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Learn more about Bonfe Exteriors

https://bonfeexteriors.com/

Kristina Bonfe
Business. There’s a lot of juggling going on there. So yeah, we we talk chose the exteriors business. And it’s,

Jasna Burza
I love that we’re I am so excited to talk to you, Christina. Seriously, women, we’ve connected just very briefly before before going live and like I already love you to pieces. And that is the power of connection and our Business Spotlight here on Wednesdays on this live Facebook, but also you will see us everywhere on LinkedIn and Instagram. The goal is really to feature incredible people locally doing amazing work, and who are really looking out for one another. So Christina Bomfim, welcome.

Kristina Bonfe
I’m so excited to be here. I’m just loving what God’s doing the women that he’s bringing into my life. It’s amazing. Oh,

Jasna Burza
so excited. So what is really fascinating you I could you and I will go into so many different different conversations in terms of your business, but a woman running and exteriors business, like, first of all you’re studying, you’re like, look, there’s a grid and duty and all of it. How did you get into serious business? And tell us? Well, first, what Bomfim exteriors is the first place? Yeah,

Kristina Bonfe
so bumpy exteriors is what we specialize in storm repair and home exterior renovation. So say your house has been outdated, you know, it’s 20 years and you want a facelift. And everybody loves that farmhouse Look, that’s something that I really love to do Chip and Joanna style, we come in, and we help you just come up with a new look and help you with your repairs. And that includes you know, roofing, siding, gutters, garage doors, anything on the envelope of the outside of the home.

Jasna Burza
I love that. So how did you find yourself in the in the in this in this industry,

Kristina Bonfe
it was not on my radar at all. Which is just the call of God, you know how he works. And it’s just it’s been amazing to see how all my giftings are coming together in such a beautiful way in this industry, which needs a feminine touch so desperately, there’s only 6% of women in the industry, so and even fewer that are business owner. So my husband was a builder with his father. And they did that for the last six years. And then just this year, my husband and I have always dreamed of owning a business together. And the opportunity presented itself to have his father continue building and for us to move forward with building a kingdom business, with the exteriors business and just interjecting our faith into our business. So yeah, it’s been a wonderful, awesome journey.

Jasna Burza
I love that Willie distinguishes you. And I think that it is it. And it puts you in a very, I think, standout category in terms of this kind of business. And that is what struck me like oh my god, she’s the owner of an exteriors business. And that’s interesting. 6% only 6% Women are in in this in this industry in the first place.

Kristina Bonfe
Yes. Yep. And it’s just, there’s so many stigmas. And what’s the word, I’m looking for stereotypes within our industry, that it’s just been something that I think women have shied away from. And honestly, I was probably one of those people too. And so it’s just really fun to create something where women empowerment is the thing, and I’m just so excited that we hired our first women sales person. And and it’s just like, there’s so much ahead that and so many changes that we want and to build within this industry and kind of move past that, you know, attaboy, you know, kind of have a culture.

Jasna Burza
Yeah, there’s interesting, I’ve been doing a little bit of research on the company and off some of the things you’ve been writing in general studying the a little bit locally, the industry and historically it has been Yes, underrepresented by by women. But also, there’s just this energy of sleaziness, and Job well done. And you’ve really, really emphasized that and you say, when we come in and you work with us, there’s a whole different level of commitment because you’re coming from that faith, and you’re coming from integrity. And tell me a little bit about you know, the positioning, and also how is it that you really tell others what why are you so much different and how do you redefine what it means to work in the exteriors industry?

Kristina Bonfe
Yeah, so one of the stereotypes and honestly it’s assignment stereotype it’s a truth is that our industry is, like you said, kind of slimy and sleazy and not always very trustworthy. And because of our faith, that is something that we really stand on, when we say integrity, we mean it. And it’s something that we just don’t even say it’s something lived out in there with our values, like the US drone inspections, which means we don’t even get on your roof. We don’t even touch it. It’s just drone technology that has artificial intelligence that is far more precise than the human eye. And the reason why we do that also is because if there are industries who are actually are not industries, there are companies that are under investigation right now, because they are potentially going up on on roofs and causing damage to homeowners roofs to get it approved. No, yeah. So it’s, I won’t name the companies, if you research it, you’ll find them. But so the drone is like our way of saying like, No, honestly, we stand behind integrity, and we just we want to be, we want to present ourselves as Christ would have presented himself to people. And so that means just being kind to people and walking along with them. We say, we’re your friend, and we’re your advocate. And advocacy is such a huge thing within our, within our business, insurance companies. They’re a business. And so they really don’t want to pay out what actually is owed to the homeowner, because there’s been so many storms that have spent so many claims. And so they tried to like cut back on their losses, and put it on the homeowner. So it’s our job to come in and fight on the homeowners behalf and say no, that’s not right. This is what they deserve. This is the scope. We’re not even asking, you know, too much. We just, this is a scope. And we want you to meet that. And so it’s been I love that part of it, that advocacy part of it. And I think it’s something that is not understood by the general public of roofing in general. And a big part of what we do for people is

Jasna Burza
you have their back, which is really refreshing. And beautiful. Well, I’m really curious, when you walk into a meeting, and you know, in this industry are you met with the surprise that you are a woman? I’m so curious how things go? And I’m gonna just really quickly plug in go

Kristina Bonfe
ahead. Yeah, um, yeah, it can be interesting. Moreso like when I’m in the field, or I go walk into our subcontractors to work with them, or I visit homeowner like during the project, if I walk on site, they’re, you know, they’re just kind of like, who are you? Or people will just ask me like, Oh, you’re your owner of Bonfim exteriors? Like, what, what do you do there? And just kind of like, I’m sure they don’t mean anything by it. I mean, but they’re just kind of wondering like, what could you possibly offer in a construction industry kind of

Jasna Burza
breaking the stereotypes and in the barriers that have been there.

