How to grow a home service business is usually pitched as doing more: more trades, more services, more offers. Paul Kelly did the opposite, and it built one of the largest home service companies in the country. He bought Parker & Sons in 2004 as a $7 million shop and grew it to roughly $260 million in a single market, then wrote the playbook down. In this episode, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Paul, bestselling author of Tricks of the Trade to Success and creator of the Raising Goats program, to unpack the 4 pillars behind that growth and why simplicity beats complexity every time. You will hear why adding another trade usually stalls your growth instead of helping it, the 4 pillars that took Parker & Sons from $7M to $260M, why contractors are great doers but poor implementers, and how to keep a pay program simple enough that a tech can do the math in their head. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Why Learning Without Doing Gets You Nowhere 1:39 – Meet Paul Kelly, Who Grew Parker & Sons From $7M to $260M 5:46 – The Real Challenge in Adding a Trade: It Is Not the Land, It Is the Man 8:07 – The $300K Trap of Doing Every Trade Yourself 10:17 – Prescription Without Diagnosis Is Malpractice 14:59 – The Fish Tank Principle: You Grow to the Size of Your Tank 17:44 – Stop Going to Conferences and Start Implementing 21:31 – How Parker & Sons Started Growing $40M in a Year 23:27 – The 4 Pillars: Thinker, Implementer, Operator, Leader 27:21 – Simplicity and Speed: One Thing at a Time 31:34 – Keep Your Pay Program Simple: 20 Percent of the Ticket 33:51 – Think Through the Consequences of Every Decision 38:30 – The GOAT Story and the Raising Goats Program 43:56 – Where to Find Paul and His Book THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://partners.getbreezyapp.com/sbm/ PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ TRAINUAL Trainual is an AI-powered training and knowledge platform for growing teams. Describe the training you need and it builds the steps, structure, and quiz: https://trainual.com/ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Paul Kelly, author of Tricks of the Trade to Success and creator of Raising Goats: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-kelly-99ab90/ Paul's book and site: https://www.tricksofthetrade.com/ Raising Goats program: https://raisinggoats.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #ScalingYourBusiness #TradesBusiness #Leadership

Turning more calls into revenue is the growth lever most contractors never touch, because they cannot see what is actually happening on their phones. Bill Brown spent 25 years in HVAC, built an Inc. 5000 company, and still could not trust his own booking data. So he helped build the tool that fixes it. In this episode, Josh Crouch sits down with Bill, co-founder of PhoneTAP, to announce the launch of PhoneTAP and unpack why the calls you already pay for are where your next jobs are hiding. Tersh is out this week, but he, Josh, and Bill built PhoneTAP together to solve one of the least talked-about problems in the trades. You will hear why the booking rates contractors brag about are not real, how roughly 40 out of every 100 calls are bookable jobs your team may be missing, and how PhoneTAP turns every won and lost call into a coaching playbook inside ServiceTitan. This episode is the launch of PhoneTAP, a ServiceTitan certified app that reviews your unbooked, missed, and abandoned calls to surface the revenue you already earned. See it on your own data at phonetap.ai, or join the launch webinar at phonetap.ai/webinar. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Why You Need to See Your Call Data 2:35 – Meet Bill Brown, 25 Years in HVAC and Co-Founder of PhoneTAP 6:25 – The Launch of PhoneTAP and the Problem It Solves 11:47 – The Qualifying Question That Predicted Revenue 19:47 – Booking Rates That Are Off by Half 21:37 – Why Listening to Every Call Never Scales 28:36 – The Booking Rates People Brag About Are Not Real 44:48 – Out of Every 100 Calls, How Many You Miss 47:01 – Buy the Software or Waste Weeks Building It 52:15 – Inside PhoneTAP: Lead, Booked, and Exactly Why Not 53:51 – Building an Objection Playbook From Won and Lost Calls 1:09:50 – Where to Find Bill and the PhoneTAP Launch Webinar THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://partners.getbreezyapp.com/sbm/ PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ TRAINUAL Trainual is an AI-powered training and knowledge platform for growing teams. Describe the training you need and it builds the steps, structure, and quiz: https://trainual.com/ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS AND GUEST Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Bill Brown, Co-Founder of PhoneTAP and host of ServiceTitan Hacks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbrown80/ PhoneTAP: https://phonetap.ai/ Email the PhoneTAP team (Bill, Tersh, and Josh): [email protected] Register for the launch webinar: https://phonetap.ai/webinar ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Want the frameworks from each episode in your inbox? Join the free Service Business Mastery newsletter: https://embeds.beehiiv.com/800fc171-49cd-4d26-861b-ca4256a65625 Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #PhoneTAP #BookingRate #ServiceTitan

