Forum Widgets
Recent Discussions
How many long weekends do you actually get?
First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends out there! I am wondering how many of us are going to be working tomorrow? How many long weekends do you usually take in a year? Is there a weekend or holiday that you will always take off each year? For me, Canada Day and Remberance Day are the only two days in a year that I would ABSOLUTELY say no to taking a call. No amount of money could get me out those days.At what point did you realize you needed more systems instead of just working harder?
At what point did you realize you needed more systems instead of just working harder? One thing I've noticed over the years is that almost every problem in a growing business gets solved the same way at first: the owner works longer hours. Need estimates out faster? Stay up later. Need to keep jobs moving? Spend more time on site. Need to answer clients? Reply at night. It works... until it doesn't. Eventually you hit a point where putting in more hours barely moves the needle. The bottleneck isn't effort anymore. It's the lack of systems. For us, that meant standardizing things like estimating, handoffs to production, material ordering, site documentation, and communication with clients. I'm curious if anyone else had a moment where they realized they couldn't outwork the problem anymore. What system had the biggest impact on your business?Curious what everyone has changed this year that made the business feel better, not just bigger?
The best change I made this year was getting more intentional about what I wasn’t going to do anymore. For a long time, growth in my cleaning company meant adding more residential clients, adding more employees, filling more routes, repeat. And that worked — until I realized that scaling more of the same thing wasn’t necessarily the direction I wanted for the next chapter. This year, we got much more intentional about commercial growth. We built dedicated commercial pages, started tracking that pipeline separately, and are now restructuring one of our team members’ role so she can spend dedicated time managing commercial work instead of squeezing it in around residential production. The biggest lesson for me has been that sometimes growth isn’t “do more.” It’s deciding what deserves its own lane.“We didn't have time to train. We had no systems in place.”
Beau Batcheller (Five Stones Landscape) learned this when his business grew from $1M to $7M in under a year. He kept hiring, but without time to train people or a clear way to get things done, more hands didn’t make the work easier. 🌱 What’s been the biggest challenge as your business grew? Vote in the poll below. If there’s something you weren’t prepared for, share it in the comments. In this Masters of Home Service episode, Beau shares how he went from a borrowed mower to a $7M business, what he learned about pricing and hiring, and how better systems and marketing helped him keep up with growth. Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
When Was the Last Time You Checked In With Yourself?
Someone recently asked me a very simple question: "How are you doing?" It made me realize how rarely we seem to ask entrepreneurs that question. We're constantly checking on the business. Revenue, leads, clients, schedules, marketing, employees, expenses, growth. There's always another task, another problem to solve, another person to connect with, or something new to create. But how often do we pause long enough to check in on the person building the business? Not just whether we're tired or stressed, but whether we're still enjoying what we're building. Whether we're proud of how far we've come. What's working for us personally, what's wearing us down, and whether the business we're creating still aligns with why we started it in the first place. Sometimes I think we get so focused on where we're trying to go that we forget to acknowledge where we are. So I'm curious: How are you doing? Not your revenue. Not your pipeline. Not your team. You. And when was the last time you actually stopped long enough to answer that question?To Everyone Who Didnt Win The Jobber Grant
I jus got the email of the winners... I know I’m not the only one who was hoping to hear our name called. Being told you didn’t make the cut can definitely sting, especially when you’ve put your heart, time, and energy into building your business. But not being selected doesn’t mean your business isn’t worthy. It doesn’t erase the work you’ve already put in, the customers you’ve helped, or the dreams you’re chasing. Congratulations to the 9 who were selected you earned it. 👏 And to everyone who didn’t, keep going. Our story doesn’t end with one “no.” Sometimes the setback is just another chapter before the breakthrough. Keep building. Keep learning. Keep showing up. We may not have won the grant, but we’re not done winning. 💪🚀Is your busy season coming or is it coming to an end?
I think we are all reeling at the thought of summer coming to an end, and the inevitable onslaught of fall and winter. I think about all the businesses that thrive in these transitional times, but would love to hear about some of the businesses that most people wouldn't think have a either a busy time or slow time in these times. Locksmiths, cleaners, reno companies, pooper scoopers... Also would love to hear why. Is your season picking up or slowing down?How Can Small Businesses and Shops Compete with Private Equity?
The consolidated shops in most markets are running a real playbook now. Phones covered every hour. Leads worked in minutes. Estimate in the customer's hands before the van leaves the job. Photos of the panel and the attic feeding next year's upsell. Published price book so nobody has to negotiate. From outside it looks intimidating and there's been enough money behind it that PitchBook counts north of 800 HVAC, plumbing and electrical acquisitions since 2022. One roll-up went from nothing to 75 brands and 13,000 employees in seven years. But almost every one of those things used to require a six-figure back office, and now costs a few hundred a month. The systems gap is closing fast, and it's closing in the small operator's favor. Meanwhile the thing the big shops are genuinely short on is people. ServiceTitan puts electrical turnover around 21% and median tech tenure at three years. A lot of good techs have no interest in being on a leaderboard with a required close rate attached. So the way I read it: the consolidators are winning on operations and losing on talent. The operations is the half that just got cheap. What do others think?
