For owners

Own it better

Financing, fleet, private equity, growth and what other owners report works. Every guide is a 3 to 5 minute read you can download.

Owner reviewing the business from his phone at the shop

Money and loans
Your fleet
Private equity and your exit
Growth and expansion
What owners say works
Running the business

42%of small employer firms that applied got all the financing they soughtFederal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms

60%of online-lender borrowers said costs were higher than expectedFederal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms

9.5×average EBITDA multiple for HVAC services deals, 2024 to mid-2026Capstone Partners, HVAC services M&A update

$26,000average on-the-job crash cost to employers, 2019 dollarsNETS, Cost of Crashes 2019

17-21%typical yearly customer attrition, per one trade columnACHR News, seasonal marketing

82%of consumers surveyed say they will call a competitor if unansweredContractor, the missed call math

Money and loans

Choose the right financing, and get approved for it.

Which kind of money fits the needMatch the loan to what you are buying. Most financing trouble starts with the wrong product.Get approved for a business loanLenders are not buying your story. They are buying your ability to pay them back.

Your fleet

Costs, taxes, safety and the problems that hurt most.

Buy, lease and write off your trucksA truck is the second most expensive thing you put on the road, after the technician driving it.The fleet problems that cost the mostYour trucks are your biggest moving advertisement and one of your largest risks.

Private equity and your exit

What buyers want, how deals pay and the other ways out.

When private equity callsYou will probably get the call. Decide what you want before you answer it.Get ready to sell, even if you never doBuyers pay for what will still work after you leave.Other ways out: family, managers and employeesSelling to an outside buyer is only one way to leave.

Growth and expansion

Where profit comes from and how to expand safely.

Eight problems, and how leading companies solve themPhones, booking, slow months, follow-up, the office and software.The shoulder season roller coasterWhy the slow months cost so much, and how equity mining and no-charge visits end them.Weather and your tradeHeat, cold and storms, and what leading contractors do about them.Where profitable growth comes fromMost owners reach for more leads. The numbers point somewhere closer to home.Expand without breaking what worksNew territory, a new trade or an acquisition. Each one tests the company you already have.When to add a truckDo the math before you commit.

What owners say works

Public reporting on phones, past customers and getting off paper.

What owners and trade press say worksSolutions that keep showing up in public reporting, with the numbers and the caveats.

Running the business

Numbers, pricing and getting out of the truck.

Know your numbersThe numbers that tell you the truth.Price for profitCharge what a billable hour really costs.Get yourself out of the truckStop being the bottleneck.Your teamKeep techs, get production, stay compliant.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Talk to your attorney, CPA and lender.

Best practices

Best practices for owners

The owner is the bottleneck

Everything runs through the owner, so growth stops when the owner's day is full, and the business is hard to sell.

Write down the jobs only you do today, and hand off one a month.
Put processes in writing: booking, dispatch, sales follow-up and billing.
Give people numbers to own, and review them weekly.

All 6 practices, and when to get help

Pricing and knowing your numbers

Revenue looks fine, but margins are thin and nobody is sure which jobs, techs or lead sources make money.

Pick five weekly numbers: answer rate, booked jobs, close rate, average ticket and revenue per tech.
Price from your true hourly cost, including drive time and overhead.
Review prices at least once a year and when costs change.

All 6 practices, and when to get help

Running on spreadsheets

The schedule, customers and estimates live in spreadsheets, notebooks and people's heads. It works until you grow.

List what lives where today before you pick software.
Clean your spreadsheet before you import it.
Move one thing at a time: customers, then scheduling, then estimates and invoices.

All 6 practices, and when to get help

Customers who never hear from you again

Thousands of past customers sit in your software. Their equipment ages, their plans lapse, and nobody calls them.

Clean the list first: remove duplicates, fix phone numbers and mark do-not-call customers.
Sort by what predicts a sale: equipment age, last visit and open repairs.
Start with the warmest groups: lapsed members, recent repairs on old equipment and unsold estimates.

All 6 practices, and when to get help

See what's in your customer list

Book a free 30-minute database equity audit with Don. You'll see, in dollars, what your past customers could book this season.

Book a call with Don Join PACE instead