In the high-stakes world of contracting, the gap between a hard worker and a business owner is often a canyon filled with debt, stress, and hard lessons. For Wade's Plumbing & Septic, bridging that gap wasn't just a business pivot, it was a personal transformation.
Building a company at 25 is a feat of energy; learning to run it properly is a feat of wisdom. This is the story of how I scaled a plumbing business to $2.4 million in sales, lost it all to the chaos of growth, and learned the hard lessons after it was too late—after the company had already closed.
Filling the Void: The Rapid Rise
The origin story of Wade's Plumbing & Septic is one of pure hustle. At 25 years old, I looked at the market and saw a glaring inefficiency: customers were desperate. In an industry plagued by contractors who wouldn't pick up the phone or show up on time, I realized that simply being there and doing the hard work was a competitive advantage no one else could match.
The strategy worked—too well.
"We filled the void," as I recall. The company exploded in size, scaling to 13 employees and generating $2.4 million in annual sales. From the outside, it looked like the American Dream. Crews were dispatching across Santa Cruz County, CA, and eventually Pickens County, GA, tackling everything from complex trenchless sewer replacements to alternative septic system installations.
But inside, the foundation was cracking.
The $2.4 Million Trap
Revenue is vanity; profit is sanity. Wade's Plumbing had plenty of the former and very little of the latter. The company was built on the back of a "nice guy" philosophy. I was eager to please and unsure of my authority, and I allowed the lines between friend and boss to blur.
"I was too nice," I admit. "People stepped all over me."
Without proper management structures or pricing models, the massive revenue numbers were misleading. The company was bleeding cash on overhead, underquoting jobs to win work, and managing a team that lacked clear direction. The "hard work" ethos that launched the company became its Achilles' heel. My co-owner, who I credit as an amazing partner, and I were in the trenches, blind to the fact that we were digging ourselves into a hole.
The breaking point was inevitable. The stress of managing 13 employees without systems, combined with financial bleeding, forced me to step away. It was a humbling collapse for a company that had looked so successful on paper.
The Education of a "Million Dollar Plumber"
Stepping away proved to be the most profitable move I ever made. I didn't just quit; I went to school on the industry.
Working for other companies, I saw the stark difference between running calls and running a business. I realized my mistake wasn't a lack of plumbing knowledge, I knew everything a person could learn about the trade, but a lack of business literacy.
I invested in myself, taking business management classes and enrolling in the Million Dollar Plumbing course by Richard Behney. This was the paradigm shift. The course taught me that a plumbing business isn't just about fixing pipes; it's about fixing the systems that deliver the service.
I learned:
The Psychology of Sales: Moving from "taking orders" to providing professional options that serve the client better.
True Pricing: Understanding that "market price" is irrelevant if it doesn't cover overhead and net profit.
Leadership: The crucial shift from being the "nice person" who is liked, to the "wise person" who is respected.
The Hard Truth
The education came too late. By the time I learned these lessons, Wade's Plumbing & Septic had already closed its doors. The company that had reached $2.4 million in revenue was gone, not because the work wasn't good, but because the business wasn't sustainable.
This is the hardest part of the story to tell: I learned what I should have done, but I learned it after it was too late to save the company. The specialized expertise we developed, the transparent client relations we built, the operational discipline we tried to implement—all of it came after the damage was done.
Today, Wade's Plumbing & Septic is closed. Not because we didn't know how to fix pipes or install septic systems, but because I didn't know how to run a business. The lessons I learned from the Million Dollar Plumbing course, from working for other companies, from seeing how successful operations actually function—these came after the company had already failed.
The Lesson
The journey of Wade's Plumbing & Septic is a case study for every young tradesperson. Hard work can get you to your first million, but only wisdom can keep you there. And sometimes, you learn the wisdom too late.
"I quickly realized what I had messed up and where and why my company failed when I could have done so much better for myself, my family, my business partner, and my community," I reflect. "But by then, it was too late. The company was already closed."
This realization wasn't the end of a success story, it was the beginning of understanding what went wrong. Wade's Plumbing & Septic could have been a professional institution built to last, led by an owner who understood that the kindest thing you can do for your employees and customers is to run a profitable, well-managed business. But I learned that lesson after the company was already gone.
Applying These Lessons to Software
The principles I learned too late for my plumbing business now directly inform how I build software today. Building Thorbis is my way of applying these hard-won lessons to help other service professionals avoid the same mistakes:
- Systems over chaos: Just like in plumbing, field service software needs proper architecture and structure
- Transparency over confusion: Clear pricing, honest recommendations, and straightforward workflows
- Wisdom over features: Understanding what service professionals actually need, not just what sounds impressive
- Sustainable growth: Building for the long term, not just rapid expansion
The same mistakes I made in plumbing, being too nice, lacking systems, focusing on revenue over profit, are the same mistakes I see service companies making with their software choices. Thorbis is built to help them avoid those pitfalls and build sustainable, profitable operations.