How We'd Build a $10M Home Service Business Today

**John Wilson** (0:00)
If we lost everything tomorrow, what do we do?

**Jack Carr** (0:02)
I'd go start an electrical business. I don't have to live with a 5% seller's note. I don't have to live with any kind of debt.

**John Wilson** (0:10)
To be honest with you, that's what I did at Wilson. We bought into a small business. All it takes to win is the desire and a little bit of intelligence, which is marketing, sales, fulfillment. If I had to do it again, that's how I would model it.

**Jack Carr** (0:23)
It's hard.

**John Wilson** (0:24)
As you're thinking about like big lessons on your journey, like what are the things that you think took too long to learn?

**Jack Carr** (0:30)
That one's easy for me.

**John Wilson** (0:37)
Welcome back to Owned and Operated, a top 150 business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm your host, John Wilson, and on this show, we talk about our own home service business, the home service industry, and how to grow within it, or generally whatever bullshit topic related to home service we're talking about.
Today, I am rejoined by my co-host Jack Carr, whose podcast is currently ranked higher than ours. We're super proud of him and not jealous at all. Make sure you check out Jackquisitions. We'll click. We'll put the link below. Jack, welcome back to the show.

**Jack Carr** (1:09)
That is an intro if I've ever heard one. I'm I'm so happy.

**John Wilson** (1:13)
I actually have been practicing. I worked in front of a mirror and good.

**Jack Carr** (1:17)
You know, we just talk about whatever we want. That's what the show is about. If you're listening, it's whatever.

**John Wilson** (1:22)
I mean, at one point, we did talk about Magic, the gathering businesses. So like, you know, I would say 90 percent of our least listened episode, most or least listen to it is. I think it is.
That one was not popular.

**Jack Carr** (1:36)
Weird.

**John Wilson** (1:38)
That's so weird. Yeah. All right.
Our prompt for today is if we lost everything tomorrow, what would we do?

**Jack Carr** (1:48)
So I think that there needs to be some parameters on this. Right. So when you say lost everything tomorrow, are we starting with zero dollars or just like twenty five K?

**John Wilson** (2:01)
What's a reasonable amount for people?

**Jack Carr** (2:02)
Yeah. I think that's the key is like if you lost, if you have zero dollars in your account, like I respect you, keep hustling. This is not shade at you whatsoever.
Put some Gs in the bank. And the reason is like, hey, it's not only for growing your business, but also like, hey, if stuff hits the fan, like you want a few dollars to be able to back it up. So yeah, we started 25 I think that's a really like, hey, starting over and good starting over number is like, hey, you've worked for a year for your W-2, you've grinded, you saved again after you lost everything. You got 25 in the bank. What do you do?

**John Wilson** (2:38)
I mean, honestly, I'd buy some.

**Jack Carr** (2:39)
Yeah, because 25 would compound at 10 percent into 250 But like you could get creative and maybe get a little bit more.
Like a purchase price.

**John Wilson** (2:48)
No, I'd probably go seller. I'd probably go seller, seller finding something.

**Jack Carr** (2:52)
I mean, that's a 10 percent SBA. But if you did high seller note plus, like you could probably buy something, what, up to a million dollars. If you, if you truly thought about it, like that's reasonable. Not like guru zero dollars down type stuff. Like you could, you could go out there and find something.
And a million dollars of purchase would be like, I don't know, like two to $300,000 in SDE. So like a small business, like three or four employees in the home service industry in any kind of realm.

**John Wilson** (3:24)
Yeah, I think I'd buy something. Like I think that's just like sort of the obvious answer. I think.

**Jack Carr** (3:29)
It's the fastest answer.

**John Wilson** (3:31)
It's the fastest answer, yeah. And I think, so yeah, the options are, would we stay in home service? Would you buy one or build one? And how fast could we get it back?

**Jack Carr** (3:40)
So would you stay home service? That's a great question.

**John Wilson** (3:44)
I think that home, yeah, probably. I think like it's the thing I know. And I also think home service in general, I've said this before, but like basically we need it.

**Jack Carr** (3:52)