Are You Expanding Your Home Service Business Too Soon?

There is a sort of trap involved with getting too big, too fast.

It’s especially on my mind right now, as HVAC is killing it and I’m seeing a lot of owners trying to figure out their next move.

It’s a topic of conversation all over our Facebook group, which just hit 400 members this week. How do you take advantage of that peak season and use it to sustain?

For some, they may start thinking about expansion. Buildings, new markets, new verticals. It all gets exciting in a hurry.

But that excitement can lead to costly mistakes if you get too swole too soon.

Let’s do it.

• Multi-location expansion can be a costly mistake.
• Are profitable seasons making you blind to your situation?
• One location to rule them all.

Reading time: 3 minutes and 10 seconds

The Problem with Home Service Location Expansion

I’ve seen some things at this point in my career. But at one time I was a self-professed, uneducated guy figuring out ownership as I went along.

It was only through trial, and error, and great peer groups that I started to figure things out.

But before that? I went all in on things… Like multi-location expansion.

It reminds me of some of the excitement I see from newer owners today.

The weather turns in your favor, ServiceTitan screens start going off like a slot machine, and it’s all exciting.

That was me at one point in 2020. We were a smaller company, I thought we had hit the market cap, and I was obsessed with getting to $5 million.

And instead of driving more leads and settling down, I opted for a second facility as we acquired, instead of a roll-up.

It didn’t go great.

Peak Season Blues

Now, there were a lot of factors going on. 2020 was the Wild West of a business period. It was either feast or famine for a lot of businesses.

I was also in a cost-saving mindset at the time, which included moving my call center to the Philippines.

It was a mistake. That big location expansion was a mistake. I look back now and realize I could have been $10 million up from where I’m at now.

That’s business. You learn from it. Which is why it’s important to keep these hot seasons in perspective.

Get a plan of attack in place for what you’re going to do when that peak season drops off a cliff.

Everyone needs a plan. That could be memberships. Maybe it’s incentive promos during that off-season. It’s a topic of discussion for this week’s podcast.

Rich Jordan has a plan, and it’s a pretty good one.

Find the best way to ride those waves. More importantly, don’t let your eyes get too big for your stomach because you’re so focused on hitting milestones.

All Things In One Place

We had Sam Preston from Service Scalers come to Wilson HQ a few months back. His comment on the shop sticks to me, mostly out of pride.

“This place is like a Home Depot.”

There’s a reason for that: Singular location is awesome. We’ve rolled all of our verticals under one roof.

It’s that consolidation that has helped grow every other aspect of the business. Culture is better. Team building is more unified. We’re wasting less resources.

Most of all, we’re focusing on those core services in ways that would be impossible going multi-location.

Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Always will be.

As we march towards our goal of $100M by 2030 it’s going to highlight a need for a larger building and bigger complex.

Where are all those people going to park, not counting your service trucks and technicians?

How will the org chart change? What hiring will we need?

All important questions, but they’re also ones we’re ready to answer by all being under one roof.

If I could just get a hot dog vendor like at an actual Home Depot.

So, if you think you’re ready to grow, then just ask yourself one thing:

Are you sure?

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