Phil Risher explains why the hustle that builds a $1-3 million business won't get you to $10 million. A $3 million HVAC owner was doing sales, customer service, and field work until Risher told him to hire a salesperson, script the phones, and focus on commercial contracts. In 36 months it hit $8 million and sold to private equity.
Grinding got you here, it will not get you to the next level. A lot of times in the $1 to $3 million range, what we see with business owners is that they hustle their way to that, but hustler can't get you to $10 million. One of my first clients that I was working with, he was a $3 million HVAC business, and when I came in, he was doing everything. He was firefighting jobs, he was a salesperson, he was a CSR. I mean, he was doing all this stuff. And I said, "Hey man, you can do all the marketing in the world, but if you're the one doing all these jobs, you're not gonna grow your business." Ultimately, he hired a salesperson, he built a call script for his CSRs, He only focused on high-ticket commercial sales inside of his business, but he built out an infrastructure underneath of him. And within 36 months, he went to $8 million and sold to private equity. The lesson here is just because you can do all the jobs and you may be good at it doesn't mean that you should be doing them, especially if you want to grow.