Kristina Bonfe
And it’s just, it’s my skill sets are just so needed for industry and like just to invite women in to bring that feminine touch into the construction industry where there’s actually heart and you know, we give gifts at the end of our projects just for our sincere thanks. And just trying to go above and beyond and ways of building a relationship with people and not being so transactional and like the biggest frustration for people are that they don’t communicate with the you know, the contractors, they don’t communicate with the homeowners, they can’t get a hold of anybody. And so we’re really trying to change that and just have one of our values is consistent communication and we’re not perfect and we don’t get it right every time but we will do everything in our power to make it right at the end of the day. That is like our goal is just to make it always right for for the person that we’re working for. I love

Jasna Burza
that I feel like there’s a different world something has been shifting in the last five years where the old ways of doing business are no longer working simply because we’re on to things right and we really want that personal connection but we want integrity and we want honesty and we want to work with someone who is who has a great communication and who is going to go above and beyond because that all golden touch the we have lost over the over the years so I that makes me so happy. Well what are some of the services that are in here locally, Minnesota, most sought after and what is the service that you really have the most fun watching the transformation the before and after?

Kristina Bonfe
Oh the most fun for me because I love design. I love that. So home renovation, the facelift thing where you’re just like You know, new siding you want new windows, garage doors are a huge increase for return on investment. If you plan to sell the next five years, things like that, that’s my favorite thing, probably where we outshine is our storm repair. So we’ve had a ton of hail storms come through this year. And so there are so many different cities that have been affected who have been hit actually two or three times. And the thing is, is like, you can’t see the damage from the street. And so people are like, Oh, it’s fine, you know, unless there’s like, a tree that fell on it, or something really dramatic. They’re like, Oh, now I should call somebody. But it’s actually that insidious little damage that, you know, even later on a year, a year down the road, two years down the road, can cause a huge amount of damage and cause leaks. And then insurance is gonna say, You neglected to take care of this. And they’ll or they’re not going to cover it. So it’s super important that once a hail storm comes through, and you see, you know, hail this big come through that you just have somebody come out to check it out. And it’s it’s a complimentary drone inspection, and at least you have that peace of mind and insurance can throw it in your face later.

Jasna Burza
Well, let’s actually use it. Two things are really, that really stood out. Number one, changing the garage door has a huge why that’s incredible. And then secondly, I didn’t know that insurance can either punish you by not repairing the small things that could lead to larger repairs.

Kristina Bonfe
Yeah, it’s, there’s a huge part of our businesses education. And so we’re constantly educating homeowners on, you know, their their insurance plan. What does that mean? And if you try to come on later, or try to claim it later, like just trying to allow them to see all the pitfalls that homeowners have been falling into before. And it can, it’s just such a mind shift. So it’s, we’re already kind of in a pit where we’re trying to get people to have trust us and coming into this industry, and, but we’ve really, we’ve really just want to give you what you deserve and give you the best.

Jasna Burza
I love that. All right, so let’s bring in a business of education. And I have such an incredible resource right here, Goldmine, what will be the three main things that people ask about very often, or the you come into contact with every single day, but like, you guys, these are the three things you all homeowners have to pay attention to right now.

Kristina Bonfe
Yeah, the hail thing. So you know, if you’ve gotten hail, you know, larger than like a quarter size that it that causes severe damage to your roof, even though you can’t necessarily see it. Um, that would probably be the first one that the next thing is like people worry about their deductibles are their insurance rates going up, because they they filed a claim. And that’s not true, they will not go up, they cannot do that. Insurance will raise everyone’s rates because if there’s so many claims going in, so the the switches to think about why I want my piece of that. So my rates are going up anyways, because there’s so many claims being made. And so you might as well capitalize on that and get that new roof that, you know, if your roof is already 10 years or older, you’re going to need that roof replaced. Anyways. So a really good time to capitalize on that. That’s like the second thing. And I think the third thing is people worry about when we go into were advocating and we’re more fighting with your insurance and they see the numbers climb up and they get really nervous or like Oh, no. And that’s actually like an amazing thing. It’s like no, we’re actually winning you more money to make sure that you’re adequately covered that we can actually get quality roofing done your entire roof done, we can get your gutters done and your deductible will never change. So if it’s $500 you will never see another bill from us more than $500 it’s just insurances having to pay more money to make sure that the work that we see that needs to be done is done to the standard that it needs to be done.

Jasna Burza
I love that. So if you need a facelift, which we all do in many different ways, but little cosmetic things that I think just completely transform a home, the curb appeal and also if you don’t even know if your roof is older than 10 years, you may not even know that you have the damage. So have both exteriors. Come on and take a look at it with the drone technology. Oh for sure.

Kristina Bonfe
Yeah. Oh my gosh. from you and help you

Jasna Burza
love though I am There’s so happy to, of course, promote any business that’s doing great work, right and Integris work because that is such a foundation of what I stand for, but also a woman who is in such a traditionally male industry, it just warms my heart that you’re bringing all these incredible values to the industry. And I think that is why I know you’re doing well. And you’re going to continue to do well and everyone should be encouraged to work with you and your your company. So thank you for taking the time to coming to talk to you about your work and in sharing your tips. Yes, absolutely.

Kristina Bonfe
I look forward to getting to know you better and supporting you and all that you do as well. It’s just amazing thing. Oh, it’s

Jasna Burza
a blessing. Well, I look forward to we should do coffee soon. Yes, I would love to have a beautiful rest of the day. Thank you so much for your time again.

Kristina Bonfe
You’re welcome. Bye, everyone. Bye