Patriot Chimney

Mitchell Blackmon was a serial entrepreneur who had already started a housekeeping company in his hometown of Asheville. When his brother Matt—a former Marine who had spent 7-8 years in the Corps—started working for a chimney company in Roanoke, Virginia in 2017, he began thinking about the industry differently. Matt loved the work (it was profitable and made homes safer) but grew frustrated with inefficiencies and the fact that nobody listened to his ideas for improvement. The two brothers spent months debating whether Matt should wait for his shot at the company or strike out on their own. When Matt's paychecks bounced, the decision was made. They brought in Billy, another ex-Marine who also worked at the competitor, and launched Patriot Chimney in August 2018—the perfect timing, just before the busy "burn season."

Mitchell was between jobs and had free time, so he became the business architect: he built the website, designed the logo, created condition report templates, set up email services and the phone system. Matt and Billy focused on operations—figuring out where to buy a van and equipment, and keeping costs lean by borrowing from family and using credit cards. They didn't have much money, so they bought only what they needed when they needed it. The biggest challenge was that Mitchell lived in Raleigh while the company operated in Roanoke—they stayed connected through daily calls and used Monday.com to track tasks and hold each other accountable. They also did competitive research by calling other chimney companies and asking their prices for basic services like a sweep or inspection, which helped them set competitive rates without copying their former employer exactly.

Their first marketing move was simple: door hangers offering a $25 discount on all services, plus free inspections. They posted on Porch and Thumbtack (which competitors barely used) and made a huge effort to dominate their local presence on Yelp, Facebook, and Google Business. They even started paying for Yelp ads right away to rank higher. The strategy worked faster than expected. "In our first month, August 2018, we earned just shy of $12,000," Mitchell recalls. Their timing was perfect—they launched just before the busy season and could often get customers on the schedule sooner than competitors. By the time of the interview, they were already booked through January with February nearly full.

The biggest winners were their multi-touch, low-tech approach: door hangers, word of mouth, referrals, and SEO. They hired Godot Media (a content agency in India) to create two 1,500-word blog posts per month for $60, which Mitchell would customize with a Southern Virginia tone—cheap, scalable content marketing that boosted their Google rankings. They also built a "customer packet" that included condition reports, referral cards, a service list, and postcards asking customers to leave reviews. They recently hired a door-to-door salesman named Kyle who knocks on doors in their market, leaving newer hangers. They implemented a sales cadence using the Rule of Seven (getting in front of prospects at least seven times before they take action), combining door hangers, mailers, and PPC ads. And they called past clients to remind them about annual NFPA inspections, plus following up on open quotes within 2 days—twice.

One early mistake was trying to go paperless with iPads and styluses for condition reports; climbers on roofs found it impractical. Mitchell learned to run ideas past Matt and Billy first. A bigger regret: not adopting Jobber (operations software) and hiring Kaylin (a full-time admin) sooner. Matt and Billy were drowning in pen-and-paper scheduling, answering phones at all hours, and preparing for the next day—Jobber and a dedicated person to handle quotes and calls became "absolutely instrumental" to their success.

By the time of the interview (January 2020), Patriot Chimney had grown from $12k in month one to $212,000 total revenue with 350 clients and 5 employees. Their fiscal year goal (starting August 1) was $350k, and they were 35% of the way there. They were maintaining an 8% profit margin while bootstrapping and reinvesting aggressively. Mitchell was still working his day job but planning to go full-time with Patriot Chimney in a few months. Their next moves: expand to the tri-city area of Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City (no other CSIA-certified pros nearby), and add commercial kitchen exhaust services (they'd tried it early on but found it unsustainable when Matt and Billy worked chimneys all day then restaurants all night). The team also planned to hire more chimney technicians with diverse skills like masonry to scale the operation.