Ask Frank

William Chomley

Real talk for America's small businesses to help them grow Ask Frank is the weekly 15-minute show for small businesses where every Tuesday: one owner question, one expert in the field, clear steps. From breaking $1M to scaling past $10M to exiting on your terms. We do the playbook from one truck to ten, smart debt as a wealth lever, stacking assets, and the exit. Got a burning question? Submit at talktofrank.ai and hear it on the show. Hosted by Will Chomley, founder of Frank — 🌐 talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/people/Frank-Talk-to-Frank/61583722127699

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Patrick Lange on why 80% of HVAC businesses listed for sale never actually sell

    Patrick Lange is the founder of Business Modification Group, one of the most active HVAC and plumbing business brokers in the country. He started as a financial planner, bought a pool service company in his midlife-crisis years, scaled it to 300 pools a week, sold it, became a broker the long way around, and now specialises in selling only heating-and-air and plumbing companies. 167 deals later, nobody in America knows more about why $1–5M trades businesses sell — or quietly don't. In this episode, Patrick walks through what he's actually seeing across hundreds of HVAC sales, what the deal-dies-on-the-desk pattern looks like, and what every operator twelve to twenty-four months out from selling should be doing today: What 167 HVAC sales taught Patrick about why $1–2M businesses sell for less than buyers expect to pay — and why $10M businesses sell for multiples that look like science fictionThe IBBA's brutal stat: only 20% of listed businesses actually sell. Patrick names the three things that take down the other 80% — and the one that's preventable"If your name's on every Google review, you don't have a business — you have a well-paying job." The difference between selling a business and selling yourself, and why the latter rarely closes for what the owner wantsThe June SBA rule change that quietly shut down two-thirds of Patrick's deal flow — what changed, what it means for any HVAC owner planning an SBA-financed sale, and what's working now insteadThe 12–24 month pre-sale checklist — what to do TODAY to pay yourself the difference between the deal you want and the deal that quietly dies on the broker's deskPlus: the actual buyer pool in 2026 — PE consolidators, second-gen kids whose parents sold to PE and want their own business, bankers who heard "buy boring businesses," and Harvard lawyers fleeing the firm — and what each of them is actually paying for; why Patrick treats every sale like a "marriage not a divorce"; the customer-concentration trap that turns four "great" customers into a deal-killer; and the one thing Patrick would tell every HVAC owner planning to sell in the next two years to do TODAY — even if their CPA grumbles about it. If you're an HVAC, plumbing, or service operator planning to sell in the next two to five years — or you just want to know what makes one $2M business worth $4M and the one next door worth $1M — this is the episode that gets the deal off the desk and across the closing table. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    15 min

  2. Jun 9

    Sturdy McKee on the All Blacks playbook that took him from 70-hour weeks to 6

    Sturdy McKee is the creator of the Six Hour CEO framework and one of the most respected owner-operator coaches in America. A physical therapist by training, he built and ran a six-location, forty-eight-person, $4M+ practice, in six to eight hours a week. He spent over a decade in Entrepreneurs' Organization learning from peers, and turned what he learned into a framework now taught to trades operators, contractors and service business owners across the country. In this episode, Sturdy walks through the moves that take a trades operator from "I am the operating system" to running their business like the coach of a winning team, including a detour into the New Zealand All Blacks that neither of us saw coming: Why "you can't delegate invisible work" and the dumbest, simplest tool (a whiteboard or a Google Sheet) that gets a business out of an owner's head and onto paper for the first timeThe 8-to-10-person rule why this is the natural team size one person can manage, and the multiplier structure that kicks in past itThe mindset shift from "hardest working player on the field" to "coach" the identity trap that keeps most $1–3M operators stuck on the wrong side of itThe Six Hour CEO core operating loop process, plays, scorecard, weekly meeting and why "boring is good" when it comes to weekly cadenceThe All Blacks moment Sturdy, an American PT, unprompted, rattles off the All Blacks' 78% win record since 1906, their cultural value "leave the jersey in a better place," and the stewardship lesson that lands the entire Six Hour CEO philosophy in one analogy nobody saw coming Plus: why Sturdy made profit faster the moment he went OUTSIDE his profession for business learning, the dirty little secret that 80–90% of every business (regardless of industry) is the same set of problems, the five critical "plays" every business needs documented — and the one move Sturdy would force every drowning operator to make in the first ninety days, before talking about vision, goals or anything else. If you're a trades or service operator running your business out of your head and your phone — or you just want a coach's playbook for getting your evenings back — this is the episode that gets the operating system out of you and onto paper. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    16 min

  3. Jun 2

    The SBA rules that quietly kill your deal, long before the closing table

    Scott Oliver is a partner at Lewis Kappes in Indianapolis and one of the most active SBA closing attorneys in the country. He represents the largest SBA lenders in America on small business acquisitions — which means he sits in the last chair before the money moves. He's the deal quarterback making sure every transaction is SBA-compliant, structurally sound, and built to survive not just the closing table but the years that follow it. In this episode, Scott walks through the five SBA rules every trades operator should know before they hire the broker — let alone sign the LOI: What a closing attorney actually does (and why every deal needs three — the lender's, the buyer's, the seller's). The DIY-with-ChatGPT-or-your-brother's-family-lawyer mistake that quietly costs operators their saleThe 12-month rule — why a seller who plans to stay on for two years as a $200K-a-year consultant just made their own deal ineligible (the SBA SOP changed; the 24-month number floating around the internet is no longer correct)The seller-note trap — what "full standby for the term of the SBA loan" actually means (120 months, not 24), when a seller note kills eligibility, and when it sails through as equity injectionThe new investor cap-table flag — every angel investor on an SBA deal now gets logged in eTran, and there's a live question of whether a borrower default could flag a 1% backer for life (the hot topic rattling every search-fund and small-PE investor right now)The citizenship rule that just changed — green card holders are no longer eligible to sit anywhere on the cap table (they used to be), and how that quietly takes a chunk of buyers off the table on your dealPlus: why the deal that dies at the closing table almost always actually died at LOI months earlier, the credit tightening Scott is seeing in 2026 vs 2025, the move that gets the seller represented properly (Scott represents the bank — not the seller, not the buyer), and the one conversation Scott would force every $1–5M owner planning a sale to have at the very first lender meeting — long before they ever sign an LOI. If you're a trades or services operator planning to sell to an SBA-financed buyer in the next 12 to 36 months — or you just want to know which conversations to have with your lender, your buyer, and your lawyer before you sign anything — this is the episode that keeps your retirement plan alive at the closing table. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    16 min