How to grow a home service business is usually pitched as one thing: spend more on marketing. Alex Smereczniak has a faster, cheaper answer most owners never consider. As co-founder and CEO of Franzy and a serial entrepreneur who scaled 2ULaundry and sold 118 franchise locations, he has bought, built, and financed businesses more ways than almost anyone. In this episode, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Alex to unpack how to grow through acquisition instead of ads, why the wrong business partner is the number one reason companies fail, and how to finance a deal using tools most owners have never heard of. You will hear why buying a retiring competitor can 2 to 3x your business, how seller financing, a 401k rollover, and SBA loans actually work, and the one thing that makes or breaks a co-founder relationship. THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com TRAINUAL Trainual is an AI-powered training and knowledge platform for growing teams. Describe the training you need and it builds the steps, structure, and quiz: trainual.com/mastery MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo?utm_source=partner_servicebusinessmastery&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=servicebusinessmastery_partnership&utm_content=youtube_video PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Alex Smereczniak, Co-Founder and CEO of Franzy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-smereczniak-40310329/ Franzy: https://franzy.com/ ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #BuyingABusiness #Franchising #Entrepreneurship

Home services marketing has a hidden battleground, and most owners never fund it. It is the messy middle, the 40 to 100 days a homeowner spends circling a project before they ever search your name. Rick Brown and Carole Lawson of MarketStorm have spent years mapping that window, and what happens inside it decides who gets the call. In this episode, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Rick, CEO and co-founder of MarketStorm, and Carole, its co-founder and chief data officer and a Harvard-trained data scientist, to break down how buyer behavior changed after the pandemic and why the last click is no longer the whole story. You will hear why a competitor can outrank you on your own brand name, the 50/50 split Google now recommends between upper and lower funnel, and how one plumbing company chased last-click reporting from 10 million back down to 2. This episode is brought to you by UpFrog. They turn paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – The Hidden Battleground in Home Services Marketing 2:32 – Meet Rick Brown and Carole Lawson of MarketStorm 4:47 – What MarketStorm Does: Catching Buyer Intent Early 6:25 – The Messy Middle and How Buyer Behavior Changed 8:23 – Why a Competitor Can Outrank You on Your Own Name 11:50 – The Death of Legacy Customer Loyalty 13:47 – The 50/50 Split Between Upper and Lower Funnel 15:12 – Where 83 Percent of Online Attention Actually Lives 17:30 – How a 10 Million Dollar Shop Chased Last Click and Shrank 29:30 – Why Google Calls Itself a Marketing Company Now 41:30 – Inside the 45 Day Buyer Journey 58:18 – Measure What Matters, Not Just What Is Easy WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why home services marketing now runs through the messy middle, the 40 to 100 days before a homeowner ever searches your name - How a competitor who shows up more often can outrank you on Google even when someone searches for your exact brand - Why Google now points to a 50/50 split between upper funnel influence and lower funnel search - Where the other 83 percent of online attention lives, and how programmatic ads reach it across streaming, apps, and the open web - What chasing last-click reporting actually costs, told through a plumbing company that shrank from 10 million back to 2 THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com TRAINUAL Trainual is an AI-powered training and knowledge platform for growing teams. Describe the training you need and it builds the steps, structure, and quiz: https://trainual.com/ MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo?utm_source=partner_servicebusinessmastery&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=servicebusinessmastery_partnership&utm_content=youtube_video PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Rick Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of MarketStorm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketstormrick/ Carole Lawson, Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer of MarketStorm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroleslawson/ MarketStorm: https://marketstorm.ai/ ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #HomeServicesMarketing #DigitalMarketing #MarketStorm

