Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast

Emily Holdman is the Managing Director at Permanent Equity out of Columbia, MO, where she’s worked with her current business partner for 14 years. Her background is in marketing, as she also went to school for journalism. Hear about her super impressive career as she is going to be a keynote speaker at the HoldCo conference, which is being held in Cleveland, July 24-26. Head over to holdcoconf.com...

Joining John on today’s podcast is Greg Moran. Greg currently runs his own podcast called "The Founder’s Journey." He started in the music industry and realized it wasn’t for him. Then, 13 years ago, he started a company called Check.com. Today he has moved to again work with Early Stage Founders and started a Venture Fund called Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners that focuses on the fut...

On the podcast today, John welcomes Hayden Slack to the show. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has worked in the Department of Defense and, in 2014, started working for his father-in-law’s foundation repair company, GL Hunt, which he still runs to this day. Then, about four and a half years ago, he started a plumbing business that started slow, but has steadily grown over the past few years.  Hay...

On today’s podcast, John welcomes in, Jon Matzner. Jon is the CEO of Garage Excell. They are garage remodeling and organization specialists based out of Southern California. Mr. Matzner, originally from the East Coast, came from the National Security world, where he spent time in Africa and the Middle East for the better part of a decade. He went from working for Uncle Sam to marketing to owning b...

Josh Schultz will be joining John for today’s podcast. Josh has a background in fields such as supply chain and finance but has ventured into the world of foundries. In fall of 2021 he connected with Reg Zeller and now works as president of Canekast. Canekast is a company acquiring US based non-ferrous foundries and is revolutionizing the foundry industry overall.  He’ll discuss their partnership...

Today joining John on the pod will be Lucas Loptain. Lucas has created several companies and currently has a startup studio dedicated to creating anti-unicorns, mainly targeting SAAS companies, which are all tech-enabled. They'll be diving into what his company investments look like, the scale and pace at which they go through this process, and how they help companies understand how far they...

Benton Moss is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and formerly played professional baseball for 5 years. He married into a family actively involved in real estate and the interest must’ve stuck as he’s now president of a full-service real estate company He currently runs two different businesses, one in property management and the other in HVAC and Plumbing. Both work commercially and residentially. To...

Chris Edwards is a small business owner born and residing in Colorado. After college, he jumped into a finance position but eventually decided to switch out of corporate America and into the SMB world. So in February of 2021, he closed on a flooring store called Affordable Flooring Warehouse. They have a storefront location as well as a warehouse operation to provide installation services to custo...

Today we will have a very exciting podcast as Kylon Gienger joins us along with his wife Teliah. This is the first time we’ll hear about a married couple’s working dynamic and how they’ve balanced each other out throughout the years.  Kylon could be described as a jack of all trades with the many unique SMB companies he’s been involved in. He currently is a podcast founder, band member, President...

We are very excited to have Elliot Holland joining us for this week’s podcast.  Originally from Ann Arbor Michigan, Elliot is a reformed engineer turned businessman residing in the greater Atlanta area. He attended Harvard Business school for his MBA and Started “Guardian Due Diligence” in 2017. They help with due diligence and coaching of 3 types of individuals: self-funded searchers, acquisition...

Justin Burris will be joining John for today's podcast episode.  Justin is a co-founder of “Majority Search” a company that partners with operators to both buy and grow small companies. When making purchases with other people's money, a unique business model is created and you’ll get to hear all about it. They’ll be tackling topics such as how someone gets into the industry, the type of...

Today's Guest star for the podcast is Jake Wakely. With him, John will jump into a discussion about something we’ve never covered before: the moving industry. Eight months ago Jake partnered up with a lifelong friend to purchase a local moving company in San Antonio, Texas. He’ll be in the hot seat today answering many questions about how the business works, its average costs and prices, and...

Today, Kelcey Lehrich and John will be jumping into an interesting conversation. This will revolve around a conference happening in Cleveland and how it came to be, what it is, what to expect, and where to find out more information.  We hope to see you there. Enjoy! Check out Owned and Operated Weekly Insights: a newsletter where John discusses topics ranging from recruiting and marketing to the g...

