Simple is Scalable

Words to live by

John Wilson
November 21, 2025

Hello home service operators,

When I first started trying to implement simplicity into my business, I did a poor job. I didn’t really know what it meant. It took some time to figure it out, but I’m glad I did.

Simple is scalable. Complexities will kill your business. I talk all about this below, but first, today’s resources.

Here’s a list of AI tools that are transforming market research
How does 85% first call resolution sound to you? Here’s how you achieve it
Sam Preston (Service Scalers) is hosting a live session on scaling lead flow on the Owned and Operated platform: Nov 20th at 1 PM ET
Google updated its review snippet guidelines to clarify how to mark the target of reviews and aggregate ratings in structured data
Avoca helps you answer every call instantly, resulting in increased CSAT scores

Stop Chasing Your Accountant

Most owners deal with messy books, slow responses, and tax surprises. It drags down decisions and creates stress you do not need.

Appletree Business Services fixes that with one responsive team handling your bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes every month. You get clean numbers and proactive support, not year-end scrambling.

Here is what you can expect:

Monthly clean bookkeeping
Real tax planning
Cash flow guidance you can act on
One team handling everything

They work with HVAC, plumbing, remodeling, landscaping, agencies, and other service businesses nationwide, so the advice fits the way your business runs.

If you want fewer surprises and a back office you can trust, this is the easiest win you will take this year.

When Complexity Becomes the Enemy

As companies grow, they collect complexity by default. Every new person adds preferences. Every new system adds steps. Every new service line adds decisions.

And before you even notice it, the business that used to run on instinct now needs a binder of procedures just to get through the day.

I see it every time I ask someone to build a process. They return with 25 steps for something that really needs three. It is not because they are wrong. It is because complexity feels like competence.

But the more complicated a process becomes, the slower everyone moves. People get lost. Steps get skipped. Training drags on. And the thing you built to create consistency ends up hiding mistakes instead of preventing them.

Simplicity is not an aesthetic choice. It is a performance advantage.

(Here’s the story of an operator who knows how to build simple, sustainable processes)

The Cost of Complication

Complexity breaks in quiet ways.

The process works in a meeting but collapses in the field.
The team spends more time managing steps than doing work.
New hires feel overwhelmed before they even start.

The more detailed the process, the higher the odds that something slips. Nothing kills execution faster than friction.

So before you ask what you should add to improve performance, ask what you can remove.

The Fewest Things Done Well

There are only a few questions that matter when you are simplifying a business.

What is the smallest set of services we can offer and still be highly profitable?
What can we train anyone to do repeatedly and predictably?
What steps in each workflow are actually essential and which ones are noise?

I used to joke that my dream company would only install water heaters.
One service. One skill. Easy to train. Easy to staff. Easy to scale into new markets.

The joke was not far off from the truth.
Most owners complicate their business by adding trades too early.
When you expand before you have the resources, the business becomes messy long before it becomes strong.

I learned that the hard way.

The Moment It Became Obvious

In 2023, we compared our operation to a competitor down the road.
Same revenue. Half the complexity.

If we went head-to-head, they would beat us. Not because they were better operators, but because their business model was cleaner. They had fewer moving parts. Fewer decisions. Fewer chances for things to go sideways.

Meanwhile, we were juggling:

Multiple payroll systems
Multiple QuickBooks files
Too many bank accounts
Too many credit lines

The business was growing, but it was heavier than it needed to be. Every decision required context. Every fix required digging. Every improvement required untangling something first.

So we unwound it all.

One QuickBooks
One payroll
A couple bank accounts
One credit system

The result was immediate. The business took off, not because we added new strategies, but because we removed the drag.

The Simplicity Phase

For the last three years, we have rebuilt the administrative backbone of the company around simplicity.

Cleaner systems. Fewer tools. Fewer decisions. And all that freed up headspace goes directly into the moves that actually drive revenue.

When complexity drops, clarity rises.
When clarity rises, speed follows.
And when the business moves faster, everything else improves.

Strip away the noise so the company can run the way it was meant to.

Win More Online Real Estate

If you’ve ever searched your company on Google and wondered why you show up in one ZIP code but disappear in the next, you’re not alone. Local search is driven by reputation signals: reviews, posts, and consistent SEO activity.

Big Reputation automates all of it. Daily GBP posts. Geo-routed reviews. Hands-free optimization that helps you rise in every market you serve.

OAO readers get 15 free SEO heat map scans each month, including:

Multi-point grid scans
Competitor comparisons
Trend reports
Automatic scheduling

Don’t forget it: simple is scalable. That’ll never change

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👊 John

Disclosure: Some of the content and links in this newsletter are sponsored or affiliate links, which means we may receive payment or earn a commission if you click through or purchase. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.