What 100-Location Companies Know That You Don't

What do 100-location companies know that you don’t? At 7 AM in one of these HVAC empires, here’s what’s happening:

47 daily standups across 12 markets, each lasting exactly 15 minutes. Every technician knows their first three calls before coffee. Every manager has yesterday’s numbers on a screen in front of them. Every problem that can’t be solved locally escalates through a defined chain — and gets addressed before lunch.

Now compare that to your shop.

You’re still figuring out who’s taking which call while your phone won’t stop ringing. Yesterday’s numbers? You’ll check those on Saturday, maybe. Problems? They all land on your desk because nobody else can handle them.

This isn’t a technology gap. It’s not a capital gap. It’s not even a talent gap.

It’s a structural gap.

And in this chapter, I’m going to show you exactly what 100-location companies know that you don’t — and how you can apply the same principles without selling to private equity or buying a franchise.

The Franchise Illusion

Here’s a question that should bother you: How can someone with zero industry experience buy a franchise and, within a few years, run a more successful operation than a 20-year trade veteran?

It happens all the time. A corporate marketing manager buys a Neighborly franchise. An accountant purchases a One Hour Heating & Air Cooling territory. A former teacher signs on with a Mr. Electric franchise.

None of them know a compressor from a capacitor.

And yet — many of them build businesses that outperform experienced independent contractors who’ve been in the trade their entire lives.

The usual explanation is brand recognition. People trust the franchise name, so customers call them more.

That’s part of it. But it’s not the main thing.

The real advantage is the operating system.

When you buy a franchise, you don’t just get a logo and a marketing budget. You get:

• Documented processes for every function in the business
• Defined roles with clear responsibilities and accountability
• Training systems that work regardless of who you hire
• Operating rhythms that coordinate daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly activities
• Technology platforms pre-selected and integrated
• Performance metrics that tell you exactly how you’re doing

The franchisee doesn’t have to figure any of this out. The playbook already exists. They just have to run it.

The independent contractor? They have to build all of this from scratch. And most never do.

It’s not the brand that makes franchises work. It’s the infrastructure that built the brand.

The PE Revolution

Since 2022, private equity firms have acquired nearly 800 HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies.

That’s not a typo. Eight hundred.

And they’re not slowing down. According to industry data, PE activity in residential services increased 368% between 2018 and 2022. The home services market represents over $500 billion in annual spending — and it’s fragmented across more than 300,000 small, locally operated businesses.

For PE firms, that fragmentation is opportunity.

But here’s what should really get your attention: when PE firms acquire a trade business, one of the first things they do is give technicians a 20% raise.

Think about that. They pay MORE for labor. And they still make the business more profitable.

How is that possible?

Because they’re not buying your business for its current performance. They’re buying it for what it can become once they install their operating system.

What PE Firms Actually Do

When a private equity firm acquires a trade business, here’s what happens in the first 100 days:

1. They Align the Leadership Team

Before anything else, PE firms ensure that the existing management team — if they’re staying — understands and commits to the new objectives. Research shows that 75% of PE firms cite “senior team alignment” as their number one priority in the first 100 days.

This isn’t about bringing in new people. It’s about getting everyone on the same page about what success looks like and how it will be measured.

2. They Build Financial Infrastructure

Most small trade businesses have minimal financial planning capabilities. Maybe QuickBooks. Maybe a bookkeeper who comes in twice a month.

PE firms immediately install:

• Dedicated accountants who scrutinize financial metrics
• Key performance indicators tied to specific value creation initiatives
• Rigorous budgeting and cash flow management
• Faster financial close cycles

One PE executive told me: “Small business owners often haven’t adjusted their pricing in years. They’re quoting the same prices despite inflation eating their margins. We fix that immediately.”

Redwood Services, which has acquired 35 companies since 2020, implements quarterly pricing reviews at every company they acquire. That discipline simply didn’t exist before.

3. They Conduct Operational Diagnostics

PE firms don’t guess at what’s broken. They bring in internal experts and external consultants to systematically analyze:

• How customers are acquired and retained
• How jobs are scheduled and dispatched
• How technicians are managed and measured
• Where money is being left on the table

This diagnostic typically reveals the same problems over and over: bottlenecks at the owner level, undocumented processes, inconsistent pricing, and reactive rather than proactive customer management.

4. They Plan Technology Modernization

Most acquired companies are running on fragmented legacy systems — QuickBooks that doesn’t talk to the CRM that doesn’t talk to dispatch that doesn’t talk to inventory.

PE firms develop technology roadmaps and begin implementing integrated systems that provide real-time visibility across the entire operation. This takes 12-21 months to fully implement, but planning starts immediately.

5. They Start Looking for More Acquisitions

Remember, PE firms aren’t buying one company. They’re building platforms. Redwood Services operates in 15 states. Alpine Investors’ Apex Service Partners has consolidated over 200 companies across 43 states into a $2.2 billion platform.

Identifying add-on acquisition targets begins during the first 100 days because inorganic growth is central to the value creation strategy.

The Transformation in Action

Let me give you a concrete example of what this looks like.

When Redwood Services acquired Rite Way, a Tucson-based HVAC operation, the company was doing about $30 million in annual revenue. Solid business. Good reputation. Experienced owner.

Three years later? $70 million.

That’s 133% growth — not by working harder, but by working differently.

Here’s what Redwood did:

Expanded service offerings. Rite Way was HVAC-focused. Redwood added plumbing and electrical services, broadening the addressable market and increasing wallet share with existing customers.

Invested in fleet and capacity. They added dozens of service trucks to increase geographic coverage and response time capability.

Built a formal apprenticeship program. Instead of waiting for qualified technicians to appear, they systematically created them. This addresses the skilled labor shortage that constrains every independent operator.

