JackQuisitions - Small Business Acquisitions in Home Service

Car Washes Aren’t What You Think — The Models That Make (or Lose) Millions Car washes look like the perfect “easy business.” Recurring memberships. Cars lined up. Low labor. Simple operations. But that’s exactly where most buyers get it wrong. In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack Carr breaks down the biggest mistake people make when evaluating car washes—and why asking “Is this a good business...

AI Is Crushing Graphic Design Jobs — Here’s the Business I’d Start Instead AI has already started commoditizing large parts of graphic design. Canva and AI tools can now produce “good enough” design work in minutes — forcing companies to rethink why they pay full-time designers. So what’s the move if you’re a designer seeing the shift? In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack Carr explains why sta...

Ford’s $40B Bet: Why Killing Their Sedans Saved the Company In 2018, Ford made a shocking decision: they killed almost their entire sedan lineup in North America. The Fiesta.  The Focus.  The Fusion.  The Taurus. Decades of brand equity — gone overnight. In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack Carr breaks down Ford’s strategy and the bigger lesson for business owners: Sometimes growth doesn’t com...

Red Robin was once one of the biggest gourmet burger chains in America. In the early 2000s, it was booming — bottomless fries, high-energy casual dining, and aggressive expansion that pushed the brand to more than 570 locations nationwide . Today, the company is closing stores, restructuring debt, and fighting to stay alive. So what happened? This episode breaks down the real reason behind Red Rob...

Watch this before buying a laundromat. It’s marketed as passive income. Simple. Set it and forget it.  That’s not reality. A laundromat can absolutely produce durable, consistent cash flow. But it can also turn into a massive utility bill, constant equipment repairs, and shrinking margins if you don’t understand what you’re actually buying. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr breaks down...

Junk Removal: The Easiest Business to Start — And the Easiest to Overpay For Junk removal might be the simplest home service business to launch — no license, no apprenticeship, no inspections. But it’s also one of the most misunderstood businesses to buy. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr walks through exactly how a first-time buyer (meet “Ethan”) should think about starting vs. acquiri...

Electrical is one of the best home service businesses to own in 2026 — but it’s also one of the easiest to mess up if you enter it the wrong way. In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack breaks down the real acquisition opportunity in residential electrical, and why licensing, labor, and business model clarity matter more than trucks, branding, or marketing. Jack walks through the two paths buyers...

Should Home Service Companies Stop Buying Vans? In this episode bonus feed dropped episode Owned and Operated , John Wilson is joined by Nashville operator Jack Carr to break down one of the most overlooked expenses in home services: Fleet decisions. With service vans now costing $60,000+ and fuel and repair costs climbing, John and Jack make the case for a radical shift: Ford Mavericks for servic...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack breaks down one of the most important acquisition questions heading into 2026: What industries should you avoid … and which ones have the biggest tailwinds? Jack walks through his framework for evaluating businesses through an acquisition lens — not as a lifestyle operator, but as a buyer looking for scalable enterprise value and an eventual exit. He explai...

Most first-time buyers take more than a year to close their first acquisition—and rushing the process is how people wash out. In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack welcomes back Chris Barr for a 1-year search update and a realistic breakdown of what it takes to buy a business the right way. They discuss why “perfect deals” don’t exist, how to choose the problems you’re willing to own, and why c...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack welcomes back Alan Peterson (First Internet Bank) to break down the SBA SOP changes that are reshaping home service acquisitions in 2026—especially for buyers navigating licensing, seller equity, and deal structure. Alan explains why the once-common “seller keeps 1–5%” strategy is fading, what’s replacing it, and why banks are forcing buyers to get serious...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits down with Rand Larson , owner of Scale Path, to talk about the real reason so many operators struggle after closing their first deal: they’re doing it alone. Rand shares the origin story of Scale Path—starting as an informal peer group called Trench Therapy—and how one conversation with an overwhelmed HVAC owner (who was staring down a brutal first yea...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits down with Micah Stanley, founder of a rapidly scaling nightlife vending business that went from one college-bar machine to 100+ machines across multiple states in under two years. What started as a failed brick-and-mortar vape shop turned into a highly profitable, asset-light business model built around placing high-margin vending machines in bars, nig...

