Toolbox for the Trades

“Good help sure is hard to find” is a familiar rallying cry for contractors these days. Now, consider this… What if you had plenty of eager young talent waiting right outside your door but were legally bound not to hire them? Believe it or not, it’s a battle that Matt LaMartina , President and GM of Tony LaMartina Plumbing Company , and his fellow contractors in St. Louis are fighting today. Hear...

Finding and implementing new business insights can be one of the biggest challenges for owner-operators and managers in the trades. Who’s got time to chase new ideas when you’re constantly “putting out fires?” But when Blake Wiltshire , Director of Residential Services at Althoff Industries , and his fellow leaders left town for a three-day business planning and budgeting seminar, everything chang...

Home services is bound by a universal truth — homeowners reach out to contractors when they have a problem that needs to be solved. So when people see or hear your ads, the chances are they don’t need you at all… yet. Then how do you make sure you’re the first person they think of when they need help? You guide your marketing to make them feel something. Ryan Chute , Partner at Wizard of Ads , exp...

Tasha Roberts knew she had a lot to learn after suddenly having to step in to lead her parents’ business, ASAP Commercial Doors , in 2016. But thanks to her relentless drive to learn from industry leaders across different trades, she’s helped triple the company’s growth in that time. Now the president of ASAP, Tasha has led the company through a rebrand, gone all in on the commercial sector, and b...

Lamont Page, a service technician at Worley's Home Services in Yorktown, VA, is no stranger to long days with nonstop work calls. But soon after starting at Worley’s, his bosses told him to do something extraordinary — stop working so hard. That’s when they shipped him off to Arizona to work with Derrek Hofrichter , Business Coach and Trainer at Service Business Evolution (SBE). SBE works with tec...

Lots of marketers have shifted their focus from the mailbox to the inbox, but the numbers don’t lie. Direct mail is still one of the most reliable vehicles for customer engagement. As Guy Fashano, Sales Manager at MSI Mailing Systems , points out — digital marketing isn’t the only player in town that can harness data to track ROI and open rates. Hear how direct mail marketing can help you retain c...

Private equity is a hot topic in the trades, especially for family-owned businesses. But how can business operators know when it’s the right time to sell — and when not to? To help answer that question, we talked with Amber Gaige , Founder of Saber Marketing Group . From growing up in a family of contractors to selling her own business to private equity in 2018, Amber has seen it all. Amber shares...

Hello, Contractors! For your holiday enjoyment, we’re revisiting one of our favorite conversations starring Keith Mercurio . Keith is the Senior Director of Executive Success at ServiceTitan and founder/CEO of Ethical Influence Global , and his insights on leadership, training, and mindset are a goldmine for entrepreneurs. So as you’re prepping your grill this 4th of July, tune in to hear one of o...

A lot of contractors don’t spend much time thinking about how their personal branding may reflect on their business. But as Eric Thomas , President of Rival Digital and Host of the Smart HVAC Marketing podcast, reminds us in this episode, people buy from people. Everything you say or do in digital channels, especially social media, impacts your reputation for better or worse. And if you don’t take...

Mike Rudolf , COO at Sila Services , and his colleagues knew they needed to form valuable partnerships if they were going to fulfill their vision for growth. So they teamed up with ServiceTitan and private equity to step up their expansion efforts. But now they had a new problem. How would they efficiently integrate these new best practices in 23 locations? Thus, Sila’s Center of Excellence (CoE)...

Jason Rich joined the family business as a wrench-turner like his father, but the GM of Paradise Plumbing & Air Conditioning in Broward County, Florida, steadily morphed into an operations guru. After spending his early years wearing many different hats, Jason realized they needed to fuel their operational and marketing efforts if they wanted to kick their growth up a notch. Jason shares how a...

Alyssa Rogers , Vice President at Rogers Heating & Cooling , is the ultimate hype woman for her team. Alyssa first dipped her toe into the trades by using her sales and marketing background to help her husband give their small-town family business a much-needed facelift. Now, she’s pushing people to “grow out of their seats” by giving leadership opportunities to anyone who wants to achieve big...

