Phil Risher says home service businesses stall at $1M not because of the market but because owners won't stop doing the work themselves, chase one-off repairs instead of projects, mix personal and business money, and skip recurring revenue like maintenance agreements.
Most of the companies that I see that are stuck at a million dollars or less in sales is because the owner won't get out of their own way. They're the best technician, they're the best salesman. And I don't have any buyers that call me and say, hey, I want to buy a business where I can work in the field for 16 hours a day and then go home and do paperwork. Right? It's a high paying job, not a business really. Second is a business built on service and repair as opposed to new construction or project based work. Holds a higher value, more consistent, deeper share of client wallet. The third one is really cleaning up their books, their systems. Many people treat their business like it's their personal checking account. And so. And they don't really have necessarily systems in place to do that. And the fourth is maintenance agreements or some type of repetitive revenue. Buyers love that. Buyers love consistency of income and being able to turn on a switch, call existing clients or whatever their system is that they're building, having that ready to go.
