Financing Strategies for the Modern Contractor with Chris Scoville

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of Specialty Metal Roofing.

Welcome to Construction Disruption, the show where we uncover things that

help contractors scale their businesses while thriving and living the good life.

Today I am joined by my co-host, Scott Clifton.

Scotts is one of our territory managers, uh, here at Isaiah Industries.

What's up, Scott?

Hey Todd, how are you?

You know, okay.

I'm a little bit in mourning.

My, uh, reds went down in flames the other night.

I saw that against the Dodgers and, uh, my team's up this weekend.

So hopefully we can, uh, rally and, and take care of that pain for you.

Hey, I'll, I'll be rooting for the Phillies since we're out of it.

And that last couple of games, we did not look like we remotely belonged in the

playoffs anyway, so, uh, it's all good.

It's all good.

I didn't even know baseball was on tv, so you guys have me both beat.

got you beat then, Chris.

Okay.

Very good.

Very good.

Well, Scott, are you well, uh, good for moving forward.

Let's, uh, I'm looking forward to today.

Let's go for it.

Okay.

Just to remind our audience, we are once again doing challenge words where each

of us on the show have been, uh, given a special word or phrase that we are

challenged to work into the conversation.

Uh, so listen up for any odd things we might say and, uh.

That may be the challenge word.

We'll tell you at the end what our words were.

No prizes.

If you don't, if you, uh, get the challenge word, but no

penalty if you don't either.

So it's all good.

Well, today on construction, we're just disruption.

We're joined by Chris Scoville of Improvifi.

With a history based in construction and roofing, and then for many years,

uh, in banking and financing, Chris's company is breaking new ground in

providing funding for home improvement projects and even doing commercial

lending for contractors at Improvifi.

They understand the challenges that contractors face when it

comes to securing financing for their customers and their projects.

As a result, they provide a comprehensive suite of solutions.

Tailored specifically for home improvement contractors.

Chris, welcome to Construction Disruption.

Wow, that was one heck of a home run introduction.

Well,

I've, I've done this a lot.

This is not my first podcast, and man, you're polished.

well, I didn't wanna make it exponentially over the top, but still

I wanted to give you all good credit and, hey, I, I just ripped off your

LinkedIn profile was all I really did,

Well, I just, I'm really happy that you actually pronounced Improvifi properly.

Sometimes you grab a name for your company and your business.

Yeah.

I don't know if you saw it on the side of a wall, like with graffiti,

and you're like, Hey, that'll be a great name of a company.

And when I, I built the name, I was like, improve home improvement, finance.

Finance improved, improve, Improvifi you know?

So I landed on it and then we chose it, and then we launched it, and then we

get called every, everything, everything improperly under the, under the book.

It's like.

You know, I, I can spell giraffe.

I can't spell, you know, I can't teach people how to say Improvifi

properly though, but whatever.

I must confess, as I was writing out our notes for this show, I think I

misspelled Inify a couple times, but.

Well, ai, the neat thing is AI can't, AI can't do it.

It can't say it, it can't spell it.

So, um, yeah.

So anyway.

Good.

Thank you.

Ver thank you for the warm and very professional introduction.

I really do appreciate that.

I love the company name and glad you joined us here.

Um, great deal.

You and Scott had met a couple weeks ago at the lead surge conference and

Scott said, Hey, let's get this guy on because financing is a very important

topic for home improvement contractors and something we wanted to talk about.

So, um, you've been involved.

With construction a lot of years, including having your

own home services company.

Um, I'm, I'm curious, what do you like about home improvement and home services?

And on the other hand, you know, having walked in those shoes yourself, what

are some of the challenges you see?

It goes back further than 30 years.

So I've been in finance for over 30 years now.

And let's get back to Scott.

Poor Scott.

He had to, he had to sit next to me for two or three days at,

at a, uh, at a trade show event.

And he got to hear and feel the energy that I put off.

So I'm very sorry.

Very sorry for that, Scott, but.

Chris, it was, it was a moment in my life where I just felt like, wow, this

guy, this guy is just something else.

And, uh, I, I felt like, almost like with another couple days, I felt like I could

have been part of your team given a pitch.

I, you were, you were good man.

You were good.

That goes to Todd's question.

Uh, Todd, I think that if I was to look back at my career, I have such

a passion for the industry and.

Helping contractors and helping consumers at the point of sale is my core belief

and philosophy on helping people win.

