What do roofing, siding, and Buffalo Wild Wings have in common? They all play a role in the story of how a homeowner in Minnesota asked a contractor to come out and quote a remodeling project and then bought the guy’s home improvement business instead.
Rob Collins was a marketing executive who had worked his way up the corporate ladder, eventually becoming market leader at Buffalo Wild Wings. Then the $4 billion company went from public to private and the executive team was let go.
While mulling his next career move, Collins had Pat Quarve, owner of Quarve Contracting, come to his Twin Cities home to quote a siding and roofing project. Quarve also was considering a career change: retirement, and he wanted to sell the contracting business he had founded in 1983.
Chance Encounter
“At one point right out of college, I thought ‘ I'm going to be the CEO of a major corporation someday,’ which is a huge aspiration, right? And maybe not realistic,” Collins says. But he never let go of the idea of being his own boss. He had three kids, he wanted less work-related travel, and he questioned the idea of seeking another high-level position that could leave him vulnerable to future layoffs. Collins decided to look for a franchise in which to invest.
Instead, he purchased Quarve Contracting. “It just fell in my lap,” Collins said.
“When I first met Pat, we instantly clicked,” Collins said. “And I didn’t know it at the time, but he was planning to retire. My garage was open and he saw that I was a DIYer. I have most of the tools that you would see in carpenter workshops. He was looking around for evidence.” A few weeks later Pat called Rob and asked him if he’d be interested in buying his business.
That was August 2020 and after six weeks of serious thought and long conversations with his family, he said yes. “I never questioned the desire to be my own boss, I was excited about the freedom, but there was a risk,” Collins said. The deal was finalized in December 2020, and Pat stayed on for two years to ensure a smooth transition.
There has been a learning curve for Collins: Adjusting to the seasonality of the business, market fluctuations, and shedding his C-suite past. “I had to get used to wearing so many hats, which is different from the corporate world where everyone has a lane.” He also jokes that he had to drop the corporate speak and “learn to talk like a human being.”
Building a High-Performance Future
“Pat was active in the building sciences community in the Twin Cities, and I built on the relationships that he had established,” Collins said. That led to new partnerships with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE), and the Business & Home Safety’s Fortified Wise’s FORTIFIED program. Collins is becoming a FORTIFIED roofing contractor. He also signed on to the Centerpoint Energy NGIA project as a contractor for CEE. “I see a huge opportunity to expand in energy efficiency and resiliency and to become a high-performance contractor,” he says. “It’s the type of thing that can set us apart.”
Personal Payoff
“When you work in marketing, the results are tangible. You produce a TV ad that markets your newest promotion—like two for one wings—and you see the sales results and it can be satisfying,” Collins says. “But now I see the results of transforming someone's home. It’s a privilege to get to do that and I love it.”
About the Author
Jay SchneiderJay Schneider
Senior Editor
Jay Schneider is the Senior Editor for Pro Remodeler. He can be reached at [email protected].