Small Jobs, Big Margins: How Brian Mulvaney Built a More Profitable Home-Service Business

Brian Mulvaney (00:00)
This may not be the most popular view, but it’s the one that works for me the best. And that is being high touch, not necessarily high tech. Now, you gotta have a little bit of tech. You can’t cast a very wide net if you aren’t gonna invest in things like Google or some of the lead sources. But for me, building relationships has always been about high touch. Back in the day when I first started back in automotive, ooh, twenty-five years ago. Holy cow, that’s a long time ago. It was always said it’s impossible to sell or to build a relationship from sitting behind your desk. So get your butt up, go walk to that office or that department or that customer.

Freddie Steen (02:16)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast, brought to you by Real Estate Pros. I’m your host, Freddie. And today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. Here in the nestled villages and towns and major cities of South and North Carolina, we have the owner of The Patch Bros (The Patch Boys) who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space, particularly around drywalling and fixing some of those problems that all of us cause inside of our dwelling spaces. I’m so, so glad to have you here today. Listen, tell our Real Estate Pros audience, Brian, tell us what’s new for you and what markets are you currently operating in.

Brian Mulvaney (03:03)
Well, thank you, Freddie, for having me. I super appreciate the opportunity to talk just a little bit about drywallin’. I know it’s not everybody’s favorite topic, but it’s one of the most necessary ones that every real estate pro or homeowner needs to have in their back pocket. So my name’s my name’s Brian Mulvaney. I’m the owner of Charlotte Patch n Paint and Charlotte Patch n Paint 2, which our DBA is The Patch Boys of North Charlotte and The Patch Boys of South Charlotte.

And the areas we service, it’s mostly the neighborhoods and communities around the greater Metro Charlotte area. So as far north as Concord, Lake Norman area, all the way down south through Rock Hill, York County, and Fort Mill, and pretty much everywhere in between. So that’s where we cast the biggest, widest net possible. But yeah, there are many other smaller neighborhood communities throughout the Greater Charlotte area, of which we serve those, but you know, not to list them all off. There are a a many of them.

Freddie Steen (04:07)
I love it. I mean, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to increase profit margins with The Patch Boys, even when we’re in a market when so many people are going to handyman that are ill-qualified. And you’ve been able to do that in multiple markets while still keeping margins strong. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. Brian, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly in Charlotte?

Brian Mulvaney (04:35)
Yeah, there are many different touch points that help keep us on track. So the main revenue drivers have been strategic partnerships, not only with real estate partners and agents throughout the area, but also with the other trades: electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, pest control, security companies. So we’ve got a steady trajectory of revenue while we also manage to keep our expenses as low as possible.

Some of the strategies we’ve used, not just this year, but since the beginning, is buying in bulk on some of those major resources that we know we’re gonna need eventually. So think of common things like drywall, joint compound, bucket mud, you know, tape, lots of plastic. We pre-buy a lot of that so we can force the price of that way down. Also, by working with our vendor partners throughout the area, we get fixed rates and have negotiated fixed rates with them that we’ve been able to gradually increase year over year as inflation, cost of labor, and cost of materials have continued to increase.

But from that perspective, we also try to tighten up the schedule and prioritize half-day jobs for the morning and then a half-day job in the afternoon. Provided we’re scheduling and everything goes to plan, those days are the better days for us from a revenue perspective. And that’s about a forty to fifty-five percent of our overall business, which then we can add more vendor partners at more competitive rates that lock out any other adjacent competitors that want to dip their toe in our space.

Freddie Steen (07:03)
Forty to fifty percent of of revenue. That’s amazing. How did you know to pivot to that type of efficiency model in 2026?

Brian Mulvaney (07:13)
Yeah, that was a that was a hard one to figure out at first, because just like everybody else, with large projects, you get the big pop of revenue, you get larger dollars. But as you start clawing back some of the numbers and you look at the percentages, you’ve got to be a lot more competitive with your numbers. So instead of getting like a traditional margin like we aim for today of forty-five to forty-eight percent, those large projects that we’re winning were pulling down our overall GPM percentage to 28, 29, and, you know, 30% in terms of ranges.

