Sheppard

The trades we work in.

Residential home services only. Ten trades. Ten playbooks.

Each trade has its own unit economics, seasonality, and operational rhythm. The marketing playbook has to respect all three. Below: the ten trades we cover and the thesis we run each one against.

01 / hvacPlaybook

HVAC

Heating, cooling, and indoor air. The flagship trade for PE roll-ups.

HVAC has become the bellwether trade for residential services PE, recurring maintenance plans, high-ticket replacement work, and weather-driven demand spikes that reward an always-on demand engine. The sponsors who win compound brand equity across DMAs while running tight CAC at the unit level.

02 / plumbingPlaybook

Plumbing

Drain, sewer, repipe, and water heater. High-margin emergency demand.

Plumbing platforms compound on emergency response, the call that comes in at 11pm with a flooded basement is the call no consumer price-shops. The marketing job is to be the first name typed, the first ad seen, and the first phone answered. Everything else is downstream.

03 / electricalPlaybook

Electrical

Residential electrical, panel upgrades, EV charging, whole-home generators.

Electrical is the trade most exposed to the next decade of residential capex, panel upgrades for electrification, EV charger installs, whole-home generators, solar interconnects. Platforms that build the brand to own these high-ticket categories will compound faster than the underlying trade.

04 / roofingPlaybook

Roofing

Residential roofing, storm response, and retail re-roof.

Roofing platforms split cleanly into two operating models: storm-chase and retail. Each demands a different marketing engine, and most sponsors don't fund both correctly. The platforms that build a defensible retail brand on top of a storm capability are the ones that exit at a real multiple.

05 / pest-controlPlaybook

Pest Control

Residential pest, mosquito, and termite. Subscription-driven economics.

Pest is the most subscription-native trade in the home services portfolio. The platforms that win treat marketing as a CAC-LTV machine, not a lead-gen function, and report to the sponsor in those terms.

06 / pool-spaPlaybook

Pool & Spa

Pool service, repair, and seasonal opening/closing. Hyper-seasonal.

Pool is a small but compelling adjacency, high-margin recurring service in dense suburban geographies. The sponsors who succeed here treat geography as portfolio strategy: which DMAs justify add-on density and which don't.

07 / garage-doorPlaybook

Garage Door

Garage door install, repair, and opener service. High-ticket residential.

Garage door has rolled up faster than most trades, it's still consolidating. The marketing reality is brutal: it's a low-frequency, high-ticket purchase competed on speed and trust. The platforms that win build trust faster than competitors and dispatch faster than the consumer expects.

08 / flooringPlaybook

Flooring

In-home flooring sales, installation, and remodel-adjacent work.

Flooring is a considered, in-home consultative sale, the closest cousin to bath and kitchen remodel in marketing terms. The platforms that win build the in-home appointment funnel and the sales process as a single system, not two.

09 / restorationPlaybook

Restoration

Water, fire, and mold remediation. Insurance-driven and emergency-paced.

Restoration is the most B2B-feeling of the home services trades, referral relationships with plumbers, adjusters, and TPAs drive the majority of revenue. The marketing platform that wins balances the consumer demand engine with the referral network and reports on both.

10 / landscapingPlaybook

Landscaping & Lawn

Recurring lawn, mosquito, and seasonal, and the route-density game.

Landscaping looks like service, behaves like subscription, and exits on route density. The marketing playbook is built around route economics, neighbor-cluster acquisition, and lifecycle that keeps customers across seasons.

Three modes, inside every trade.

Each playbook draws on all three modes of the practice.

Run it

Full-stack digital marketing execution tuned to the unit economics of the trade.

See the ten specialties

Build it

AI call answering, booking automation, and the systems underneath the trade's customer journey.

See what we build

Advise on it

Operator-grade counsel on operating model, M&A integration, and exit prep.

See the advisory practice

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