#239 How To Make Your Business Grow FAST

Summary

---

Podcast Summary: Owned and Operated - Episode #239

"How To Make Your Business Grow FAST"

Release Date: September 4, 2025
Host: John Wilson
Co-host: Jack Carr

---

Episode Overview

In this action-driven episode, host John Wilson (owner of a $30M home service company) and co-host Jack Carr (of Rapid Response Plumbing, Heating & Cooling in Nashville) lay out the four critical pillars for rapidly scaling a home service business (plumbing, electrical, HVAC) beyond the $10M mark. The conversation delivers direct, practical advice on lead generation, recruiting and incentivizing people, building a sales culture, and investing wisely in business infrastructure. The hosts speak candidly from extensive business experience, sharing both tactics and philosophies that distinguish $1M companies from $10M+ titans.

---

Key Discussion Points & Timestamps

1. Lead Generation: The Foundation of Growth

00:29 – 02:45

• Both hosts emphasize that consistent lead flow is a non-negotiable foundation.
• “It doesn’t matter what my booking rate is. It doesn’t matter what my average ticket is...Nothing matters if we don’t have leads. That is the first thing that ever matters.” — John (01:50)
• For $10M+ companies, lead generation isn’t guesswork. It becomes systemized with dedicated marketing budgets and roles (e.g., marketing coordinators managing agencies, focusing on reviews, etc.).
• “At $10 million, we've got a locked in marketing strategy...It’s not a guess. We’re walking in with a plan every day.” — John (04:54)

Memorable Moment:
John discusses a business owner he met in a program who had 100 part-time cleaning staff just to gross $1.5M—contrasting how different business models require dramatically different approaches to scale.
03:15 – 04:20

2. People: Recruitment, Incentives, and Culture

05:37 – 09:38

• Recruiting and retaining top talent is a major lever during growth. By $10M, companies are hiring regularly (e.g., one person/month vs. one/year at $1M).
• “One of the first things I did when I bought the business...was we put in an incentive plan. The best thing you can do is incentivize people to grow your business for you.” — John (06:17)
• Detailed conversation about the power of commissions/bonuses. Incentive-driven cultures naturally create business momentum.
• Jack and John agree: You need ‘money hungry’ people—those motivated to win and grow alongside the company. Strong recruiting structure and early investment in dedicated recruiters are recommended.
• “It’s a sales process. How are we showing up on the internet?...Are they treated like a rock star?” — John, on the recruiting experience (08:28)

Memorable Moment:
Jack notes the mentality shift at scale: “You’re building demand [for working at your company] versus forcing demand.” (09:00)

3. Sales: Building a Dedicated, Trained Sales Team

09:41 – 12:43

• Both hosts stress sales specialization must begin by $3-5M to break through to $10M. Salespeople’s sole focus should be selling.
• “It sounds silly to say it so simply, but it really is that simple: You bring in a salesperson, their goal is to sell.” — Jack (10:11)
• Overcoming discomfort with selling is essential; the business exists to generate revenue.
  • “How do you expect to grow? How do you expect to add revenue?...Someone has to sell.” — John (10:58)
• A defined sales process (e.g., using Nexstar or similar) is necessary. Training, scripts, and standard paths help scale results.
• “Have a process, have it locked in...The sales process is basically that’s five to ten: hiring, training, process.” — John (12:00)
• One great salesperson can drive millions in revenue growth.

Memorable Moment:
Jack shares their third hire was a salesperson, and their sales CA is set to hit $3M in revenue (12:18–12:25).

4. Infrastructure: Supporting Growth Without Overbuilding

13:35 – 17:18

• Infrastructure matters, but too many growing companies over-focus here and under-focus on leads, people, and sales.
• Payroll, HR, the right software stack, and simple processes are necessary, but must be sized to the actual business.
• “You can run the best warehouse in the country for HVAC and plumbing...and my business won’t grow an inch.” — John (15:37)
• First things always come first: lead flow, capable people, and sales processes precede back-end infrastructure.
• Over-investing in infrastructure without revenue momentum is a common $1M–$3M trap. Make improvements as you scale, not in anticipation of future size.
  • “We’re $30 million this year. I’m not super concerned about having the right tech stack for when I’m $100 [million]. I can figure that out at 80 to 90.” — John (16:36)
  • Jack echoes: their company is lean—even compared to smaller competitors with “big old buildings”—because efficiency and focus on the key levers drive real growth (16:47).