Doing more does not scale your business. It stalls it. Diluted focus gets you diluted results, and the owners who grow fastest are usually the ones doing fewer things, not more. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Josh Zolin, CEO of Windy City Equipment Service and author of Blue is the New White, on how one simple shift, a single company wide focus every 90 days, took the guesswork out of hitting his goals. Josh breaks down how he points his entire company, from himself to the parts runner, at one goal each quarter, why focusing on less feels scarier than it should, how your role as the owner keeps changing as you scale, and the leadership habit that quietly runs off your best technicians. If you run a home service business and you are busy all day but not moving the way you want, this conversation is the reset. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Why Diluted Focus Gets You Diluted Results 2:31 – Meet Josh Zolin: Blue is the New White and Windy City 8:15 – The Identity Shift Every Owner Faces as They Scale 11:49 – The Unteachable Lessons You Have to Learn Yourself 14:40 – Why More Information Is Making Us Learn Slower 17:23 – AI as the Trades' Best Recruiter 20:25 – Navigating Private Equity as a Small Operator 27:12 – The 90 Day Single Focus System That Hits Goals Every Time 29:10 – Focusing on One Thing Without Letting the Rest Fall Apart 32:19 – The In-N-Out Lesson: Do Fewer Things, Better 35:26 – Why Focusing on Less Feels Scary, and How to Lead Through It 38:25 – Four Big Things a Year: Segmenting Focus Across Profit Centers 40:32 – Parkinson's Law: Use Time as a Tool 44:00 – Why 80% Done by Someone Else Is 100% Awesome 46:00 – The Perfectionist Tech Trap and Unspoken Expectations 49:40 – Where to Find Josh: Book, Podcast, and Academy WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - The one shift that lets you hit your quarterly goals every time: a single company wide focus every 90 days - Why doing less feels scarier than doing more, and how to lead your team through it - How your job as the owner keeps changing as you scale, and how to stay valuable - Why more information can make you and your team learn slower, not faster - How small operators actually beat private equity, and why it comes down to culture - The leadership habit that quietly runs off your best technicians - Why 80% done by someone else is 100% awesome, and how perfectionism keeps you small THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://bit.ly/4ihjXkx PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Josh Zolin, Windy City Equipment Service: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshzolin/ https://joshzolin.com (his book, podcast, and academy are all there) ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Want the frameworks from each episode in your inbox? Join the free Service Business Mastery newsletter: [ADD: SBM newsletter link] Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #Leadership #BusinessScaling #Trades

Service Scout (14 day free trial): https://getservicescout.com/demo.html This is the toughest year to close a sale in home services since 2008. Equipment costs more than ever, credit is tighter, and the customers calling for a replacement are the hardest ones to sell. The problem usually is not your leads. It is what happens when your technician walks in the door. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Justin Riley, CEO and founder of UpFrog, for a straight read on the 2026 home services market and how the best companies are still closing jobs hand over fist. Justin breaks down why likability now beats price, why repair and maintenance calls are the easier win this year, how to lead with the right financing so a customer with tough credit still says yes, and the new tool he built, Service Scout, that briefs your tech on the home, the buyer, and the strategy in 90 seconds before every call. If close rate is where your money leaks this year, this one is the fix. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Fitting, since today's guest is Upfrog's founder. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Raise Your Close Rate by Listening for 90 Seconds

3:01 – From HVAC Apprentice to Founding UpFrog

7:11 – The State of the 2026 Market: Toughest Since 2008

9:04 – Why Close Rate Is the Number One Problem This Year

11:45 – Why Customers Shop for Who They Like, Not Price

13:00 – Why Repair and Maintenance Calls Are the Easier Win

14:03 – The Average Ticket Meat Zone and the Credit Ceiling

17:01 – How Service Scout Was Born

19:12 – Inside a Service Scout Pre Appointment Intelligence Brief

23:30 – The Results: A 5 to 14% Close Rate Lift

24:12 – Leading With the Right Financing to Win Tough Credit

28:02 – Handling the Data Responsibly

31:27 – The Reporting Most Contractors Have Never Seen

33:11 – The Pricing and the ROI Math

36:53 – AI Should Make Your People Super, Not Replace Them

49:30 – The Number One Reason Close Rates Are Down WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why 2026 is the hardest year to close a home services sale since 2008, and where the money is actually leaking

- Why likability now beats price, and why the replacement estimate is the hardest call to win

- How a 90 second pre appointment brief can lift your close rate 5 to 14%

- How to lead with the right financing so a customer with tough credit still says yes

