CFIB · 2023
You have not had a real week off in years. The phone comes with you.
46%of business owners have no plan for the day they step away.
We set the business up to run for two weeks without you. Phone off.
More Business. Less Chaos.
You built it. It still can’t run a week without you.We come in and fix it.
For owner-run local trades companies. A fifteen-minute call, then a paid audit of what is holding the business back. Then we come in and fix it ourselves, until it runs without you. If you ever want out, we know the buyer.
The worst that happens is you end up owning a better business.
Three things happen to a trades business when the owner decides to step away.
THREE WAYS OUTTWO OF THEM COST YOU EVERYTHING YOU BUILT
01Shut it down.The trucks get sold, the crew finds other work, and twenty years of goodwill goes to zero.THE BAD ONE
02Put it up for sale as it is.A buyer looks at it, sees that every job runs through you, and either walks or offers a number that insults you.THE OTHER BAD ONE
03Make it run without you first.Then sell it for what it is actually worth. Or keep it, and take the summer off.THE WORK
The third one is the work, and it is the work we come in and do.
Ask the people you already pay what is wrong. You get four different answers.
Every one of them is selling something. The marketing agency says leads. The software rep says software. The accountant says pricing. The coach says you. Each one sees one piece of the business. Nobody sees all of it.
Fix one piece and the problem just moves. So we look at the whole business first. Then we fix it ourselves.
THE CALLTHE QUOTETHE JOBTHE MONEYYOU
Ten minutes. One page on your business.
- Your numbers against your trade.
- What each gap is costing you.
- What to fix first.
KORRA.IO
The Business Inspection
Example Plumbing Company
Example only. Not a client.
01
Where you are
64 percent of residential contractors still run the business on the phone (ServiceTitan, Residential Services Report 2025), which is why every line above is about who picks it up.
There are 326,000 open construction jobs in the United States and the sector's opening rate is 3.8 percent against 4.4 percent across all industries (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, July 2026). The shortage is not how many postings are open. It is which people are missing.
Associated Builders and Contractors, 2026 Construction Workforce Shortage Model estimates the industry needs 349,000 net new workers in 2026. That is a model built from forecast spending plus projected retirements, not a count, and it moves when the forecast moves.
Google has you down as 20+ years in business.
Calls a month
50callsYou said fifty to two hundred. Everything below counts at least fifty calls a month.
Your own answer
Who answers after hours
It goes to voicemailA caller who reaches voicemail rings the next company on the list.
Your own answer
Answer within the hour: what shops do, against what customers expect
20percent of businesses55 percent of customers expect an answer inside the hour and 20 percent of home service businesses manage it. The gap is the finding, not either number on its own.
Jobber, Home Service Trends Report 2026, 2026 · 1,050 US home service business owners, fielded through Conjointly in December 2025
Quotes a month
20quotesEvery quote in the business waits for you. You said twenty to fifty.
Your own answer
People, including you
6peopleYou said six to fifteen.
Your own answer
Hardest role to fill: the crew leader
19percent of businesses naming it hardest to fill19 percent of home service businesses name crew leaders and supervisors as the hardest to fill. The scarce person is the one who can be left alone on a job.
Jobber, Home Service Trends Report 2026, 2026 · 1,050 US home service business owners, fielded through Conjointly in December 2025
Last real week off, phone off
Longer ago than thatThe last real week off was more than a year ago. There is no benchmark beside this one. Every figure in circulation about how much time an owner takes off traces to a lender's blog with no stated sample, so we left it off.
Your own answer
02
What it is costing you
InsideSales / XANT, Lead Response Management 2021 found 77 percent of leads are never responded to at all, across 5.7 million of them. Those were business to business leads and not trades leads, and it is still the best measured figure anybody publishes on the subject.
Contractors at ten million a year and up say that following up on estimates is worth 11 to 15 percent of their income (ServiceTitan, Residential Services Report 2025). That is their number on their size of company, so we have not put it against yours.