---

Notable Quotes

• On Lead Generation:

  • “It all starts with the lead.” — John (01:50)
  • “You need demand. Demand generation from somewhere...that’s going to be the backbone of everything.” — Jack (01:06)

• On People & Incentives:

  • “The best thing you can do is incentivize people to grow your business for you.” — John (06:17)
  • “You need money hungry people. Type A personalities that just want to compete and win.” — Jack (07:56)
  • “How are we showing up on the Internet?...Are they treated like a rock star?” — John (08:28)

• On Sales:

  • “It sounds silly to say it so simply, but it really is that simple: you bring in a salesperson, their goal is to sell.” — Jack (10:11)
  • “The goal of a business is to generate revenue...You can’t be a business without generating revenue, otherwise you shut down.” — Jack (11:07)
  • “There’s a million different ways to sell… Just make sure you use one of those million.” — John (11:30)

• On Infrastructure:

  • “You can run the best warehouse in the country… and my business won’t grow an inch.” — John (15:37)
  • “Put first things first: lead, sale, people, then infrastructure.” — John (15:24)

---

Episode Structure at a Glance

| Timestamp | Segment | Topic | |-----------|-----------------------------------------|--------------------------------| | 00:29–02:45 | Leads & Marketing | Systematic lead gen as foundation | | 05:37–09:38 | Recruiting & Incentives | Building a winning team | | 09:41–12:43 | Sales | Dedicated sales drive growth | | 13:35–17:18 | Infrastructure & Support | Right-sized back-end support |

---

Conclusion

John and Jack deliver a high-energy, actionable roadmap for turning home service businesses into $10M+ growth machines. The episode hammers home: nothing replaces the importance of leads, recruiting the right people, a sales-driven culture, and only then scaling up infrastructure to match. If you’re serious about business growth in a competitive trades market, their approach makes it clear—focus relentlessly on the levers that actually move the needle.

---

For more insights and resources, visit www.ownedandoperated.com

Transcript

[A]

The best thing you can do is incentivize people to grow your business for you.

[B]

Yeah, everybody's moving in the same direction. The hardest part right of that is getting people who are all money incentivized. Big portion of this is having a really strong recruiting structure.

[A]

Yeah, that's the big thing that sets apart that $10 million business from like a $1 million business. You can't build a house on a weak foundation.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Bringing on a salesperson drive sales because that's their only focus. That's going to be the backbone to everything. You can't drive any demand. You're not going to sell anything.

[A]

Well, how do you expect to grow? How do you expect to add? Reven has to sell. Welcome back to Owned and Operated. I'm your host, John Wilson. I'm building a $30 million home service company in Ohio. And here on the show I have Jack Carr from Jack Acquisitions, and he runs Rapid Response Plumbing, Heating and Cooling in Nashville, Tennessee. Today we're talking about how to build a service company above $10 million a year. Make sure you like and submit. We're going to be talking today about the four most important things along that journey.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I think the obvious one to start is leads.

[C]

Right.

[B]

You need demand, demand generation from somewhere. And what I've kind of learned over the last few years is that is one of the biggest levers that you can pull is how do I drive demand as an owner and how do I just scale that up as quick as possible? Because that's going to be the backbone to everything. You can't drive any demand. You're not going to sell anything.

[A]

If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that we've been big fans of service scalers. One of the things that they just dropped that we are really excited about is a pay per lead program. So what they help you do is they help you directly gain access to leads and scale up your lead partner program. Go to service scalers.com and say we sent you.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

I totally agree. It all starts with the lead. So, like, we talk about it internally, but it doesn't matter what my booking rate is. It doesn't matter what my average ticket is. It doesn't matter how good my salespeople are. It doesn't matter how nice my trucks are. Like, literally nothing matters if we don't have leads. Like, that is the first thing that ever matters. So I think being locked in on it from the beginning makes a ton of sense. And having A philosophy around it. And, and I think what really sets the difference, you know, if I'm thinking about building this $10 million company versus building a $1 million company, like the $1 million company sort of spread. They're trying to figure out what works. If you got to 10 million, you have an idea of what works.

[B]

Yeah, I was.

[A]

You know how you're driving leads, you know the successful like one to two channels. Like you only need one to two channels, maybe a third to push hard to 10.