So when I get up on stages and I speak.

I say the same quote over in it, the contractor that cares about the

consumer the most will always win whether they sell the job or not.

So to take it all the way back to 1990 ish when I got, when I was doing tie beams and

I was doing roofing, and then I got into the construction t wholesale industry.

I had a lot of different mortgage products that we sold and represented back in the

early nineties, but I was really drawn into the construction permanent world.

So I think, you know, growing up in a small firm town in western New York

with a hammer in my hand and building little forts and then, you know,

getting outta college and then going, doing the roofing thing in Florida.

And man, I didn't wanna be a roofer, I didn't wanna spin rebar in Florida

and lift four by eight to put H clamps down and slap rebar and cement in.

I loved the finance side of it, and then I really fell in

love with the training side.

And I think as we go through the, uh, this two, this podcast here today,

people really understand the passion that I have to help contractors win.

Whether they're an improve FI contractor client or not, whether they're a member

of our platform or a client, I really do care about contractors helping.

Property owners and consumers.

'cause we do both commercials.

So I can't sell every call everybody a homeowner.

I want them to win.

And I want the consumers to have the funds necessary to pay for these

metal roofs that are so beautiful and they last so long, but aren't the

cheapest things in the world, you know?

So that's really what it leads down to is the passion, the culture, and

the philosophy of, I really, really, truly do care about this industry.

Awesome, and, and I love that that's where good things happen from when

you're doing it because you care about it, not just because, hey, it's a job.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, tell us a little bit about improve.

I, um, maybe start with what you call the four pillars or the four

areas where you help, uh, your home services and home improvement clients.

Sure, I'll break it down.

And it came to me this year as we launched different solutions.

We actually have five now, so we'll touch on the fifth one.

Oh,

So here's, here's the five pillars of improve I finance improved.

If you have just joined a little bit late to the, to the

podcast here, um, number one.

Lending Lending.

We provide lending solutions to our contractors so they can help

homeowners with affordability.

The next is sales training.

We train contractors on how to present products and

solutions at the point of sale.

So the sales pros can go into the home and present properly with compliance, and then

the consumers can understand different programs and products that are available.

So there's the sales training.

We train them on how actually to sell and present financing.

And then the third would be support, which is uh, two-pronged effect.

We have client success managers that manage every single one

of our contractors accounts.

And we also have this thing called the deal desk.

The deal desk is a telephone well show tell.

And so yes, it's this.

It's a phone that somebody in America picks up the phone and says, hi.

Thank you for calling the deal desk.

How may we help you?

Wow, imagine that.

So we've created a way for contractors and consumers to call that have

questions about loans and products.

So that's the support side.

Then the technology side is our mobile app.

So we have a mobile app that could be utilized at the point of sale,

soft credit pull technology, and we have multiple lenders within that.

So we offer all sorts of different products and solutions.

I call it the lending ladder.

Unsecured secured personal loans, credit card payment processing,

all from the lending ladder.

So our technologies are mobile app.

And then the fifth prong, which is brand new, which is in the

process of being developed, is our certified contractor network.

What is that?

So when a contractor comes onto the platform, it inify

and they become a client.

They also become a certified contractor now, and what that means is this.

We have

consumers that come to Improvifi that say, Hey, I need

money.

We wanna buy a metal roof.

Great.

Apply soft credit pull.

Give them the money.

Hey, are you working with a contractor?

And if not, we have a certified contractor network we can connect you with.

So what we've really done at Improve Iffy is.

Instead of making, and I'm not talking, I'll never talk poorly about my,

the people that are in my space, I don't like to call 'em competitors

'cause we collaborate with everybody.

But we have taken what is a commodity?

Lending on a rate sheet and maybe a sales rep, and we've turned it into a

total turnkey solution package where a contractor, whether they've just gotten in

business or whether a pro level doing 150 million a year is a perfect client for us.

The guys that are brand new in the industry, we can help integrate

all these beautiful things into their business to help them grow.

And then the guy that's a pro level, he can plug us into his

portfolio of lending solutions.

'cause maybe he's just using one or two other options.

So our avatar and our contractor, uh, you know, contractor avatar,

a perfect client is really.

Anybody, anybody that's in the contracting space that installs home

improvements or roofs or society, like what, whatever it is, if it goes in and

on and around it, they are our clients.

So those, hopefully that makes sense, are the five pillars of what we do.

We're very different.

