Faces of the Industry: Brad Unruh

How’d you get into this industry?

In some ways, it’s a real simple story. I grew up in the construction world. My dad owned a construction company and he did a lot of concrete work for housing. I grew up with that.

Due to life, and work availability, I ended up bouncing around between some jobs for a while. I ended up doing some farm work down in Oklahoma – I grew up in Kansas – and I felt like I needed more of a challenge. I needed a change.

I was visiting with a local hardware store and lumber yard, and they didn’t have an openings at the time. But they came back to me a few weeks later and said, "we’ve had an offer to buy this truss plant but we don’t have the staff to take on management of this new operation. Would you be interested in running it?"

It was kind of like…boom!

I thought about it for a week or two, because it seemed like a large responsibility. A large undertaking.

But you accepted the offer. What experience had you had with trusses at that point?

None. Zero. I started at ground level.

The company that we were buying was operating almost part time – and had been since the recession. The owner’s heart was in EMS work, and he was simply ready to get out. We didn’t bring any customer base with us. We started over with a new location, a new shop. We only brought the truss table, the forklift and the truss trailer over here. We just simply started in and started growing and learning!

What was the biggest challenge?

Let’s just say…everything! In the first year, everything was a tremendous challenge. I’ve never been so exhausted in my life. I love socializing, and I hardly socialized at all that year.

It was a matter of learning software, learning how to engineer and design. And learning how to manage a company and employees. It was a matter of us building our own process, learning how we wanted to make our work flow, and learning how to build and what was efficient and what wasn’t.

With staring a company, there are so many things to consider. You don’t think of them when you start. If you did, you’d probably never start!

You came to BCMC last October. What did you get out of attending the show?

We purchased the company in 2012, so we’ve completed five years now –we’re starting our sixth year. So we’re still growing. Also, I’m young, and I feel like there is a lot that I need to know!

This was my second BCMC. I went to the show last year; I was impressed with it. It was good. I enjoyed it. But I feel like I got about twice as much out of this one. The last one, I was new to it – trying to understand how the whole show went was most of my experience.

This year, my exclusive goal – because of the questions that were coming up in my company – was to network. I started off by doing the roundtables Tuesday afternoon after the plant tour. I started to visit with more people and make more connections. Then, into the show, I hit every single event I could and networked as much as I could. The people I talked with were able to point me in some of the ways I needed to go – and for that, I was really impressed. This year, I put more into it, and I got more out of it. I made connections with Larry Dix and his son, Jared. It was neat meeting Jared, since he’s a little younger than me. And, of course, I value the perspective of older people in the industry as well. I was asking questions and what people told me is I just had to tour more truss plants and see what the rest of the industry is doing.

What’s your favorite part about being in this industry?

Sales! Definitely. That’s personality – I love customer interaction, and that was the initial part of this job that I was looking forward to: working with customers. Sure, I started out building trusses, because I had to understanding everything about this company. My primary role now, though, is design and sales, along with managing the company.

It’s easy for me to sell a job, but then I have to turn around and design it! We’ve got around seven total employees now. I have three that are primarily building and production. I’ve got a couple guys that I rely on for deliveries. I have a couple people who do bookwork. And I primarily handle all sales and design.

What challenges are ahead, for Timberlake and for the industry?

As for the industry, the big issue is labor. When I think about that part of growth, if we would get even 50% of the local stick-framing market share, how would we handle that output?! We’re already facing growing pains. One or two people make a large difference, either one way or the other, in a company our size. We’re still working with the structure of our company – how do you go from five people to 10 people? Or from 10 to 20? You’re doubling!

Finding good quality employees is the hardest thing for us. In our part of the country, the population isn’t real high, so finding someone who fits is a struggle. If they fit, then they stay; some people have been with us since we started, including, critically, our shop foreman. But it’s not like we’ve got people standing around our door asking for jobs! Part of that is due to the large oil field business around us. They can pay really high dollar for a top-notch person, and we typically can’t compete with that kind of wage in this industry. However, some people like our work environment and the other things that we can offer that the oil field can’t. The biggest challenge we face is keeping costs down along with being able to produce the trusses that supply the growth of our nation.

When you’re not thinking about trusses, what keeps you busy?

My wife and family. And God comes first! We have a lot of friends in the area, and I enjoy being with friends and family. If we aren’t doing that, I love playing disc golf! I play every chance I get! We actually spent the other weekend just across the border in Arkansas – we have some friends over there that have been like family for years – and, yes, I played some disc golf over there! Can’t take a trip without finding out what courses are nearby and getting in a round in on a new one!