The Small Business Black Holes with Alan Pentz

Mastering the 5 Phases of Business Growth: Insights from John Wilson of Wilson Companies

Apr 30, 2024

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In this episode of The Small Business Mentor, host Alan Pentz interviews John Wilson, owner of Wilson Companies, a high-growth home services business offering plumbing, HVAC and electrical services. They discuss John's journey growing the company from $1M to $26M in 8 years through a combination of 9 strategic acquisitions and organic growth. John breaks down his take on the best home services businesses to scale, favoring the recurring revenue of plumbing and HVAC over project-based models like roofing.

A key focus is how to overcome the dreaded "owner's hell" phase from $3-5M where many businesses get stuck. John shares his formula of acquisitions for rapid scale, continued reinvestment instead of owner payouts, infrastructure upgrades like ERP systems, and building out a leadership team. Now at $26M, he reveals his two priorities to reach $50M and beyond - an innovative omni-channel marketing "moat" to maximize lead flow, and revamping training to successfully onboard new techs at scale.

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Episode Highlights:

[00:02:34] - Rapid Growth Through Acquisitions - In 8 years, John grew Wilson Companies 25X from $1M to $26M through 9 acquisitions, though most were under $1M. He used acquisitions to quickly add new services like electrical and blow through plateaus at $5M and $10M.
[00:10:59] - Ranking the Best Home Services Businesses - John favors plumbing, HVAC and electrical as they have large total addressable markets, cross-sell well, and offer recurring service revenue. He likes the service-install mix of water treatment and is wary of low margin, non-recurring models like roofing and cleaning.
[00:37:22] - Escaping the Black Hole of $3-5M - Many owners get stuck or tap out at this phase, but the "good stuff" starts at $5M with managers, reinvestment and growth. John advises fighting through with acquisitions, avoiding excess owner payouts, and investing in people and systems.

Quotes:

"We basically went from a million in 2016 to, uh, 26 this year in 2024. And that's obviously been quite the journey."
"I am deeply fascinated right now by the people in between my TAM and my customers, which is like engaged prospects...600,000 of that people have heard of my name. How do I interact with those 600,000 people with regularity?"
"If you're going to sell it, if that's the goal, then that's one thing. I paid myself under market, but I also got the desired result, which was the business 10 X'ed. So if that was the goal, then that's what, you know, the outcome is what matters."

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