We're, we're really just different than any bank and any other lender out there

because of this turnkey approach and business in a box thing that we built.

That, and that's what caught my attention when I was, uh, listening you at,

at that conference we were both at.

And the question that comes to my mind is, and what caused a guy like you?

You know, sticking out your neck in a little bit, you know, more

than, uh, traditional lenders.

Uh, you're like, I don't know, as far as a giraffe, but

you're sticking out your neck.

And what caused you to take this kind of approach in your business model?

It is easy and I let the business.

Let's tell everybody the secrets to business success.

I'm on a boat.

I'm on a boat boat for many, many years, and I'm working for all

these different banks and all these different lenders that, I mean,

they're big, they're big banks.

I'm getting the billions of dollars of funding that I've done and

I'm noticing holes in the boat.

And there I am just rowing the boat and helping contractors make money,

and I'm looking at the holes going, oh man, if I had my own company, I

would have all soft credit polls.

If I had my own company, I would offer multi lending solutions, not just

one unsecured program or product.

If this was my business, I would have commercial lending solutions

to help contractors to do both residential and commercial.

If I had this, I would've a deal desk and have customers and like everything

that I, if, if I had a lending, uh, platform, I would have training

because these contractors don't know how to sell or offer financing.

So everything, if I had everything that I built, inify, was because

I've done this for so long and watched it done in one way and was

like, why aren't we doing this now?

Those companies were amazing, and they're still amazing and they're

still in business and they still compete or collaborate with 'em in the

industry, but they just do one thing.

They do it really well.

But we wanted to create this, this structure and this platform.

That solved all of those solutions because we know that there's a lot of

contractors that just have no idea.

They don't even know how to spell financing.

Like they're like, Hey Chris, you know, I've been in business.

This guy, wow, fourth generation young guy, calls me a couple weeks ago.

And I don't take sales calls anymore.

I've got a, a team that does that.

I'm, I'm working on, you know, moving bigger rocks here if you

were to follow the EOS system.

But my, the guy gets ahold of me and he's like, Hey Chris, I've been in business 40.

Or I said, how long is your company?

41 years.

I said, 40.

He goes, yeah, I'm fourth generation.

I said, you've never offered financing?

He goes, no.

Like Scott.

I was like, guys, I was like, you've lasted this long.

I said, maybe you shouldn't, like, I was like, are you sure you wanna go

and like do this and throw our money?

He's like, we have to.

We're now starting to get our butts kicked out there because they,

they sell roofs in a retail space.

He goes, we're getting handed because all of our competitors are offering

affordable payment solutions.

I said, okay, good.

Well, now that we've got that established and you've, you've realized

that you actually really do have to make a change in your business.

Let's have a real conversation.

See how we can help you.

Right?

But he didn't know.

He's been in business for 41 years, but nobody throughout, hi, the longevity of

their company has ever offered financing.

It's a completely foreign term to them, so,

I think it's interesting because I still run into guys also who, who don't offer

financing and you know, usually if I ask them why they don't, they're like,

well, our customers don't need that.

And you know, that's the common response.

yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

yeah, okay.

Your customers don't, maybe don't need it.

Apparently the ones you're selling to don't.

But how about the ones that you're not selling to?

Maybe those guys needed it.

So let's tie into that.

All my customers pay cash.

Oh, good.

Fair enough statement.

Alright, you, you had the opportunity to answer me.

Do you accept credit cards?

Well, yeah, of course.

That's silly.

Well then you are offering financing.

You're just offering.

Mean financing and they'll go, what do you mean mean?

I said, that's pretty mean of you to offer, you know, 29% you have

to pay in 30 days, um, financing.

Then they get it and they're like, oh, I get it.

But to your point there that you're we're about to go down is a lot of 'em push

back and say, well, I don't want to pay.

For financing.

Now this goes back to 1987, mindset.

I don't have to pay, I shouldn't have to pay for financing.

You should pay us for bringing you the customers.

Now that is very 1987, by the way.

It doesn't work that way.

This is not the automotive industry, but a lot of 'em shy away with it.

Um, because once they learn that some of the lenders out there charge money from

the money, which is called the dealer fee, they're like, well, I'm not gonna add 3%.

To my pricing to offer financing, and then I simply say back to them,

which is very simple for me to do.

What are you doing now with your credit card processing fee?

Are you swallowing that?

They're like, no, we build it.

Oh, and then boom, the lights go off.

