I stopped being the source of every good idea, and that’s when the growth actually took off. We find the right people, give them real goals and KPIs, and then step back and let them create. The owner who insists on generating every idea caps the company at the speed of one brain. Empower a building full of them and it compounds.
Once you hire the right people and get out of their way, you literally can't stop the growth. I've seen it firsthand here at Peterman Brothers. We...
I stopped being the source of every good idea, and that’s when the growth actually took off. We find the right people, give them real goals and KPIs, and then step back and let them create. The owner who insists on generating every idea caps the company at the speed of one brain. Empower a building full of them and it compounds.
There was a point in our company where we didn't need more growth. We needed to catch up with the growth that we had already experienced. The funn...
If your techs aren’t closing 60% of their jobs, you’re not training them well enough. Conversion varies by trade, maintenance is harder than demand, but 60% is the baseline. Here’s why it matters: you pay for every lead whether you close it or not. Every job you don’t convert is money you set on fire. Watch this number like your margin depends on it, because it does.
If your technicians aren't closing 60% of the jobs that they go out on, you're not training them well enough. Obviously, conversion rate differs a...
The most important thing you’ll ever do in business isn’t strategy. It’s getting the right people and actually empowering them. But empowerment has a second half nobody talks about: accountability. You check in. You build the dashboards. You give people the KPIs before you hold them to the KPIs. Freedom without a measuring stick isn’t empowerment, it’s abandoning the wheel.
Earing the right people, getting the right people on your team, and then empowering them to grow and develop and drive the company forward is the ...
Your revenue forecast doesn’t tell me if you can double. Your org chart does. Here’s why: as you grow, people hit their ceiling. Someone who thrives at $5M might not be able to lead at $10M. The question isn’t whether you can hit the number, it’s whether you have the people to hold it up. Map the org chart you’ll need in 24 months, then go build it.
And to know if your company is actually ready to double, don't show me your revenue forecast. Show me your org chart. People on your team will rea...
People always ask what I read. Here are the 10 books I recommend most to anyone running a business. You’ve got personal development, leadership, and mindset in here, plus a couple you’ve probably never heard of. Save this list, watch the full breakdown for where each one fits, and if you only start with one, make it John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. It’s the one I reach for more than any other.
There's a ton of books out there that you can read, and I definitely recommend reading as much as you can. Here's 10 that I would definitely recom...
Adding a second trade isn’t a revenue decision. It’s an operations decision, and that’s where most owners get blindsided. We assumed plumbing and electrical would run like HVAC. They don’t. Different processes, different management, different playbook entirely. If your primary trade still has headaches, you’re not ready. Sort that out first, then research the second one like your business depends on it. Because it does.
Adding a second trade looks great on a spreadsheet, and then Monday happens. When we've added plumbing and electrical, it adds complexity to the b...
The price objection is the most misread moment in home services. When a customer says you’re too expensive, they’re rarely talking about money. They’re telling you they don’t trust you yet. And trust doesn’t start when the tech quotes the job. It starts the second they call, and it builds through every step, the greeting, the questions, the follow-through. Miss those, and no price will ever be low enough.
Customers rarely come out and say, "I don't trust you." What they tell you is your price is too high. We all know that objections, primarily price...
Doubling revenue and doubling profit are two completely different things. I learned that the hard way. When we were growing 60 to 70% a year, the top line looked incredible. But growth that fast demands investment ahead of yourself, and if you’re not tracking the mechanics, all that spending quietly eats the profit you thought you were making. Fast growth without discipline is how profitable companies go broke.
Here's a business lesson I learned the hard way. Doubling your revenue doesn't always mean doubling your profits. Back in 22 and 23, we were explo...
Anyone can have great culture when things are going well. Real culture shows up the day something breaks. When you mess up, watch what your people do. Do they hide it, or do they make it right? A team that's empowered to ask "what's fair here?" without checking with a manager, that's a healthy culture. A team covering their tracks isn't.
Culture is easy to see when things are going right. When it's truly tested is when things go wrong. Are your frontline people empowered to make si...
This room produces revenue for our company, and there’s not a single customer in it. It’s our training lab. We take people who’ve never been in the trade and get them field-ready, and we keep sharpening the techs we already have. Now you’re thinking “I can’t build a lab, I don’t have a trainer.” You don’t need one. Map out a training program. Run a weekly session on one topic. The revenue is in how prepared your team is, not in how fancy your building is.
This room here produces revenue for our company, and there's not a customer in it. Our top tech training program gets people ready that have never...
The reason I’m chasing the Indy 500 is simple: it seemed impossible. I said it out loud, people thought I was crazy, and then I spent three years figuring out how to actually do it. I’m not driving (240 mph is not for me). I just want to prove that dreaming big, big enough to roll a race car into your office, is allowed.
I'm gonna build a race team that wins the Indy 500, mainly because it seemed like someone impossible. The cool part is I said it and then I had pe...