ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Slow season doesn’t have to wreck your home service business.
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack Carr break down how they prepare for shoulder season when inbound demand slows, the call board gets lighter, and every lead becomes more valuable.
They cover how to fill the board with outbound calling, when to use specials and discounts, why sales KPIs can actually improve during slower months, and how tightening labor, marketing, and spending can turn shoulder season into a stronger cash-producing period. They also explain why preparing months ahead and building a customer contact list during peak season makes the slowdown much easier to manage.
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In This Episode
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• Why August and September can be some of the slowest months of the year
• How to use outbound calling to fill the board when inbound demand drops
• Specials, BOGOs, tune-ups, and other ways to drive shoulder season leads
• Why you should lean on proven marketing instead of taking new risks
• How to get more revenue from the leads already on your board
• Why average ticket and conversion rates can improve during slow season
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Connect
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John Wilson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Jack Carr
https://x.com/thehvacjack
Owned and Operated
https://www.ownedandoperated.com/
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Sponsors
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FieldPulse
Ready to ditch the whiteboard and spreadsheets? See how FieldPulse helps home service companies simplify scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and more. Book a free demo: https://landing.fieldpulse.com/owned_and_operated
More Ways To Connect with OAO
John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Companies
Jack Carr, CEO of Rapid HVAC
📌 Disclaimer: Some links may include UTM parameters or affiliate relationships, meaning we may earn a commission if you make a purchase. Episodes may feature sponsors, but all opinions expressed are our own.
IN THIS EPISODE
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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If it was gonna break, it already broke.
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And if it didn't, it's not going to.
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What do you do during shoulder season?
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How do you prep the business?
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Are you maximizing like what's currently on the board?
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Because every lead becomes harder and harder fought.
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As much as your hair's on fire during the summer, one of the biggest things you can do for yourself is think three months ahead and collect good contact information.
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Slow season is something that you should survive.
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You should aim to try to like optimize every year, get a little bit better, get a little bit better.
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What is the play to continue driving leads?
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The biggest one for us is uh welcome back to owned and operated with your host, John Wilson.
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We haven't done an intro like that in a really long time.
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We haven't, and it's uh it's um it was totally good.
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Welcome back.
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Uh we're top 150 U.S.
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business and entrepreneurship podcast.
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People on the internet like what we have to say, apparently, when it comes to plumbing and HVAC businesses.
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Uh before we get too deep, I have been told, uh threatened really, that I have to bring up our newest event.
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It is in spring of 2027 in Akron at the Wilson headquarters.
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It is called Catalyst.
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And uh it's basically we're bringing together around 100 home service operators and we're gonna be talking shop, we're gonna be sharing what's working, we're gonna be building relationships with some of the best people in the industries.
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So if you want to be in the room, check out Catalyst at the link below.
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I hope you're there.
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Should be a ton of fun.
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Today we're doing like sort of a summer roundup, prepping the business for shoulder season.
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We've done this a few times, um, usually because we're in the pit of despair ourselves.
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Yeah, I think we're a little ahead schedule, which is okay.
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Um, it's also been a really warm August for us.
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I don't know if it's been warm for you, but we've just got done with the 100 degree weekend.
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That being said, though, is the on normally at the end of summer, I mean, everybody feels it, especially in seasonality businesses.
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.879
If it was gonna break, it already broke.
00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:07.760
And if it didn't, yes, it's not going to.
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So you start to see a slowdown of calls.
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So um, are you guys feeling that now?
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How's your board looking?
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Um well, I'm actually looking at that now.
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So we sold 36 grand over the weekend, which is like fine.
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We're basically pacing um like yeah, leads have been a little bit lighter.
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Uh, we have been pushing.
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Um, even if leads aren't light, like sales, you know, this is sort of like the normal gyration.
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I would say that uh, and I've helped like answer this question for a lot of people.
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For us in Ohio, there's a couple weeks that never do very well.
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So like back to school is definitely a thing.
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Rough week.
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It has always been a thing.
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Um week after Christmas is always a thing.
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Yeah.
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Uh honestly, Thanksgiving week is gonna say Thanksgiving for us.
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I I I almost giving is usually pretty tough.
00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.520
And everyone like jokes around like Black Friday are is gonna be crazy.
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It's Brown Friday, and it's like, no, dude, it's actually like usually pretty light.
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Um I had a heart attack my first season when that happened because I thought I thought after Thanksgiving was gonna be popping because of that, and we were like dead.
