Revenue looks stable when you’re buying a trade business. What’s unstable is everything underneath it.

Ryan Williams is a longtime operator and co-founder of DivviShares. After reviewing more than 100 deals, he acquired a residential plumbing company and stepped straight into what most buyers only discover after closing: year one exposes everything.

In this episode, we talk about why most home service acquisitions don’t fail because of the market. They fail because of overpaying, owner dependency, rushed decisions, culture problems, and cash flow strain that shows up fast once the deal closes.

Ryan shares what it actually looks like to buy a $5M trade business, miss projections, fire a top producer, slow growth intentionally, test AI answering, and overhaul fleet safety, all in the first year.

This conversation is for trade business owners thinking about buying, selling, or trying to push past that $3–$5M ceiling without breaking their business.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why many home service acquisitions quietly underperform in year one
• How overpaying for SDE or EBITDA puts buyers behind from day one
• The hidden risk of “hands-off owner” deals in the trades
• Why so many owners stall out around $5M in revenue
• How personal income dependency keeps owners from hiring leadership
• What really happens when you fire a top-producing salesperson for culture
• Why moving a billable tech into supervision immediately impacts revenue
• How to think about durability versus aggressive growth projections
• Why cash flow discipline matters more than headline revenue
• How booking rate data exposed a six-figure mistake
• What went wrong with AI answering in a 50+ Southern demographic
• Why speed-to-lead still wins in aggregator-driven markets
• How truck cameras exposed serious safety and liability risk
• The mindset required to survive the first 12 months after buying a trade business

If you’re considering buying a plumbing, HVAC, or electrical company, or you’re building one with the goal of selling someday, this episode gives you a realistic look at what happens after the ink dries.

More From Profit & Grit

Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here:

http://cfointrocall.com

Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com

Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group.

🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin
Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners.

🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com
📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler
📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit

Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades

📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy?
Book a free intro meeting

Keeping great people gets harder as your business grows, especially when wages stop being enough to hold everything together.

Chris Buttonham is the co-founder and CEO of Reins. He grew up inside a small contracting business, watched firsthand how retention and succession issues limit freedom and value, and later built a platform that helps owners give key employees real skin in the game without giving up ownership or control.

In this episode, we talk about why most retention problems aren’t really about pay, how alternative equity and profit sharing actually work in practice, and why owners who wait too long to think about incentives and succession usually end up with fewer options, not more.

This conversation is for home service owners who are growing, feeling the weight of people dependency, and starting to realize that alignment, not effort, is what unlocks the next stage.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why higher wages alone rarely solve retention problems
• How misaligned incentives quietly increase owner stress
• What “alternative equity” really means in a small business
• The difference between phantom equity and real ownership
• How profit sharing can improve margins instead of hurting them
• Why simplicity matters more than complex bonus formulas
• Who your true “key employees” usually are and why timing matters
• How incentives can improve profitability and exit readiness
• Why even owners who never plan to sell should think about succession
• How aligned teams create leverage instead of dependency

More From Profit & Grit

Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here:

http://cfointrocall.com

Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com

Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group.

🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin
Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners.

🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com
📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler
📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit

Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades

📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy?
Book a free intro meeting

Growth gets harder after $5M because effort stops being the constraint and leadership, systems, and financial clarity start to matter more than hustle.

Lance Bachmann has built, scaled, and sold multiple companies across home services, technology, and marketing. Today, he partners directly with business owners to help them break through growth plateaus, install real operational structure, and build companies that can scale quickly and profitably.

In this episode, we talk about why so many owners get stuck between $5M and $10M, the leadership behaviors that quietly cap growth, and why financial literacy is often the missing link between effort and results.

This conversation is for owners who are growing fast, feeling the pressure of complexity, and realizing that working harder isn’t solving the problem anymore.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• Why growth feels heavier after $5M instead of easier
• The leadership mistakes that silently limit scale
• Why most businesses struggle with the same fundamentals
• How fear-based leadership hurts teams and results
• The difference between revenue growth and operational control
• Why financial literacy creates real freedom for owners
• How personal spending inside the business slows growth
• Why clean systems matter more than new tactics
• What actually changes when a company moves toward eight figures
• How disciplined execution beats complexity every time

More From Profit & Grit

Book your complimentary Financial Insight Session with Tyler Martin, fractional CFO for home services and the trades, here:

http://cfointrocall.com

Learn more at http://cfomadeeasy.com

Follow the show for weekly interviews with HVAC, plumbing, and home service owners and experts who share what it really takes to grow, scale, and profit in the trades.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we’re sure you’ll love ours too! To The Point Home Services Podcast, Toolbox for the Trades, Masters of Home Service, Home Service Business Coach With David Moerman, BlueCollar.CEO, The Home Service Expert Podcast, Next Level Pros, Blue Collar Business Podcast, Home Service Millionaire with Mike Andes, The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber, and Blue Collar Success Group.

🎙️ Profit & Grit by Tyler Martin
Real stories. Real strategy. Real results for service-based business owners.

🔗 Website: ProfitAndGrit.com
📍 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thinktyler
📸 Instagram & TikTok: @profitandgrit

Tyler Martin, a fractional CFO for home services and the trades

📅 Want to grow your business with smarter financial strategy?
Book a free intro meeting