Don’t Take My Word for It: What the Biggest Home Service Operators Already Know

A garage door company that started with one truck reportedly agreed to sell for about $2 billion, and an HVAC company that was losing $3 million a year grew to $250 million. Both owners built it the same way, and it is the same thing I have told cleaning business owners for 20 years: more ads will not fix a business that misses calls, does not book the ones it answers and never brings the customer back. You do not have to take my word for it. Their numbers sit right next to the ones in our 2026 Carpet Cleaning Benchmark Report. So which column is your business in?

Key Takeaways

• KKR agreed to buy A1 Garage Door Service for about $2 billion in September 2026, a company Tommy Mello started with one truck in Phoenix in 2007.
• Ken Goodrich took Goettl from about $11 million in revenue and $3 million in annual losses to $250 million by tracking every call to the sold job.
• Tommy Mello’s own math showed a revenue goal needed about 27.5% of revenue in marketing with weak booking numbers and under 9% with strong ones.
• A typical carpet cleaner books 25-35% of new-customer calls, while top operators book 50-60% from the same phone, the same market and the same ads.
• Private equity and franchise systems already run their businesses on these numbers, so independents who do not know their booking rate are competing blind.

Why is a garage door company reportedly selling for about $2 billion?

A1 Garage Door Service reached a reported $2 billion deal because its owner ran it on numbers. Tommy Mello started A1 in Phoenix in 2007. In September 2026, investment firm KKR agreed to buy it for about $2 billion, according to reports citing people familiar with the deal. Cortec Group had already invested in 2022. It is a garage door repair company.

Mello has explained his approach for years on his podcast, The Home Service Expert, and in his book Home Service Millionaire. Track your numbers. Fix how you handle the leads you already pay for. Own your local search presence before you buy more ads. He tracks his booking rate to the decimal, at 87.4%.

In one webinar he walked through the math. With weak booking and closing numbers, hitting a revenue goal took about 27.5% of revenue in marketing. With strong numbers, the same goal took under 9%. Same market, same ads. In his words, “A lot of us are not taking advantage of the leads we’re getting.”

How did Ken Goodrich turn a $3 million loss into a $250 million company?

Ken Goodrich tracked every call, from the moment the phone rang to the moment the job was sold. He bought Goettl, a Phoenix HVAC and plumbing company, in 2013. It was doing about $11 million a year and losing $3 million. By 2020 it was a $250 million company with 11 locations and more than 1,000 employees.

In a long interview on the Owned and Operated podcast with John Wilson, he explains how. His advice to an owner who is struggling is to go sit where the calls come in and listen. When leads are easy to get, people get sloppy, and every fumbled call is money walking out the door. Private equity bought into Goettl because the business ran on data.

What does this mean for a carpet cleaning business?

It means the owners who know their numbers are pulling away from the ones who do not. Private equity is buying home service companies because the numbers are predictable when someone actually runs them. The franchise systems in the cleaning industry already work this way. They track results across hundreds of territories and they keep moving deeper into data.

If you are independent and you do not know your booking rate, you are competing with companies that know theirs to the decimal. The best are scaling right now. The rest are quietly falling behind, and most of them do not know it yet.

Which numbers matter more than your ad budget?

Booking rate, average job and repeat rate matter more than your ad budget. Here are three of the 20 rows in the 2026 Carpet Cleaning Benchmark Report:

• Booking rate on new-customer calls: 25-35% for a typical operator, 50-60% for top operators.
• Average residential job: around $180 typical, $450-600 for top operators.
• Repeat rate: 10-15% typical, 60% or better for top operators.

The row that surprises people most is cost per call. The cleaner paying the most per call often has the lowest cost per customer. When you answer the phone and book the job, an expensive call gets cheap. When you do not, a cheap call is the most expensive thing you buy.

What happens when you start measuring?

Most owners find the numbers are worse than they expected. The list of fixes is longer than they hoped, and that is the point where most people quit and go back to buying more leads. The owners who keep going, fix one number at a time and let the results stack up are the ones who grow. Every operator I have watched scale went through that stretch.

Where should you start?

Start by checking for yourself. Listen to Tommy Mello on The Home Service Expert podcast. Watch Ken Goodrich on Owned and Operated. Read Marcus Sheridan’s Endless Customers on why AI only recommends the businesses it trusts most.

Then write three numbers on a whiteboard every day for 30 days: calls answered, calls booked, and how long it took to respond to your last web lead. In a month you will know which column you are in.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who bought A1 Garage Door Service?

Investment firm KKR agreed to buy A1 Garage Door Service for about $2 billion in September 2026, according to reports citing people familiar with the deal. Tommy Mello founded A1 in Phoenix in 2007, and Cortec Group invested in 2022.

Who is Ken Goodrich?

Ken Goodrich bought Goettl, a Phoenix HVAC and plumbing company, in 2013 when it was losing $3 million a year on about $11 million in revenue. He grew it to $250 million with 11 locations and more than 1,000 employees.

What is a good booking rate for a carpet cleaner?

A typical carpet cleaner books 25-35% of new-customer calls. Top operators book 50% or more, peaking toward 60%. The 2026 Carpet Cleaning Benchmark Report lists this alongside 19 other numbers, each with a typical range and a top-operator range.

Should I spend more on ads to grow?

Not until the leads you already get are handled well. Tommy Mello’s math showed the same revenue goal needed about 27.5% of revenue in marketing with weak booking numbers and under 9% with strong ones. Fix booking and follow-up first, then scale ads.

Why does private equity matter to a small cleaning company?

Private equity and franchise systems run their businesses on data, and they compete in the same local markets you do. An independent owner who does not track booking rate, average job and repeat rate is competing against companies that track all three closely.

Final Thoughts

Do not believe me. Check the best, or you will stay one of the rest. The owners who built A1 and Goettl did not win by buying more leads than everyone else. They won because they knew their numbers and fixed the leaks first. If you want help finding where your business leaks, book a Growth Bottleneck Strategy Session and we will go through your numbers with you.