47 percent of people say they would not use a business with fewer than twenty reviews (BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026), so you are past the gate. The comparison that matters now is the three shops beside you.
Jobber, Home Service Trends Report 2026 says its best performing customers sit at 4.5 stars and 50 reviews or more. That is a cut of businesses already winning, so it describes what winning looks like rather than what causes it.
Calls a month that never reach a person
~22calls= 50 calls a month (at least fifty calls a month, from the band you picked) times 44 percent
Invoca, Lead Conversion Benchmarks 2026 measured that 44 percent of callers never reach a person, counting hold, voicemail and phone menus together. A caller who reaches voicemail rings the next company on the list.
Your own answer, against Invoca · Invoca, Lead Conversion Benchmarks 2026, 2026 · more than 70 million calls to businesses across industries, Invoca customers
What those calls are worth, at your own job value
~$5,000a month= 22 calls times 46 percent of calls that turn into work times 500 dollars a job (at least five hundred dollars a job, from the band you picked)
About 60,000 dollars a year on the same arithmetic. It multiplies two figures Invoca, Lead Conversion Benchmarks 2026 measured separately, so read it as the shape of the number rather than the number.
Your own answers, against Invoca · Invoca, Lead Conversion Benchmarks 2026, 2026 · more than 70 million calls to businesses across industries, Invoca customers
The work you quote in a month, at your own job value
~$10,000a month= 20 quotes a month (at least twenty quotes a month) times 500 dollars a job (at least five hundred dollars a job)
All of that waits on you. This is the value passing through the quoting each month, not a loss.
Your own answers
Google reviews, you and the three shops nearest you
40reviewsYou have 40 at 4.6 stars. The three nearest have 300, 120, 85.
Your Google Business Profile and theirs, read 10 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC
Photographs on the listing, you and the three nearest
30photographsYou have 30. The three nearest have 220, 150, 90. It is a phone in a pocket on every job.
Your Google Business Profile and theirs, read 10 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC
Where you came up on the local pack
4of 20Searched "plumber Anytown". A rank is a reading and not a standing position: the same search moved a place inside forty minutes when we tested it, and there was one paid listing above you when we looked.
Google, read 10 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC
Where you came up on a "near me" search at your own address
3of 20Searched "plumber near me". A rank is a reading and not a standing position: the same search moved a place inside forty minutes when we tested it.
Google, read 10 September 2026 at 09:00 UTC
03
Where this goes if nothing changes
The same question on the other side of the border came back at 76 percent (CFIB, Succession Tsunami). Two surveys, two countries, one answer.
Retirement was the leading reason owners went to market in every size band last quarter, peaking at 72 percent in the one to two million band (IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Survey Q2 2026). The queue is forming now.
Roughly 800 home service companies have been bought by private equity since 2022. That is a third party tally rather than a register, and "roughly" is the honest word, but the buyers are in your town already.
- 01Shut it down. The trucks get sold, the crew finds other work, and twenty years of goodwill goes to zero.
- 02Put it up for sale as it is. A buyer looks at it, sees that every job runs through you, and either walks or offers a number that insults you.
- 03Make it run without you first. Then sell it for what it is actually worth. Or keep it, and take the summer off.
The third one is the work, and it is the work we come in and do.
Owners who mean to be out inside ten years
75percent of owners intending to transition within ten yearsAsked in 2023, so the decade it counts started then.
Exit Planning Institute, National State of Owner Readiness 2023, 2023 · over 1,162 US business owners across every industry, skewed to mid-market: 26 percent under 5 million dollars of revenue, 20 percent over 100 million
Owners with a formal plan for it
13percent of owners with a formal exit planA further 9 percent have no plans at all. Most owners sit between the two with something informal.
Exit Planning Institute, National State of Owner Readiness 2023, 2023 · over 1,162 US business owners across every industry, skewed to mid-market: 26 percent under 5 million dollars of revenue, 20 percent over 100 million
Broker engagements that end without a sale
46percent of broker engagements that ended without a saleReported by the advisors themselves. The bigger claim you have read, that eighty or ninety percent never sell, has no publisher behind it.
IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Survey Q4 2021 executive report, 2021 · 416 business brokers and M&A advisors reporting on their own engagements in Q4 2021, every sector, published February 2022
HOW WE HELP
You are already losing work. We stop that first.
Six ways more work lands. Three of them go and get back what you have already earned and are losing. Three of them make sure the next one finds you.
- THE CALLS THAT RANG OUTEvery missed call gets called back in minutes, not tomorrow, and not by you.
- THE ADS THAT PAYAds that earn their money. The ones that stop earning get switched off.
- EVERYONE YOU HAVE WORKED FORThe customers already in your phone hear from you again, on a schedule instead of by luck.
- WHEN THEY GOOGLE ITYou come up when somebody nearby searches for the work you do.
- WHEN THEY ASK AN AIPeople ask an AI who to call now. We make sure the answer has your name in it.
- REVIEWS AND REFERRALSAsked for after every job, on purpose, instead of remembered once a year.
Then we build what holds it all.
The minute more work comes in, it starts piling up behind people. So we build the systems underneath, and the same work goes through without anyone pushing it.
- EVERY CALL ANSWEREDNothing rings out and nothing sits unread. Every call and message gets an answer, day, night or Sunday.
- NO QUOTE GOES QUIETEvery quote gets followed up until there is an answer, either way. Nobody has to remember to do it.
- THE SCHEDULE RUNS ITSELFBooking, reminders and no-shows are handled without anyone typing anything.
- TYPED ONCE, NOT FIVE TIMESThe software you already pay for gets joined up, so the same detail is never entered twice.
- THE MONEY GETS COLLECTEDInvoices go out on time and get chased without you having to ask anyone.
- YOU CAN SEE EVERY JOBOne place that shows where every job is, so finding out does not cost you an afternoon.
Then you own a company, not a job.
This is the part we stay for. The week has a shape, somebody other than you owns the day, and the phone stops being yours. If you ever want out, it is worth buying by then.
- THE WEEK HAS A SHAPEOne cadence we hold. Things get decided on a day, not eventually.
- THE CREW RUNS THE CREWSomebody other than you owns the day. You stop being the dispatcher.
- THE NUMBERS THAT MATTERA short list you actually look at, instead of software nobody opens.
- SOMEBODY IN THE ROOMThe call before the decision, not the post mortem after it.
- TWO WEEKS, PHONE OFFYou leave and the work carries on without you. That is the test, and it is the whole point.
- WORTH SELLING, IF YOU WANTA business that runs without you is the only kind worth buying. That door stays open, and you decide.
Questions
How does it work?
Four steps. The call: You tell us where the business is at. We tell you straight whether the audit makes sense for you and what it would look at first. The audit: One page: what is working, what is holding the business back, the revenue it is leaving on the table, and the order to fix things in. The build: We fix what the audit found, in the order the audit put it, inside your business, with your people. The exit, if you want it: If you ever want out, the business is ready to sell by then, and we know the buyer. If you want to keep it and step back, do that instead.
What does the audit cost?
It is paid, and we tell you the fee on the call, before you decide anything. Whatever you pay comes off the build if you go ahead.
Is this coaching?
No. No course, no group, no weekly call telling you what to do. We do the work inside your business, with your people.
What happens on the call?
Fifteen minutes. You tell us what the business does and where it is at. We tell you whether the audit makes sense and what it costs. You decide. Nobody chases you.
What if you find something bad?
We tell you. That is what you paid for. Then we tell you what it would take to fix it, and whether that is worth doing.
Do you take a cut of the sale?
No. Never. We charge one set fee for the audit and a scoped fee for the build. If you ever want out, we know the buyer and we introduce you. No commissions, no success fees, no cut of a sale, no interest on anything.
Where do you work?
The United States and Canada.
Do I have to sell?
No. Most of what we do is the fixing and the running, not the selling. The exit is there later if you ever want it, and it is your call, not ours.