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And I said, Oh, we're business.
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Usually like about half the team takes off, and it's just not that big of a deal.
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Um, but yeah, back to school is definitely a thing.
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So, like, hey, we're we're basically in back to school week right now.
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Um, our kids are back to school next week, so we have like another 10 days, but like it's busy.
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People are spending their money, they're spending their time, they're you know, wrapping up vacations, whatever.
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So um I think if you're especially feeling August, August for us is typically a low time, and then September is like pit of despair, one of our two worst months of the year.
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Yeah.
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So if that's like where you are, and like mentally you're in a tough spot, that's where we all are.
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Well, why is September so bad, John?
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Generally.
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Uh September for us, I'm assuming it's like there's a little bit of a back to school.
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People are buying how like there's a lot of house buys over the summer, and then they're you know moving in.
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And so like I think there's a lot of repairs that happen at that time or prepping the house for repair.
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So I think there's just more stuff in summer.
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Um, but it's also like very temperate weather.
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So it which is the same as like you know, February through April basically.
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Yeah.
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You know, last night it was 60 degrees, like it was kind of nice, and today it's 75.
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Like that's pretty temperate weather.
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So not much is gonna break on top of um not much is gonna break on top of uh just like a busy time for a lot of people's lives.
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And I think the last bit to that is it's slightly too early to start uh heat maintenance.
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So like October rolls around, same thing, right?
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September, October, it's nice, it's sunny in 75 here, right?
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Nobody's thinking about summer anymore.
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They're thinking about fall and and winter.
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And so, but September's a little bit too early.
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Maybe towards the end of September, we'll start those heating maintenances.
00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:06.319
For September, we're able to run it pretty hard.
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.959
Yeah, if if you if you guys cool down enough, you can, it just doesn't cool down enough in September here.
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So I'm looking at our um, I'm looking at our last 18-month trend, and September is only slightly better than February, March.
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Yeah, yeah.
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That that tracks for us too.
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Usually it's like July, August, September, October.
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Yeah, yeah, that's exactly.
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October is like this whiplash where like you bounce like 50% up from whatever September was.
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Yeah.
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So it's like a slow bleed and then a woo.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Actually, now I'm looking at like a month out.
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I'm now I'm just really curious.
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October last year was our best month of the year last year.
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So you went from the second worst month to the best month on record within the 30-day uh period.
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But again, you start, I think we had some cold days in October last year, and so it's the start of cooling season or heating season, and it that's a big deal.
00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:04.800
Yeah, I think people are gonna start turning heat on around here.
00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:06.079
I was freezing last night.
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So every night for the next uh two weeks is like 58 to 61 degrees, and every day is 75.
00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:15.680
Yeah, you got that's some wild weather.
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That's crazy because usually we are close in our weather.
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We are usually August is way hotter.
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Yeah, usually August is way hotter.
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We're we're going through something.
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I don't know.
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But all that to say, we're we are entering shoulder season and we're here for it.
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Um, what do we do?
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What do you do?
00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:35.519
What do you do during shoulder season?
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How do you prep the business?
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I we're seeing this comment come up a lot in um like Facebook groups of like, how do you prepare for down season?
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Well, how how do you round out your up season too?
00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:48.879
Like, how do you round out August if you've started to see closed calls, right?
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You're definitely not ready for winter maintenance unless you're in like Maine or, you know, yeah, like some some really temperate areas.
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Um like what what is the play to continue um driving leads?
00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:19.279
The I mean, the biggest one for us is uh like out-bound calling is probably the most important mech like tool in our toolbox for the two shoulder seasons because there's not a lot of or not, there's there is a lot, but there's less inbound demand.
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Like things are still breaking, like you know, whatever.
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But it's just not the same as like peak season where everything was breaking all the time and everyone's overwhelmed.
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Uh so you really have to be way more proactive with filling that board, like email, SMS, maybe like specials running an equipment uh special of like, hey, you know, usually it's pretty normal to see a 50% off air conditioner um special in the month of September in order to keep driving leads for that, you know, 45-day period.
00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:58.560
Um so yeah, big discounts, tune-up specials, really proactive on the phones, just like pushing that stuff hard.
00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:05.199
One of the hardest transitions for any home service business owner is moving from running jobs to running a business.
00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:12.879
At some point, the whiteboard or the spreadsheet or that group text that you guys are doing just stops working and things start falling through the cracks.
