Elliot Lund

Tech, SMB and life musings.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@girdley Go work in the type of business you would want to buy.

It must have a great reputation of integrity (signaling the same values in its ownership.)

Learn the trade and work your way up.

Worst case: get experience
Best case: gain trust and become the succession plan

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@realEstateTrent Residential home services, higher end of market… no slowdown.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@jcolesimpson @stevehunsaker1 @yoalexrapz My painting company added it this year. Lucrative, but finding and retaining good installers is very difficult. The challenges: how unique each job is, the hands-on design process, and the cost when things go wrong. There’s a reason no one has scaled in this space.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@swimschoolJosh Resi Repaint: transitioned 2 years ago from entirely W2 at $2M to all sub. Doubled. Controlled labor costs. Better outcomes for customers. Subs motivated to do well and get next contract. Bad subs get cut loose quick but most stick around long term.
💯 improved our business.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@girdley Cold keeps many away. Those who are here have grit and value community bonds. Summer can’t be beat. Lovely lakes, rolling hills and forests within 30min of downtown.

Any level of entrepreneurial drive stands out. It’s easy to be a big fish in a small pond.
I love building here.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@STLChrisH Not at all yet.

Residential repainting /Milwaukee area. Most customers over 100k household income.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@TJLarkin23 Home services? Seems like people would get sick of reading about stuff peripheral to my offering. (residential painting)

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@STLChrisH I own a $4m/yr painting company. We’ve invested heavily in our data and tech stack including extensive automation and custom software.

It’s still damn hard to scale, and success lives or dies in the most analog parts of the business.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@zachary_t_bravo @ChrisJBakke The retirements of many mom and pop HVAC, plumbing and electrical company founders.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@Will_Schryver I’ve seen almost nothing in the residential painting space, despite a few national brands providing scale is possible. Companies like mine still trading 2x earnings.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@jtime222 @moseskagan Wrong about what?

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@moseskagan Yes!! Thank you.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@RegZeller Remote? If yes, I’ve got a good lead on a guy for you.

[Borriss @_Borriss_]

7)

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@WilsonCompanies This is my favorite kind of “overnight success”. (The kind that comes from years of consistency.)

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@moseskagan With 45% margin going direct to homeowner, I’m torn on how to approach this. Do I really want to do more work while slashing that profit %?

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@WilsonCompanies This is my favorite part. We all have role models. Even Ferris.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@JoeCassandra Great advice. Even when I’m nodding along to all of it, I realize I needed the reminders.

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@WilsonCompanies GenZ: what’s Nextdoor. what’s an electrician

[Elliot Lund @elliotlund]

@WilsonCompanies I’ve always wondered who goes to Nextdoor and at what stage in buying process.

Boomer: Nextdoor
GenX: Google, get overwhelmed, then Nextdoor?
Millennial: Google (can’t imagine asking random strangers for opinions when 1000 cust reviews are right there…)