for flat roofs.

Tim and Sasha Wilde

“We have a couple different flat-roof options that we offer,” she said. “There’s a mineral-roll roofing, which is also an asphalt product that you can use on low-slope and flat roofs. And we’ve expanded our roofing services; our crew installs corrugated metal, and we have a relationship with a metal roof company, so we can do standing seam as well.”

In many ways, Sasha is satisfied with how the first year has gone. “I say that thoughtfully because I’m not sure what expectations I had going into this. Last year was just pretty wild, with us executing as fast as we could and learning. This year, it’s been a lot more thought and a lot of processes being put in place,” she noted, from bringing in customer relationship management software in the spring to hiring a general manager with 15 years of experience in the field.

“I have pretty ambitious plans to grow the business,” she added. “But, most importantly, I don’t want to lose touch with our mission and our core values. We’re also always looking to hire — we’re bringing on a new salesperson in a few weeks who will specialize in siding and windows and really help build out our services in that way. So we have ambitious plans to grow, but we want to stay local and family-owned and community-focused.”

“Our life is so different now. I mean, it’s been quite drastically changed from the corporate world to being your own boss. The difference between talking to a high-level pharma client versus a homeowner is just so much different, and this is more enjoyable.”

In doing so, she also wants to continue to invest in employees as one key to the company’s collective success and continuous improvement, through efforts like training programs, access to educational resources, and support for career-advancement initiatives.

Meanwhile, Sexton Roofing & Siding continues to obtain new certifications, recently becoming an IKO roofing craftsmen premier contractor, a certified Velux skylight installer, and WeatherBond certified.

Steady Slope

Sasha said it’s gratifying to work with many different types of customers.

“We work with real people solving real problems. It’s rewarding to see the transformation from what they had to what they have now,” she said, adding that another motivating factor for stepping into the world of entrepreneurship was to set an example for their two sons.

“When we bought the business, we just wanted to show our boys that there are many paths to choose in life, and you don’t necessarily have to go the W-2 route. You can do entrepreneurship. We just wanted to show them there are many paths, and to take risks and not be afraid of failure, because you learn so much in failure.”

Tim credits Sasha for easing some of the initial anxiety.

“When we finally decided on this business, I think some of the fear was taken away because she had done so much homework and seen how much potential there was,” he said, adding that, like any entrepreneurial venture, “it felt … not safe, but at least it wasn’t terrifying.”

Sasha agreed. “With my background in operations, I can understand, if we make this amount of money, I can see where it’s coming from, where it’s going to, and we’ll have this amount of money at the end. Now, does it always go to plan? Not so much, but I at least have a guiding force to push us through this. So I would say it was a calculated risk. And rewarding, challenging, and stressful.”

She also gave Tim plenty of credit for getting the business off the ground — literally and figuratively.

“When we started, he was running all of our projects. He was actually out there stripping roofs with our crew. He was doing the hard work, meeting the homeowners, getting educated on exactly what goes into every single project that we have. And now that we’ve brought on a GM, we’ve been able to move Tim over into sales. And he really knows what he’s talking about now. He’s a very, very good speaker.”

Tim, for his part, has enjoyed the career change. “Our life is so different now. I mean, it’s been quite drastically changed from the corporate world to being your own boss. The difference between talking to a high-level pharma client versus a homeowner is just so much different, and this is more enjoyable.

“I like talking to people,” he added. “I like meeting people every single day, helping them solve their problems.”