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?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. 💪🚀What if your business is successful... but you still Hate running it?
A friend of mine owns a profitable laundry mat but hates going in every other week and just plain out dont like dealing with it. We talk a lot about growing revenue, getting more customers, hiring employees, and becoming “successful.” But what happens when you reach those goals and realize you don’t actually enjoy the business you built? Maybe the money is good, the customers are coming in, and the business is growing, but you're constantly stressed, working longer hours, or stuck doing things you never wanted to do. Question: 👉 Would you change the business model, sell the company, scale back, or keep pushing because the numbers look good?Firing Clients - How do you go about it?
I posted about a "quick sand" job we've been on the last couple weeks and I've come to the realization, we probably need to fire this client. So how do you go about it? Personally, I don't want to turn it in to a big thing. I'm thinking next time they reach out for work, just say we are too busy and give them a referral to someone else. What strategies have you used that have been received well? I think for us because we are on a per project basis it'd be a little easier than a business with reoccurring visits.Should You Bring On an Equity Partner or Just Hire Someone to Grow Your Business?
I'm in the middle of working through a potential partnership where I'd bring on another owner-operator as an equity partner rather than just hiring them or buying them out. Anyone here gone through something similar. Merging with another shop owner instead of just growing organically? What made it work, or what would you do differently?