They're like, you're right.

Why are we pushing away and then we, and improve?

If I have 14 no dealer fee programs for those contractors that are

like, I am not adding anything to my margin to offer financing.

Great.

So let's get you started on these 14 solutions.

And then here's what happens.

They fall in love with it, they learn, and then they start

attracting customers that are like.

We want a 12 month same cash, no interest, and their competitors are offering

it and then they go, you know what?

I think we're gonna eventually build that 4% in and offer a promo.

So it organically always just happens that they get that customer

that's got their arms crossed.

So like, I wanna finance, but I don't wanna pay interest.

Great, no problem.

We've got you.

We've got an 18 month, same as cash here, scan the QR code.

You've touched on a couple of things that I'd like to unpack a little

bit, especially for anyone in the audience who isn't familiar with

financing in some of the terms.

Um, soft credit polls use that term a couple times.

Tell us what that is.

Sure, and here's the beautiful thing.

Here comes a soft pitch into the home run.

Um, we have a training university here.

That breaks down all of the terms that I use every single day and your sales

reps will use at the point of sale.

So at that point, that is lab number two, and it's called terminology.

So the terminology soft credit poll means this.

There's two different types of credit polls.

One is soft and one is hard.

Soft means that you can do from our mobile app.

Take an application for financing through any of our unsecured, secured, or whatever

it might be, and it will give you a real approval or pre-approval without

impacting negatively to the credit score.

A hard credit pool.

The reverse side of this is the Charlie Munger would say the uh, what?

What would he say?

The adverse side, brilliant man, by the way, but anyway, would

be a hard credit poll and it's unbelievable in this day and age.

That there's still lenders out there that only do hard credit polls.

But anyway, hard credit polls when somebody gets their credit score reduced.

Five to six points to apply for anything.

But let's talk about financing today just to see if they're approved.

So now imagine being a contractor and you're showing up at the point of

sale and you're saying, Hey Mr. Smith, you know, how would you like to pay?

Do you wanna use our money?

Do yours?

Okay, cool.

You want our user financing?

Great.

Here, scan this QR code.

Oh.

You got declined.

Oh, and we've reduced your credit score seven points.

Now the contractor's like, get outta my house.

I can't believe you did that to me.

I can't believe that I'm not approved.

I'm never gonna do business.

I'm gonna go tell my neighborhoods not to do business.

Like it can really negatively impact a contractor's reputation by doing

hard credit polls for pre-approvals.

And it just blows my mind that really good lenders.

Their big lenders still only do hard credit, pull it bull, and

they do billions of dollars a year.

It blows my mind.

Another thing you mentioned earlier, um, was, you know, training salespeople

how to do things with compliance.

Um, compliance vary Some by state?

By state?

As I recall, it does.

I don't live in this world a lot, but.

It.

It does.

And we're very clear that when we bring contractors into the fold and we build

them their consumer credit center, and I'll explain why that's important.

I'll come back to that point.

Each lender has compliance.

They have a set of rules that the con, the contractor has to follow.

What could be disclosed?

Do I, can I disclose dealer fees?

Do I just build them in?

Is cash equal credit?

So a lender will tell the contractor when they enroll, what the rules and regs are.

Here's something, and I've been in, I was in compliance for, uh, seven

years in Wall Street, by the way.

Uh, I would, I've had a lot of different industries.

It's always been in finance.

So I was in corporate compliance, investment advisors, broker dealers,

insurance companies, and banks on Wall

Street.

So what we do at Improvifi is we help the contractor

build their own consumer credit center.

Okay.

What that does is it completely allows them to.

Hide or put in the background who their lenders are through improve iffy.

So chris's roofing.com has a consumer credit center,

Chris's consumer credit center.

This is a lender program.

This is a lender program.

This is a lender program.

But when I present, I'm not saying who the lender is.

I'm not even speaking to it.

I'm not saying this is the lender.

I am saying Chris's consumer credit center offers promotional loans and

long-term loan to payment options.

Whether you want unsecured or secured, we can help you.

Right now, I'll never get in trouble because I'm completely co compliant

because I am the consumer credit center.

Now, the moment that we do a soft credit pull and apply to a lender is within

is when lender compliance kicks in.

Gotcha.

by us building a consumer credit center for Chris's Roofing, I can go out

and run ads and not get in trouble.

'cause I'm not misrepresenting or representing lending.

