Upcoming Videos:
Hourly Pay vs Performance Pay: and Why Hourly Sucks
Why hourly pay doesn’t work for home service technicians—and why performance pay is a game changer.
What to Watch Out For When Buying a Home Service Business
Sharing the tips and insights you need to buy a home service business—what to look for, what to avoid, and how to make a smart purchase.
Why We’ve Stayed Single-Trade While Scaling Past $25M
Everyone thinks adding trades is the next step—until it slows them down.
In the home service industry, there’s a well-worn path. Once a company hits $10M in revenue, the “playbook” usually says: add another trade.
A plumbing company starts offering HVAC. An HVAC shop bolts on electrical. It feels logical, more revenue streams, more cross-sell opportunities, faster growth.
At J. Blanton, we’ve broken that mold. We’ve grown past $25M in revenue while staying exclusively focused on plumbing. That’s unusual especially in plumbing, where almost every company over $10M has already added HVAC or electrical.
So why haven’t we? Because we’ve seen that focus compounds. And chasing every shiny object is often the fastest way to slow yourself down. It’s the difference between quick growth and sustainable growth. A racehorse has blinders on.
The Drug of Multi-Trade Growth
When companies add a second trade, the short-term results usually look fantastic. You get a pop in growth. You can tell customers “we do more”, and some of them will buy. You also launch new external marketing, perhaps a new Google page, and results come quickly.
But here’s the dark side: it’s like a drug. The first hit is exciting, but the problems show up.
You now have two different types of technicians to recruit, train, and manage.
You now have two different sets of processes and systems to refine.
You now have two different types of managers you need to build
You now have twice the amount of material SKUs to manage in your warehouse
You need to manage two different customer journeys and sales processes.
Instead of focusing and compounding in one area, you're spread thin across multiple fronts. Growth slows, complexity balloons, and leadership attention gets diluted. Inevitably, one of the trades is always falling behind and focus has to be diverted to the struggling one.
That’s why I believe most companies should wait until they’re north of $20M before even considering adding a second trade. At that scale, you’re more likely to have operational depth and leadership infrastructure to handle the complexity.
And yet, I see many companies try to add trades as early as $2M or $3M. It almost always backfires.
Plumbing vs. HVAC: Why They Aren’t the Same
One of the biggest mistakes I see is owners assuming plumbing and HVAC are basically interchangeable. Both are massive markets. Both require skilled technicians. Both are essential services.
But the truth is, they operate very differently. And those differences matter when you’re trying to scale.
Labor vs. Equipment
Plumbing is labor-driven. You’re selling the expertise and problem-solving of your techs.
HVAC is equipment-heavy. Success is tied to installing new units, which drives higher material costs and lowers gross margin.
Seasonality
Plumbing is consistent year-round. Demand, staffing, and cash flow are steady.
HVAC is highly seasonal. Summer heat waves and winter freezes drive massive peaks and valleys, which makes staffing and cash flow management far trickier.
Sales Process
Plumbing sales are typically transactional. Customers call, the tech fixes the issue, and you move on.
HVAC runs on a “flip model”. Repair techs often flip older-unit calls to salespeople, who push for replacement rather than repair.
Memberships & Customer Base
HVAC companies rely heavily on memberships. Customers expect 2x per year maintenance, which locks them into contracts and creates a predictable replacement pipeline.
Plumbing doesn’t have the same cultural expectation of recurring maintenance contracts, which means building loyalty and repeat business takes a different strategy.
On the surface, plumbing and HVAC look like siblings. But once you dig deeper, they’re more like distant cousins.
Why We’ve Stayed Focused
Our decision so far to stick with plumbing has been about more than resisting the short-term “drug” of adding trades. It’s about building a business that compounds. We want to become EXCELLENT at the business we are already in before we consider doing something else.
By staying focused so far:
We’ve built systems that scale smoothly because they’re designed for one trade, not many.
We’ve recruited and trained teams with depth of expertise, rather than splitting focus across different skill sets.
We’ve kept our leadership bandwidth base-focused on one customer journey, instead of juggling multiple.
Yes, it’s unusual. Yes, it’s harder to say “no” when everyone else is chasing growth by adding new services. But the reward is speed and flexibility over the medium and long term.
Truthfully, it helps with recruiting high-level technicians too. When we can tell a plumber that the entire company is laser-focused on helping them grow their careers, it’s an attractive pitch vs. multi-trade companies.
The Long Game
The lesson for home service owners is this: don’t let the excitement of short-term growth blind you to the long-term complexity tradeoff.
Focus is harder. It takes patience. It takes discipline. And in many cases, it means ignoring what looks like the “normal” path in this industry.
But the focus also compounds. And in the long run, it may be the fastest way to build something durable and exceptional.
That’s why we’ve stayed single-trade in plumbing. And it’s why we won’t even consider adding a second trade until the foundation is so strong that complexity can’t slow us down. It doesn’t mean we won’t add another trade later, but for right now we’re focused on becoming the best at plumbing.
In Case You Missed It…
Take a look at a recent video I posted this week where I break down why I believe acquisitions are the inferior strategy compared to growing organically ⬇
Did You Know? The average plumbing company’s technicians spend up to 25% of their day driving between jobs—meaning better routing and dispatching can instantly increase job capacity.