Women own a small fraction of gutter companies in the U.S. — by most estimates, somewhere around 7 to 11 percent of contractors in roofing and exterior trades are female. So when the Rain Gutter Association sat down with five women who run gutter businesses of very different sizes and in very different markets — from a nine-crew, multi-state operation doing over $4 million a year, to a one-woman-and-one-helper shop in a town of 5,000 — we expected five different stories.
We got that.
But we also got the same handful of moments, told five separate ways.
Here's what they told us.
The Question That Never Seems to Go Away
"People assume that I'm an employee or a worker. And then through conversations they seem to gather that I know quite a bit.
Terri Kruse
Owner, Lady on the Roof
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Protect Yourself - Before You Have To
Tina, who spent a decade building a gutter company with a partner before they split, was direct about it: the single biggest thing she'd do differently is get it in writing before it matters.
Tina's read on why this mattered enough to lead with: "As a woman, we can be maybe potentially a little bit more vulnerable - especially if you're romantically involved, you want to believe that everything you're being told is true."
The fix isn't distrust — it's documentation. Believe your partner and still get it in writing.
Tin'a's Advice:
Tina's read on why this mattered enough to lead with: "As a woman, we can be maybe potentially a little bit more vulnerable - especially if you're romantically involved, you want to believe that everything you're being told is true."
The fix isn't distrust — it's documentation. Believe your partner and still get it in writing.
Tin'a's Advice:
Get an agreement in writing — even if things are going well. "Even if you get along perfectly from day one," Tina said, "even if you're engaged, even if you're married — have something written down, legally documented, that states what happens if your relationship ends." That's not just about divorce or separation. It covers what happens if a partner passes away, if one person wants out, or if the business needs to be valued and split.
Two people can join forces without being a couple — two friends, two former installers, a parent and a child — and the same logic applies. Whatever the relationship, put the business terms in writing separately from it.
Two people can join forces without being a couple — two friends, two former installers, a parent and a child — and the same logic applies. Whatever the relationship, put the business terms in writing separately from it.
Spell out roles and ownership, not just intentions. A verbal understanding of "this is ours" or "you'll be taken care of" isn't a business structure — it's a hope. Tina's advice: document what your actual role is, what percentage you own (if any), what happens if you decide to part ways, and what you're entitled to — ownership stake, retirement contributions, whatever applies — while everyone still agrees on the answer.
Tina wasn't a legal owner of the first company she helped build — she ran it day to day, made the business decisions, and grew it for years, but on paper she was closer to an employee.
Tina wasn't a legal owner of the first company she helped build — she ran it day to day, made the business decisions, and grew it for years, but on paper she was closer to an employee.
None of this is unique to women — but the vulnerability can be.
Two Different Playbooks
Where the five owners genuinely diverge is on what to do with being a woman in a male-dominated trade — and it splits roughly down the middle.
Terry and Crystal both lean into it as a business asset. Terry uses her femininity deliberately in sales: "Nobody's going to buy anything from someone they don't like," she said, "so I do try to be the person that communicates and listens."
Crystal has built her whole customer-service reputation around the same idea — women calling in specifically because they want someone detail-oriented and easy to talk to.
Crystal has built her whole customer-service reputation around the same idea — women calling in specifically because they want someone detail-oriented and easy to talk to.
A lot of her clients are single women who feel safer having a female walk them through a job...and letting them inside of their home.
"Women believe other women are more trustworthy. We show up and follow through.
Crystal Taylor
Owner, Fifteen Five Gutter Solutions
Brooklyn, Tina, and Callie take the opposite approach: don't make gender the pitch at all.
Tina Hart was direct about this — in her experience, what turns people off isn't being a woman in the trade, it's leading with it. "What deters men or puts men off is when women come across as way too girl power," she said. "The louder you are about it, the more of a turnoff it is, I guess, and it makes people not want to help you. (I) think guys see, like, 'Oh, she just genuinely wants to help, she's not here to make a statement, she's not here to prove that she's better than me or equal to me.'"
Brooklyn's version of the same instinct shows up in how she dresses for a job: "Every time I'm showing up in a polo and jeans or long pants to get the work done, because I'm confident in what I provide in my work... you don't have to sell yourself to be successful in this industry. You can show up in the same thing that Chad shows up in, as long as you're confident."
Tina Hart was direct about this — in her experience, what turns people off isn't being a woman in the trade, it's leading with it. "What deters men or puts men off is when women come across as way too girl power," she said. "The louder you are about it, the more of a turnoff it is, I guess, and it makes people not want to help you. (I) think guys see, like, 'Oh, she just genuinely wants to help, she's not here to make a statement, she's not here to prove that she's better than me or equal to me.'"
Brooklyn's version of the same instinct shows up in how she dresses for a job: "Every time I'm showing up in a polo and jeans or long pants to get the work done, because I'm confident in what I provide in my work... you don't have to sell yourself to be successful in this industry. You can show up in the same thing that Chad shows up in, as long as you're confident."
Callie summed up the whole position in one line "I don't want to be known because I'm a woman. I want to be known because I'm good at what I do."
Both approaches work.
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Gutter Tactics Worth Stealing
A couple of specific, transferable habits came up in these conversations that have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with just being good at the job.
Photograph the problem before you quote it. Tina Hart's habit, developed over hundreds of estimates: when she's assessing a system for cleaning, covers, or repair, she photographs the actual debris inside the gutter and shows the homeowner directly — not a verbal description, the picture itself. It's a small thing, but she's talked to a large number of business owners in the industry and says almost none of them do it. The pitch sells itself once the customer can see what you're seeing.
