Service Business

You inherit a profitable service company that has already found demand. Customers are waiting weeks, the crew is at the top of its utilisation, quality is slipping into the reviews and you are still delivering work yourself. Demand is not the same thing as capacity.

·$120,000 cash · ~$95,000 a month revenue, ~$18,000 profit

·~$125,000 a month of demand — more than you can deliver

·8 employees · ~92% utilisation · 3.5 week waiting list

·You: 90 hours delivering, 78 hours running the business

Objective · Turn an overloaded, owner-dependent service company into a scalable $100,000,000 operation — profitable, properly managed and no longer dependent on you.

Difficulty · Very hard

A $3M service company that already fixed its capacity problem. One location, one crew, one strong local reputation — and one owner still signing off every decision that matters. Growth from here means managers, systems and other people's standards.

·$3,000,000 a year revenue · $500,000 cash · ~20% operating margin

·22 employees · ~78% utilisation · one location at its ceiling

·Strong local reputation, almost no documented systems

·You still personally approve pricing, hiring and problem jobs

Objective · Turn a good single-site operation into a professionally managed, systemised service organisation worth $100,000,000+.

Difficulty · Brutal

Five locations, 85 staff, $12M a year and a model that genuinely works — in one region. National expansion means markets you don't understand, managers you can't personally supervise and a head office that grows whether you plan for it or not.

·$12,000,000 a year revenue · $2,000,000 cash · ~22% operating margin

·5 locations · 85 employees · strong regional reputation

·A real management layer, but no national systems

·Every new market has its own demand, labour costs and competition

Objective · Build a national service company worth $250,000,000+ without losing operational control, quality or cash.

Difficulty · Brutal

A private equity firm bought your national service group with borrowed money. You now run $40M of revenue carrying $20M of debt, strict lender covenants and a five-year exit clock.

·$40,000,000 revenue · 18% EBITDA margin · $3,000,000 cash

·$20,000,000 acquisition debt at 10% interest

·20 locations · 320 employees

·Lender covenant: debt must stay under 4× earnings

Objective · Grow earnings, pay down debt, never breach a covenant, and exit at a $450,000,000+ enterprise value.

Difficulty · Brutal