Building a business is the ‘Best Course’

Many of us wait around on Fridays for the boss to hand us a pay check.

Not Justin Riddle.

Riddle, a 34-year-old who grew up in Wimberley but looks more like a California surfer, decided he was tired of working for someone else. A lot of us think about starting our own businesses — Riddle actually did it.

Three years ago, Riddle walked away from the security of working for a 3D-mapping company in San Antonio and started Best Course Gutters and Rainwater Collection. Self employment has been rewarding and challenging.

“I was ready to move on from where I was. I was sick of the travel. I just wanted to be my own boss,” says Riddle.

The first decision he had to make was what kind of business to start. It had to be something unique and not a business that was competing with established, local companies. There was a lot of construction going on around Wimberley and Riddle had some experience in the building industry. He settled on gutters. “I wanted to do something no one else was doing,” he says.

One problem: He knew very little about installing rain gutters or water collection systems. “I stayed at my grandmother’s place in Dallas and worked (for gutter companies there) for free to learn the ropes,” he explains. It was a good, quick, practical education.

Once he had a handle on the basics, he invested $15,000 in a trailer, a system to cut and shape the gutters, and the tools to install them.

His crew, Jose Fajardo and Reed Willis, has been with Best Course for a few years. The company prides itself on quality work and customer satisfaction.

Of course, there’s more to owning your own business than just buying the equipment. “Being self employed is a 24/7 kind of thing,” he says. “Now I find myself every night answering emails or phone calls.”

He puts in 65-70 hours a week. During the day he’s out on jobs. On weekends he is usually out doing estimates and writing up quotes.

Every order is custom-designed because there are so many options. Best Course typically installs traditional-looking 5- or 6-inch seamless gutters. But there are 30 or so color options. The company also offers the more-modern-looking, half-round gutters. And here in Hill Country, where there are more than a few trees, leaf guards are a must. He’s considering investing another $15,000 in a system that produces box-style gutters that are the latest thing.

Typically, he and his crew install gutters on six or seven houses per week. Rounding up new customers is a never-ending job. Sometimes he’ll be on a job and people see the decal on the side of his trailer and call. Riddle also works with local builders. But the most important is word of mouth — a happy customer telling friends and neighbors about Best Course.

“We don’t clear that much on every job, so we have to do a lot of jobs. Sometimes we’ll have seven houses in a week; sometimes we have two or three bigger jobs,” he says.

More and more, customers are asking for rain-water collection systems. Some want the 200-500 gallon tanks for simple yard irrigation while others ask for 10,000-30,000-gallon tanks with filters that provide water for the whole family. Best Course works with Texas Metals Tanks out of Dripping Springs.

What does the future hold?

“We want to expand,” says Riddle, who graduated from Wimberley High in 2002. “I haven’t decided if we want to double down on gutters or get into water collection.”

Riddle knows that growing the business brings both rewards and headaches. “The competitive nature in me wants to get bigger, but…” he trails off.

Best Course Gutters and Rain Collection: 512-470-5291