Recruiting top talent for growing trades biz's @ Strongpoint Talent | $1m 📈 $30m in 5 yrs @ High Ground (Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical) | Marine Infantry 🇺🇸
🛠️NJ/NH, 🏠PA
Joined January 2014
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SMB lesson:
Day after acq. announcement, heard rumblings that our senior plumber felt job-insecure and betrayed by the transaction.
Big problem when my largest vulnerability is the skilled trade talent.
Was giving a friend a 2nd set of eyes on his biz financials today.
$8m rev HVAC business
25% gross margin 😬
3 business units, but all financials blended:
New Construction
Commercial Service/Replace
Residential Service/Replace
Looking at the margin number, I assumed the business was primarily construction. Had to be.
Q: "What's the breakdown of revenue here? How much is NC?"
A: "1/3rd"
Whoa. So two scenarios then:
A) he has A LOT of work to do on the service/replace side to get margins to a reasonable place
B) if we assume that service/replace is at a ~40% GM, then that part of the business ($5.4m) would be generating ~$2.2m of GP before NC. That's 27% of total revenue. And $200k above where blended GP is sitting. So what is NC doing to drive total GM to 25%??
Q: "How much of your office staff is dedicated to New Construction?"
A: "Most of it."
He's got some homework to do to break out the financials above GP by business unit and to make sure NC work-in-progress is accruing properly, but damn.
$6m revenue HVAC business we recently acquired was missing 55-60% of inbound phone calls on any given day. ~1,500 missed calls per month.
New cars, homes, and babies are the sign of a confident team.
Rich Jordan | Strongpoint retweeted
This is me failing and I didn't know it.
The most important lesson I learned as a Marine infantry officer started about an hour after this photo was taken.
It took me a few years to get it, but what I eventually learned turned into a superpower for business and relationships 🧵
As a consumer, how do you prefer your service providers to charge you?
64%Flat-rate, upfront price
19%Time & materials
17%No opinion. Show me.
123 votes • Final resultsWord on the street:
Major HVAC platform, previously $80m EBITDA at peak, now down to $8m EBITDA.
Rumors of formal bankruptcy proceedings beginning soon.
A simple pleasure of mine:
Scanning my scrap dumpsters and seeing my competitors' stickers on the old water heaters and HVAC equipment.
Attempting to achieve perfection in business ends up being extremely expensive.
Sweet spot is figuring out what your customer cares about, optimize for that, and accept other areas being suboptimal.
Have a strong player in my network looking for a new role.
Most recent exp: Home Services leadership
Previously:
+ Army infantry officer
+ Led operations for a (very) remote research site in N. Alaska following service
+ High motor, analytical, natural leader
+ Has my strong endorsement
Currently located in New England. Open to re-location.
If you're interested or know someone who might be, comment or DM and I'll put you in touch.
Just left a local plumbing & HVAC shop.
+ Entire business on pen & paper + sticky notes. Only software is Quickbooks for billing & accounting.
+ Most work billed as time & materials, invoices mailed after the job with 30 day terms.
+ Zero advertising spend.
+ GBP has under 100 reviews.
+ No website (yes, seriously).
45 technicians out on the road & busy
Mostly brand-new fleet of vehicles
80% residential service/install
Low-8-figs revenue
~25% net
I'm amazed at what I just saw. They walk among us.
All these searchers doing outreach trying to find an acquisition when they should really just be trying to find a meeting or a phone call.
Met a current software dev at Apple today.
"Dude no one even checks my code anymore. It's just Claude talking to Claude."
The best defense is a good offense.
A common phrase in sport, and true in life, conflict, and business. But leaders often miss here.
When things feel unstable - morale is slipping, performance is off, and you can feel the doubt creeping in - a natural inclination can be to worry, hunker down, concede, apologize, console. But it's often bold action that will actually solve the problem.
Tucking the chin and putting the gloves up can be a death sentence when your back's against the ropes. That's when it's time to move, rally, and punch your way out.
.@AraServiceTitan would love your take on this and the replies beneath it.
Happy to provide perspective as a growing contractor that's leveraging agents in the process.