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For trades & service owners doing $5M to $25M
Build the business and team
Build the business and team
that runs without you.
Every real decision still routes back to your desk. I rebuild the structure and develop the leaders to own it, so the work runs without you. Same people. Same company. Different structure.
Built for painters
A message from Steve
If your business can't run for two weeks without you, you don't own a business. You own a job with overhead.
Steve BurnettFounder, Pinnacle Knox
30 minutes. A diagnosis, not a pitch. If I can't help, I'll tell you straight.
Built, scaled & sold a service company▲
100+ trades & service companies coached▲
Pinnacle Business Guide▲
152-episode podcast · top 2% globally▲
In person, with your leadership team▲
The diagnosis
Every arrow in your company points at you.
You're doing eight figures, or close to it. Your managers are good. Sales runs sales, ops runs ops. But nobody owns the whole outcome except you. So every real decision still waits in line at your desk.
Every road runs through one office.
iWhen a job goes sideways, they call your cell, not the office.
iiYou're still pricing work at nine o'clock at night.
iiiQuality slips the week you're not around.
ivYour team brings you problems, not decisions.
vThe last vacation you took, you ran the company from a beach chair.
viYou hit numbers you used to dream about, and you're more trapped than when you were half the size.
It's not a people problem. It's a structure problem.
Fig. 01 The owner bottleneck
What you already tried
So you tried to fix it.
You hired more people.
You got busier. More hands, more questions, all still pointed at you.
You handed things off.
They came right back. You kept the decision. That's not delegating, that's babysitting.
You hired a GM.
You dropped them on a broken structure and gave your chaos a salary.
You bought an operating system.
Your team learned new vocabulary. Your meetings got longer. The business still runs through you.
It was never you. It was never your people. It's how the business is built.
And how it's built can be rebuilt.
The fix
We change which way the arrows point.
Today
Every arrow points back at you. One desk, every decision.
The build
We rebuild the org chart, set the decision rights, and develop the leaders to own them.
The result
Your team owns the outcomes. You own the direction.
Same team. Same company. Different structure.
What it's worth
Same revenue. Same profit. One sells for double.
Two companies. Both do ten million. Both make a million in profit. The only difference is whether the business needs you.
Company ARuns through the owner
$10M revenue$1M profit
A buyer pays0×
$0
Company BRuns on a leadership team
$10M revenue$1M profit
A buyer pays0×
$0
Same revenue. Same profit. The gap is
$0
in what your company is worth.
Being irreplaceable feels good. To a buyer, it's just a discount.
How we build it
We build it in five parts. From the base up.
Everybody wants to fix profit first. That's backwards. Profit is the result, not the lever. Build the base, and the top takes care of itself.
Get People and Purpose right at the bottom, and the top takes care of itself.
Adapted, not installed
This isn't a rigid system I drop on you. We bend it to how your business actually works.
Peoplethe leadership team that owns outcomes.
Purposeone vision everyone lines up behind.
Playbooksclear roles, decisions, and how work gets done.
Performancescoreboards, not to-do lists.
Profitthe result, found on purpose.
The after
This is the business without you in it.
Your mornings
Fires today: 7
Your team
Brings decisions, not problems.
????
Your desk stops being the queue.Your company's worth
4× → 8×. Worth more, sell or not.
The business that runs without you is the one a buyer pays a premium for. Whether you sell or not.
$4MRuns through you
$8MRuns without you
Your two weeks off
The phone stays in your pocket.
Two weeks gone. Nothing breaks.
The work
I'm a Guide. Not a guru.
I'm not a consultant who hands you a report and walks out. I'm not a coach who cheers from the sidelines. I sit with your leadership team until the structure runs on its own.
A consultant
Hands you a binder and leaves.
A plan on a shelf. The business still runs through you.
A coach
Cheers from the sideline.
Motivation fades by Monday. Nothing structural changes.
Steve
Sits in your building until it runs without him.
Done with you, not handed to you. Your team owns it when I leave.
Done with youThe cadence
Base Camp2-day intensive. Clarify the vision, build one focused plan, line the team up behind a single mission.
The BuildOngoing. Facilitated days on a weekly and monthly cadence. Decision rights, scoreboards, the leadership team.
The SummitsQuarterly & annual. Reset the plan, hold the line, keep climbing.
Proof
I'm not guessing at any of this.
I built a service company, scaled it, and sold it. Then I spent ten years inside more than a hundred more.
0×
Grew my own company in three years. On structure, not hours.
0+
Trades & service companies coached. US, Canada, Australia.
0
Podcast episodes. Ranked top 2% globally.
Built. Scaled.
Sold.
Sold.
A real service company. Not a theory.
“
— Ken Baer, K&P Remodeling
Years of running in circles. Two days to point everything the same direction. That's what structure does.
Owners Steve has guided
Robin Haffer FlooringWayne Prach MechanicalPJ Guarino ServicesBen Campbell PaintingMatt Orme CoatingsRob Youness Painting
About Steve
I built it the expensive way first.
I dropped out of high school at 15 and started a painting business. Nobody handed me a system. I learned every one of them the expensive way.
In 2005 a hurricane wiped out my whole market in a day. The same stretch, my marriage ended. I was a single dad with two little kids and a business with no customers. I rebuilt it in a brand-new town and 5X'd it in about three years. Not by finding more hours, I was already maxed out. By finally building structure. Then I sold it.
After that I spent ten years inside more than a hundred trades and service companies, and I saw the same thing every time. The trade changes. The bottleneck doesn't. It was always the owner, stuck in the middle of everything.
Built, scaled, and sold a service company
Coached 100+ trades & service companies
Pinnacle Business Guide
Host of a 152-episode podcast, top 2% globally
Steve Burnett
Pinnacle Knox · Business Guide
Is this you?
Built for one specific owner.
$5M to $25M in revenue. Trades, home services, or a service business you built from the ground up. Good managers, but every real decision still routes to you. You want your time back, and a company that's worth real money whether you sell it or not.
This is for you
PaintingRoofingHVAC / plumbing / electricalRemodeling & GCLandscapingService businesses $5M–$25M
Not yet
Pre-$3M owner-operatorsStill chasing every leadNo managers in place
Different problem, different fix. Come back when you've hit the ceiling you can't outwork.
Fair questions
What you're probably wondering.
A system organizes the work. It doesn't build owners. If your meetings got longer but the business still runs through you, the gap is a leadership team that owns outcomes, and no template installs that.
You handed off the task but kept the decision. That's babysitting. Let your people make the $5,000 mistakes now, so they don't make the $50,000 ones when you're not in the room.
The trade changes. The bottleneck doesn't. I owned a service company and I've been inside more than a hundred of them. The structure that fixes it travels.
That's not loyalty, it's a liability. Every relationship that runs through you is one more reason the business can't run, or sell, without you.
Built-to-sell isn't about selling. It's about freedom. The business that can run without you is the one you can finally take a real vacation from. Build it so you could sell it, and you end up with one you'd want to keep.
We talk numbers on the call, once I know how your business is built. It's priced for an eight-figure owner, not a course buyer. If the math doesn't work for your business, I'll tell you on the call.
The phone gets quieter in weeks, because decision rights are the fastest fix. A real leadership team is a 12-month build, not a weekend. I rebuilt and 5X'd my own company doing this. I won't sell you a shortcut I never got.
Stop being the answer to every question in your company.
Book a call. It's not a pitch, it's a diagnosis. We'll look at how your business is built, find where the arrows still point at you, and map what it takes to turn them outward.
Schedule a Strategy Session →
If I don't think I can help you, I'll tell you straight.
Steve Burnett
Pinnacle Knox · Reach Your Peak