These Top Home Services Operators Take a Tactical Approach to Growth

Home services are a family affair for Dawn and Bill Hester and Pam and Jay Griffith, who are Empower Brands franchisees.

Dawn Hester and her husband Bill have owned a Conserva Irrigation territory in South Carolina since 2019. Dawn’s sister, Pam Griffith and her husband Jay joined the operation in 2020. In 2023, the group added Superior Fence & Rail to its portfolio.

Every year has resulted in positive sales growth, and the group has been among the top performers in the Conserva system in recent years.

“It comes with a lot of work,” Dawn Hester said. “We work hard. We are hardworking people. … We haven’t let our foot off the gas since we’ve started. I think some people think ‘Well, I’m going to buy a franchise and I’ll just sit back and watch it happen.’ That’s not the way to go.”

When prospective operators reach out about buying into the Empower system, Jay Griffith tells them just that.

“Don’t think that is a push ‘start’ in your car and that’s going to drive itself to wherever you want to go,” he said. “You have to be in control of what’s happening.”

The franchisees’ collective career experience includes bookkeeping, landscaping, military defense contracts and architecture. Griffith said those backgrounds have been “critical” in building the business.

“Bringing the right skills to a franchise, I think, are critical, and the mix of those skills has been really beneficial to our success,” he said.

Overall, home services brands’ sales were up 7.1 percent in 2025, to $11.6 billion, according to Franchise Times Top 400 data. That includes 56 brands across multiple industries, such as home improvement, HVAC, lawn care and storage.

The home improvement franchise category—which includes brands such as Window World, Budget Blinds and Precision Door Service—hit $6.7 billion across 28 brands on the Top 400 ranking. That’s a 7.6 percent increase from 2024 to 2025, with a collective 6,929 units, up 1.3 percent.

HVAC, electrical and plumbing was the second-largest home services category, with seven brands bringing in $1.9 billion, a 12.2 percent year-over-year increase. Top sales growers in this sector include Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning, Mr. Rooter and Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.

Franchising in general was attractive to the Hesters when they were first exploring Conserva, because they weren’t required to start from scratch, like they’d done with another business prior. The Griffiths joined the venture because of Empower’s corporate structure and the backing of fellow operators. “Irrigation, previously, was not a super professionalized business. [Conserva is] professionalizing something that hadn’t been professionalized,” Griffith said.

Conserva Irrigation posted $54 million in systemwide sales with 210 territories in 2025. Superior Fence & Rail did $324 million across 311 units.

In 2021, Lynx Franchising bought Outdoor Living Brands and, in 2023, the two entities combined to form Empower Brands. Today, Empower franchises 10 brands, including Jan-Pro, Archadeck Outdoor Living, Bumble Roofing and Outdoor Lighting Perspectives.

Since that acquisition, Hester said the changes have only been positive. “They support us so well, and even through the transitions, it’s been consistent [with] their support that they provide,” she said. “That’s really what we were hoping for and we have gotten it.”

Private equity sponsors own many of the big platforms in the sector. There’s Authority Brands, which is backed by Apax Partners, and Neighborly, a portfolio company owned by KKR. Empower is one of more than 20 companies in the MidOcean Partners portfolio.

Some PE firms are investing in the larger franchisees, too. Eagle Merchant Partners, Franchise Equity Partners and Main Post Partners have invested hundreds of millions into multi-unit operators of Mr. Rooter, Mr. Electric and Precision Garage Door Service, to name a few.

Service Minds is another investment-backed operator. The company owns territories of One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and Mister Sparky—each under the Authority Brands umbrella.

“They understand franchising extremely well, and I think they prioritize our growth and profitability above everything else,” said David Cox, the CEO of Service Minds, about Authority Brands’ executive team.

The company prioritizes its franchisees, Cox said, by encouraging collaboration between operators from all of its brands. Multi-brand and multi-unit operators have access to specialty consultants and a franchise business consulting network. “They really try to partner with us, anticipate what the needs are going to be and extract overall value from the system,” he said, “which I think is one of the most important parts about franchising.”

Benjamin Franklin ended 2025 just shy of 400 locations with $249 million in system sales, according to Top 400 data. Mister Sparky did $231 million with 255 units, while One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning reported $366 million with 418 units last year.

Being part of a franchise system, especially one as large as Authority Brands, comes with an automatic support system.

“Unlike most PE-backed large platforms out there, franchisees care more about their brands … more about the business, the customers and the communities in which we serve,” Cox said. “We’re part of that journey. We live here, we work here, and being responsible for sharing a brand with other people is really important. We have to respect that, and it’s just part of our DNA.”

Service Minds is a consolidation of several franchisee groups. Cox started his share of the company in 2008.

“I think I could speak on my behalf and the rest of the business owners that we consolidated and bought everything from to say that we wanted to be in business for ourselves, but not in business by ourselves,” Cox said.

Jon Steward and his brother opened a Mr. Handyman franchise in 2020. Steward spent decades on the franchisor side at Planet Fitness, Great Clips and Dairy Queen. The pair acquired an existing Mosquito Shield business in 2024. Today they own three Mr. Handyman territories and 17 Mosquito Shields.

Home services appealed to Steward in part because of its lower cost of entry. (The cost to open a Mr. Handyman franchise ranges from $143,150 to $179,600. Mosquito Shield is in a similar range, from $120,525 to $162,420.)

“Also, we just love the idea of helping people—and there’s a lot of industries that can help people—but helping people to enjoy their homes or enjoy their outdoor spaces is just something that really appeals to us,” Steward said. “When we were looking to expand our business, it was natural to look in that home services sector.”

Mr. Handyman, under Neighborly, reported $189 million in sales last year from 357 territories nationwide. Five Star Franchising’s Mosquito Shield posted $30 million from 407 units.

The challenges these franchisees say they face are the same as other business owners are being confronted with: rising costs for labor and supplies, plus other hiring struggles.

Finding skilled laborers can be a challenge in itself, but training employees in the level of professionalism required can be a separate hurdle.

“We put in a very … deliberate process in hiring,” Griffith said. “On top of that, we have a deliberate process in not only training, but monitoring the effect of that training.” If someone isn’t performing up to standards, “We are very specific to take the time to talk to that technician about the problem that they’re having and to get it rectified.”

At Service Minds, Cox positions each brand as an expert in its respective field, which he said sets them apart from competitors trying to do it all.

“You don’t go to your general practitioner if you have a brain injury. You go to, potentially, a neurosurgeon,” he explained. “Having distinct brands that are absolute experts at what they do is really important for our customers, our clients, our homeowners, rather than having an option where it’s a one-stop shop.”