00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:18.079
The office is going to lose visibility into the field, and you become the bottleneck for basically everything.
00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:20.160
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00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:29.519
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00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:37.360
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00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:41.759
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00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:46.879
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00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:53.759
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00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:56.000
Yeah, that was my same answer.
00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.240
So it was outbounding, outbounding, outbounding.
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So we we've we've done some outbounding and some of the calls that I've listened to recently, which I found interesting, was we outbound into hey, I think this is wrong, but I'm not sure.
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.039
So we've just kind of been putting it off.
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Um, and those are wonderful leads.
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They just like again, it's a service call that never happened, but they would have never reached out to us.
00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:21.039
They yeah, they wouldn't have reached out, yeah.
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We were in the right place at the right time, and that's what 200 calls outbound a day will do.
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It'll put you in that right place.
00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:26.320
Yeah.
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Um, and it was like Which honestly, as a as a home service business owner, I always found that astonishing of like, oh man, like this thing's been broken, you just didn't like deal with it.
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But like as a parent, I'm like, no, actually, that makes a ton of sense.
00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:47.919
Like the amount of random shit that like if I just remembered to call somebody during business hours, oh my god.
00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:48.399
Right.
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So much stuff all the time.
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The one and I'm like, well, yeah, you're either working or like you get home with your with your kids.
00:09:55.759 --> 00:10:06.000
And like the one this morning was um that why I bring this up is the guy, the guy's contactor was chattering, so it's going, but his system was still working.
00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:11.440
Obviously, not good for your system to uh lose power, gain power, lose power, gain power, lose power, gain power.
00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:15.519
But like when if it does it every couple minutes, it makes a weird noise.
00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:22.240
But if you, you know, you're putting it off, you're busy with work and life, like my cooling's still working, it's not the biggest deal in the world.
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Let me wait.
00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:23.279
Yeah.
00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:28.320
But we were able to get him on the board and be like, hey, let's take care of your contactor so you don't blow up your compressor.
00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:34.799
Um but that being said, we probably wouldn't have got that, at least not today, um, if that wasn't the case.
00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:45.039
So uh but yes, so specials is a we've made we've historically every shoulder season, we make huge use out of like a BOGO type thing.
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We're like getting you know, get an air conditioner free is the um language that we've used.
00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:51.919
That's big around here.
00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:59.039
We've stolen that from competitors because basically in in like Cleveland, everyone runs that special, so you sort of have to.
00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:09.600
Um I saw someone doing$17 tune-ups in uh Phoenix, um, and I thought that was kind of interesting because like that's cheap.
00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:14.480
Uh I we've never personally run a$17 tune-up special, but I thought that was kind of interesting.
00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:22.559
I mean, your team has to be pretty trained to like go in there and make something happen, but um yeah, I thought I thought that was like aggressive.
00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:26.080
Do you open up or close any uh marketing channels?
00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.720
Because I know some people said, hey, start doing mailers.
00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:38.080
Um for me, I think that's not a great idea, but maybe for some industries or some you think mailers aren't a great idea, or you think testing something isn't a great idea?
00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:42.639
I think that if you don't have calls on the board, ramping mailers isn't the play.
00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:44.480
But I I agree with that.
00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.600
I think like you should roll with what's tried and true instead of like testing something brand new.
00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.559
Well, I mean, you know me, I'm more of a lead ag guy.
00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:57.679
I'd rather turn on another lead aggregator than than try and do some passive mailers.
00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:06.879
Um but do you ramp any of your services that work really well, or is there anything that you turn on or turn off when that happens?
00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:14.000
Uh we tend to ramp, like the problem is there's less inbound, so you have to figure out your outbound or like something.
00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:18.320
So we'll usually run Facebook ads against an HVAC special.
00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:22.240
Um and what else will we do?
00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.639
I mean, that's probably our the biggest one.
00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.320
We are testing mailers, but not as like a reaction to slow season.
00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:32.480
We're just like pushing on them to see what happens, basically.
00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:34.720
Uh, I think it's like five grand a month.
00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:37.360
Um, but we're mainly focused on our sewers for that.
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:38.960
Focusing on more leads.
00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:46.960
Uh I think the next best thing, the thing that like matters a ton is how can you of the leads you do get, how do you make sure you convert them?
00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:48.720
So, like what's your sales strategy?
00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:50.000
Are you offering more options?
00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.480
Are you spending more time on each call?
