Rob Parker

One of our former clients who we recently were with made a comment. He said, you know, I would way rather have 5,000 individual homeowner purchasing guys to deal with than one tough purchasing guy from Walmart. that fragmentation has a lot of value. It can sometimes be a slightly more emotional buy.

One of our former clients who we recently were with made a comment. He said, you know, I would way rather have 5,000 individual homeowner purchasing guys to deal with than one tough purchasing guy from Walmart. that fragmentation has a lot of value. It can sometimes be a slightly more emotional buy.

If you come in and you've got a very tight quoting process, it's done on an iPad, it's very clean, it's clear, it's organized, the homeowner understands it, the technician came in, they were polite, they were respectful, they took their shoes off, all these kinds of things. A homeowner can say, you know, they're more expensive. I trust this person. I think they're going to do right by me.

If you come in and you've got a very tight quoting process, it's done on an iPad, it's very clean, it's clear, it's organized, the homeowner understands it, the technician came in, they were polite, they were respectful, they took their shoes off, all these kinds of things. A homeowner can say, you know, they're more expensive. I trust this person. I think they're going to do right by me.

And you can get better pricing if you do some of those kinds of things. So the pricing can often be, and your margin profile, therefore, can often be a little bit better in the residential side.

And you can get better pricing if you do some of those kinds of things. So the pricing can often be, and your margin profile, therefore, can often be a little bit better in the residential side.

Your example with Dan Miller is a good one. I mean, I remember in my own business at Corton, when my partner and I started, we did everything. I was the one managing QuickBooks. There was one time I forgot to pay our health insurance bill, and my wife called me. She's like, the health insurance didn't work. So I went into QuickBooks and paid it. We were doing everything.

Your example with Dan Miller is a good one. I mean, I remember in my own business at Corton, when my partner and I started, we did everything. I was the one managing QuickBooks. There was one time I forgot to pay our health insurance bill, and my wife called me. She's like, the health insurance didn't work. So I went into QuickBooks and paid it. We were doing everything.

And over time, as we brought people in, and we had talented people in roles that they were well-suited to do, That's when our business really grew. And that's a small example. I think in a business like A1 or a lot of the clients that Eric and I deal with, having experts in a seat, in a role that they're well-suited to perform, and in many cases are way better to do that work than the CEO is.

And over time, as we brought people in, and we had talented people in roles that they were well-suited to do, That's when our business really grew. And that's a small example. I think in a business like A1 or a lot of the clients that Eric and I deal with, having experts in a seat, in a role that they're well-suited to perform, and in many cases are way better to do that work than the CEO is.

The CEO's job is to inspire, motivate, be the visionary, grow the business, make the hard final decisions. The CEO shouldn't be involved in getting the numbers organized. You should be interpreting those numbers and doing those kinds of things, but someone has to do it.

The CEO's job is to inspire, motivate, be the visionary, grow the business, make the hard final decisions. The CEO shouldn't be involved in getting the numbers organized. You should be interpreting those numbers and doing those kinds of things, but someone has to do it.

And so the more you've got talent in place in these critical roles, HR, finance, IT, if you're a platform, you have someone who runs mergers and acquisitions. You have someone who runs integration. You have some of those key roles filled. The CEO can go do what they need to do and really grow a business and create something scaled and valuable.

And so the more you've got talent in place in these critical roles, HR, finance, IT, if you're a platform, you have someone who runs mergers and acquisitions. You have someone who runs integration. You have some of those key roles filled. The CEO can go do what they need to do and really grow a business and create something scaled and valuable.

Good data that's easy to interpret and organized well leads to the best decisions. There's no doubt about it.

Good data that's easy to interpret and organized well leads to the best decisions. There's no doubt about it.

gross profit gross margin yes let's talk about that yeah i mean in a lot of ways it's a proxy for how valuable your customer perceives your service because really it's at the end of the day it's it's the margin you get on the product you sell without a lot of the without the sgna without the sales cost without the administrative costs of the company all those kinds of things it's kind of your product margin in many ways so it's a great way it's one of the first things that a lot of people will look at

gross profit gross margin yes let's talk about that yeah i mean in a lot of ways it's a proxy for how valuable your customer perceives your service because really it's at the end of the day it's it's the margin you get on the product you sell without a lot of the without the sgna without the sales cost without the administrative costs of the company all those kinds of things it's kind of your product margin in many ways so it's a great way it's one of the first things that a lot of people will look at

is so how valuable do your customers view your product or service and gross margin is an indication of that.

is so how valuable do your customers view your product or service and gross margin is an indication of that.