I am representing consumer credit center and we go deep on this because

I want my contractors and our clients, I call our contractors clients.

That's a j Abraham thing by the way.

Um.

A customer is a commodity and a client is a relationship for life.

Jay Abraham.

So, um, we want the website to have a financing page on it so we can educate.

So our search engine optimization allows consumers to connect with

these, uh, these contractors to help 'em with affordability.

I can say whatever the heck I want on my website now because

I'm not representing a lender.

So we want leads and to come in and new relationships to come in, and then

we call and we pick up the phone and then we email 'em back, and then we

automate the process of saying, Hey, I see that you're interested in financing.

Happy to send you over a soft credit pull link right now.

I'll stay on the phone with you so we can see what your preapproval is like.

We've figured out a way to.

Not just help contractors market themselves and give them third

party validation, but completely forget about compliance and doing.

And our lenders love us because of this, because we're actually

teaching and training them how not to say the wrong thing.

And then our lenders will never get in trouble.

'cause our contractors are putting them up on ads and saying all the wrong

things and doing all the wrong things.

So by adding the compliance thing that I went through many, many years

ago, I was like, when is this ever gonna become helpful in my life?

Tell us a little bit about the training program.

You've, you've referenced it and as I understand it, you hold these classes.

Is it monthly or maybe more frequently?

Do, do guys have to pay to attend those?

What does that look like?

Yeah, good question.

Um, your timing is

perfect.

So the.

When a Improvifi client comes on board,

they get access to a thing that we've got.

It's called the Improvifi Program School, S-K-O-O-L.

Now, within my school is a very structured, organized, so it's homeroom

start here, lab one, lab two, lab three, lab four, all the way up to Lab eight.

At the end of that, we have a final exam where we turn them into a certified pro,

so they get a certification and a badge.

Then our next level is kind of the higher advanced level sales Pro

360, the budget builder, close the promotional close, the secured loan

close, and then the closer frameworks.

And then after that is the Insider Live Wednesday training

calls that we do every Wednesday.

For a half an hour and then a live q and a at the end that we record,

we put the deck, we put the video into that library so they can go look

back all they can go look at like 75.

Since 2024.

We've got some in there.

Then we take 'em through obstacle and objection training.

Then we take 'em through the seven step selling system.

Then they can go and view podcasts like this.

So my school has start here, advanced certification videos.

We didn't stop there with education information.

We have actually built a community, so a

contractor part of our Improvifi platform can come in

and ask me questions right here, right now while we're doing this.

Hey Chris, I'm at the point of sale.

This person threw a curve ball at me and I, they can't get

a home run out of this one.

Like they can come and ask me questions and I'll answer.

Somebody on my team will answer them.

And then we've got a calendar of events for live events, for training

events that they can come to those.

And then we have a leaderboard and members like.

It's gamified on its highest level.

So this university that we're building is really.

There's a ton of value in it.

There is just hundreds and hundreds of hours of training in it, um,

and take a lot of pride in it.

And then I've got an entire YouTube channel that's completely free.

So to your point, you said, does it cost money?

Yeah, of course.

To, to become a member and a client with us.

Yeah.

It costs money because, you know, I believe in capitalism.

Um, I should be able, I should be able to make a living too.

I mean, you even believe the amount of contractors, like, I have to pay for this.

I'm like, well wait.

You walk around and give away free air conditioners and roofs.

Okay, well then we're being fair, right?

Yeah.

I guess you're right, Chris, man, sorry.

This is such a silly question.

Yeah, there's um, a lot of education.

I just really go heavy in the paint because those who learn, earn, so

the contractors that learn, we can look at their data and go, well,

they come to all the training classes and well, well look at them.

Fund, fund.

And then the ones that don't come, they don.

So Chris, uh, that first level you talked about, I think you, you spoke

about eight different sessions to go through a typical contractor.

How long start to finish to get through those first eight?

Each one of my classes is under 10 minutes.

Yeah, I've timed them.

It took me four months.

Of taking 31 years of knowledge and to shove it into eight courses and

get it under 10 minutes per course at a third grade level, it was,

it was harder of a job reducing it than coming up with a material.

I mean, I am a wordy person.

You've spent 26 minutes with me.

I could talk about one subject for 35 minutes right now.

I just, I love this stuff, man.

I'm passionate about it, and I believe in it, and I'm good at this.

This is all I do.

I live, breathe, and sweat financing.