Implemented sales training. Field technicians are often the primary customer touchpoint. Training them to identify and present additional service opportunities directly impacts revenue.

Installed financial discipline. Dedicated accountants. Quarterly pricing reviews. Cost management that was entirely absent in the predecessor operation.

Richard Lewis, CEO of Redwood Services, explained it this way: “Small business owners operating independently often lack the time to manage such an array of tasks. Some businesses have been quoting identical prices for years despite significant inflation in input costs.”

The owner who sold to Redwood wasn’t bad at running his business. He was constrained by his structure.

Once that structure changed, the business transformed.

The Operating Rhythm

Here’s one of the most powerful — and least understood — concepts that 100-location companies use: the operating rhythm.

An operating rhythm is the structured pattern of meetings, reviews, planning sessions, and communication cadences that coordinate how an organization uses its collective time and attention.

It sounds bureaucratic. It’s anything but.

An operating rhythm is the difference between reactive firefighting and proactive management.

Here’s what it looks like in a PE-backed company:

Daily (15 minutes)

Every morning, departments conduct brief standups. Dispatch teams coordinate technician schedules. Field service managers confirm equipment availability. Any issues from yesterday get addressed before they compound.

This happens at the same time every day. It’s non-negotiable.

Weekly (20-45 minutes)

Managers meet to review key performance indicators, track financial performance against targets, and plan for the week ahead.

Sales performance. Customer satisfaction metrics. Technician utilization rates. These numbers aren’t discovered monthly — they’re known weekly.

Research shows that companies with structured weekly rhythms improve decision velocity by 58% while reducing meeting time by 22%. More decisions, less time in meetings. That’s not a tradeoff — that’s discipline.

Monthly (First working day)

The entire company meets. This is the most important meeting in the calendar.

It’s about celebration and recognition. Company leaders acknowledge exceptional performance in every department. They reinforce vision, mission, and values. They build culture.

If your team doesn’t know who performed well last month, you’re missing a massive motivational lever.

Quarterly

Leadership steps back from operations to assess strategy. Are the priorities still right? Have market conditions shifted? Are resources allocated optimally?

Research from one B2B company found that shifting from annual to quarterly strategic reviews allowed them to pivot 30% of resources to an emerging market segment six months earlier than competitors stuck in annual planning cycles.

That’s not better meetings. That’s competitive advantage.

Roles, Not People

Here’s a principle that separates scalable companies from stuck ones:

Build roles that work regardless of who fills them.

In most trade businesses, everything depends on specific people.

Mike is the only one who can handle the big commercial jobs. Sarah is the only one who knows how to calm down angry customers. The owner is the only one who can quote complex projects.

When Mike calls in sick, the big jobs get rescheduled. When Sarah quits, customer complaints escalate. When the owner goes on vacation — well, the owner doesn’t go on vacation.

100-location companies build it differently.

They define roles with clear responsibilities, authorities, and metrics. They create training systems that can bring anyone up to competence. They document processes so the knowledge isn’t trapped in individuals’ heads.

The goal is interchangeable positions, not irreplaceable people.

This sounds cold. It’s actually the opposite.

When roles are well-defined, people know exactly what’s expected of them. They can be trained effectively. They can be measured fairly. They can advance their careers because the path is clear.

And when someone leaves — which happens in every business — the operation continues without crisis.

PE firms call this “de-risking the business.” What they mean is: building a company that doesn’t depend on any single person.

Including the owner.

Why Scale Now Works

For decades, conventional wisdom said that residential service businesses become inefficient and uncompetitive at scale. Big companies couldn’t match the personalized service and low overhead of local mom-and-pop operations.

That was true — until technology changed the equation.

Today, large providers with scale have decisive competitive advantages:

Greater access to capital. They can invest in vehicles, equipment, technology, and inventory without personal financial risk.

Procurement leverage. When you’re buying 200 trucks instead of 2, you negotiate better pricing on everything from vehicles to parts to tools.

Digital marketing capability. PE-backed platforms deploy $500,000 to $800,000 per month in paid lead generation for certain service categories. An independent operator competing with Google Ads doesn’t stand a chance.

Talent attraction. When you can offer 20% higher wages, formal training programs, career advancement pathways, and better benefits — you get first pick of the best technicians.

Technology integration. Field service management systems that optimize dispatch, reduce travel time, and increase jobs completed per technician per day are expensive to implement. At scale, that cost is spread across thousands of jobs.

The local independent operator still has advantages — personal relationships, flexibility, local reputation. But the gap has narrowed dramatically.

And it’s narrowing further every year.

You Don’t Have to Sell

Here’s the good news: You don’t need to sell to private equity to benefit from how they operate.

The principles that make PE-backed companies successful aren’t proprietary. They’re not secret. They’re just structured.

• Operating rhythms can be implemented in any business
• Defined roles can be created at any size
• Financial discipline can be developed with any bookkeeper
• Training systems can be built without massive investment

What PE firms provide is capital, expertise, and the discipline to actually implement these things instead of just talking about them.

But the principles themselves? They’re available to anyone willing to apply them.

The rest of this book is going to show you exactly how.

What This Means for You

If you’re reading this and feeling overwhelmed, that’s normal. The gap between where you are and where 100-location companies operate can seem impossible to bridge.

But here’s what you need to understand: they didn’t start there either.

Every PE platform started with one or two anchor acquisitions — companies that looked a lot like yours. Apex Service Partners started with Frank Gay Services (175 employees) and Best Home Services (300 employees). Solid regional operators. Good reputations. Experienced owners.

What transformed them wasn’t magic. It was structure.

And structure can be built.

The question isn’t whether you can implement these principles. The question is whether you will.