How to Grow an HVAC Business: From One Truck to a Full Fleet

Most HVAC contractors stay stuck at the same revenue for years. Same two or three trucks. Same frantic summers and slow winters. Same ceiling they can’t seem to break through.

Meanwhile, the industry is projected to grow 8% through 2034. Demand isn’t the problem. The problem is that growth requires different skills than the ones that got you here. Running service calls doesn’t teach you how to hire, how to build systems, or how to stop being the bottleneck in your own business.

The contractors who break through do it by building specific systems—for hiring, for recurring revenue, for pricing, for operations—that turn a one-truck operation into a real company. Here’s what separates them from everyone else.

1. Build recurring revenue first

The fastest path to growth isn’t chasing new customers, it’s locking in the ones you already have.

Maintenance agreements create predictable cash flow that smooths out seasonal swings. They give you regular access to customers’ homes, which generates service calls and replacement sales. And they build a relationship of trust that makes upsells easier.

Ruth King, who has helped HVAC contractors grow their businesses since 1987, puts it simply: “Maintenance is what ties everything together. It funds replacement and service work. Those are where you make your profits.”

The maintenance flywheel: Agreements → Regular customer contact → Service calls → Replacement sales → Referrals → More agreements

What to do:

• Set a goal for agreement count (start with 100 residential customers if you’re just building)
• Price agreements to break even or generate slight profit—the real money comes from the service and replacement work they generate
• Train techs to identify repair and replacement opportunities during maintenance visits
• Track renewal rates monthly; if customers aren’t renewing, find out why

The math scales at any size. Even 50 customers at $250/year is $12,500 in predictable revenue plus the downstream work it creates.

2. Hire for attitude, train for skill

The HVAC industry will need roughly 40,100 new technicians every year through 2034, many to replace workers retiring or leaving the field. Waiting for the perfect candidate means waiting forever.

Successful contractors hire differently. They prioritize attitude and work ethic over technical experience, then build training programs that develop skills internally.

Where to find candidates:

• Trade schools and vocational programs (build relationships before you need to hire)
• Career changers from other hands-on industries
• Military veterans transitioning to civilian work
• Apprenticeship programs you create internally

What to screen for:

• Reliability and punctuality (check references specifically for this)
• Customer service instincts (can they communicate clearly and stay calm?)
• Problem-solving mindset (give them a scenario and see how they think)
• Willingness to learn (technical skills can be taught)

One critical warning from King: “Usually your best technician makes the worst service manager.” Technical excellence doesn’t translate to people management. When it’s time to build a leadership team, look for management aptitude, not just your top performer.

3. Answer every call or lose the job

When a homeowner’s AC dies in July, they’re calling multiple contractors. The contractor who answers first usually gets the job: 64% say answering that first call is important when choosing who to hire, and 35% say it’s the most important factor. 

Your response system:

• Answer live during business hours (or use a call answering service)
• Return missed calls within one hour maximum
• Set up after-hours coverage for emergencies—this is when customers are most desperate and least price-sensitive
• Track your answer rate; most contractors overestimate how many calls they actually catch

Even if you can’t schedule immediately, acknowledging the call and giving a timeline beats silence. The customer just wants to know someone’s handling their problem.

4. Know your numbers cold

You can’t grow what you can’t measure. Yet many HVAC contractors don’t know their true margins until tax time, when it’s too late to fix anything.

The benchmarks that matter:

• Gross profit margin: Well-run HVAC businesses target 50-55%; industry average sits around 30-40%. If you’re below 40%, you’re likely underpricing or bleeding costs somewhere.
• Net profit margin: Top performers can hit 20% or more; while average companies see 2.5-5%. Double-digit net margin should be your target.
• Overhead ratio: Keep operating expenses between 25-35% of revenue.

Your financial rhythm:

• Daily: Check your bank account for anything unusual
• Weekly: Review job-level profitability on active projects; catch overruns before they get worse
• Monthly: Compare actual results to your budget; adjust pricing or operations accordingly

King emphasizes one number above all for growth planning: “Take your target growth amount and multiply by 10%. Want to grow from $1 million to $2 million? You’ll need $100,000 in cash to fund that growth.” That cash covers new trucks, inventory, receivables, and payroll for new hires before they’re fully productive.

