Should You Buy or Build a Home Service Biz?

What’s up everyone,

Should you buy a business or build one from scratch?

There’s no right or wrong answer, but know this: there are pros and cons of both approaches. You gotta weigh each one to ensure you make the right decision.

Before we answer that question, here are some resources to get your mind in the right place:

🏠️ There are four major home service trends shaping 2025 (and beyond)
🤑 Jack Carr goes inside a $900k deal to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly
🔨 CFO Made Easy provides financial services to anyone buying or building a home service business

Do You Have a Full Sales Pipeline?

A full pipeline means a busy sales team. And a busy sales team is one that’s positioned to generate more revenue and profit.

But how do you guarantee a full pipeline? The answer is simple: Modernize.

Modernize connects you with high-intent homeowners. 

Whether you’re looking to expand into a new territory or need to close a revenue gap, Modernize gives you four proven tools to drive consistent growth:

• Inbound Calls: Get phone calls from homeowners ready to talk right now

• Live Transfers: Speak directly with qualified leads, no chasing required

• Branded Programs: Build long-term growth with customized lead campaigns

These aren’t cold clicks. They’re real homeowners ready to start real projects.

With over 9 million leads delivered and $4 billion in revenue generated, Modernize helps pros in 25+ trades grow from inquiry to install. If you’ve maxed out your LSAs or don’t have time to wait on SEO, here’s your next move.

Ready to grow? Reach out to explore how Modernize can help you fill your calendar with qualified leads.

Buy vs. Build: I’ll Help Settle the Debate

There’s a lot of noise out there about the “right” way to get into business ownership. Some say you should always build from scratch so you can control the outcome. Others swear by buying because it gives you momentum on day one.

The truth is, neither path is perfect. And what works for one operator might be a disaster for another.

Whether you’re thinking about starting your own shop or acquiring an existing one, you need to make the decision based on your actual skill set, risk tolerance, and access to capital. There’s no single blueprint, but there are patterns and I’ve seen both sides of the game up close.

Here’s how I break it down.

1. It Depends on Who You Are and What You Can Handle

People always ask me the same thing: should I buy or build? 

The real answer depends on your skills, your tolerance for chaos, and the amount of capital you’re working with.

If you're a technician who can run calls and knows how to turn revenue, building can work well. You get full control from day one. You choose who you hire, how you train, and what standards you set. You avoid inheriting a team that might be used to doing things the wrong way.

But if you’re not technical, building from scratch is much harder. You’ll need a licensed partner just to open your doors, and you’ll spend your first year trying to hold things together. If that partner leaves or flakes, you can't step in and run calls. That puts your business at serious risk right out of the gate.

Buying seems easier because you start with customers, staff, and brand awareness. But most small businesses that hit the market are being sold because the owner is tired. And when the owner is tired, the culture usually is too. That means you're walking into a situation where no one has been held accountable, techs are undertrained, and nobody has been asked to perform at a high level in years.

Buying gives you some immediate momentum. Building gives you control. Both options require real work. You need to ask yourself what you're actually good at and what problems you're willing to deal with.

• Building works when you know how to run the business day to day

• Buying works when you know how to reshape a team and stabilize chaos

• Both will test you, just in different ways

Actionable Takeaway

Make an honest list of your strengths. If you can run operations and handle day-to-day pressure, you may be ready to build. If your strengths lie in strategy or marketing, target a clean acquisition—but only if you’re prepared to fix what’s broken.

2. $100K Isn’t Enough, Not Anymore

A lot of people think $100,000 is enough to start a trades business. That might have been true five or ten years ago. Today, that number disappears quickly.

If you're trying to build from scratch, look at the cost breakdown. A decent van can cost you $35,000. Licensing, insurance, and legal fees eat another $10,000. Equipment and tools add another $15,000. Then you need payroll for your first employee and some money for marketing just to get the phone to ring. You could blow through $90,000 before you even break even.

Trying to buy a business with $100,000 can also get you in trouble. That might be enough for a down payment on a $1 million business, but at current interest rates, your monthly debt payments are high. Now you’ve got a business to fix, a loan to service, and a team that may not even want you there. That is a risky bet for someone just getting started.

Meanwhile, you can make excellent money as a technician right now. We have people clearing $150,000 to $300,000 a year on W2 income with no risk and no stress. Most business owners don’t make that kind of money in their first three to five years. So if your current savings sit around six figures, the best option might be to keep stacking cash and gaining experience.

• Spend two to three years working under a strong operator

• Save until you have at least $250,000 to $300,000

• Build your skills while getting paid well to do it

Actionable Takeaway

Use your next two to three years to make money and learn. Set a savings goal of $300,000, track your monthly progress, and make sure you're building the skills you’ll need to lead later.

3. Work for a Winner Before You Try to Be One

This one is simple. If you want to own a shop, go work for someone who already runs one the right way.

I say this as someone who has both built and bought. If I launched a new plumbing shop tomorrow in a market where we have no presence, our goal would be $3 to $5 million in year one. That’s because I’ve seen how to build systems that scale, how to drive leads at a high clip, and how to build a team that hits goals. I’m not guessing anymore.

Most people starting from scratch are guessing. They know how to run calls, but they don’t know how to drive demand or hire at scale. They don't know how to set expectations or track performance. And when things go wrong, they have no idea what the fix is.

The better path is to work for a business that is already growing. Watch how it runs. Pay attention to how jobs are priced and dispatched. Learn how to interview techs and manage a team. Figure out how lead flow actually works. Once you know how to do those things, you can go build with confidence.

• Learn systems that actually convert leads into booked jobs

• See how performance is tracked and coached in real time

• Understand what makes a team stick around and stay productive

Actionable Takeaway

Pick a winning company and get inside. Don’t just do the job—study how the business works. Stay long enough to learn how leads, hiring, and cash flow are managed so you can replicate it later.

I sat down with my podcast co-host Jack Carr to dig into the finer details.

PS: Jack recently moved his newsletter, JackQuisitions, to a new home. Subscribe here for everything you need to know about acquiring a home service business.

Scale Your Biz With Service Scalers

I’m talking a lot about leads today, so it’s only natural that I bring Service Scalers into the conversation.

By partnering with Sam and his team, there’s no more wondering where your next job is coming from. There’s no more late nights tweaking campaigns that don’t perform.

Get more leads.
Get better leads.
End up with less stress.

Service Scalers has generated thousands of leads and hundreds of thousands in revenue for my business. And now, for a limited time, they’re giving my subscribers a special deal:

1 month free when you sign a 12 month contract.

If leads are what you want, Service Scalers will give you what you need.

Buy? Build? Work for a winner first?

Compare the pros and cons of each. Weigh the risks and rewards. From there, you’re in position to make a confident decision.

👊 John

Disclosure: This newsletter includes sponsored content. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

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