This is just what I do.

It's my, I don't have hobbies.

I like to walk my dog.

Like I don't have hobbies.

What?

I don't golf.

I don't fish.

I finance like this is, I love this.

Business is a game to me.

So, you know, shrinking all this stuff down, man, that was the hardest

thing was how do I, what 25 terms do they absolutely need to know so they

can go out there and be successful?

What, in 10 minutes in the sales presentation can I get across to somebody

in 10 minutes so they could go out there day one and start selling financing?

You know, it was, it was tough, man.

It was a job.

So what does, what does success look like for you with that contractor, uh,

you know, at the end of a year say, how are they different than someone else

who hasn't been through your program?

Real simple success is when they come back and say, Chris, you're

not gonna be, what happened?

I used your, Hey, how are you looking to pay?

Would you like to use our money or would you like to use yours?

And the customer was like, what?

And then we went right into the finance app and they were like, whoa, we

thought we were gonna have to come out of pocket for $17,000 for this roof.

You're saying I could finance this at $120 a month.

Like these shocking stories of what happens at the point of sale.

That's what make gets me up in the morning and makes me keep coming back.

It's the, it's the, I didn't believe this.

I can't believe it was this easy.

Why didn't we do this sooner?

Why didn't I put a metal roof on my house sooner?

Why did I go through seven asphalt shingle roofs?

Like you, like co. Oh, it's the metal roof is $30,000.

The shingle roof is 10.

Well, you've just replaced 50.

You could have had one for 30.

What?

You could have increased the value of your home.

Like it just the whole, I should have done the sooner stuff is crazy.

It happens in all of our industries, right?

One thing that has always hit me as I watch financing over the years,

you know, it seems like it's.

An ever changing world, and I think this is something that

contractors sometimes fear too.

I mean, I hear all kinds of stories.

You know, a contractor gets set up with one finance company and

suddenly everything changes.

Maybe that company's name changes, their programs change.

They have a team shake up.

It seems like there's constant turnover at these companies and, and

I think that lack of consistency is really frustrating for contractors.

I'm kind

of curious, how does Improvifi bring stability and

consistency to financing programs offered by contractors?

The lending ladder, um, part of my goal in, in my job and duty.

To my clients as A CEO is to look out, be the lookout person for our clients.

And we had a couple situations this year where I saw some things changing in

the industry and I made massive changes for everybody that's a client with us.

And they thanked me because a couple, you know, lenders out

there unfortunately aren't.

Business anymore.

So my job is to always know what's going on out there in the industry,

but more so what we do is we provide a portfolio of solutions.

I don't believe in putting all eggs in one basket, and that is the problem

that we see a lot of contractors do.

They get in bed with one contractor, that contract has 100% of the portfolio.

And then unfortunately, if something has to happen at lender

like COVID, when lending lines froze and funding didn't go out.

On jobs that were installed, they were just sitting there like,

uh, so what we do is we build a portfolio of lending solutions.

We never have our contractors put all of their eggs in one basket.

That's why we built the lending ladder.

So we could have super prime lender, prime lender, subprime lender, person

personal loan, unsecured, secured loans.

Multiple solutions, multiple lending solutions.

So if the world caught on fire and everybody from the super prime had to

be moved to the prime lender bucket, we could go reapply with a soft credit

pull and move the portfolio over.

'cause I watched it happen.

And I, I'm not gonna name the bank that I was at when it happened in 2020 or 2019.

Whenever that whole COVID thing happened, I watched funding lines freeze.

It was scary.

And I said, man, here we go back to that.

If I owned, if I had my own company, I would make sure.

We had multiple banking relationships and multiple partners that we've

negotiated the best pricing and dealer fees and promotional programs.

Like, it took a lot for me to go to these banks and say, Hey,

I'm building this platform.

It's called Improve, and I want you to build me special programs.

They're like, okay.

You know, but here we are, I don't know, a year and a half, two years later, and you

know, we have over 5,500 users on our app.

We over over 875 clients.

We have 15 lending partners.

We have 27 commercial lending partners.

Um, we're funding millions of dollars a week.

Like, you know, we did it.

And I did.

I built this company without VC and capital, and there was no money.

I built this off of a home improvement equity line in Florida

off of a home, and I went all in.

I didn't, nobody gave me the playbook here.

Nobody gave me money and said, go build us a finance company, Chris.

Like nobody backed this.

This is me and grit and guts.

