Sometimes the machinery that is beneficial to your company’s bottom line is operating more behind the scenes rather than front and center.

When Kevin Couper bought Kyle Plumbing in Deerfield Beach, Florida, in 2023, he knew the company had what house flippers might call “good bones.” But Couper, who came in with a strong financial-services background, also knew the business would need significant modernization to maximize its potential. He systematically began to integrate digital technologies into the business, starting with ServiceTitan, a business management software that handles everything from dispatching, financial reporting and job scheduling to customer payments, payroll and job estimates.

Couper also adopted Profit Rhino, a digital platform that allows contractors to build customized flat-rate price books. A third item the company embraced was an inventory management software platform from Ply Financial. It relies on a barcode system to track inventory both in the company’s warehouse and on technicians’ trucks.

OUT WITH THE OLD

Couper bought Kyle Plumbing in June 2023, and it generated about $2.5 million in revenue during the seven months he owned it that year. But thanks in part to the comprehensive modernization measures, the company reached nearly $8 million in service revenue alone in 2024.

“Sometimes it’s helpful to have an outside perspective — come in from the business side and not know anything about plumbing,” Couper says. “Usually the two worlds of business and plumbing don’t combine very well, but we’ve morphed the two together. I know it sounds counterintuitive — someone with a finance background and no plumbing experience buys a plumbing business. But it’s working out great.”

Kyle Plumbing, which was for sale because the owner was retiring, was the 20th company Couper considered buying. The business checked off a lot of boxes: a good location, the right number of employees (about 25), a great culture and reputation and solid revenue generation. It just had outdated processes and systems.

“Everything was done with paper,” Couper says. “The customer-relations management system that kept track of customers’ names and addresses was outdated and there were no coordinated systems internally. Technicians typed up invoices in their trucks on laptops bolted to the passenger seat and printed them out on a printer set on the center console. There was no price book or inventory management system, so you couldn’t tell what was on the trucks or in the warehouse.

“But the owner still was very successful,” Couper adds. “Part of the appeal was the chance to make an immediate impact.”

FINANCIAL GAME-CHANGER

Couper began by implementing ServiceTitan, a business management software that handles everything from dispatching, financial reporting and job scheduling to customer payments, payroll and job estimates.

“It was a game-changer financially,” he says. “We had tons of customers that owed us money and had to make a lot of phone calls to collect payments. Now all our technicians have iPads and use ServiceTitan to create invoices, build estimates and collect credit card payments right there on the job.”

The transition wasn’t easy, Couper notes.

“The hardest part was getting everyone on board — there was a lot of pushback and the transition involved a lot of training,” he says. “But I was lucky because the existing system was outdated enough that there was no technical support or software upgrades available anymore. So everyone knew we’d have to make a change sooner or later.”

The transition was somewhat eased by the fact that Couper had all office staff attend presentations from vendors and gathered feedback. This approach eventually led to unanimous support for ServiceTitan, he says.

MORE TECH TOOLS

Couper then adopted Profit Rhino, a digital platform that allows contractors to build customized flat-rate price books.

“It was a tremendous help for basically building a price book from scratch,” Couper says. “Before, the company relied on time-and-materials pricing. But flat-rate pricing allows us to quote an accurate price and avoid dealing with customers that otherwise would be annoyed or upset about how long technicians were on a job (compared to the estimate).” 

The company also embraced an inventory management software platform from Ply Financial. It relies on a barcode system to track inventory both in the company’s warehouse and on technicians’ trucks.

“You can even set specific minimums for part inventory on trucks that trigger automatic purchase-order requests to our warehouse manager when inventories get too low,” Couper says. “It really helps keep our trucks fully replenished with parts.”

The system can also review parts prices from different vendors and automatically selects the lowest price — and then tracks the subsequent savings.

THE RIGHT MOVE

Prior to purchasing Kyle Plumbing, Couper had spent 13 years in the personal wealth management field after earning a degree in finance and entrepreneurship. He was about to open his own finance company before deciding on the career shake-up. He remains satisfied with the move.

“My goal was to take something outdated with a good bone structure, modernize it and compete in that space,” he says. “I like problem-solving, creating things and competing — and I get all of that with this business. Plus, I get to make our employees’ lives better, too. It’s definitely a win-win situation.”