A Few Good Plumbers

In this week’s podcast, Rich Jordan explains how he bought a plumbing business with three plumbers and $1 million in revenue and in four years took it to 90 employees and $20 million in revenue.

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:    

• Companies that publish salary ranges in job listings attract better candidates.

• It’s not entirely clear who is going to do the construction work to rebuild after Helene and Milton.

• There are only 25 available seats at our next 21 Hats Live event, and they are filling up.

• Steve Mariotti founded the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. If you’re not inspired by how he lived his life, nothing will inspire you.

THE 21 HATS PODCAST

This week, special guest Rich Jordan tells Shawn Busse and Jay Goltz what it was like buying a small plumbing business in 2020 despite having very little experience with either plumbing  or business—but having spent 10 years in the Marine Corps. “When I reflected on my time in service and what I did well and what I enjoyed,” Rich tells us, “it was when I was on a small team with high stakes, far forward, far from the flagpole, responsible for making decisions and sustaining ourselves and figuring things out. So when I thought about that—small team, high stakes, self-sustained—small business kind of fit that bill.”

• Not surprisingly, it took Rich some time to figure out what he was doing with the plumbing business, but in just four years, through organic growth and a few acquisitions—while taking no outside capital—he’s gone from three plumbers and $1 million in annual revenue to 90 employees and $20 million in revenue.

• Which is why, Rich tells Jay and Shawn, he keeps moving the goalposts, reassessing just how big he wants the business to be.

• You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.