How Rescue Air built a $25 million, one-stop shop for HVAC and plumbing
Rescue Air & Plumbing owner Josh Campbell shares how a smart acquisition elevated his local business to a one-step shop for home services.
Photo of Josh Campbell (center) leading a team meeting at Rescue Air
Josh Campbell started Rescue Air to provide heating and cooling services—and standout customer service—to the Dallas-Fort Worth community. But as his business grew, customers kept asking for more.
After years of referring customers elsewhere for plumbing, the longtime HVAC provider decided to merge with another local business and create Rescue Air & Plumbing, now a $25 million company with 100+ employees.
Rescue Air co-founders Michael Hirsh and Josh Campbell
Raised on a farm in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Josh learned early that reputation is everything—as he puts it: “If you burned a bridge where I’m from, that burnt bridge is gonna follow you forever.” He founded Rescue Air in 2014 with his uncle, carrying forward that same core value.
“I think my uncle and I have a competitive advantage in our industry that we don’t move through people. We treat people like we did when we grew up in the country, and we do what we say we’re gonna do,” he said.
Once Rescue Air had built a solid reputation for quick, reliable service and lasting customer relationships, Josh recognized another opportunity to help customers—this time with plumbing. In 2022, he acquired Texas Green Plumbing, aiming to create the ultimate home services dream team with Master Plumber Roger Wakefield.
Below, Josh shares lessons learned from merging with another small business, along with practical tips for business owners considering buying or selling a company.
How do you know if your business is ready for an acquisition?
“[When acquiring a business,] I think you gotta stop and say, ‘Well, why am I doing that?’ Beyond just trying to make more money or something superficial, what’s the core reason for this? One of the core reasons that I [decided to add plumbing to Rescue Air] is it’s very, very healthy in your company to demonstrate that you’re growing in interesting ways that people want to be a part of. If you’re not growing, look for turnover in your company.
“Another reason that we did this is because… we already have this core database of customers. Adding that service line serves my customers at a high level, and I don’t have to market for it. I can just let my customers know, and they’ll start using us for it. You need to be at a size where that’s the truth. A lot of people think that truth is earlier, and it’s a lot of, that’s just ego getting in the way.
“You gotta do a little bit of math and think a little bit and say: ‘Am I at a place where my core business can serve this [new acquisition] at a high enough level to make it easier?’ If it can’t, you’re just opening a second business under the same roof. And that’s a bad idea because it’s hard enough to run one business. Don’t try to run two.”
Photo of the Rescue Air and Plumbing team
What do you look for when merging with a partner?
“I want a company that’s got a pretty good reputation online because we do, so it’s gotta align with ours. If I buy [an untrustworthy] company… that’s gonna reflect on our image. It’s the whole reason that we maintain our reputation on Yelp and everywhere.
“You gotta have a company that believes in good core values because otherwise you may very well be [taking on] a bunch of team members who don’t have those core values. You just wanna see as they’re as aligned as they possibly can be.
“I’d look at the potential when I’m valuing a company too. I think it’s a smarter way to buy a business… So many people want to retreat and say: ‘I’m buying a company. What’d you do in revenue last year?’ That [only tells you] what they did in revenue last year. That doesn’t equate to what you’re gonna be able to do. You’re gonna do an enhanced version of that.”
How do you transition new staff to your business?
“When I bought my first plumbing company that we closed on, it had six trucks, six guys, and did a little over $1 million a year. We probably lost half of those people within six months. Only one of those guys is still on my team here now, four or five years later. But the reason I bought that company is because I could plug the whole company straight into mine. It was turn-key.
Photo of Rescue Air technicians in a team meeting
“If you buy a company, you’ve bought an entire system. [When] you plug that into your company, don’t change anything. Don’t break the machine. It’s already enough discomfort and change, especially for a plumber—they don’t like change.
“You want to just take it easy on ’em, and then maybe after two or three months, then start off with changes. But move the needle for them. Like if you’re gonna change the pay plan, it better improve their quality of life. All the changes you make initially, give them wins before you start doing any procedural stuff that they might not see any gains out of.”
We’ve built our culture and our processes and our policies all around things that people can get behind. Our values aren’t values that we made up… for any reason outside serving our team members.
— Josh Campbell, owner of Rescue Air and Plumbing
What steps can I take to start getting ready for expansion?
“I think a healthy exercise before I got to a point where I was gonna buy a business would be [looking] at a financial statement and [identifying] what’s wrong with my business. Just looking at a P&L and [saying]: ‘Okay, that number’s off.’
“You should know what all those percentages are. And if you don’t know what they are or they don’t exist, go find ’em. You should know a percentage for every single number on your P&L, and you should get an example of how it should be organized.
If you don’t know your [profit and loss statement] (P&L), there is a ceiling for how far you’re gonna be able to grow your business. That’s a fact. It’s as plain as day.
— Josh Campbell, owner of Rescue Air and Plumbing
“Half of learning this stuff is just making it a daily exercise. Maybe set aside 15 minutes a day to stare at your P&L or talk to your bookkeeper. And it sucks. Grinding is all about doing stuff that sucks… I do not like looking at P&Ls, but I do it because I know I have to. And the reason I didn’t like looking at them initially is because I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at. If you get educated on this stuff, it’s not so bad.”
Photos from Rescue Air & Plumbing on Yelp
These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen or watch below to hear more from Josh Campbell, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.