Jeff

@therobertbrooks Do you have kids? How do you balance 18 hour days and family.

Another passive day running a small HVAC company… My Operations Manager of 10 years realized he couldn’t adapt to the pace we’re moving and gave notice. I kept him on for a couple days to transition things, and walked him out today. That’s the reality of growth. Not everyone can go where you’re taking it. Only 2 of the 10 employees from the acquisition are left. At the same time… We hired 2 people today: #1 – A proven selling tech from one of the largest PE-backed HVAC platforms in the country. #2 – A 15-year home services sales pro (roofing + solar) who lives off door knocking, referrals, and relationships. I’ll teach him HVAC. He’ll bring a whole new playbook on generating his own leads. (And yeah… part of me is thinking… do we add roofing? I’ve done roofs in a past life.) Then I spent the evening in the office until 10:30 PM building out inventory + purchasing integrations with our top vendors in ServiceTitan… Automating what used to be half of an operations role. And the kicker — We’re already at 110% of last March’s total revenue… mid-month. With 9 working days still left. Start all over again in 6 hours.

@Budgetdog_ Yup I have one. Wondering if they’re being discounted more than when I bought a few months ago.

@Investsave101 They aren’t cheap. Depends trim. ~$100k.

That new car smell is so clean

@therobertbrooks @Slackwatercap @BizGuyDan Again, financing and loan payments are not an operating expense and should not be considered when comparing YoY operating improvements. I am not discrediting your outstanding performance. I am just noting why net income is not a useful comparison here (or really anytime).

when you have heavy acquisition loan payments, EBITDA is not really representative of cash flow. You can have positive "EBITDA" and run out of cash because of debt payments. Depreciation lowers net income.. so if net income is substantially better, even with "depreciation" included it tells an even better story. Oh.. btw.. my business bank account is also 250% larger than the avg bank balance of my predecessor 😀

A lot of posts this week claiming small businesses are “garbage.” So I ran some numbers after owning my HVAC business for 7 months. I bought small—$1.95M revenue, $343k SDE—in one of the most competitive industries and markets (HVAC in Central Florida). Translation: I bought a “job.” Oh no… I have to work hard?! No beach checks for me. But I got into a highly sought-after market at 3.2x. Purchase price: $1.1M. Fast forward 7 months: Bottom line up 164% (forget the J curve). Profitable every month since acquisition. Without adjusting pre-acquisition numbers (which would only go UP), 2025 SDE is tracking to $568k on $2.37M revenue. At the same 3.2x multiple? EV = $1.82M → +$720k EV growth. I own 85%. You can do that math. Now let’s pro forma it: Revenue is up 34% since acquisition at a healthy 17% net margin. Apply that growth to the first 5 months and you get $2.63M revenue and $697k SDE. At a modest bump to a 4x multiple: EV = $2.78M → $1.68M in EV growth in 7 months. Do the math again if you want. It’s fun. I’m NOT saying buying small is for everyone. You’d better be ready to make it your life’s work, get your hands dirty, business and implement process, drive accountability, attract talent, inspire people, and lead from the front. This is a people game. 75% of the original team has been replaced. If you want to buy a home services business of this size, you MUST be hands-on. What I am saying: there’s nothing wrong with buying small. The idea that a small business “isn’t a real business” assumes the only real businesses are the ones where the owner isn’t meaningfully involved. That’s a lie people tell themselves to avoid the work. Call it a "job" if you want to... We all work. I'd rather own my job.

@therobertbrooks @Slackwatercap @BizGuyDan If you have the exact same operating performance 12 months pre transaction and 12 months post transaction, net income will be wildly different due to depreciation, etc. Meaningless. This is why people use ebitda, which is the most accepted proxy for cash flow from operations.

Curious why its meaningless to you? Former owner had -40k months with no depreciation and no interest. -40k is literally -40k cash in the bank. I've maintained profit (positive net income) every single month, even with acquisition loan interest + adding 2 new vans and taking on that interest also and doubling my payroll costs by top grading my employees. I see that all as very relevant to how I measure the success. I'm curious why you don't look at net income in day to day operations.

@JayBroyerPools This seems like a good initiative, especially if you can track or find ways to incentivize retail staff to book services and service techs to encourage customers to visit retail. What’s the current service vs retail revenue split?

In 2026 we are going to stop looking at our business as Service AND Retail stores as separate divisions. Instead optimize the retail - service - retail flywheel and how each one can perpetually feed the other. This happens naturally but we want to now push it intentionally.

@marshal Can you share approximate cost? Very well done. Beautiful home.

Inside our freshly completed dream home. After I sold my business, I poured all my time into this home. It was THE passion project.

@JesseTinsley Number goes up every time he talks about it. He has mentioned “around $20M” on the pod before. I had the same skepticism as you when I saw him say $40M. Strange for a guy who has a podcast about money transparency.

Founder says $40m+. SEC filing lists $17.2M cash. No reference to equity or other consideration I could find. 🤔

@STLChrisH If a technician needs to relay something to the office, do they send a teams, can they alert through ST, or do they alert through Monday? For example, a neighbor is interested in a service or that the office needs to update the invoice or something?

