Owned and Operated - A Plumbing, Electrical, and HVAC Business Growth Podcast

What Home Service Business Should You Start in 2026? (And How to Win Early)

Jan 22, 2026

In this engaging discussion, the hosts emphasize the importance of research over gut instinct when selecting a home service niche. They argue that the old strategies from 2016-2020 are no longer effective due to market changes. Focus is placed on choosing less competitive, fragmented industries with significant growth potential. The advantages of offering simple, repeatable services are highlighted, alongside effective marketing strategies to attract organic leads. They also stress the importance of systematic leadership and managing dependencies for business scaling.

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ADVICE

Research Before You Pick A Trade

Do research first and avoid randomly picking a trade.
Find markets with unmet demand so leads flow organically to you.

ANECDOTE

Lucky HVAC Buy Turned Organic Wins

Jack bought an HVAC company in a wealthy suburb with almost no competition and got lucky.
Expanding plumbing into nearby small towns produced organic rankings and calls within two weeks.

INSIGHT

Old Playbooks No Longer Work

The 2016–2020 growth playbook is outdated for today's consolidation and competition.
Large platform-created playbooks from the late 2010s no longer map to 2026 realities.

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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.

Want to learn how Service Scalers can do the same for you?

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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.