How to Grow A Home Service Business

Learn how to start from nothing. Clayton's biggest mistakes and how he overcame them. Clayton Robinson owns a multimillion-dollar plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical company. You can do it too. In this episode, we get into the night the math almost didn't work, why he left a mid-six-figure career and 14 years of work to start over, the $200K SBA loan that saved the business, and the acquisition strategy he wishes he'd started at $2M instead of waiting. 0:00 Cold open — UFC fighter, state champ, walked away to start a plumbing company 0:26 Dyslexic kid from Tulsa who was told what he couldn't do 0:50 Launched 1 week before COVID — and the rule that built the team 1:36 My biggest lesson — working capital nobody warns you about 2:23 The truck math — when to put another van on the road 4:11 Why the equipment squeezes your liquidity 8:12 If you were starting a plumbing company from zero, what would you do first 8:51 The $200K SBA loan that saved the business 9:42 My biggest regret — I should have been acquired at $2M revenue 10:54 E-Myth Revisited and why your culture has to be repeatable 11:31 You are the bottleneck — and how to know 14:36 Would you be proud to see it on social media? 18:56 Wrestling started in sixth grade 19:54 How a wrestler's mentality transferred to entrepreneurship 21:15 6 months to reset your emotions — the entrepreneur playbook 22:50 Why fight-sports decision-making is faster and better 23:48 More wins from finding the source of a problem faster 31:25 The football coach analogy — you don't need to play to coach 33:32 What hiring a business coach actually looks like 34:52 Don't overwhelm your top people — military 'complain up, not down' 36:55 The snowball effect — catch problems early 43:02 Raised by his mother and sister — the wrestler's origin 44:38 The first amateur MMA fight — "I just checked the box" 48:40 11-2 pro record — fighting under "Sunshine" 52:56 Why he looked at franchises first — and why he didn't take one 1:00:09 The trust strategy — earn one customer, own the whole household 1:09:48 Why I asked — why are technicians paycheck-to-paycheck? 1:21:56 Stress-testing the risk — what does failure actually look like? 1:23:08 I left mid-six figures and 14 years to start over 1:28:29 I didn't even know what learning was until after high school 1:33:09 Pulled the truck-math out of my butt — small-company gut calls 1:35:04 Six years from zero to $5M — could have been $20M 1:41:23 Why we expanded from plumbing to air and electric 1:43:40 If I had the money, I'd start a trade school 1:46:11 Mom and grandma raised me — "screw a man, fix it yourself" 1:55:44 Roofing CRM and the saturated trades market 1:57:00 Why I've had to step out of networking 2:00:37 Bigger rooms — the entrepreneur group that taught me acquisition 2:01:54 What to look for when acquiring another company 2:04:30 Why only 50% of acquired employees stay 2:09:58 15 Minutes to Win — books that built the company 2:10:37 Book #1 — E-Myth Revisited 2:11:11 Books #2-4 — 5 Laws of Growth + Chris Voss 2:11:40 Read every book three times — check, implement, teach 2:13:39 Entrepreneurship is your entire life 2:13:56 The lonely path — why your friends will change 2:16:28 Friends and family stopped me from joining the military 2:17:24 "Who's they?" — the wisdom from my mom that I now use 2:18:43 Sign off — subscribe ask #HVAC #Plumbing #SmallBusiness #BAPodcast #Entrepreneur #DFW #Trades #Mindset #MMA #UFC #WorkingCapital #SBALoan #ClaytonRobinson #CRPlumbing #podcast #entrepreneurtips Centuries Back by Anders Baldwin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...