[B]

Yeah. And to take it back even a step further. Right. As someone who comes from the acquisition side.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like making sure. Choosing a business that has the ability to grow to 10.

[C]

Oh yeah.

[A]

So like are you buying a remote cleaning company? That's not going to be a $10 million business.

[B]

It can. It's just a different model where you're us utilizing like multiple locations. If you're doing a dog poop cleanup franchise, you're not going to get a one location $10 million business or it's going to be very, very difficult.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like it, you could probably do it, but it's not worth it.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Like I remember I did this program like 10 years ago. It was 10,000 small businesses through Goldman Sachs, I think. And there was someone in there and he was like a $2 million, one and a half million dollar cleaning company. Commercial cleaning. He had a hundred in team members.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

100 for a million dollars. Which like that is not like obviously everyone's part time. No one's full time. Maybe a couple hours here, a couple hours there. Managing a hundred people for only a million dollars sounds like my, my personal version of hell.

[B]

But somebody has to do it.

[A]

I don't know that they do.

[B]

Like somebody has to do it. There's going to be a large cleaning company at some place at some time. I'm not, I'm not discouraging people from doing it.

[A]

No, no. If that's your thing and I'm not.

[B]

Just realizing it is harder and it's playing on the good point.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Playing hard mode.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Playing because like to contrast it and this is just like choose the game. Choose your game. Anything is hard. Choose your game. In H Vac you can hit a million with three people.

[B]

So if, if I'm not even.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Maybe two. Like.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

I've seen a husband and wife with a subcontractor do installs hit a million dollars. $1.2 million in our area.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Which is wild.

[A]

Totally. So I, I think just like.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Not dogging on cleaning. Just pick the game.

[B]

I mean, I'm okay with you dogging on cleaning.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm just saying that somebody does have to do. Someone does that there's a reason. There's like $10 million, you know, million commercial cleaning companies out there that have tons of contracts. It's possible serve pro serve pro serve.

[A]

They're like, serve clean.

[C]

Yeah, maybe something like that.

[B]

There's a franchise out there. I've talked to a few of them.

[A]

All right, so at $10 million, we've got a locked in marketing budget. We had a locked in marketing strategy. We know how we're filling the board every day. It's not a guess. We're walking in with a plan every day. Our team is thinking about it. We probably have a marketing coordinator who's helping manage the agencies that we use. We're focusing a lot on reviews. We're using something like big reputation. We're responding, we're getting photos. So I think that's the big thing that sets apart that $10 million business from like a $1 million business. We have a plan, we're executing it and we're, we're locked in focus. We know how we're going to fill the board every day.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

We're at 1 million. We don't know how we're going to, It's a. Who knows how we're going to get leads today at 10 million, you know how you're going to fill the board?

[B]

100.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Second one I would say is people. Right now you have the leads, somebody has to go run them. Somebody has to sell whatever product you have and they have to do a good job at it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So understanding that as you move and grow and scale, that is going to be probably one of the biggest bottlenecks is finding, especially in today's labor market where everybody is going into tech and is going into easy businesses in the home service field. Finding those hundred people to clean Those out of 10 million, a thousand people to clean houses or the 30 or 40 technicians you're going to need to get there is a very difficult task because you have to find them, get them on, train them and then keep them all the way through.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I agree. So, yeah, $10 million. What we're, what we're focused on is we've got a good benefits package. We have clearly laid out compensation plans. We have people that know how they can win inside the business. So there's probably an incentive structure. People are on flat rate. There's commission, there's bonuses. There's something, you know, One of the first things I did when I bought the business almost nine years ago was we in put in an incentive plan. And it sounds so basic. And like, I'm still astonished when I hear people not doing this basic thing. Like the, the best thing you can do is incentivize people to grow your business for you. Like, that's literally it.

[B]

Like commissions.

[A]

Yeah, commissions. Hey, if a technician is doing a great job, he should be rewarded for doing a great job.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[A]

So if he's installing a ton of stuff, if he's selling a ton of stuff, like if someone over the phone is selling a bunch of memberships and like, if someone's helping you build your business, they should be compensated for that. And that's when this starts to snowball because you have, you know, you go from like 10 people at $1 million or, you know, a couple million bucks or whatever, and you start installing incentive plans, you start installing commissions and these. Now people are more driven. You bring on people that are excited about commissions during your hiring and they, they literally start growing the business for you because they want to personally grow.

