William Powers III

September does not feel like the beginning of a new year. In residential home services, however, it is exactly when the next year begins. By September, you have enough 2026 operating data to see what is real. You know whether your replacement leads held up, whether your marketing produced booked calls instead of vanity metrics, whether your maintenance base grew, and whether your technicians and comfort advisors converted opportunities at an acceptable rate. You can see where gross margin...

Demand Is Not Capacity A homeowner wakes to a cold house, discovers water spreading beneath a sink, or smells heat at an electrical panel. The need is immediate. The phone rings at a residential HVAC, plumbing, or electrical company. Yet whether that need becomes revenue depends on something far less visible than demand: a qualified person must answer, diagnose, communicate, travel, repair, document, and stand behind the work. That sequence explains the central fact of our industry. The...

Artificial intelligence does not replace the skilled technician in home services. It is improving the system around that technician: helping companies hire more accurately, train more intentionally, operate more consistently, and deliver a better customer experience. In HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door, roofing, and appliance repair, the highest-value AI applications are not futuristic gimmicks—they are practical tools that reduce friction in the business while helping people perform...