- What you can learn about a home before the visit, and how to use it without crossing a line

- Why the real IP of a home service business is your people, not your AI stack THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG

System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM

An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL

CallRail's Voice Assist is a 24/7 AI voice assistant that answers every call, handles customer questions, and books jobs directly onto your calendar, all without you ever having to step away from the current job. Try Voice Assist for free today at voiceassist.com BREEZY

Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://bit.ly/4ihjXkx PHONETAP

Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM

Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/

Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/

Justin Riley, CEO and Founder of UpFrog: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justintriley/

UpFrog: https://upfrog.com

Service Scout (14 day free trial): https://getservicescout.com/demo.html ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #HVAC #HVACSales #CloseRate

Most companies do not last. A huge share of the biggest names in the world vanish within a few decades. The Smith & Oby Company has been running since 1898. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Jake Wattenbarger, president of Smith & Oby, a Foundral brand, a Cleveland mechanical contractor that has stayed relevant for 125 years by reading the market before it forces the issue, and by building systems and a culture that outlast any one person. Jake spent nearly a decade as an Army logistics officer before the trades, and it shows. He gets into why you never cross the finish line, how to build a business you can hand down instead of sell off, why you do not have to sell to make real money, and how culture and a talent pipeline keep a union shop winning the big jobs. If you want to build a trades business that lasts for generations, not just one you flip, this is the blueprint. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Why You Never Cross the Finish Line 2:33 – From Combat Engineer to Mechanical Contractor 4:19 – Logistics Before Tactics: Structure and Accountability 8:28 – Advice for Anyone Starting Their Own Business 11:04 – Still Standing Since 1898: A 125 Year Old Contractor 12:47 – You Don't Have to Sell Your Business to Make Money 14:05 – The 40 Year Employees Behind a Lasting Company 15:15 – Recruiting Into the Commercial Trades and the Union Hall 18:06 – Building a Talent Pipeline When the Hall Can't Keep Up 18:51 – What Union Labor Really Costs, and Why It's Worth It 22:20 – Competing on Best Value, Not Lowest Bid 26:22 – Building Culture Inside a Union Shop 29:44 – Empowering Field Leaders Who Still Turn Wrenches 34:46 – Adapt or Become Polaroid: Reading the Market Early 35:26 – Staying Ahead With VDC and Investing in the Shop 46:01 – Where to Find Jake WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why the best businesses never cross the finish line, and how to read the market before it pushes you out - How to build a trades business you can hand down, instead of one built only to sell - Why you do not have to sell your company to make serious money - The Army logistics mindset that runs a business: structure before action, logistics before tactics - How to build a talent pipeline when the union hall cannot fill your jobs fast enough - What union labor really costs, and why best value beats lowest bid - How to build culture in a union shop, where there is no PTO by default - How investing in your shop and technology turns into margin, not just cost THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com MARKETSTORM An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL CallRail assigns a unique tracking number to each marketing effort, so you know which channels bring your best leads. Try it free at https://callrail.com/sbmpod. BREEZY Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo?utm_source=partner_servicebusinessmastery&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=servicebusinessmastery_partnership&utm_content=youtube_video PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Jake Wattenbarger, The Smith & Oby Company: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakewattenbarger/ | https://smithandoby.com ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Want the frameworks from each episode in your inbox? Join the free Service Business Mastery newsletter: [newsletter link] Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #Trades #FamilyBusiness #MechanicalContractor #SkilledTrades

Private equity is buying up home service companies and quietly gutting the good ones, and most owners think their only options are to sell or get outspent. There is a third one.

In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Zach Cooper-Vastola, co-founder of Hickory, who has bought and built home service companies across the tri-state to roughly 350 people and 80 million dollars in revenue, without ever running them from an ivory tower.

Zach breaks down how he keeps technicians from walking out the door after an acquisition, why he refuses to put AI on the phones with customers, how his team builds their own tools instead of renting SaaS, and the data unlock that lets two CSRs run at the scale of a 30 person team.

