Last March I flew to Austin for a conference. The keynote was Tommy Mello.
Tommy built A1 Garage Door Service from one truck into one of the biggest garage door companies in the country.
I wanted to ask him one question about how he pays his techs.
They kept telling me I couldn't get near him. So I made him a custom Texas jersey and found a way in.
And I got to ask my question. Here's what he told me:
"Performance pay is the only way to go. If you talk to an hourly person, all they want to do is make their hourly and go home. They're not gonna strive to be better. They don't have the owner mindset. You gotta think about what's in it for them."
This week, KKR agreed to buy A1 for around $2 billion.
Private equity is pouring into home services right now. Oak Hill bought Guild Garage for north of $800 million this year. KKR already owns Neighborly and a piece of Groundworks.
They're not buying garage doors. They're buying steady cash and strong margins.
And the guy who built the $2 billion garage door company runs performance pay.
I once met one of A1's techs in a parking lot. When I asked him about performance pay, I got the same answer as Tommy gave me:
"I didn't really care as much when I was hourly. Now me and my friends, we chirp each other. I can control how much I can make."
The billionaire owner and the tech agree on the one thing.
Pay people like owners, and they start acting like owners. That’s why I built ShareWillow.
Want us to build a performance pay plan based on your numbers? Book time with my team here.
Best,
Ryan
P.S. Don’t want to jump on a call? Hit reply and ask me any questions you have about performance pay. Replies come direct to me.