These guides are written for the decisions that make or break a boiler company in its first few years. Each one is long because the decisions are not simple, and each one uses worked numbers so you can run the same calculation with yours. Read them in the order that matches your stage.
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How to write a business plan for a boiler service start-up
A useful boiler start-up plan answers five questions with numbers you can test: where you work, what you charge, what you stock, when you hire and how customers find you. This guide walks through each one.
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Buying a boiler service company: a customer-base checklist
When you buy a small boiler company, most of the price pays for customers and reputation. This checklist helps you test both before you sign, and keep both after you close.
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Hiring and training hydronic technicians for a small boiler company
Small boiler companies win technicians with specifics: real work, a real mentor and a visible path forward. This guide covers when to hire, who to hire, how to recruit and how to keep them.
Writing a boiler start-up business plan
How to write a business plan for a boiler service start-up is for founders. It goes section by section through a plan that is actually useful in year one: drawing a service area by drive time, setting price assumptions, sizing the opening parts stock, setting a hiring trigger and building a marketing budget backwards from the number of installs and agreements you need.
You will learn how to test a plan against the 52 weeks of the year rather than the 26 busy ones, and why the first-visit completion rate tells you sooner than anything else whether your parts shelf is right.
Buying an existing boiler service company
Buying a boiler service company: a customer-base checklist is for buyers. Most of what you pay for when you buy a small boiler company is customers and reputation, and both are easy to overstate. The guide shows how to count active customers, read an agreement book, spot goodwill that is tied to the seller personally and list every digital asset that must transfer on closing day.
It also lays out a 100-day transition plan so that customers hear from you before they hear from a competitor. It is clear about where the guide ends: price, structure and contracts are for your adviser, lawyer and accountant, and the group's BizSell.ca brand handles business sales.
Hiring and training hydronic technicians
Hiring and training hydronic technicians for a small boiler company is for owners who are still doing most calls themselves. It covers when to hire, whether to hire experienced or train an apprentice, how to write a job ad that a good technician will actually read, and how to build a training ladder that keeps people.
It links to the official certification bodies for you to check, and explains why late spring is the right time to recruit for winter.
How the guides relate to our services
Each guide stands on its own. If you want help applying one, it maps directly to a service: the business plan guide to business plans, the buying guide to the buy-side review, and the hiring guide to technician recruiting. All three feed into the first-year marketing plan.
Who should read which guide
If you are still employed and thinking about going out on your own, start with the business plan guide; it will tell you quickly whether your idea works on paper. If a retiring owner has offered you their company, read the buying guide before you talk numbers with anyone. If you already run a company and feel stuck, read the hiring guide first, because the owner's time is usually the real limit on growth.
Each guide ends with a short checklist. Print it, fill it in with your own numbers, and bring it to your first conversation with your accountant, your lender or with us. A filled-in checklist turns a vague conversation into a specific one.
A note on the numbers
Every figure in these guides is an illustration, not a benchmark for your market. Labour rates, ticket sizes and close rates vary a lot between, say, Saskatoon and Halifax. The point is the method: write the assumption down, run the arithmetic, and check it against reality every month. Region-specific context, such as the heating mix and the regulators in each province, is on the areas page.
Frequently asked questions
Are the guides free to use?
Yes. Read them, print them, use the checklists in your own planning. You do not need to contact us to get value from them.
Are the numbers in the guides real benchmarks?
No. They are worked examples with round, illustrative numbers so you can follow the method. Replace them with your own figures.
Do the guides give legal or tax advice?
No. Where a decision needs a lawyer, accountant, lender or regulator, the guide says so and stops there.