Tony LeBlanc

One company. Many businesses. I show service business owners which vendor bill could be their next company. Author of Doorpreneur. Built to Multiply, 2027.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

In 2013 I found a $250,000 line on my own P&L.

That's what we paid other companies every year to cut grass and clear snow.

We bought a franchise and did the work ourselves.

Three years later it was twice the size of the company that created it.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

If you had to step away from your business for 30 days, no email, no phone calls, what is the first thing that would break?

Whatever you just thought of is your real next project.

Fix what breaks first. Then build the second floor.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

Every time you hand a customer someone else's phone number, you give something away.

Not the job. The trust.

I call it the Trust Leak.

That's not a referral. That's a gift you didn't mean to give.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

There are four jobs an owner can hold in his own company.

Most of the trouble starts when he skips the second one.

I call them the four rungs. Each one asks a different question.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

None of it was in a plan. It started with a property management company deciding to stop outsourcing its biggest headache.

One tech and one truck. That was the whole plan.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

So we hired one tech and bought one truck. Just for our own buildings.

Response times dropped. Quality went up.

Then we noticed that what we'd built wasn't only an internal fix. It was a business.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

Today that's CORE Property Services. Six divisions. Over 40 people.

Plumbing, electrical, appliance repair, renovations, handyman, outdoor works.

Anyone in Greater Moncton can call, not just our properties.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

Years ago at Ground Floor we managed hundreds of units and relied on outside contractors for maintenance.

Behind the scenes it was a constant grind; chasing callbacks, waiting on quotes, juggling schedules.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

We didn't set out to start a maintenance company.

We set out to stop chasing callbacks.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

We once took on condo management with the same team and no training.

I was fine with the chaos. My team wasn't.

So we pulled back.

An idea can wait. A worn-out team can't.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

The building taught me the business.

The hallways taught me the work.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

I grew up in an apartment building my mother managed. Until I was 16, I cleaned its hallways every weekend.

We went back with a camera.

The boy in the film is my son, doing the job I did at his age.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

Sixteen years into running companies, the work hasn't changed much.

Somebody still has to do it properly when nobody's watching.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

If you run a service business, take the six minutes. The Red Pen Audit is free.

https://t.co/KXHprWdnFt

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

In 2013 I found our second company with a printed P&L and a red pen.

Now it takes about six minutes.

[Tony LeBlanc @thetonyleblanc]

Our first circled line was landscaping and snow.

Three years later that company was twice the size of the one that created it.