Claim OwnershipJackQuisitions - Small Business Acquisitions in Home Service
Subscribed: 0Played: 2
Subscribe
© 2026 Jackquisitions
Description
Welcome to Jackquisitions — your inside look at acquiring a home service business
Hosted by Jack Carr, co-host of the Owned and Operated podcast, this channel breaks down real acquisition strategies—LOIs, SBA loans, due diligence, and post-close integration—all through the lens of home service entrepreneurship.
If you're looking to grow through acquisition, you're in the right place.
49 Episodes
Reverse
Car Washes Aren’t What You Think — The Models That Make (or Lose) Millions Car washes look like the perfect “easy business.” Recurring memberships. Cars lined up. Low labor. Simple operations. But that’s exactly where most buyers get it wrong. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr breaks down the biggest mistake people make when evaluating car washes—and why asking “Is this a good business?” is the wrong first question. Because “car wash” isn’t one business. It’s four completely differ...
AI Is Crushing Graphic Design Jobs — Here’s the Business I’d Start Instead AI has already started commoditizing large parts of graphic design. Canva and AI tools can now produce “good enough” design work in minutes — forcing companies to rethink why they pay full-time designers. So what’s the move if you’re a designer seeing the shift? In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr explains why starting a painting business could be one of the smartest pivots for creative professionals. Painting...
Ford’s $40B Bet: Why Killing Their Sedans Saved the Company In 2018, Ford made a shocking decision: they killed almost their entire sedan lineup in North America. The Fiesta. The Focus. The Fusion. The Taurus. Decades of brand equity — gone overnight. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr breaks down Ford’s strategy and the bigger lesson for business owners: Sometimes growth doesn’t come from doing more. Sometimes it comes from cutting what doesn’t make money. What Yo...
Red Robin was once one of the biggest gourmet burger chains in America. In the early 2000s, it was booming — bottomless fries, high-energy casual dining, and aggressive expansion that pushed the brand to more than 570 locations nationwide. Today, the company is closing stores, restructuring debt, and fighting to stay alive. So what happened? This episode breaks down the real reason behind Red Robin’s decline — and it wasn’t the burgers. It was positioning, economics, and a dangerous place in ...
Watch this before buying a laundromat. It’s marketed as passive income. Simple. Set it and forget it. That’s not reality. A laundromat can absolutely produce durable, consistent cash flow. But it can also turn into a massive utility bill, constant equipment repairs, and shrinking margins if you don’t understand what you’re actually buying. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr breaks down how first-time buyers should evaluate a laundromat acquisition. This isn’t about folding clo...
Junk Removal: The Easiest Business to Start — And the Easiest to Overpay For Junk removal might be the simplest home service business to launch — no license, no apprenticeship, no inspections. But it’s also one of the most misunderstood businesses to buy. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr walks through exactly how a first-time buyer (meet “Ethan”) should think about starting vs. acquiring a junk removal company. We break down a real $1–2M acquisition snapshot, why you’re not buying...
Electrical is one of the best home service businesses to own in 2026 — but it’s also one of the easiest to mess up if you enter it the wrong way. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack breaks down the real acquisition opportunity in residential electrical, and why licensing, labor, and business model clarity matter more than trucks, branding, or marketing. Jack walks through the two paths buyers consider: building from scratch or acquiring an existing electrical company. He explains why both...
Should Home Service Companies Stop Buying Vans? In this episode bonus feed dropped episode Owned and Operated, John Wilson is joined by Nashville operator Jack Carr to break down one of the most overlooked expenses in home services: Fleet decisions. With service vans now costing $60,000+ and fuel and repair costs climbing, John and Jack make the case for a radical shift: Ford Mavericks for service… and trailers for installs. They unpack why the Maverick may be the most capital-efficient vehic...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack breaks down one of the most important acquisition questions heading into 2026: What industries should you avoid… and which ones have the biggest tailwinds? Jack walks through his framework for evaluating businesses through an acquisition lens — not as a lifestyle operator, but as a buyer looking for scalable enterprise value and an eventual exit. He explains why some industries that look “hot” on paper can become absolute landmines once you layer in deb...