Then while identifying some of the smaller projects that are averaging, you know, 50, 55, 60, if we could double up on those and, you know, accomplish more of those in one day, the dollars may be smaller, but it’s pulling up our overall percentage. So we don’t turn away any business, large projects or any small ones, but we need to have a good balance of both to make sure we keep profit margin up. And then also applying the same process, we continue to keep our expenses low. Focusing on more Google marketing as opposed to a lot of the other sources that are out there, and pre-buying a lot of our material in bulk helps keep our cost per as low as you can possibly get.

Freddie Steen (08:33)
I know has a moment where things got real. I mean, Brian, maybe it’s a deal that went sideways or a time that you had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Brian Mulvaney (08:45)
Yeah, there’s been many of them, so it’s kind of hard to point on one, but I’ll give you one of the the most relevant ones, and it’s how well you can take care of your employees. One of my long-tenured employees, even, you know, from the beginning, was having problems making it to work. And after peeling back the onion a little bit, it was, yeah, the vehicle was in an ill state of repair. So I made the investment with my team member and it needed starter, you know, needed a lot of bolt-on things to to his truck to make sure it could run and operate properly. It’s gonna cost about eight hundred and seventy-five bucks.

And I advanced the eight hundred and seventy-five bucks to my employee so he could fix his truck, and then we worked out a, you know, a payment plan. Now I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of money and it it’s really not, but it’s the effort of our team to get to the job site as effectively as possible. And you’re also dealing with, you know, somebody that may not be willing to share financial, you know, issues or, you know, a bump in the road, what have you. But I’m glad I was able to to peel back the the onion, so to speak, with my employee, or able to get his truck repaired, and now he refers new employees to our organization.

So that was the moment of one small, you know, item. And to be honest, I could care less if he paid me back. I wanted to take care of him and make sure he could get to work or get wherever he needed. But, you know, working through all those things, he has now referred over six employees to our organization, of which five of them are still with us. So it was one small little thing, but led to a huge result that I’m I’m I’m actually still benefiting from now.

Freddie Steen (11:09)
I mean the small things of helping out an employee in distress or a vendor or a subcontractor, I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, Brian, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble to the ones who stay in the game long term like you. Let me ask you this: what are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Brian Mulvaney (11:33)
Yeah, it’s building out my management structure, as you can imagine, with a large geography. And if you were all the way up in Concord and you wanted to go to Rock Hill, that would easily take you almost an hour and 45 minutes with very minimal traffic. So if you try to go from point to point, the reality is it’s a lot of geography with a lot of customers in between. So one of the big things I’ve been focused on is my oldest son has joined the business, and he is now going to be running a lot of the South operations.

And if you want to talk about one of the best proud dad moments, I popped in on one of his jobs where he had three of our technicians, employees, and watching him interact with our people in much the same way I do was probably one of the proudest moments. But so that’s that that’s a small, you know, area of focus and concentration, but as you would imagine, I I can’t be everywhere and I just don’t want to replicate me. I want, you know, qualified, you know, high-caliber individuals to run and own the business like they really should if you want to see it, you know, perform at its very highest levels.

Freddie Steen (12:43)
Well our real estate pros love a proud dad moment as the father of three beautiful daughters and one son. I love the fact that you’re proud of your son, and we all hope that he continues to strive. Brian, you’ve been in the game a long time. What’s the next real goal for you?

Brian Mulvaney (12:59)
Global domination as it relates to drywall. And it’s really it it’s… and I say that with a little bit in jest, but that that’s really the focus is continuing to build out and expand our area where we’re the only drywall provider people will seriously consider here in the market. But that also means tying into all the other areas that are much needed. You know, if we’re getting the drywall work, you know, hey, who did you have as your carpenter? Who did you hire for your electrical services and needs? Who’s your painter?

We I want to try to identify all of those because I want to be able to select key employees or continue to add to the team and have those people responsible in those areas. As you can imagine, being a true paint professional isn’t just, you know, bringing out a roller and, you know, slapping some, you know, color on the wall. It’s far from it. It’s your prep work, it’s your level of diligence, how well you clean up after, and do you notice or identify any other problems that the customer may not be aware of, you know, until time of work being performed?

