by Jessica McElroy
“… At the end of the day, we are only as good as the people that work for us, and our team is really amazing.”
Jimmy Prescher began his roofing career at a very young age. His grandfather, who owned and operated a roofing company in Fort Worth, would bring him along to job sites, giving him a chance to learn the trade. In fact, he earned his very first paycheck at only eight years old from the work he put in on one of his grandfather’s projects. He continued that work for 46 more years, and made quite the name for himself in doing so. You’d be hard pressed to find someone in the Burleson area who hasn’t heard the Prescher name. Whether you know that name from Jimmy Prescher’s Roofing, Prescher Custom Homes, or the community work and local sponsorships the Prescher family always made room for, it all started with an eight year old’s paycheck.
When Jimmy married his wife Lisa in 1990, his business was still a one-man show. When you called, he was the one who answered. He networked and booked clients, he was the one tearing off old roofs and putting new shingles on, and the one writing out invoices for his work. As time went on and he began to build a solid reputation in the community, the business began to evolve and his project list began to grow. It was during this time that Lisa, fresh on the heels of having their second child, felt her own priorities began to shift. She had left her corporate job with the intention of spending more time raising their family and supporting Jimmy as he built his business. In offering her support she quickly identified several aspects of the business that could benefit greatly from her organizational skills. Thus, Jimmy Prescher’s Roofing became a family business.
With Lisa on board, they were able to put new systems in place. The company began to plan better, buy materials in bulk, forecast their jobs more accurately, and create standardized office practices that weren’t there before in a successful effort to help everything run a little more smoothly. With this new efficiency they were able to bring on more employees, and eventually they employed crews for construction, metal work, and even tear-off crews. Those same crews have been with them for 22 years now, showcasing a seemingly unheard-of loyalty. “We are like family. They’re good people and we take really good care of each other. At the end of the day, we are only as good as the people that work for us, and our team is really amazing,” says Lisa.
While helping to maintain and grow her husband’s business, Lisa also partnered with her brother Michael to begin another company from the ground up: Prescher Custom Homes. Lisa and Michael grew up in a home where they learned the value of a dollar at an early age, and with the understanding that nobody in this world owed you anything. They also grew up with the knowledge that in a small town, your word and your reputation are everything. A good reputation can take a long time to build, but it doesn’t take much at all to destroy it. Lisa attributes her strong work ethic to these early lessons, and these were values that Jimmy not only shared, but that they worked hard to instill in their own kids as well. Despite working more than the hours of a full-time job, Lisa and Jimmy were both determined to be as present for their children, Mackenzie and Hunter, as they possibly could. “Our one boundary with each of our companies was that work could not interfere with our family. Being your own boss while raising your family means you get to choose which 26 of the 24 hours available in a day that you work. I could position my schedule so that my family was a priority, always.”
With Jimmy handling a lot of the “field” work while Lisa handled most of the back-end office work, her role was set up better to travel with the kids for sports and spend time volunteering in their schools and classrooms. As Hunter and Mackenzie grew, their commitment to their respective sports and interests grew as well. Through her determination to stay as involved as possible, Lisa served in a myriad of roles for different booster clubs, coached community and club league sports teams, and eventually earned her way into the Burleson Sports Hall of Fame as a Community Champion. She traveled with her children to as many sports games as possible, which was basically all of them, and she’d use her time traveling to work remotely, build on to their network and handle as many office tasks as she could from her computer or phone. “Jimmy was really good at his job but he never turned on a computer, that piece was always mine. Traveling with the kids’ sports teams didn’t take away from the work tasks that needed to be completed. We had a lot of very late nights and very early mornings juggling it all, but we managed.” She recalled being on a cruise with her daughter and pulling up Quickbooks on her phone so that she could send invoices from her cabin, and even the night before this interview she was up until nearly 3:30 in the morning staying on top of work that needed her attention after a delayed flight returning from a vendor event with Mackenzie. Each of these sacrifices are a testament to how hard the Prescher family has worked to earn every bit of their reputation and how they have managed to serve this community faithfully for so many years. They have created a legacy that Lisa can confidently say her kids have earned, learned, and are practicing in their own lives today.
The family gathered for Mackenzie’s wedding festivities in October 2022
Lisa and son, Hunter Prescher
Although her children are grown, Lisa is still proudly supporting them every single chance she gets. Hunter is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he is not only studying for the day he eventually steps into the family business, he is also traveling all over the country playing baseball. Lisa still travels to nearly every single game, and is thankful to the baseball and construction family they’ve created over the years who sometimes accompany her as Hunter’s very own cheering section. Mackenzie has also inherited her parents’ work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit and owns a successful local boutique in town, and is in the process of opening up a MedSpa in the community as well. It doesn’t take much to make the connection between the hours Jimmy and Lisa poured into creating the life they wanted for their family and the tools their children are now using to create their own success. “I will always be their number one fan. They know that Mom cheers loud and proud.”
Lisa recalled one particularly fond memory from a time when she was acting as room mother for her daughter’s class, a two year old Hunter tagged along with her and started writing his name on the blackboard as ‘Hunter Prescher Roofing.’ “Every time he saw his father’s name, he saw the word “roofing” attached to the end of it. It was just a part of his name and now, looking back, it was. It’s a part of his legacy.” Speaking about the legacy Jimmy and Lisa Prescher have created for their children holds a much more meaningful significance today, as the Prescher family is grieving the very recent and very sudden loss of Jimmy.
Jimmy Prescher passed away unexpectedly on December 21st, 2022. “He packed a whole lot of living into his 54 years. He worked hard, played hard, loved life and always left you with a smile. Jimmy didn’t do anything that he didn’t want to do, so you knew that if he was doing it that he was in it, 100%, full-hearted, and that he genuinely wanted to be there.”
Lisa stressed how grateful she is to each of their employees, contractors, repeat customers, community members, and new customers alike. “Teamwork and relationships, combined with a lot of hard work, have made us who we are. At the end of the day, we do what we say we are going to do. That hasn’t changed. And the support of everyone who knows that, and of everyone who knew and loved Jimmy, is how we are able to continue running these businesses as seamlessly as we have been. I’m so thankful for that.”
Despite the sudden and tragic loss of their patriarch, Jimmy Prescher’s Roofing is not going anywhere. Lisa is still running the business just like she always has, with the same impressive work ethic she has always employed, and with the backup of the crews that have become a part of the family over the last 20 plus years. In fact, the Prescher family feels as though this experience has fueled their fire even more to do everything in their power to make Jimmy proud. They are working diligently to preserve his legacy, not just because it carries his name, but because he would’ve wanted them to. “Jimmy’s legacy is very much alive and well, and not just in his business, but in his children too. It’s still really fresh and some days are better than others, but we will always play the cards that are dealt us, and we will keep moving forward. Gone, but not forgotten. His legacy lives on and we will work hard to always maintain the business and never forget what got us here: God, family, friends, and hard work – the journey continues!”
Mother and daughter: Lisa Prescher and Mackenzie Davis. Photo by Brooke Mathis: Beautiful Evolutions Photography
Jimmy Prescher’s Roofing Inc.
Burleson, Texas
(817) 295-9010
lprescher@att.net
jimmypreschersroofing.com