You know this conversation: the margin is excellent, the operation just needs to get going

You know this conversation: the margin is excellent, the operation just needs to get going.

The hard decision was not getting in. It was switching off something that still worked.

In 2024 we added pool heating to the portfolio. It made sense: same customer, same job site, margin above the rest of the portfolio. We invested in training, in material, in a team. And we signed together with whoever did the installation, because installation was never ours.

Four salespeople came through in two years. Installer turnover I never stabilized.

The margin was there. It was never the problem.

What the sale paid did not cover the cost of the lead that generated it. No growth strategy survives an acquisition cost that the sale itself does not pay.

Whoever executes owns the channel. I owned the brand that signed underneath.

• Two years buying leads for a product that did not pay for its own lead.
• Four salespeople passing through an operation the leadership was already discussing shutting down.
• And the training and material that left the cash and did not come back with the channel.

We shut it down at the end of 2025.

The channel is still promising. It just was not ours.