00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:57.360
Um have you are you maximizing like what's currently on the board?
00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.759
Because every lead becomes harder and harder fought.
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:05.919
I know the answer, but what do you see as uh like a really common thing that happens in slow season?
00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.919
Like what where's your KPIs or metrics that you watch to make sure that that's happening?
00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:11.200
Yeah, like everything goes up.
00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:12.320
Yeah, everything does go up.
00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:12.799
Yeah, it is.
00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:15.039
It's the weirdest thing.
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:18.000
Are you like you we lock the guys down to three calls a day?
00:13:18.159 --> 00:13:19.600
You're only getting three calls a day.
00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:21.360
They're not the juicy calls of summer.
00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:23.919
I'm making air quotes for anyone not listening or watching.
00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:27.679
Yeah, um, but everything's gonna be a little bit of a lot of people.
00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:38.559
You know what's actually been kind of interesting over the past couple years, a trend that we've noticed is it not it hasn't happened this year, but I I and I I'm gonna dive into it a little bit.
00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:56.720
Uh, I think we just did us a better job this year than we have, but in 2025, we actually produced more net profit in our shoulder months than our peak months because we were so overwhelmed and just like sort of like spending money to solve problems.
00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:03.759
Um and then like you go down to show like shoulder month and like every penny matters, and we got tight.
00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:17.039
And it was like it was just kind of funny looking backwards over that time period and being like, oh my god, like we actually produced more free cash during our shoulder months than our peak because we just ran a tighter ship because we felt like we had to.
00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:21.039
Which is crazy when you consider that we just said, hey, you should be doing bogos and doing discounts.
00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:28.799
So, like ironically, exactly your material cost is going up, your labor should be coming down because you're not running OT, you're not running things like that.
00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.480
Um, but your net is what really gets focused on, right?
00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:34.320
You're only running the best marketing.
00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:41.759
Um you're making sure that the guys are slowing down, they're selling what they're supposed to, um, or at least offering what they're supposed to.
00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:42.159
Yeah.
00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:50.639
And then on the back end, like they're not falling through ceilings or they're not missing connections on pipes because they're actually spending the time to do it right.
00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.639
So you have you should have almost no um like warranty work.
00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.679
Yeah, no, it's it's yeah, it is it is pretty funny.
00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:06.159
And I I feel like our peak season here this year was a little like we still they were peak months, but they were still like I would say a little bit muted.
00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.039
Um both June and July were record of all time months.
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:12.159
I'm sure October is gonna be a record of all time month.
00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:18.159
But like it was um it wasn't like 30% you know, peaked a trough.
00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:23.919
It is also a little bit confusing with all of the acquisitions because it's hard to tell.
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:25.120
Yeah, it's hard to tell.
00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:34.159
Like February, I think we did like 2.2, and I think August will do 4.3 or 4 or something like that.
00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:47.039
So like we're what we're trying to compare against is what did all of the businesses do last October or August or whatever, and how was our growth uh compared to that this year?
00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:49.039
So that's how we're trying to compare.
00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:59.120
So August was like a 15 or 16 percent growth year this year over last year, which is good, but it's just like to me, it's that's not heroic growth, you know.
00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.039
Like we've had like 40% years before.
00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:06.559
So like 15 is like, okay, like we did something, but you know, we didn't double.
00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:07.039
Yeah.
00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:19.279
I mean, I mean, and you're when you say like growth year over year, you're referring to like the entire portfolio versus your entire portfolio last year, like all the Wilson companies versus all the Wilson.
00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.120
Yeah, so 15 is like you guys might have been able to do that by yourself.
00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:24.320
15% maybe.
00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:26.879
I mean, it's now granted, it's just a much larger number.
00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.639
Like we're about to uh August should be our first ever four years.
00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:33.759
Oh, but you're you're including the their everybody's last year.
00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:37.919
So that's 15% includes like, hey, rapids last year versus rapids this year.
00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:38.559
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:42.159
Oh well, if you wanted to know, we are on day 17.
00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:48.320
And we are I think you already passed we are at yeah, last year's uh number, so it's not our fault.
00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:49.759
No, it's no, it's definitely not.
00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:55.440
Well, it is kind of funny because like some of the I think Wilson is like you know, like pretty flat basically.
00:16:55.759 --> 00:17:00.879
And then um I think Fort Wayne's like actually Fort Wayne's a lot.
00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.480
It's that's just not inside Service Titan because that's inside House Call Pro right now.