That was it.

Built it the old fashioned way.

We still don't have any investors.

We still don't have any debt.

And there's so much to be good to be said for that, not just your business, but your

clients, you know, knowing that, hey, I don't have someone that has to answer to a

bunch of Wall Street guys, or, you know, a bunch of venture capitalists or something.

Well, I'm, I'm kind of curious.

Tell us a little bit about, you know, how someone would,

the practical side of things.

How would someone get involved working with you?

Um, what does that look like?

Yeah, it's very painless.

Um, we start everything here with a conversation and relationship, so.

I would say we do a consultative call.

It's very simple.

If you're interested, go to improve.

I, I'm sure it'll be somewhere in this thing.

And what you'll do is you'll fill out a little form and it'll go one of my, one

of my consultants, and you'll schedule up a time that's convenient for you.

You need about a half an hour of someone's time to say, Hey,

tell us about your business.

How many reps do you have?

Are you offering financing now?

What's your average ticket?

Are you in retail?

Are you in residential?

Are you in commercial?

Are you in pain?

We need to know why we're on the call.

So it's a very consultative approach, and at the end of the

call, we'll show what we do.

We'll show our reach, and we'll show our app and we'll explain the five pillars.

And at the end of it we're gonna say, Hey, does this make sense for us to partner as

we can't partner with everybody anyway?

I mean, some people you know just.

You know, they, they're not interested or maybe they do pressure washing, like I

can't help the pressure washer guy, right?

They've gotta actually install home improvement.

But at the end of the call, we make a determination if we wanna partner

up together and work together.

So it's a very non pressures, um, type of a call.

We wanna learn.

We'll be taking copious notes.

Because it's important for us to know if you've got 15 reps for 150,

it's important for us to know if your average ticket is 10 right now and

you're not offering financing, because I know once you offer financing,

you can sell best, better, and good.

Your average ticket ain't gonna be 10 anymore.

It's gonna be 15 seven if I have anything to say about it, because you're gonna

be able to present affordability at the point of say, on your customers will say

yes to the dress for better products.

So it's, we gotta ask the questions.

We need the information.

We need to know if you're in pain, are you using financing now?

What do you like?

What do you dislike?

If you could build your own finance company, what would it look like?

You know, we gotta know this stuff so we can actually build

you your consumer credit center, partner up with you properly.

Well, that sounds amazing and I, I, I can't see why everyone wouldn't.

Be working with you.

Um, well, Chris, this has been a real pri privilege to have here today.

Anything we haven't covered that you wanted, be sure to,

uh, share with our audience.

I would say for those now, whether you are a client of, of ours or

not, whether improve I is the right partner for you, doesn't matter.

Make some phone calls.

Don't go on to social media and say, Hey, what lender should I use?

Reach out to me.

Hey Chris, I found your conversation very interesting.

Um, we'd like to vet three or four contractors.

Before we get into this financing, I will give you a full list of

who you should vet. I will tell you exactly what to ask them.

I'll give you all of the inside and the backside information

that they'll never tell you.

Just call us, reach out to us, reach out to me, reach out to somebody on the team

and say, Hey, we want to call X, Y, and Z.

And we're also interested in hearing from you what questions should I be

asking these finance companies, these lending companies, when I get 'em on

the phone, and I'll just give it to you straight, I believe there's this guy,

his name is Marcus Sheridan, and this old book was, they ask you Answer and

if a lender isn't gonna tell you the the, if I give you a bunch of questions

and the lender isn't gonna give you the answers, don't work with them.

Good.

Good point.

We're here to help.

Man.

We started this conversation the same way we're gonna end it.

I care more about that consumer than I do the contractor, because without the

consumer, the contractor doesn't exist.

I'm glad you mentioned Marcus Sheridan.

He was on the show a few episodes ago.

He is become a friend of ours.

Uh, we're going to have him involved in an event of ours in January of 2026.

Our dealer onboarding session where we provide training for, uh,

contractors new to metal roofing and.

I know financing and improve five will probably come up

in that conversation as well.

Well, I have to ask you, um, before we close out, are you willing

to participate in something we call our rapid fire questions?

So, Chris, these are five questions.

Some are serious, some are a little more silly.

All you have to do is give us a top off your head response.

Are you up to the challenge?

Let's do it.

Scott, you wanna ask the first question?

Sure, I'll ask the first question.