5. Price for profit, not just competition

Many contractors set prices by checking what competitors charge, then matching or undercutting. This race to the bottom explains why industry-average net profits sit below 5%.

Profitable pricing starts with knowing your true costs—not just parts and labor, but overhead, callbacks, unbillable time, and the profit margin you need to grow.

How to price for growth:

• Calculate your fully loaded hourly cost (wages + benefits + insurance + vehicle + overhead)
• Add your target profit margin (work backward from the net margin you want)
• Build in contingency for callbacks and warranty work
• Don’t apologize for your prices—explain your value

When customers push back on price, the issue usually isn’t the number, it’s that they don’t see the value. Educate before you quote. Explain what’s included, why quality matters, and what can go wrong with cheaper options.

And when the total still causes hesitation, offering financing can close deals you’d otherwise lose. Acorn Finance lets customers spread payments over time while you get paid upfront, turning a $12,000 objection into a manageable monthly payment.

6. Dominate a small area before expanding

Ambitious contractors often think growth means geographic expansion—serving more ZIP codes, opening a second location, covering the whole metro.

King advises the opposite: “If I could get owners to stay in a reasonable geographic area and saturate that market before they think about going elsewhere, everybody would be happier and make a lot more profit.”

The benefits of density:

• Faster response times (shorter drive between calls)
• Lower fuel and vehicle costs
• More referral concentration (neighbors talk to neighbors)
• Stronger brand recognition (you become “the HVAC company” in that area)
• More efficient routing and scheduling

How to saturate your market:

• Pick a target neighborhood or ZIP code
• Concentrate your marketing there (direct mail, door hangers, yard signs)
• Ask every customer in that area for referrals and reviews
• Track what percentage of homes in that area you’ve served
• Don’t expand until you’ve genuinely dominated your core territory

7. Build systems that scale without you

The difference between a $500,000 business and a $2 million business isn’t working four times harder. It’s building systems that run without constant owner involvement.

The minimum tech stack:

• CRM: Customer history, follow-up reminders, and lead tracking need to live somewhere besides your head. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber—pick one and require everyone to use it.
• Financial software: QuickBooks or similar, integrated with your CRM. You need job-level profitability, not just an annual P&L.
• Scheduling and dispatch: Route optimization saves hours per week as you add trucks.
• Call tracking: Know which marketing channels generate calls, and which generate booked jobs.

The operational systems:

• Documented processes for common jobs (so new techs can get productive faster)
• Checklists for maintenance visits (so nothing gets missed and upsell opportunities get flagged)
• Follow-up sequences for unconverted quotes (most customers need multiple touches)
• Review request process (ask every satisfied customer, make it easy, respond to every review)

Navigate the growth danger zones

Growth isn’t linear. There are specific revenue stages where HVAC businesses get stuck.

King identifies two critical transitions: “The first is between $800,000 and $1 million, when you can’t do everything yourself anymore and have to add office help and more field staff. The second is between $3.5 million and $5 million, when you need an actual management team.”

Both stages share a trap: You’ll temporarily make less money while building capacity for the next level. Contractors who don’t expect this often panic and retreat, staying stuck at the same revenue indefinitely.

The key is planning for these transitions before you hit them. Build cash reserves, develop leaders, and document systems so the business can run without you doing everything.

Your 30-day growth plan

Week 1: Know your baseline

• Calculate gross and net margin by service type (maintenance, repair, installation)
• Count your active maintenance agreements
• Check your cash reserves against King’s 10% growth planning rule

Week 2: Fix your response system

• Audit your call answer rate (it’s probably lower than you think)
• Set up tracking for missed calls
• Implement a one-hour callback policy

Week 3: Build your maintenance agreement engine

• Set a 90-day goal for new maintenance agreements
• Create a script for techs to pitch agreements on every service call
• Build a renewal reminder system for existing customers

Week 4: Tighten your territory

• Define your core service area (be specific—ZIP codes, not “the metro”)
• Concentrate next month’s marketing spend in that area only
• Track jobs by neighborhood to see where you’re winning

The bottom line

You got into HVAC because you’re good at the work. But growing a business means getting good at something else entirely: hiring, systems, finance, marketing. The technical skills that built your reputation won’t grow your company.

That’s the real level up: from technician who owns a business to owner who employs technicians. Make it, and that’s how a one-truck operation becomes a real company—and how a real company becomes a fleet.