[B]

Yeah. Everybody's moving in the same direction. The hardest part Right. Of that is getting people who are all money incentivized.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Because in today's day of age, there's people who optimize for work life balance or they're optimizing for this or that. I found. Optimizing for people who are really driven by.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You need money hungry people.

[B]

Money hungry people. Type A personalities that just want to compete and win.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Which is. It's been great. And I think a big portion of this, even though it's not, you know, we'll talk about this later. But a big portion of this is having a really strong recruiting structure.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

A recruiter really early on will absolutely help you find those people.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So that it doesn't fall on your back. Because it takes a lot of time to get those people into your business and then making sure you do an amazing job of it. More so than we do. So I mean, you could probably talk more about it, but the actual, like recruitment process of bringing them in.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's a sales process. It's the same as marketing. How are we showing up on the Internet?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Is our compensation good? Do we have good benefits when they come in, are they treated like a rock star? Do we shove them in a closet until somebody can take the time to interview them? Like, how do we think about the recruiting process? Well, I mean, at 10 million, you're probably more locked in. Mainly because you're just doing it more. At 10 million, you're probably hiring one person a month. At 1 million, you're probably hiring one Person a year. So you just have to get more locked. As you know, that's 12 people a year. You're going to have more of a process.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And that's the process as you're going 1, 2, 3, 4 million that you're building through. What I, what I kind of like about it is that it almost flips the script. I think a lot of smaller operators are begging really good techs to come to them. Whereas you set up a, a kind of atmosphere where it makes the tech actually want to work for you. You're offering them good incentives so they want to make money. You're showing them that this is a cool place to work. You're walking through your building, you're showing how happy everybody is. Like you're treating them really well so that they want to work there. They don't. It's needing to go find someone and pulling them in. Yeah, it's a. You're building demand versus forcing the demand.

[A]

Yeah, no, totally agree.

[B]

Sweet.

[A]

Next up, sales.

[B]

Sales is a big one.

[A]

Yeah. What at 10 million? I mean really? This probably starts earlier. Probably in like the, you know, 3, 4, 5 range. Like you're bringing on salespeople and their full time job is to sell. And that's a big move for a lot of businesses. I know as big. Big move for your, like took off for us. It's been huge.

[B]

It was our salesperson was our third hire because salespeople.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

In general. And they move the business. They like, that's their job.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Literally.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

It sounds silly to say it so simply, but it really is that simple. Is like you bring in a salesperson, their goal is to sell.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

You drive revenue and if they don't, they don't stay there. They don't take anything from the business because they're usually commission based.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So like bringing on a salesperson drive sales because that's their own only focus.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

But also, and not like you basically don't get to 10 if you're not in like sales. It's marketing then sales.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Like you need the lead, you need to sell the lead. So sales is this hyper important thing that I think when smaller contractors, they're like, oh, we don't want to sell.

[B]

I was just going to get there. We heard that three times. We did the workshop this week. Guys.

[C]

If you, yeah.

[B]

If you're Just listening and I heard that three or four times. It's like I don't really want to be that pushy salesperson. I don't want to, I don't want to be the sales guy who's in there.

[A]

Well, how do you expect to grow? How do you expect to add revenue? And I'm not saying someone has to sell.

[B]

Pushy.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But what I am saying is that the goal of a business is to generate revenue.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like that is the goal of a business. We're here to do well fix problem.

[A]

Is to generate profit. But it starts with generating revenue.

[B]

Yes. A salesperson's job is to generate revenue. The business's job is to generate the profit on the back end. To design the profit.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But point is, is you, you can't be a business without generating revenue. Otherwise you shut down. Like you have to have that revenue to be able to.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I think with sales it's building a process, it's building some training. Like nexstar has been a great partner for us. So they have a, like hey, here's your, here's the greet step, here's the explore step. Like they have the six steps to like walk in and you know, convert to a sale. There's other programs out there but you, whatever program you're using, just use a program. I think is, is sort of like my mindset on this. Like there's a million different ways to sell. You can find a bunch of them. Just make sure you use one of those million.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Have a process, have it locked in, work on, you know, how are we offering options, how are we talking about financing, how are we exploring the home and asking open ended questions. The sales process is, is like basically that's, that's five to ten, like hiring.