Most first-time buyers take more than a year to close their first acquisition—and rushing the process is how people wash out. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack welcomes back Chris Barr for a 1-year search update and a realistic breakdown of what it takes to buy a business the right way. They discuss why “perfect deals” don’t exist, how to choose the problems you’re willing to own, and why community-based sourcing can beat cold outreach. Chris shares his hyper-local strategy in Palm Beac...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack welcomes back Alan Peterson (First Internet Bank) to break down the SBA SOP changes that are reshaping home service acquisitions in 2026—especially for buyers navigating licensing, seller equity, and deal structure. Alan explains why the once-common “seller keeps 1–5%” strategy is fading, what’s replacing it, and why banks are forcing buyers to get serious about licensing before they ever sign an LOI. They also dig into why the buyer pool is smaller but...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Rand Larson, owner of Scale Path, to talk about the real reason so many operators struggle after closing their first deal: they’re doing it alone. Rand shares the origin story of Scale Path—starting as an informal peer group called Trench Therapy—and how one conversation with an overwhelmed HVAC owner (who was staring down a brutal first year post-acquisition) revealed the biggest missing piece for new leaders: a room of other owners who ...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Micah Stanley, founder of a rapidly scaling nightlife vending business that went from one college-bar machine to 100+ machines across multiple states in under two years. What started as a failed brick-and-mortar vape shop turned into a highly profitable, asset-light business model built around placing high-margin vending machines in bars, nightclubs, and casinos. Micah breaks down how he spotted the opportunity almost by accident, why nig...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Ian Smith, partner at South River Capital, to break down what it actually looks like to scale through acquisitions in home services—when the “platform” you thought you bought turns out to be pen, paper, and magnets on a board. Ian shares how his partners bought Terraform Landscaping in 2021 (~$2M revenue), then turned around and acquired an equal-sized landscaping company (Robins Landscaping)—only to learn the hard way that the owner was ...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack breaks down why pressure washing is one of the most misunderstood businesses in America—and why the “low skill, low overhead, easy money” narrative is exactly what traps most operators in unscalable jobs. Jack explains how pressure washing looks simple from the outside, but in reality is a sales, marketing, and operations business disguised as a trade. He walks through the real cost structure most people ignore, why underpricing kills otherwise busy ope...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Collin Trimble of Alarm Masters and Entry & Exit to dig into what it really looks like to roll up commercial fire and security companies—and why recurring monthly revenue (RMR) can be a cheat code for ETA operators. Collin walks through his jump from petrochem finance to security sales, then into Salesforce and revenue consulting, and finally into buying his own alarm company with longtime friend and partner, Steven. Collin breaks dow...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Nathan Lindley of Done Right to dig into what it really looks like to roll up small HVAC companies—and why acquisition can be the smartest growth channel in the trades. Nathan shares his jump from Christian book publishing to home services, the “HVAC is non-optional” thesis that pulled him from Oregon to Dallas in early 2020, and why he knew his first deal would be his worst. They get into the gritty middle: buying tiny mom-and-pops out o...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Stephen Olmon to unpack one of the spiciest ETA questions out there: should you buy a business or build one first? Stephen shares his non-traditional path into entrepreneurship—from a pastor/teacher household to telecom consulting, then into the world of software, NewCo businesses, and eventually acquisitions. They dig into Stephen’s early failed independent sponsor deals, how those bruises shaped his approach, and why he ultimately went ...
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits back down with Chris Barr to talk about what real leverage looks like in a self-funded search: building systems instead of just refreshing BizBuySell, working your broker network, and turning your geo + niche into an actual acquisition brand. They break down how Chris is rebuilding his search infrastructure after round one, why tech leverage (CRM, scraping, cold outbound) matters more than you think, and how conferences, LinkedIn, and local presenc...
Buying a septic company is one of the highest-ROI moves in home-service M&A… if you know where to look. In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack breaks down exactly where real septic deals come from — from the obvious online marketplaces to the off-market gold mines almost no one talks about. If you’re serious about buying your first septic business (or adding one as a high-margin tuck-in), this roadmap will save you weeks of searching and tens of thousands of dollars. Jack covers why sept...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States