Roofing business adds construction, dent removal

Bad weather has been good to Michael Lent.

Lent started New Image Roofing just before 2006s big hailstorm and has Mother Nature to thank for much of his business since then, including last weeks nasty weather.

As soon as that storm was over, our phones starting blowing up, he said.

But Lent isnt relying solely on roofs to grow his business. He added construction and remodeling to his companys line of work a couple of years ago, and more recently opened 1st Class Dent Removal for vehicles in the same building.

Ive always been a business owner and entrepreneur, he said.

Lent, 30, grew up in Andover, earned a business degree from Wichita State University and then owned his own landscaping company. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, he went to work for a Wichita roofing company that sent crews to the area.

It was winter time, and they were looking for help, he said. I decided to try something new. I learned a lot.

So much, in fact, that he started doing his own roofing jobs in the New Orleans area and then went into the business full time upon returning to Wichita.

It was perfect timing, he said.

His brother, Alex, 28, joined the company as a sales consultant in 2009, about the time the business moved from West Kellogg to downtown and added the construction work.

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Roofing business adds construction, dent removal