If you run a home service business and you are tired of hearing that AI just means replacing your people, this one flips the script.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

- How to keep your technicians from walking out the door after an acquisition

- Why changing pay structures on day one is the fastest way to lose your team

- How to read a company's real culture by walking the warehouse, before you ever see the financials

- What buy and build owners look for that a private equity roll up ignores

- How to underwrite an early stage AI vendor before you bet six figures on it

- Why building your own tools can beat renting SaaS once you hit scale

- How making the humans super with data beats putting AI on the phones

- The data unlock that lets two CSRs run at the scale of a 30 person team

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

UPFROG

System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.com

MARKETSTORM

An AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/

CALLRAIL

CallRail assigns a unique tracking number to each marketing effort, so you know which channels bring your best leads. Try it free at https://callrail.com/sbmpod.

BREEZY

Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code 'SBM' to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo

PHONETAP

Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo

COMPANYCAM

Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/

CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST

Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/

Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/

Zach Cooper-Vastola, Hickory: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-c-8b881969/

ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY

Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/

Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it.

#ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #PrivateEquity #HVACBusiness #AIforContractors

Most home service businesses keep just 5 to 12% net profit, and most owners have no idea that is where they are. The best run HVAC, plumbing, and electrical shops keep 20%, and the gap almost always comes down to a few fixable mistakes. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch sit down with Matthew Mooney and Raymond Gong of Profitability Partners, a fractional CFO firm that spent years on the private equity side of the table and now helps owners find the profit already hiding in their business. They break down the real gross profit benchmarks for every trade, the labor and pricing mistakes that make your P&L lie to you, why fixing your booking rate beats spending more on ads, and how one plumbing company cut 3 million dollars a year in overhead in six months. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Upfrog, one of our show partners. Upfrog turns paid ad spend into booked, sold system replacements instead of wasted leads. Learn more at upfrog.com. CHAPTERS 0:00 – The 20% Net Margin Most Contractors Never Hit 3:49 – Meet Profitability Partners: Fractional CFOs From Private Equity 7:54 – What Private Equity Looks For in an Undervalued Business 11:00 – Gross Profit Benchmarks by Trade: HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical 15:56 – The Fully Loaded Labor Mistake That Hides Your Real Margin 18:16 – The What Is Everyone Charging Trap and the Discount Price Book 20:24 – Why Discounting Costs You More Than Spending on Ads 23:36 – Fix Your Booking Rate Before You Spend a Dollar on Marketing 27:47 – What Separates a 12% Company From a 20% Company 29:55 – Switching to Commission Pay Without Losing Your Techs 36:41 – Where AI Actually Helps a 5 to 30 Million Dollar Contractor 39:12 – The Overhead Trap: Unused Software and Oversized Leases 41:56 – Case Study: Cutting 3 Million Dollars a Year in Six Months 48:22 – The Exit Math That Turns 200K Saved Into 2 Million 52:15 – The 1% Booking Rate Worth 3 Million, and Why Your CRM Lies 55:33 – Where to Find Matthew and Raymond WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - The real gross profit benchmarks by trade, and why a 50% GP can secretly be sub 40 once labor is fully loaded - Why 20% net profit is realistic, and the mistakes keeping most shops at 5 to 12% - How discounting quietly wrecks your margin, and why 2 to 3% more on ads beats 10% off the price - Why booking rate is the first thing to fix before spending another dollar on marketing - How one plumbing company cut 3 million dollars a year in overhead in six months - The exit math that turns a 200,000 dollar expense cut into 2 million more at the sale THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UPFROG System replacement leads from paid ads, nurtured and booked into sold jobs before your team arrives: upfrog.comBREEZY About 30 percent of inbound calls in home services go unanswered, and those are customers ready to book with whoever picks up first. Breezy puts AI agents on every call, books the job, and follows up instantly, so you wake up to booked jobs instead of missed calls. See how many jobs you are losing at https://getbreezyapp.com and use code SBM for 500 dollars toward Breezy. MARKET STORM Market Storm uses AI to catch early buyer intent and put your brand in front of homeowners before they ever search. Visit https://marketstorm.ai or text 213-575-5448. CALLRAIL CallRail assigns a unique tracking number to each marketing effort, so you know which channels bring your best leads. Try it free at https://callrail.com/sbmpod. PHONETAP Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Matthew Mooney (Profitability Partners): https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mooney-54b09047/ Raymond Gong (Profitability Partners): https://www.linkedin.com/in/gongraymond/ ARTICLES WORTH READING HVAC profit margin benchmarks: https://profitabilitypartners.io/hvac-profit-margins/ Plumbing profit margin benchmarks: https://profitabilitypartners.io/plumbing-profit-margins/ ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery helps home service owners run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch break down the operations, technology, and leadership behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators actually doing the work. More at https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Want the frameworks from each episode in your inbox? Join the free Service Business Mastery newsletter: https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ Subscribe on YouTube and follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HomeServices #ContractorProfit #HVACBusiness #FractionalCFO