Uh, number one is this, what is a product or service you have

acquired in recent years that has been a game changer for you?

My remarkable, it's a notepad.

I don't use paper anymore.

Very cool.

I, uh, never had one of those, but I've heard good things about 'em.

Seen a lot of customers use them.

Question number two.

What is a car or other vehicle that you once owned that you wish you still owned?

My 1957 Chevy Bel Air first automobile I ever.

Nice.

Seriously?

Yep.

1957 Bel Air.

We found it in the back of a farm.

We, uh, we redid it over and I just wasn't at that age where I appreciated it.

My dad passed like a year after I sold it, and I wish to this day,

I never got rid of that damn car.

Oh my goodness.

Do, do you know where it's at today?

Any idea?

No idea It was mint.

Wow.

Wow.

Hmm.

That, that one hurts.

Oh yeah, you got me all my feels right now, man.

All right.

Here's a, here's a, here's a, here's a fun one.

What is a food that you enjoy now as an adult, but as a

child you would never touch?

Russell Sprouts.

Ah, me too.

That's gotta be a common response.

to think they were like little Freddie Kruger brains.

Like now, like if you put enough cook on 'em, they're delicious.

yeah.

the, the important, you're right there.

Yeah.

cook, that gook is bacon in my kitchen.

You got it, man.

That's the, that's the cook.

I'm talking about baby or balsamic vinegar.

I think that's like a glaze that, oh man.

nice.

Yeah, that's good.

Good stuff.

Question number four, what is your bucket list?

Vacation.

Oh my Lord.

Um.

You got me there.

I'm not a massive vacationer.

My wife is.

Hey honey, what's your bucket list?

Vacation spot,

Alaska Cruise line.

Do it.

Do it.

Those are something a lot of fun.

I've had a couple friends go on one recently.

I, my wife and I went on one a number of years ago.

That was a great trip.

Last question, getting kind of serious.

What do you want to be?

Remembered for at the end of your days.

Man, that is a, that is a good one.

I want people to show up and go, man, he really gave it his all.

And I think that I'm living to that right now.

I think that the people that I grew up with in the little small farm

town that I came from in Western New York, they see me on the socials.

I think that my mom, I think that my daughter, I think that my

clients, my contractors, I think that they say, Hey, this guy really,

really goes all in on all he does.

Very passionate.

So I think I just want to keep doing what I'm doing, man.

Just do, do more.

That's awesome.

You sound like the guy who gets it done, Chris.

Well done.

I'm real tired at 5:00 PM 'cause at 5:00 AM I'm wide awake.

I hear you.

Well, Chris, thank you again for joining us today.

This has been great.

For someone who may want to connect with you and improve and improve, I, uh, what

are the best ways for them to do that?

Yeah, let's keep it simple.

Just go to improve fi.com.

That is the.

Best starting point.

Um, you know, whether you are a contractor and you wanna hop online

and just learn about what we're doing, whether you're a contractor that wants

to not become a client, but learn more.

I've got YouTube channels we'll send over to you.

Whether you're a contractor that wants to go and vet a bunch of

lenders, reach out to Purify.

One of my team members will get you up to me.

Just I think that improve fi.com is the best place to get in touch with me.

Um, you know, there's so many different channels out there.

Just go to my website and hook up with us there.

Fantastic, and we will put that in the show notes.

And I love your company name.

I think it's absolutely stellar.

So good job.

So

I appreciate it, man,

congratulations gentlemen.

We all got in our challenge Um, Scott, your challenge word was.

It was giraffe and, uh, willing to stick my neck out on that one,

that you nailed it a couple times.

You did, Chris.

Your word was

Home Run.

Run and I nailed it right off the get go.

I got, I

did.

outta the park there with home run, so.

And it was inspirational to me.

So I quickly came back with, actually I cheated.

I came back with exponentially, I think my word was actually exponential.

Oh, I mean,

a little grace on.

doesn't matter.

It's fine.

Well, thank you again, Chris.

It's been great.

Appreciate you guys for having me on.

Thank you.

Thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption

with Chris Scoville of Improvifi.

Check him out.

He's

doing things that will change your business.

Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.

We'll always have great guests just likes.

Uh, just like, uh, Chris here today.

Um, but until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and

challenging the world and those around you to better ways of doing

things just like Chris has done.

And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter.

Make them smile, encourage them.

God bless and take care.

This is Isaiah Industry signing off until the next episode

of Construction Disruption.