@Investsave101 Teams

The vendors we use that I would recommend: CRM - Service Titan Accounting - Intacct MSP - GadellNet Insurance - Lockton Agentic AI tools - Netic Payroll - Inova Prop mgmt - Gershman CRE Real estate brokerage - JLL Credit card - Divvy Banking - UMB Coaching/Training - Nexstar Network Roofing sales coaching - STG Applicant tracking system - workable Project management - Monday I’d be interested in vendor recs from others - across all categories. Just the good ones..

@markbdelaney 7 figure comp package over how many years…?

Placed a veteran as a GM in a PE-backed rollup yesterday. 7-figure total comp package. - Not a special ops guy - No Top 20 MBA - Not an academy grad But does have his GSD. (Gets Shi* Done)

@Jaybroyermusic @christmaslightr If assistant techs are 20-23, what do techs make? That’s not bad comp for an assistant.

@christmaslightr We are having a hard time in the $20-$23 an hour range for assistant techs. So hearing $25 is same thing is disheartening. My 2026 plan was to post the jobs at $3-$4+ more an hour to get better candidates.

I’ve had 9 installers quit since Oct 1st All $25+ an hour There really is a shortage of workers in this country

@MikeBotkin_ @patrickdichter @STLChrisH 4.4 SDE or EBITDA? What multiple arbitrage did you achieve on exit?

Our average PP multiple was 4.4x. It grew over time. Each deal we did, was bigger than the last (rev, ebitda, pp, etc). As a rollup, we were creating synergies with each acquisition, our pro-forma PP was different, and then....the *actual* PP is different 6 to 12 months down the road when stuff starts to realize (or not). This was also from 2021-2023. The 'good ole days'

My best thinking on multiples in hvac: Under $500k EBITDA = 1x - 2x 500k - 1M = 2x - 3x 1M - 3M = 4x - 6x 3M - 6M = 6x - 9x 6M - 10M = 8x - 12x 10M+ = 10x - 18x Painting with broad brush strokes here. But I think this generally reflects reality. Any differing opinions here?

@STLChrisH 😂

@Investsave101 Do you know how many text messages I get when I name their names? I’m waiting for the PE hitman to put a car bomb in my Tahoe. 😉

In 2022 - “We will overpay for the first deal at 15x EBITDA so we get a foothold in hvac.” “And that’s okay because we will blend the multiple down by paying 10x for $1M EBITDA add-ons. It’s bulletproof.” In 2025…

@thesamparr You’re better than that. Your MFM loyal audience is because you put out consistent on brand episodes, not because you tried to beat the YouTube algorithm. Anyone can get views on YT with catchy generic topics. Stick to the brand. Ask your friends what they think of her episodes.

@Investsave101 her episodes have the most views

High end art is crazy to me. Someone once paid $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall. I tend to lean toward safe bets like index funds. But the art market is unique. Some think of it as a valuable investment. And theres too much $$ going around to ignore it. Carlos Cardenas, a former Paris art dealer turned private wealth advisor, came on Moneywise to explain how it really works: -Global art market is $57 billion -Blue-chip returns 8–12% annually at auction -$20K piece can resell for $2M+ (ovr 15 years) -Rule of thumb: 5–10% of net worth in collectibles -Serious collecting starts at ~$500K allocation (usually means a $5M+ net worth) Carlos works with Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and even the Picasso family office. Seen fortunes made on Basquiats, Warhols, and Pollocks. Also watched people lose it all on hype-driven trends that collapsed overnight. So is fine art a valid investment? or is it just an expensive flex that can get you into cool rooms? Full episode of Moneywise is live.

@moseskagan This must feel like a massive amount of pressure for your children. Say you pass along $1M to a child who has 4 kids, he or she needs to pass along like $12M to give the same purchasing power to each kid in 30 yrs

...work hard to pass along to our children more $$ than our parents passed along to us

@SteveWiesnerSMB Yes let’s acquire a bunch of businesses in random places with no synergies and that require significant onsite attention (daily). Great idea!

@markbdelaney Do you plan to try again?

Caught up with a buddy who is ~2 years into his ETA journey to buy a SMB (Where I was when I abandoned my search) And we talked about one of the biggest risks: Desperation. Not a good place to be. You get to a point where you are closing in on the time you said you would be done searching, and you thought you would be running a business. You've endured dead deals, offers that didn't land, and multiple holidays with your uncles asking you, "So do you have a job or what?" Your partner is looking at you and saying, "Look, I support you, but I'm not sure how much more of this I can take." So you start making decisions you would not have made in month 6. - You accept a 1.3 DSCR when you said you would never go below 1.5 - You start looking at really small deals, just wanting to get SOMETHING done - You will take money from anyone to close - You go with the cheaper QoE - You look at industries you have no business looking at This is a bad place to be. I know because I was there. So I'm here to give you permission to quit, regroup, and try again after you get your head straight. It was the right decision for me and my family, and I would totally make it again. Because *news flash*: No one is going to notice or care. Except you and your family, the only ones that matter.