AI is not coming for your techs. It is coming for the busywork, the missed calls, and the guesswork that quietly eats your margin. In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett sits down with Chris Plunkett, a Tucson HVAC owner who has been in the trade since he was eight years old, to talk about what using AI in an HVAC business actually looks like day to day. They get into how Chris turned home inspections from a loss leader into one of his highest paying jobs, why his AI voice agent books calls so well that customers swear they were talking to a person, and the simple pay change that made after hours emergencies fair to his technicians again. If you run an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical company and you are tired of AI hype with nothing to show for it, this one is built for you. This episode is brought to you in partnership with Breezy, the AI voice agent Chris uses for his after hours and overflow calls. See how many calls you are missing at https://getbreezyapp.com and use code SBM for 500 dollars toward Breezy. CHAPTERS 0:00 – Why AI Won't Replace HVAC Techs 1:45 – Welcome to Service Business Mastery 2:37 – Fix Your Processes Before You Automate Anything 3:44 – Meet Chris Plunkett: From 8 Year Old Tech to HVAC Owner 7:33 – Where Chris Actually Uses AI in His HVAC Business 8:21 – Letter Grade Diagnostics Customers Understand 10:28 – The Real Way AI Is Changing the Trades 11:49 – Turning Home Inspections Into a High Ticket Profit Center 15:37 – Presenting Diagnostics So Customers Say Yes 18:04 – AI Voice Agents for After Hours and Overflow Calls 20:31 – The Call Nobody Could Tell Was AI 27:07 – Trigger Words and On Call Routing That Keep Owners Out of the Mix 29:41 – The Late Night Call Policy That Protects Your Techs 32:06 – Why Emergency Rate Beats After Hours Rate 35:02 – Nobody Wants to Work for YOU: Hiring the Next Generation 37:32 – Trade Culture, Mentorship, and Bringing Young Techs In 46:24 – Where to Find Chris and His Whiskey Side Hustle ABOUT SERVICE BUSINESS MASTERY Service Business Mastery is where home service owners come to run better, more profitable companies. Every week, Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch talk through the real operations, technology, and leadership decisions behind growing an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical business, with the operators and experts actually doing the work. More episodes and resources: https://servicebusinessmastery.com/ https://linkin.bio/servicebusinessmasterypodcast THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY BREEZY

About 30 percent of inbound calls in home services go unanswered, and those are customers ready to book with whoever picks up first. Breezy puts AI agents on every call, books the job, and follows up instantly, so you wake up to booked jobs instead of missed calls.

See how many jobs you are losing right now at https://getbreezyapp.com and use code SBM for 500 dollars toward Breezy. UPFROG

Upfrog is the OG of pricing transparency online. They find hard to reach system replacement leads through paid ads, then nurture and book them into sold systems before your team even arrives.

Learn more: upfrog.com MARKET STORM

Market Storm works with home service companies across the country, using AI to catch early buyer intent and put your brand in front of homeowners before they ever search. So when they do search, your name already feels familiar.

Visit https://marketstorm.ai/ CALLRAIL

CallRail assigns a unique tracking number to each of your marketing efforts, so you know exactly which channels bring your best leads and which ones to cut.

Try it free at https://callrail.com/sbmpod. PHONETAP

Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo COMPANYCAM

Capture work, track job progress, and stay connected from the field to the office with photo documentation and AI tools that keep work moving. Start a free trial at: https://companycam.com/ CONNECT WITH OUR HOSTS AND GUEST Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/ Josh Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/ Chris Plunkett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-plunkett-11613385/ NEVER MISS AN EPISODE Subscribe on YouTube and follow Service Business Mastery on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. If this one helped, share it with an owner who needs to hear it. #ServiceBusinessMastery #HVAC #AIinTheTrades #HomeServices #HVACBusiness