[B]

That was, that was two to five for us. Yeah, like that. Getting good SalesPeople. Our sales CA is going to do 3 million this year.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, and then there is a sales portion where the technicians are selling the flip. Right. So like there is more to it. But one good salesperson really can drive the business multiple millions and help you grow, you know, different levels.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So, but I fully agree because we're bringing on a second one next year. So.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Awesome.

[E]

Fieldpulse is the all in one field management solution for growing home service companies. FieldPulse is designed to simplify your day to day operations by combining everything you need into one platform. It also includes integrations to help you save time like QuickBooks, desktop and online. It has a bunch of advanced tools and features like a CRM, estimates and invoicing. Good, better best options, maintenance plans, a robust price book and scheduling dispatching. FieldPulse will transform the way that you manage your field team altogether. It will save you time and find revenue that you didn't even know existed. Whether you're a small company that's looking.

[A]

To grow or a larger company Looking.

[E]

To optimize, FieldPulse has the tools that you need to do it.

[A]

And don't just take our word for it.

[E]

FieldPulse has earned over 580 glowing reviews.

[A]

With an average rating of 4.8 stars.

[E]

That's Field EU LSE. Head to their website to learn more.

[A]

Fieldpulse.com Our last one is infrastructure. You can't build a house on a weak foundation.

[B]

And more so than infrastructure, I think it's just supporting functions. Like those three things need to be supported. They need to be supported by payroll. Good payroll, good hr. You need software stack, processes in software stack, fleet stack, understanding. Just all of the things that surround supporting those three. But like at its most condensed framework, that's what a home service business is. It's problem drives, lead. Lead goes to somebody who's going to run the call, technician, technician is the salesperson, or goes to another salesperson who sells. And then you need to support all of those functions with everything else that goes into it. I think a lot of times what people get stuck on, especially in the like the 1 to 3 million range.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Is they really get stuck on. I need to focus on my infrastructure, need to focus on my processes. And I think it's so, it's important.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But at the same time, like, you need to realize that the first, the first two are just as important as the fourth pillar. Like build those processes but also get those leads, get those people, make those sales so that you can afford all that infrastructure.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I've said this a lot on the podcast over the years, but I, I remember, like, I have friends who are just way more organized than I am and like better. Like they just run like very clean process. Like it's very locked in. It's, you know, you know, where everything is. And my business is like 100 times their size. I don't even think I'm exaggerating. And it, it's a first things first. Like I'm bad at a lot of things. But I did put first things first.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is the lead, then the sale and the people, then the infrastructure to support it. And like, if the first couple break, like infrastructure doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter. And I could really make it say.

[B]

It all the time. You can run the best warehouse in the country for an H VAC and.

[A]

Plumbing, the most organized. I could, you know, eat my lunch off the floo floor and my business won't grow a inch.

[B]

You, you've never lost a single piece of inventory in your life. Everything is priced perfectly. Yeah, but it just sits there because nobody's selling you.

[A]

No.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not getting the leads. I don't have the talent. They're not trained how to sell. Yeah, it's. I. You got to put first things first. And it's. I think it's easy to get sort of this, like, you know, heads down, I gotta fix and tweak and all that stuff. But, like, you got, you, you know, it's important. Like, you can't. You can't build a house on a weak foundation, but you can build. While you're building. You can like, build infrastructure and correct as you're going. And you also don't need to overinvest that far. Like, we're 30 million this year. I'm not super concerned about having the right tech stack for when I'm 100. Like, I can figure that out at 80 to 90 between.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Right now in the next couple of years, I'm aiming for how. What's the next 24 months look like? And how do we make sure that I'm set up for that success? Am I set up at 30 to get to 40, 40 to get to 50 and so on?

[B]

Yeah, no, it makes total sense. I mean, that's where we're at. So we're at 5. We are set up to hit 10, and that is the goal next year. And so all of our infrastructure is in place. And I think you'd be surprised when you're looking at us versus other companies that are in the 2 to 3 million range. They have big old buildings and they have all these offices and you walk into ours and it's like, it's really bare bones. Like, just because we're very, very efficient with how we do things and we understand that it's leads, people, sales, infrastructure.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

If you like what you heard, make sure you like and sub.

[B]

If you didn't like what you heard, make sure, still like and submit.