In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Ian Smith, partner at South River Capital, to break down what it actually looks like to scale through acquisitions in home services—when the “platform” you thought you bought turns out to be pen, paper, and magnets on a board. Ian shares how his partners bought Terraform Landscaping in 2021 (~$2M revenue), then turned around and acquired an eq...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack breaks down why pressure washing is one of the most misunderstood businesses in America—and why the “low skill, low overhead, easy money” narrative is exactly what traps most operators in unscalable jobs. Jack explains how pressure washing looks simple from the outside, but in reality is a sales, marketing, and operations business disguised as a trade. He w...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits down with Collin Trimble of Alarm Masters and Entry & Exit to dig into what it really looks like to roll up commercial fire and security companies—and why recurring monthly revenue (RMR) can be a cheat code for ETA operators. Collin walks through his jump from petrochem finance to security sales, then into Salesforce and revenue consulting, and fin...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits down with Nathan Lindley of Done Right to dig into what it really looks like to roll up small HVAC companies—and why acquisition can be the smartest growth channel in the trades. Nathan shares his jump from Christian book publishing to home services, the “HVAC is non-optional” thesis that pulled him from Oregon to Dallas in early 2020, and why he knew...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits down with Stephen Olmon to unpack one of the spiciest ETA questions out there: should you buy a business or build one first? Stephen shares his non-traditional path into entrepreneurship—from a pastor/teacher household to telecom consulting, then into the world of software, NewCo businesses, and eventually acquisitions. They dig into Stephen’s early fa...

In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack sits back down with Chris Barr to talk about what real leverage looks like in a self-funded search: building systems instead of just refreshing BizBuySell, working your broker network, and turning your geo + niche into an actual acquisition brand. They break down how Chris is rebuilding his search infrastructure after round one, why tech leverage (CRM, scra...

Buying a septic company is one of the highest-ROI moves in home-service M&A… if you know where to look. In this episode of JackQuisitions , Jack breaks down exactly where real septic deals come from — from the obvious online marketplaces to the off-market gold mines almost no one talks about. If you’re serious about buying your first septic business (or adding one as a high-margin tuck-in), th...

Buying a company is hard. Buying a job by accident is worse.  In this roundtable, John Wilson (Owned & Operated) and Jack Carr break down the biggest red flags they’ve seen across nine-plus home-service acquisitions—from septic and trash routes to HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. They dig into the “is it a business or a gig?” test, how to sniff out customer concentration that’s hiding in plain...

Today on JackQuisitions , Jack talks with Dustin Marx, founder of Mother (Modern Plumbing) — the Texas-based plumbing company that went from $15K a month to an $8M run rate in just 14 months. Dustin isn’t your typical plumbing entrepreneur — he’s a former tech founder who turned a small, two-person shop into a fast-scaling, culture-first powerhouse. In this episode, he breaks down how he found his...

MORE Entry & Exit Hosts Stephen Olmon and Collin Trimble get practical and tactical on winning new logos in security & life-safety. They break down how to niche your ICP, keep your message consistent, split lead vs. sales process, and get multithreaded so you close more deals—without wasting budget on broad, unfocused marketing. From anchor pricing and social proof snapshots to CRM must-ha...

Should you stay sector-agnostic in ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition) or plant a flag with a clear buy box brokers, CPAs, and attorneys can remember? After a month sidelined by a home flood, searcher Chris Barr returns to his acquisition entrepreneurship journey—refining a small-business acquisition thesis around B2B services, GovCon janitorial contracts, and Florida/Palm Beach deal sourci...

Should you start an HVAC business in 2026?  This business is hot—sometimes literally—and it’s vital to most Americans. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack breaks down what it really takes to start or buy an HVAC company in 2026: how much it costs, what kind of money you can actually make, and why HVAC might be one of the most durable trades to own right now. From licensing and startup costs to...