Solid Field Work, Fragmented Systems
Fiat, Inc., a commercial HVAC services company serving facility and property managers, had no shortage of work. Service calls, maintenance contracts, and project-based jobs kept crews busy, and leadership was actively exploring growth into new markets and segments. What the business lacked wasn’t demand — it was the internal structure to scale that demand profitably.
Growth Was Outrunning the Org Chart
Leadership brought in Waters Business Consulting Group to bring clarity to operations, financial performance, and growth strategy. The diagnosis revealed a business running on informal habits rather than documented process: no clearly mapped workflow from marketing through service, production, and accounting, and no consistent distinction between service work, maintenance contracts, and larger projects — a gap that was quietly eating into margins. Larger projects had no formalized checklist process for materials, equipment, and leadership oversight, and the sales pipeline lived largely in people’s heads rather than in the company’s Simpro system, limiting visibility into new opportunities and revenue predictability.
The people side had similar gaps. Sales and account management roles lacked clear definitions of responsibility and compensation, technician productivity and billable efficiency weren’t systematically tracked, and there were no formal KPIs to catch over-labor on jobs before it became a pattern. As Fiat evaluated merger opportunities and new-market expansion, integration planning and payroll coordination added another layer of complexity leadership needed help navigating — along with guidance on the right legal structure for the business itself.
Mapping the Business From Marketing to Production
WBCG’s approach started with detailed workflow mapping sessions spanning marketing, sales, estimating, accounting, scheduling, and production — creating, for the first time, a documented picture of how work actually moved through the company. That mapping led directly to structural fixes: clear process distinctions between time-and-material service work and project-based jobs, approval checkpoints like credit qualification and project-size thresholds built into the workflow, and a formal checklist process for projects above defined dollar amounts.
On the growth side, WBCG guided leadership in defining target market segments and refining how warranty, maintenance, and service offerings were positioned, while formal position descriptions brought clarity to sales and account management roles. Lead tracking tools and better use of Simpro’s reporting capabilities gave leadership real pipeline visibility for the first time. Underneath it all, new financial models analyzed labor as a percentage of revenue across service, maintenance, and project categories, and technician productivity tracking gave leadership a way to measure billable efficiency directly. As merger conversations progressed, WBCG also supported integration planning, payroll coordination, and job costing alignment, along with organizational chart clarity to keep reporting lines clean through the transition.
The Results: Revenue Nearly Quadrupled
The financial trajectory reflects the operational overhaul. Revenue grew from approximately $1.32 million in 2018 to $5.19 million in 2021 — including a roughly 69% jump from $3.06 million in 2020 to $5.19 million in 2021 alone. Gross profit grew right alongside it, from about $640,000 in 2018 to $1.68 million in 2021.
Beyond the numbers, Fiat now has a documented end-to-end workflow, clearer operational lines between service, maintenance, and project work, real pipeline visibility, and the organizational and financial clarity needed to navigate merger integration with confidence. The business is positioned toward higher-value work with a refined sense of exactly which markets it’s targeting.
Ready to Bring Structure to Your Growth?
Strong field performance can only take a business so far without the systems to support it. If your growth feels harder to manage than it should, a free consultation can help identify where structure is missing — and what to fix first.
Contact Waters Business Consulting Group to schedule a free consultation.