00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:07.680
Um but yeah, and then we just brought on that other one.
00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.519
So like it'll be huge.
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.759
Uh but August should be pretty fun.
00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:24.400
All right, so we drive more leads, we focus way more on the sales, uh, and then the third one, and I kind of alluded to it, but we just really get tight on like dollars out the door.
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:27.839
And we basically have like a no a no spend policy.
00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:33.680
Uh and because of that, cash gets just created pretty quick.
00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:40.000
Where hey, we're going to lock down our spending as tight as we can, and we're going to just not spend.
00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:43.519
We're going to save up our cash, we're going to prepare for it to get even worse.
00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:47.759
Because the the back half of the year is usually much stronger revenue.
00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:50.720
Uh, but there is some like weird days in there.
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:55.279
Like we've got Labor Dave coming up, we have Thanksgiving week, we have Christmas week.
00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:57.680
So, like those weeks you gotta like plan around.
00:17:57.759 --> 00:17:59.440
And September is a tough month.
00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:04.960
So it's sort of like you batten down the hatches because the next six months tend to be a little bit of a ride.
00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:05.519
Yeah.
00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:05.839
Yeah.
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:11.519
And hopefully you you made enough, but why aren't you able to do that in June, July?
00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:12.960
Because idealistically, right?
00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.119
You're so frantic.
00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:17.279
I think you're just there's so many opportunities.
00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:22.799
You're just running after the next one, you're trying to get it all in, you're having record sales days.
00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:25.920
So I feel like you just lose sight of it.
00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:28.240
I I mean, I think that's what happens to us.
00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:29.599
Every year it's consistent.
00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:40.160
There's like a 90-day period where we're just like running around with our hair on fire, and then that 90-day period ends, and then you have the next nine months to just execute.
00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:40.799
Yeah.
00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:44.799
I'm my mind instantly goes to like, well, could you hire more people?
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.200
Is it technician hair on fire?
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:50.640
Is it uh back of office hair on fire?
00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:52.240
Where's the actual um ball?
00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:53.680
I know this is way off subject.
00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:56.000
This is probably a different conversation later on.
00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:12.079
Um, but very interesting because if you could solve that problem and keep cash high at all points in time, um, like the back half of the year would all automatically be really easy just because you have you've saved that cash in the summer at 10, 20% more than you naturally would have on those revenue breaking months.
00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:17.920
But yeah, as an example, in July, like our percentage, our percentage of labor was like three points higher than it should have been.
00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:24.480
Whereas like in a slow month, like we are so freaking locked in on that number that like we never miss labor.
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:28.000
So when we miss labor during peaks peak month, it's like, oh shoot.
00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:29.200
And three points is a lot.
00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:32.799
You know, we're used to doing like 22 to 23% EBITDA.
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:34.240
So that takes us to like 19.
00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:36.400
Like three points is like a big dip.
00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:36.720
Yeah.
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:44.079
Granted, record revenue, so it sort of offsets, but like it wasn't like we went to 30% EBITDA in July.
00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:45.279
Well, we had this conversation.
00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:55.279
We had to slow down because in Jul June we had our record breaking month as well, and we we rocked out a what a 39, 40% gross margin.
00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:57.279
Uh material was way too high.
00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:01.359
We were giving out way too many discounts and just running around installing like crazy.
00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:16.240
And then June sorry, that was June, and then July hit, and we took uh I think a a cognizant, you know, hundred and thirty thousand dollar cut um to be went from eight eighteen to six seventy-eight.
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:21.599
Yeah, eight eighteen to six seventy-eight, and but we raised our gross margin to forty-eight percent.
00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:26.559
So, like we that's nine points on gross margin, like huge, right?
00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:36.319
Um, yes, and that was really focusing on not giving out discounts, and we were turning down, unfortunately, like as much as we wanted it, four unit change outs, but the guy wants them at like five thousand bucks a pop.
00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:42.799
Where we might have thought about it two months ago, we did slow down and say, nope, we got to keep our gross margin where it's supposed to be.
00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:43.920
Plus the team was full.
00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:46.559
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:47.359
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:49.759
You get get Jack out there slugging in units.
00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:50.400
Yeah.
00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:52.400
Um, okay.
00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:56.880
I'm sure I think I feel like that solves most of the slow season problem.
