What’s it worth — and would it run without you?
A buyer asks both. If the business can’t run two weeks without you, a buyer pays less. A buyer checks six things to see whether it runs without you. I build them, so you can prove it before you list.
Flat fee. I don’t broker the sale or take a cut.
Everything still runs through you.
Step back for a day and something stops. A quote doesn’t go out. An invoice doesn’t get sent. The customer list, the pricing and the supplier terms live in your head.
A buyer sees that in the first meeting. One of his first questions: could this run 30 days without you? If it can’t, he prices it in — a lower number, a longer handover, or an earn-out instead of cash at close.
Buyers pay less for what walks out the door. Right now, that’s you.
1 year’s profit
The usual price gap. Brokers publish that trades shops that run on the owner sell for about 2 to 3 times yearly owner earnings, and shops run by managers for about 3 to 4 times.*
*2026 broker-published ranges for HVAC, plumbing and contracting (CT Acquisitions; Reins). Not an appraisal. Your books decide.
Can it run without the owner?
Six things answer that question. Each one gets built, dated and written down, so a buyer can see it instead of taking your word for it.
01
Phones answered
Every call picked up, booked or routed, and logged. Your cell stops being the switchboard.
02
Bids out the same day
Bids in your format, off your rate sheet, by anyone you choose. You approve the number; you don’t type it.
This is the Estimate Engine03
An operations manual
The jobs only you know — estimating, scheduling, ordering, callbacks, collections — written down in one place.
04
Job-quality checklists
What a finished job looks like, by trade and by crew, one page each.
05
A weekly numbers report
Jobs, bids out, win rate, margin by trade, cash. Every week, without a spreadsheet night.
06
Training for your team
Live sessions, plus written and recorded walkthroughs, for the people who’ll run all of it.
Three steps. Start with the first.
“What’s my business worth?”
Buyer’s-Eye Review · two weeks
The price ranges buyers pay in your trade, your score on the six, and two weeks tracking every call and decision that still needs you. You leave with a dated fix list.
“It can’t run without me.”
Sale-Ready Build · about 90 days
I build all six with you and run training for the people who’ll use them. Then you take two weeks off, and whatever still reaches you gets fixed.
“I want cash at close, not an earn-out.”
Build + 12-Month Run
After the Build, I stay on monthly for a year: numbers a buyer’s accountant can read, and a two-week test every quarter. You list with a year of proof, not a promise.
Pick by how soon you want to sell.
Build + 12-Month Run
$36,000
for the year, on top of the Build: $3,000 a month on a 12-month term
- A monthly numbers pack a buyer can read
- A two-week test, every quarter
- Phones and the Estimate Engine kept up
- A buyer-ready file your CPA and broker can open
Only after the Build.
Sale-Ready Build
$15,000–20,000
about 90 days
- All six, dated and in writing
- The Estimate Engine inside
- Training: live sessions plus written and recorded walkthroughs
- The two-week test, written up
What decides the price: $15,000 for one trade, one site and up to about 15 crew. $20,000 for mixed trades or a larger crew.
Half to start, half at the two-week test write-up.
Start here · Buyer’s-Eye Review
$2,500
two weeks
- Your score on the six things a buyer checks
- A map of every call and decision that still needed you
- A dated fix list
- Published price ranges for your trade, labeled “not an appraisal”
Credited in full toward the Build if you start it within 60 days.
Flat fee, off the deal. No success fees, no buyer introductions, no negotiating, no advice on the deal money. Your broker sells it; I make it ready before it’s listed.
Two weeks off. The business keeps running.
That’s the test. Once the six are built, you leave for two weeks. Every call and decision that still finds you gets logged, and we fix it. You get the results in writing, a page a buyer can read.
You get all six in writing, or I keep building at no charge.
A higher price, a bigger multiple or a faster sale. Nobody honest can. Your books, your trade and the buyer decide that.
Buyers pay for a track record. Ninety days builds the six; the year after shows a buyer they work. That’s what the 12-Month Run is for.
No exit story yet. Here’s what there is.
This offer is new. No owner has finished the Build and sold yet, so there’s no exit story on this page, and I won’t make one up. The first owner who runs the two-week test goes here, in his own words, with his permission.
What I do have: the systems inside the Build already run in trades businesses.
4.7%
Median pricing error when Chris Wolf’s Estimate Engine (Wolf & Wolf, roofing) was tested against 80 of his own sent bids. It was built from 745 of them.
“It’s changed my business… And it’s made all the difference.”
— Nate Stein, By Design Electric & Solar, three weeks after Sukhneet’s training
A good fit if
- You own a trades or home-services business with a crew: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, remodel
- You want to sell in the next 12 to 36 months
- The business makes you $250,000 or more a year in owner earnings
Not the fit, and I’ll say so
- You’re signing a deal next month. Too late for this; call anyway and I’ll say what still helps
- There’s no crew yet. A buyer needs a team to buy
- It already runs without you. Then you don’t need me
Will this raise my price?
I can’t promise a price, and nobody honest can. Your books, your trade and the buyer decide that. What I promise is the six things a buyer checks, built, in writing, and tested while you’re away.
Do you sell my business or find a buyer?
No. Your broker sells it and your CPA does the numbers. I make it ready before it’s listed. I don’t take a cut of the sale, bring buyers, or negotiate.
I don’t have time for this.
That’s why it’s built for you. Phones and bids go first, because they eat your evenings.
Will my crew think I’m selling?
We build it as running better: phones answered, bids out, a weekly report. Nobody needs to hear the word “sale.”
Why pay now instead of at closing?
Because a buyer pays for a track record — the business running without you, month after month — not a promise that it could.
A free 20-minute call.
Bring last year’s numbers and the week you’d most like off. You leave knowing which of the six is costing you the most.
Book the free 20-minute callNot ready to talk? The free Leak Audit shows where your week is leaking money, on your own numbers.