Sasha Wilde acquired Sexton Roofing and Siding in Western Massachusetts, a company an industry veteran had run for 37 years before retiring. She took it over with no roofing experience, four months pregnant, and only about 12 contracts handed over, which is roughly two weeks of work. Three years later she runs a 10-person team plus her subcontractor crews, with an average ticket around $22,000 and most of the business coming from roof replacements.

In this episode she breaks down the full journey. How she went from a dissatisfied W-2 job and an MBA to searching for a business to buy, the due diligence she ran, and the warranty-claim addendum she wishes she had insisted on. She gets honest about the hiring mistakes that cost her a full year, why the general manager hire did not work, and how the right production manager finally took weight off her shoulders.

She also talks about building the sales and marketing engine from almost nothing, the truck wrap rebrand that made the brand impossible to miss, yard signs, networking, referral partnerships, and the customer experience app she is testing next. On top of all of it, she shares what it actually takes to run and grow a roofing company while raising three young kids.

If you are thinking about acquiring a home service business or scaling the one you already own, this one is worth your time.

In this episode we sit down with Darron Yarbrough, who has spent 40 years in the HVAC trade and built Yarbrough & Sons into an $11 million business with 54 employees and his three sons running it alongside him. This is a real, unfiltered look at what it actually takes to grow a home service business over decades, not a highlight reel.We get into the change that finally broke them past the $5 million plateau they were stuck at for 8 years, why he turned down private equity, and how he built a business worth passing down instead of selling. Darron opens up about running an open-book company where the whole team sees the real numbers every month, why he shares profit with his people, and how that transparency built a team with 20 and even 40 year tenures.We also cover the sales process shift that raised their close rates, the online pricing tool that generated over $1.8 million in leads, how they use AI to cut hours of work down to minutes, and the real estate playbook he used to build wealth on the side of the business. Along the way he shares the hard-won lessons from 40 years, including selling a company once and rebuilding a bigger one, why you have to get out of your own way to grow, and the simple rule that carried him the whole way: if you screw up, fess up.Whether you run an HVAC, plumbing, or any home service business, there's a full playbook in here on growth, hiring, culture, sales, and building something that lasts.

Most HVAC owners are burning money on leads they could be getting for free. In this episode of TradeOps Radio, Adal Villalobos of Villquin Air Services breaks down how his Bay Area company gets around 60% of its heat pump leads through government rebate and incentive programs, why getting on those contractor directories is like free marketing, and how the electrification wave is reshaping the trade. He also shares how he uses AI to save hours, protect margins, and turn angry client messages into five-star experiences.

Adal came into the family business with a background in business administration, and it shows. This conversation turns into a full sales and operations masterclass. You will learn why cheap prices attract cheap customers, how to charge premium rates by selling the experience instead of the equipment, the customer red flags that cost contractors thousands, and the follow-up habits that pull revenue out of leads most owners leave on the table.

We also get into the tech stack that runs it all, from house call pro to the AI tools he leans on daily, how he handles difficult "I did my own research" clients, and the pricing psychology behind winning bids without racing to the bottom. Whether you run an HVAC, plumbing, or any home service business, this episode is packed with practical, real-world tactics you can put to work right away.

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