Read the house, not just the job. Brooklyn, who runs Gutter Princess, treats an estimate walk as a chance to notice the property, not just measure it. Where a lot of estimators default to "you want gutters, take a picture and leave," she's looking at the architecture and style of the home and floating upgrades that fit it — half round, copper — rather than defaulting to the standard system every time. It's a simple shift: from quoting what was asked for to noticing what would actually suit the house. It upsells naturally.
It Can Also Work in Your Favor
Set the two philosophies aside, though, and there's real agreement on the specific ways being a woman has worked in their favor — mostly on the customer-facing side of the business, and mostly around trust and attention to detail.
Brooklyn described the same instinct from the other direction — noticing design details a lot of male estimators skip past.
"I'm typically going to notice the design better than a man. I'll say something like, well, I love your house, it's so beautiful — have you ever seen half round gutter?"
Brooklyn Brungardt
Owner, Gutter Princess
Crystal Taylor's crews see her as something closer to a mom figure than a boss, and she thinks that changes how corrections land. "It's not like your boss got on to you," she said. "I can bring them into my office, sit them down, tell them exactly what they did... a lot of times they hate it worse whenever I've done it, because they don't want to disappoint me."
Terry hears the same thing from customers who specifically sought out a woman-owned company after a bad experience with a male owned one: "Woman all are detail-oriented, you communicate, and you're responsible," she says customers tell her.
Terry hears the same thing from customers who specifically sought out a woman-owned company after a bad experience with a male owned one: "Woman all are detail-oriented, you communicate, and you're responsible," she says customers tell her.
None of them described this as one-sided. Terry was candid that being a woman-owned business also costs her work — some callers assume they'll get a cheaper bid, and a handful have told her outright they'd rather work with a man. The advantage isn't universal. But where it shows up, all five described it the same way: it's less about being liked, and more about being trusted with the details.
Building a Community That Wasn't There
Every one of the five described the same networking gap: gutters and roofing are overwhelmingly male, and for most of their careers, that meant navigating spaces — Facebook groups, trade associations, supply houses — that weren't built with them in mind. Callie described most industry Facebook group bluntly: "It's basically a frat house. You don't know if you're going to get solid answers or if you're going to get a bunch of BS answers."
That story is changing. Lisa Hubbard of Mothers Gutters and Gutter Growth, created her own space for women in the gutter trade to network and support each other. Her Facebook page, Women in the Gutter Business, is growing rapidly.
Callie notes, "The same question will be posed in the other gutter group versus the women's gutter group, and the answers are like night and day. The women tend to get into things way more and be way more thorough about it."
Terry helped bring a formal Cincinnati chapter of National Women in Roofing online. Brooklyn credits her local BNI networking chapter — not a women's group specifically — with giving her business its first real credibility boost among older, established owners in her town - a tactic RGA founder Tony Cobb also used when he started All Gutter Systems in Grandville, MI.
Callie notes, "The same question will be posed in the other gutter group versus the women's gutter group, and the answers are like night and day. The women tend to get into things way more and be way more thorough about it."
Terry helped bring a formal Cincinnati chapter of National Women in Roofing online. Brooklyn credits her local BNI networking chapter — not a women's group specifically — with giving her business its first real credibility boost among older, established owners in her town - a tactic RGA founder Tony Cobb also used when he started All Gutter Systems in Grandville, MI.
None of them described this as a fix for the underlying imbalance in the trade. But everyone described it as something that simply didn't exist a few years ago and now does.
Advice for Women Entering the Industry
We asked each of them the same closing question: if a woman told you she was thinking about starting a gutter company, what would you actually tell her? The answers converged more than anything else in these conversations.
Go in with a thick skin, and don't let it shake your confidence. "You cannot let what people say or doubts they have dull your confidence," Brooklyn said. "You have to maintain a certain level of confidence to really survive in the industry."
Some people are going to judge you for being a woman in this industry. And they're going to make assumptions. What actually matters is how you handle that.
Tina Hart
Business Coach, Speaker & Former Gutter Company Owner
Don't overplay the gender angle, but don't hide it either. Brooklyn's advice was to let the product carry the message. Tina Hart's was similar but more specific: "You don't have to lose your femininity in the process. Still be a woman, be true to yourself... but use the things that are naturally given to us to your benefit as well." Callie's framing was the simplest version of the same idea — be known for the work, not the novelty of who's doing it.
Use technology and know your numbers. Terry pointed out that a lot of the physical assumptions people make about the trade — that you have to be able to climb, lift, and carry the way a man might — are outdated given how much of estimating and inspection now happens with cameras, drones, and photo documentation.
Tina Hart's advice doubled down on the numbers side specifically: know your data cold, because it's the fastest way to cut through doubt and other people's skepticism. "What does the data say?" is a question she asks constantly. "We don't have to talk about your feelings. Show me the reports."
Finally, go for it. Every one of them, without exception, ended in the same place.
"I would say just that you should do it, you should take advantage of it." Terry said.
Brooklyn affirmed, "Any woman can absolutely go into this field and really kill it if she wants to."
"I would say just that you should do it, you should take advantage of it." Terry said.
Brooklyn affirmed, "Any woman can absolutely go into this field and really kill it if she wants to."
A man may be trusted more quickly at first in this industry, but that initial assumption only lasts so long. Once people work with someone and see how they communicate, perform, and handle responsibility, they figure out very quickly who they can rely on.
RGA Member Carrie Ball
Michigan Gutters & GutterParts.com
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