Welcome back to Wednesday's Spotlight. Today, we are looking at Gary Air, a Sarasota HVAC business that Rob Brooks acquired in June 2025. In 15 months, revenue grew from about $1.9 million to more than $5 million, while trailing EBITDA reached $1.41 million. The interesting part is how much of that growth came from basic operating changes across pricing, collections, margins, sales, and systems.

When Rob Brooks acquired Gary Air in 2025, the Sarasota HVAC company was doing about $1.9 million in annual revenue and roughly $200,000 in EBITDA. Fifteen months later, trailing revenue had crossed $5 million, and EBITDA had reached $1.41 million. Revenue increased about 2.6x, while EBITDA grew more than 7x, reflecting a much larger improvement in profitability.

Gary Air was founded by Gary Christopher and his wife in 1995, roughly 30 years before Brooks acquired it. The business had history, customers, technicians, and a local reputation. Brooks came in without an HVAC background, but with experience in technology, operations, and the Marine Corps. Instead of spending his first 90 days simply observing, he began making changes early while also learning the work alongside technicians.

One of the first priorities was improving visibility into the business. Gary Air moved to ServiceTitan, upgraded its accounting and reporting, and built more detailed dashboards around revenue, margins, technician performance, and other metrics. That made it easier to understand which jobs were profitable, where capacity was being lost, and which parts of the business needed attention. For a company that had operated for decades, simply making the numbers more visible created a better basis for decisions.

The commercial changes were similarly straightforward. Prices moved closer to market levels, and customers began receiving multiple estimate options instead of a single take-it-or-leave-it quote. The company also worked through $107,000 in overdue receivables and identified roughly $65,000 in annual insurance savings. Gross margin eventually rose above 50%, up from roughly 38-39% before the acquisition. The interesting part is that none of those changes required inventing a new product or entering a new market.

There was also more value inside the customer base than the previous operating model had captured. One outbound campaign made 252 calls, sold 42 maintenance plans, and generated $21,700 in revenue. That is a relatively small campaign, but it shows the opportunity available in a mature service company with years of customer history. Growth does not always require a large increase in marketing spend if the business already has thousands of past customers who can be reactivated, placed on maintenance plans, or brought back for additional work.

Brooks also spent significant time learning the trade itself. He joined technicians on service calls and worked through difficult jobs with them, giving him a clear view of how customers made decisions, where jobs slowed down, and what technicians needed to improve their performance. That knowledge informed decisions about training, recruiting, pricing, sales, and customer experience. 

Better reporting made problems easier to identify. Higher prices and more accurate estimates improved the economics of each job. Collections released cash that had already been earned. Cost reviews improved margins, while customer follow-up created additional revenue from an existing base.

The business has since moved beyond the original Sarasota operation. Brooks’ holding company, Chosin Companies, has completed a second acquisition of a 35-year-old residential HVAC business in Hillsborough County, expanding into the Tampa market. The group now operates across HVAC and plumbing, with additional home-service trades planned as it expands across Florida.

Brooks did not buy a fast-growing company and ride its momentum. He bought a mature local HVAC business and found room for improvement in pricing, collections, margins, customer follow-up, technology, and field operations. The move from $1.9 million to more than $5 million in revenue is significant, but the more important number is EBITDA, which moved from roughly $200,000 to $1.41 million.

Sonora restaurant and event venue asks $4.25M on $2.7M revenue and $573K cash flow

This Sonora, California restaurant, bar, and event property generated $2.7 million in revenue and $573,000 in cash flow in 2025. The $4.25 million asking price is split between $3 million for the real estate and $1.25 million for the operating business, putting the business at roughly 2.18x cash flow. The property has 14,414 square feet, including about 10,000 square feet of usable restaurant and bar space, three bars, a beer garden, rooftop patio, event space, and total seating for 466 guests. The deal is SBA pre-approved for 85% financing over 25 years, requiring roughly $600,000 cash down and about $20,000 in monthly debt service.

Translation, if you own one: Real estate can materially change how an SMB transaction is financed and valued. Here, roughly 70% of the asking price is tied to the property, which supports a 25-year SBA financing structure and lowers the monthly debt burden relative to financing a business-only acquisition over a shorter term. For owners who control their underlying real estate, selling the business and property together can widen the financing options available to buyers and support a much larger headline transaction value.

Source: Priced at $4.25 million and SBA Loan Pre-Approved

Keeping workers on 1099s for too long can create tax exposure, penalties, and diligence problems that make buyers nervous. On Friday, we show how worker misclassification develops, what buyers look for during diligence, and how to clean it up before a sale.