What Home Service Business Should You Start in 2026? (And How to Win Early)
Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast
Old playbooks are obsolete
John explains the 2016–2020 playbook no longer fits today's consolidated competitive landscape.
If you want to play the game on hard mode… randomly pick an industry and hope it works.
In this episode of Owned and Operated, John Wilson and Jack Carr break down exactly how they’d build a home service business in 2026—and why the old 2016–2020 playbook is dead. They go deep on research-first market selection, avoiding late-stage consolidation traps, picking “boring” services with clean SKUs, and building a business that can win even when weather, competition, and ad platforms don’t cooperate.
In this episode, we cover:
- Research, Research, Research: Why “randomly picking a trade” is hard mode—and how to find unmet demand in a specific market.
- The 2016–2020 Playbook Is Irrelevant: Why advice from the late 2010s doesn’t match today’s competitive reality.
- Consolidation & Multiples: How consolidation changes outcomes—and why “gold mine” industries can cool off before you’re big enough.
- Pick the Right Industry (Fragmented + Big TAM): What to look for in a winning service category in 2026.
- Boring Businesses Win: Drain cleaning, duct cleaning, leak detection, jetting, water filtration, septic, turf—simple offerings, repeatable operations.
🔥 What You’ll Learn:
- How to choose a home service niche in 2026 using market demand + consolidation timing, not vibes.
- The fastest path to “easy leads” (and why competing in stacked markets is an uphill fight).
- A practical framework for building a saleable business—even if you don’t plan to sell.
- Why multi-location forces better systems (and reduces dependence on a few A-players).
- Where the next marketing edge is coming from as attention shifts and platforms evolve.
Shout Out to FieldPulse 🚀
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💼 Extra Special Thanks to Service Scalers!
We’ve been partnering with Service Scalers to maximize our Local Service Ads (LSAs) and optimize our Google My Business profiles, and the results have been incredible. With hundreds of thousands in sales and 900+ calls in a single week, GMBs are now our top-performing organic lead channel.
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More Ways To Connect with O&O
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.
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