You spent thirty years building it. Don't hand it to someone who's never used a tool or ran a crew.
I buy MEP companies from the owners who built them. I came up in the trades, I still run the work, and I'm not a private equity fund looking to strip your company for parts. One conversation, completely confidential, no obligation.
You've probably already gotten the calls.
Private equity roll-ups. Out-of-state strategics. Brokers who want a listing agreement before they'll tell you anything. Here is how I'm different.
Selling to me
- You talk to the buyer directly, not an associate running a model
- I'm two hours away, not two time zones. I can be at your shop this week
- I've done this work. I know what your callback rate and your service agreements actually mean
- I keep your people. Your crew isn't overhead to cut. They're the reason the company is worth buying
- Confidential from the first call. Your people and competitors hear nothing
- A straight answer on whether it's a fit, quickly
The usual buyer
- A fund analyst who has never been on a jobsite
- Your value is a multiple in a spreadsheet
- "Synergies," meaning your office staff is redundant
- Months of process before anyone commits to anything
- Your name comes off the truck within a year
If this sounds like your company, we should talk.
I'd rather tell you quickly that it isn't a fit than waste your time.
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing. Commercial or residential service.
Profitable, with a real service base. Not one-off project work.
Kentucky and Southern Indiana, out to Lexington, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis.
Retiring, slowing down, or just tired of carrying it alone.
I've been in this since I was six.
Before most kids could ride a bike, I was under crawl spaces and up in attics running wire for my dad. By fourteen I was changing out panels and building services myself. In high school I ran my own van for a local electrical outfit. I put in about ten years as a machinist after that, and gave my notice on Thanksgiving Day, 2016, to bet on myself. I've never left the trades.
Same man. Same hands. Different problems.
You're only as good as your guys in the field.
Most owners I talk to aren't worried about the number. They're worried about what happens Monday morning after the deal closes. Whether the guys who showed up through every slow winter still have a job, and whether the name they built still means something in town.
Here's how I think about that. Before I hired my first employee, I put a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, because the day you put a man on payroll, you're responsible for his family, not just his paycheck. I make sure my guys have work.
So when I say I keep your crew, it isn't a soft promise to get you to the table. It's the whole reason I'm buying. A service company without its technicians is a truck fleet and a phone number. You already built the hard part.
Fred Newman
Four steps. No surprises.
One phone call
Twenty minutes. You tell me about the company, I tell you straight whether it's a fit. Nothing signed, nothing shared.
I look at the numbers
Under an NDA, on your terms. Enough to give you a real range instead of a guess.
An offer you can actually read
Plain terms, in writing. Price, structure, what happens to your people, and how long you stay on, if you want to at all.
Close and transition
We move at your pace. Your crew hears about it when you decide they hear about it.
One call. Completely confidential.
Whether you're ready this year or just starting to think about it, the conversation costs you nothing.
Or send a note and I'll call you back personally.
The Blue Collar Capitalist.
The show for blue collar workers who want more than a paycheck. How to make real money, build a business, and avoid the mistakes that sink most guys. Straight from someone who's been there.