How many hours do you spend monthly, or even weekly, on mundane tasks like creating SOPs or typing emails? ChatGPT and other AI tools are revolutionizing industries by taking the busy work off professionals’ plates, and the trades are no exception. The technology has made believers of Brianna Skiffington , Chief Product Officer of Ad Leverage , and Amanda Triolo , CEO of Grasshopper Heating &...

Angie Snow , our Principle Industry Advisor here at ServiceTitan, is one of our industry’s top experts on CSRs and call center culture. Leaning on 15 years of experience at Western Heating & Air Conditioning in Orem, Utah, Angie has trained many companies on customer call etiquette and sales tactics. So, of course, she was the top choice to answer your burning questions on the subject in this...

The water treatment industry is booming in the home services market. Just like with HVAC or plumbing, the competition can be fierce. So how do Jonathan Brewster , VP of Business Development at Aqua Clear Water Systems , and his family stay ahead of the pack? They look outside their industry to find new perspectives so they can set themselves apart from the crowd. Jonathan spills the secret sauce o...

When a client approached Stephanie Postell with a job offer in HVAC marketing during her time as a personal trainer, she had no idea where this journey would take her. Today, about ten years later, she and her husband own and operate Anchor Heating and Air in Charleston, South Carolina. The road to get there wasn’t easy, but the former kindergarten teacher stuck to a principle that she’s paying fo...

When are lessons learned and reputations made? When we get hit with the tough stuff. We celebrate our Season 8 kickoff with the return of Ellen Rohr , President of Zoom Drain in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Since we last spoke with Ellen, Zoom Drain has expanded from 15 to 40 locations coast to coast. And they’ve done it by leaning into the problem and doing right by everyone. Ellen spills the secret...

When Mack Shwert first got his invitation to the inaugural ServiceTitan HVAC Championship, he was shocked. He thought there was no way he could handle a live competition under the bright lights. But after getting some encouragement from his family, the HomeServe, USA technician packed his bags and made the trip to Tampa. A few days later, he was crowned the ServiceTitan HVAC Championship winner. M...

What if every home service contractor had immediate access to real-time HVAC maintenance data at the push of a button? By integrating user-friendly sensors with forward-thinking software, the folks at SmartAC.com are changing the game in the home service business. Josh Teekell , SmartAC.com’s founder and CEO, tells us how contractors can use measurable data to build trust with consumers and open u...

When husband-wife team Kylon Gienger and Teliah Gienger began their entrepreneurial journey, they had a pretty good idea of what they were getting themselves into. But they’ve learned some valuable lessons about strategic small business acquisitions along the way. Having purchased Hurliman Heating and Air and Plumb- tech Heating and Cooling  in the Pacific Northwest last year, they share valuable...

A diverse leadership team in the trades is about more than checking off a culture reform box. By bringing in people with unique experiences from outside the trades, you can empower your employees to see opportunities from every angle. Jason Brady , Owner and CEO of Above and Beyond LLC , shares how his approach to bringing men and women from different walks of life into his business has paved the...

When Laura Thornton and her husband, Ronnie, founded their plumbing business, TNT Home Services , they could not have imagined what lay in store for their family. During an incredible six-year stretch of growth, they knew only dynamic decision-making would give their employees and clients the best experiences possible. Laura shares how commitment to community and real-time adjustments are a winnin...

Tommy Mello is a titan in the trades industry. But in 2012, the owner of A1 Garage Door Services and author of Home Service Millionaire hit the lowest point of his career. Facing payroll issues, internal theft, and maximum burnout, Tommy took a step back to reevaluate the “why” behind the outcomes of his actions. Tommy shares how he shifted his focus back to investing in people and how fellow cont...

After 10 years in the travel industry, Ashley Gulevich was ready for a change. After joining her family at a trades boot camp that could help level up her parents’ business, Coastal Heat Pumps , she knew she was in it for the long haul. Now the General Manager at Coastal, Ashley has applied the skills she acquired from her previous career to help scale the family business. And she shares what else...

As third-generation tradesmen, Joseph Gee , CEO of Gee Heating and Air in North Atlanta, and his brother Jacob Gee , the company CFO, are building a culture of winners. After taking over the family business, they immediately implemented a joint vision for growth. And they had a simple message for everyone else at Gee: come with us or get out of our way. In this episode, Joseph and Jacob tell us ab...