Main Street Operator

Three stories before summer kicks in: why 55% of businesses plan to raise prices in the next 6 months and what that means for your Q3 pricing, why the current credit environment is a window for operators with healthy books, and how 800 PE acquisitions in the trades are reshaping your competitive landscape.

A former Marine named Anna buys a combined HVAC, plumbing, and parts business in small-town Pennsylvania for $1.5M and nearly doubles revenue over twenty-four months — not by becoming a technician, but by replacing one man's head-knowledge with operational discipline. Plus the scheduling tool worth installing before Memorial Day weekend.

Three stories for independent operators heading into the week of May 18, 2026: the NFIB labor-quality reading hit its highest level since December, private equity rollups in home services are still buying at 18.5x EBITDA, and SBA 7(a) rates have settled in a place every operator modeling a deal needs to understand.

A 7,800-person town in southwest Virginia just won the 2026 Great American Main Street Award, beating Tulsa, Oklahoma and Astoria, Oregon. Drew walks through how Downtown Wytheville Inc. and a handful of independent operators — Megan Brehm at The Eclectic Pearl Mercantile, Collin O'Donnell at The Grind, and the teams behind Seven Sisters Brewery and the Bolling Wilson Hotel — pulled $23M in pr...

Drew breaks down three stories shaping the independent operator's week of May 11: 13 straight months of small-business job cuts and what to do about your open roles, 27 active PE rollup platforms targeting home services and how to know your number before the call, and a 400-700 basis point spread between SBA 7(a) and 504 financing that operators thinking about owning their building should not...

Allie Trela-Jones runs Bruised Boutique, an independent skate shop in Nashua, NH. The skateboard helmet that retailed for $35 when she opened now retails for closer to $100. Drew tells the story of how she has navigated 18 months of tariff cost compounding, the playbook she has run, and the lesson for any independent operator dependent on imported inventory. Plus: this week's tool — Buffer, wh...

The federal tariff refund portal opened. AI adoption inside trades and retail crossed sixty percent. And the labor market just gave you a small but real opening on skilled hires. Drew walks operators through three numbers from the past 72 hours and the one decision each one demands this week.

Dana Spears built her HVAC company in Florida the slow way — one truck, hand-picked techs, the kind of operation buyers want. Now they keep calling. Drew tells the story of why she keeps saying no, what she does instead, and the lesson for any operator in a consolidating industry. Plus this week's tool: Make.com (formerly Integromat), what it costs, what it takes to set up, and what operators...

The labor market is softening and your refi window is open. Drew walks operators through three stories shaping the week ahead — NFIB's March jobs report, private equity's expansion into new verticals, and where SBA 7(a) rates land in April — each translated into one decision an independent owner can make in the next thirty days.