The SMBesties are back! Once again Kelcey Lehrich and Reg Zeller will be joining John to discuss some popular topics in the SMB universe. They will dive into a discussion about inflation and its importance as well as the impact it has on their companies and on business in general. They will also touch on their individual business models and what they’re all currently investing in. Enjoy! Check out...

On this week's podcast, we’ll have Stephen Olmon joining us. Stephen has an interesting business model and an ambitious goal of aiming to own 50 businesses by the year 2050. Currently, he owns 11 businesses that have all been started from scratch and span across multiple industries. Today he and John will be diving into his various industries, as well as his due diligence process, business dr...

Joining John for the podcast this week is Chris Bakke. Chris has worked for companies in the past such as Zillow and Indeed and co-founded the company “Laskie.” Laskie is in the talent management space designed to help companies fill challenging positions such as engineers, executives, and many other difficult positions. Chris’s name may also sound familiar since he is very a frequent user in the...

Joining us today will be the one and only, Peter Lehrman. He and John will be discussing how to build up a marketplace, and how buyers are changing over to being SMB owners and retail investors. We hope that you enjoy the show! Check out Owned and Operated Weekly Insights: a newsletter where John discusses topics ranging from recruiting and marketing to the growth of your home service business.  S...

We have a surprise for you all as we have not one, but two crowd favorites returning. Today, John is joined by both Reg Zeller and Kelcey Lehrich to talk SMB. These three SMB pros are putting their heads together to discuss the ins and outs of their operations. You’ll get to hear all about rolling-up companies, their different business models, and what their typical day-to-day looks like.  This tr...

Alex Bridgeman will be joining us for today’s podcast, discussing how to run a full-time SMB podcast. And, boy, does he know his stuff. Alex is from Portland, Oregon, and currently resides in Nebraska. He has a past as a research analyst at a wealth management firm where he spent time researching microcaps. During his senior year of college, he decided to start his own SMB podcast "Think Like...

Cassi Niekamp will be joining us for today's podcast, discussing how, seven months ago, she bought a fencing company called Bowden Fencing based in Columbus, Ohio. We’ll be looking into all of the details of this acquisition and how it’s gone so far. Bowden is 3 years old and had done roughly $750,000 in revenue prior to Cassi coming in. Since then, she’s hired more employees and worked towar...

Today we have Mills Snell here with us, discussing the steps of how to start a commercial roofing business. Mills has a background in multiple industries and you’ll get to hear all about the path that has led him to where he stands now. He started his career in the M&A world as the owner of an advisory firm in Columbia, South Carolina. Since then he has worked in financial planning, permanent...

Today we have Mike Botkin of the Central Florida Home Service space. Mike is the founder and CEO of the Benchmark Group, a buyer of SMB service businesses. The Benchmark Group is a group that acquires home service businesses. They are the largest provider of residential maintenance in central Florida but are transitioning the company to more commercial maintenance and traditional landscaping as we...

Today we have Aizik Zimerman, talking all about his journey on how to become a home service millionaire.  Aizik has a history in Small business, investment banking, operations, acquisitions, and startups. John and Aizik have started a program called Servstart, which funds entrepreneurs who want to buy or start their businesses. On this episode, they discuss some of the details of Servstart as well...

Ryan Young runs several businesses, he’s built his Real Estate Brokerage into one of the top three brokerages in Ohio and he runs a business called Flash House which is an instant offer Real Estate tech platform that offers Home sellers instant quotes on the price of their home and executes on those same deals. Flash House acquires over 150 homes every year, but what’s even more exciting is hearin...

Over the last four years, Reg has been buying and rolling up foundries and metal casting facilities. But before that, he felt like a corporate drone, trudging through his day-to-day work life and found his escape and new journey through ETA. Reg is our first guest who has bought and owns businesses in multiple states. The problems associated with a national operation are unique - and today on the...