00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:11.759
I think what a lot of people, um, my my sort of like word of caution is slow season is something that you should survive and you should aim to try to like optimize every year, get a little bit better, get a little bit better.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:15.279
But I do think it it's not like the moment to take risks.
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:25.920
I know a lot of people um that are earlier in their journey, uh, and they like I get a this is around the time of year I get a lot of texts and calls of like, hey, dude, what just happened?
00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:34.640
Like we've been running at full tilt, the call board just dropped off the map, like July was a million dollars and August is about to be$300,000.
00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:36.160
Like, what do I do?
00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:42.240
Um it's not the moment to take a bunch of like marketing risk or whatever.
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:47.519
It's the moment to like batten down the hatchet, follow those three things that we just talked about, set yourself up for success.
00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:53.359
Cause it probably is like six months of like duking it out a little bit, and then you'll sort of rebegin the process.
00:21:53.519 --> 00:22:02.160
Um yeah, it it is going to kind of happen where you go from nuts to really slow if you haven't spent the time building your membership base.
00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:04.160
That's always building your customer.
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:04.799
Yeah.
00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:13.200
So I mean Yeah, my friend in Virginia, I think he had exactly that happen where it went from like a million dollars and it went down to three or four hundred.
00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:17.039
I don't remember the exact number, but it was it was a huge swing.
00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:22.240
And it was like, oh shoot, we should we this whole summer I should have been building membership base.
00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.319
I should have been getting better contact information so we could call people for tune-ups.
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:30.240
There should have there was things to do, but now we just gotta like batten down and survive.
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:37.279
Yeah, as much as your hair's on fire during the summer, one of the biggest things you can do for yourself is think three months ahead and collect good contact information.
00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:38.799
You know, you run that BOGO deal.
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:43.200
Usually you're booking like a dentist, you're booking heating tune-ups in July.
00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:48.079
Like we start, we start outbounding for September, October a month ago.
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:56.240
Because it it takes like that level of preparation to make sure that you're continuing to like thrive in your in your uh shoulder seasons.
00:22:56.319 --> 00:23:02.400
And we've just gotten like we get better at it every shoulder season, but we started putting a big emphasis on this like three years ago.
00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:02.799
Yeah.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:16.640
Uh what I was getting at though is I think that right, people run these Facebook ads or they run TikTok ads or whatever ads they run, and then they call the customer, they don't win the bid, and then that that phone number email just disappears, right?
00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:18.400
They never contact that person again.
00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.519
We never did business with them, and then bye forever.
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:25.279
But I think that like that's the time where you start collecting that.
00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.160
That you paid for that contact information.
00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:30.720
They asked to be contacted by you, yeah.
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:35.920
Um, making sure that you continue that until they tell you, hey, we no longer want to be contacted by you.
00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:38.559
Like that is a thing that you paid for.
00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:46.880
So making sure that you grab that while the busy season, while they're flooding in, and then now it's September, outbound to those people first.
00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:50.640
Well, I hope this helped people for like preparing for shoulder season.
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:52.799
You're gonna get through it, my friends.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:56.799
We will all survive and we will have the joy of uh October.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:03.519
Or if you're in uh like somewhere very hot, like Texas or something, you probably have another couple months and then you just have like six months of misery.
00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:04.079
Yeah, right.
00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:14.640
So or you're in Florida and you have a nine-month summer and you have a two-month shoulder sleeve season slash winter, and then you get a it is so funny to watch.
00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:16.960
It's so funny to like look at Service Titan.
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:17.920
It's such bullshit.
00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:20.720
It's crazy to look at their like their revenue.
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:23.039
It it is uh yeah, it's crazy.
00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:29.039
Or like DFW too is um, I mean, it goes from like a million dollars to 200.
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:30.960
Like it's so crazy.
00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.519
Just the it's amazing.
00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:37.279
Well, what gets me is they have a nine, 10 month season, summer.
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:41.200
Like it starts getting hot in March and it doesn't stop until November.
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:45.279
And then like that's their summer is like this giant period of time.
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:47.680
And I'm always like, oh gosh, I hate you guys.
00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:48.480
That's so nice.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:51.440
You don't know what it's like to actually have a shoulder season.
00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:51.839
Yeah.
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.599
They're like, Yeah, we just slowed down a little bit in uh February.
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:56.480
It's odd.
00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:57.839
It's odd.
00:24:59.200 --> 00:24:59.759
Awesome.
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:00.799
Thanks everybody.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:04.079
Make sure you comment your favorite shoulder season win down below.