Finding a skilled or highly qualified electrician is quite difficult because all the trades are pulling very skilled people into their discipline or their area of expertise. So for us, it’s not just drywall. Now drywall will always be the main focus, but dipping our toe and expanding into the other areas of texture removal, paint services, trim installation, and repairing other areas of the home that most customers will find some difficulty finding. I’m keeping my eye on watching the flooring space, because flooring repair, it’s difficult to get, you know, one of the big flooring companies to come out for, you know, two hours or a half-day repair, where I can see volume and profitability in those smaller jobs.

Freddie Steen (14:53)
Is it true? My research team, they’re so crackpot, they told me that…

Brian Mulvaney (14:58)
Thank you.

Freddie Steen (14:59)
…actually handles… The Patch Boys actually handles popcorn ceilings.

Brian Mulvaney (15:45)
We do. Yeah, we have been expanding more and more into that area, as you’d imagine. Charlotte’s… the city has been around for a very long time, and back in, you know, like the late ’70s, early ’80s, and we’re actually starting to see a little trend of it going towards textured walls now, but that’s an aside. Yeah, there is a big chunk of the home population here, it’s north of 18%, that have textured ceilings.

Whether it’s popcorn, knockdown, and/or orange peel, and it’s been applied, and areas have been repaired, and it’s been applied again. And finally, homeowners in particular get tired of seeing the, you know, the dingy ceiling, and those items collect dust. They’re difficult to repair and to match and to blend into the existing ceiling. So what we’re seeing a huge run of now is a big push for slick or flat ceilings, no texture, you know, and then regular high-quality ceiling paint.

But those projects are big-ticket items. If we’re gonna do a whole home, if you look at it, you know, averaging about $2.70 to almost $3.00 a square foot, you know, just for the repair and the removal side of things, plus another anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 in paint services. You know, you can add you can add those square footages and you can get to large dollar amounts relatively quickly.

Freddie Steen (17:13)
I mean, that’s big, Brian, especially when you’ve already got your footing as a company with The Patch Boys in drywall and looking at doing these repairs. Even the the smallest problem on a on a ceiling could end up being a major problem when you’re talking about the issues that roofers can see. Your guys are trained and skilled and know how to do that. You’re looking out further toward flooring. The next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Brian, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up like you, and I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s make the biggest difference for you?

Brian Mulvaney (18:00)
For me, and this may not be the most popular view, but it’s the one that works for me the best, and that is being high touch, not necessarily high tech. Now, you gotta have a little bit of tech. You can’t cast a very wide net if you aren’t gonna invest in things like Google or some of the lead sources. But for me, building relationships has always been about high touch. Back in the day when I first started back in automotive, ooh, twenty-five years ago. Holy cow, that’s a long time ago.

It was always said it’s impossible to sell or to build a relationship from sitting behind your desk. So get your butt up, go walk to that office or that department or that customer. Get in front of them so you can understand really what their core issues are and what you’re trying to solve in terms of what are their, you know, crush points, what their problems are. So get off, you know, your butt, proverbially, and go see that customer. Don’t just rely on messaging or sending emails. Go see that customer, and the more people you get in front of, I I’ll promise you the results will speak for themselves.

Freddie Steen (19:10)
You can’t fake that. Relationships are everything in this space. All right. Before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to The Patch Boys, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Brian Mulvaney (19:26)
Hit my cell phone, that’s the best way to get in contact with me, and that’s 704-672-5551. And if I’m with somebody else, my phone will always roll to our in-house phone team. So even if you don’t get me immediately, a live person will answer your call and be able to tell you the next steps.

Freddie Steen (19:49)
Listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. I mean, we need more people in the space who are doing it the right way, like you and The Patch Boys. Thanks again for being here, Brian.

Brian Mulvaney (20:00)
Thank you for saying that. It was a pleasure to to finally meet ya. I’ve seen so many great things. Thank you for the opportunity to have a couple of minutes to to chat with ya. I appreciate it.

Freddie Steen (20:10)
And for those of you turning in, tune in if you got value from this. Make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Brian Mulvaney and The Patch Boys out in South and North Carolina building real businesses all across this country just like you. We’ll see you on the next episode. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Mulvaney (20:36)
Thank you.