  4. May 26

    When fast money saves your business & when it kills it

    In this episode, Gerri walks through the five moves every trades operator should make before they sign a single funding offer: What a merchant cash advance actually is — not a loan, and the industry has worked hard to keep it out of lending regulation (so the consumer protections you assume are there, aren't)The factor rate trap — why "1.2" doesn't mean 1.2%, and why the cost is locked in the second you sign, not earned over time ($10K at 1.2x = $12K owed the moment your pen leaves the page)The hidden cost almost every owner misses — it's not the factor rate that kills businesses, it's the daily holdback eating 10–20% of every sale going forward, and the second MCA you take to cover the cash flow you forgot to modelThe "fire extinguisher" rule — the version of an MCA that actually works, when the ROI is there, the margins absorb the holdback, and the alternative is no funding at allThe four-item pre-flight checklist every owner should run BEFORE any financing offer — business bank account, books current, P&L ready to hand over, and matching the loan term to the actual use casePlus: the difference between an MCA and a BCA (business cash advance) and why both will end up in your inbox, the "stacking" trap that turns one advance into three, the medical-clinic owner who used one correctly because the growth math worked, and Gerri's golden rule — look for financing before you need it, and get it when you don't need it. Banks love to lend money when you don't need it. If you're a trades or services operator who's been declined by your bank in the last 30 days — or you just want to know how to read the offer that's already in your inbox before you sign it — this is the episode that keeps you out of the stacking trap. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: pen.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    15 min

  5. May 19

    How to find six figures hiding in your trades business

    Most trades operators look at their P&L, see profit, then look at their bank account and find nothing there. The P&L is an accounting report built for the IRS, not for you — and the cash you can't find isn't lost. It's hiding in five very specific places on the balance sheet, and once you know how to look, you can pull it out in under 90 days. Rocky Lalvani is the founder of Profit Comes First and host of the Profit Answer Man podcast — one of the most trusted Profit First-certified advisors working with small business owners today. Author of Profit Comes First and The Profit Blueprint, he has spent over a decade teaching operators — including hundreds of trades owners — how to stop letting their P&L lie to them and start paying themselves first. In this episode, Rocky walks through the five moves he wishes every trades operator made the day they noticed the gap between their P&L and their bank balance: The five places your "profit" actually disappears — it's not lost, it's sitting on the balance sheet in places your CPA didn't put there for you (AR, inventory, the truck you bought to dodge taxes, owner distributions, loan principal)Why "sales minus expenses equals profit" is the equation that broke your business — and the one-line flip that fixes it (sales minus profit equals expenses)The five-account traffic-light system that tells you in real time — without opening QuickBooks — whether your cash is red, yellow, or greenThe 1% rule: why most operators trying Profit First quit in week three, and how to ratchet in instead of failing out (start with 99% to operating, 1% to profit, then crank the dial)The single lever most trades operators are too scared to pull — and the one Rocky says can literally double your profit at five-to-ten percentPlus: why the truck full of supplies in your driveway is actually inventory (and where it's siphoning your cash), the 16-lever Profit Blueprint that traces every red light back to its root cause across revenue, profit, and balance sheet, the Elon Musk "why four screws instead of three?" frugality test, and the one thing Rocky would tell every trades operator to do TODAY — even if their CPA tells them five bank accounts is too much work. If you're a trades or services operator whose P&L says one thing and whose bank account says another — or you just want to stop being last in line to get paid out of your own business — this is the episode that closes the gap in 90 days. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    15 min

  6. May 12

    Cashflow Mike on how to retire $1.5M richer from your trades business

    Most trades operators sell their business for $1–2M less than it's worth. Some of that gap is the books. Most of it is what the buyer's CFO sees the moment the data room opens — and the owner has stopped seeing because he's lived inside it for twenty-five years. Mike Milan — better known across the trades as Cashflow Mike — has spent fifteen years coaching thousands of trades and services operators on the moves that quietly build (or quietly destroy) enterprise value. Co-founder of Clear Path Advisors, long-time collaborator of Greg Crabtree (Simple Numbers), author of Don't Be a DUMB Business Owner. In this episode, Mike walks through the five moves he wishes every trades operator made long before they got within 24 months of an exit: Why "running the business like it's already for sale" makes it easier to own AND worth more at the tableThe reason gross profit — not revenue — is the only number a buyer actually pays for (and why a $6M contractor can be worth less than a $3M one)The one-page cash leak map: six calculations, eight numbers, one afternoon to find $1M of hidden valueThe burning issue rule: the 2am thing the owner actually feels — and why all the exit-prep work bounces off until it's namedThe difference between a financial buyer and a strategic buyer — and why "if you have one buyer, you have no buyers"Plus: the add-back trap that costs trades owners six figures at close, why your payroll is actually your inventory if you're in trades, Mike's golden rule (the change in gross profit should mirror the change in operating expense), and the one thing he'd tell every owner thinking about a sale to do TODAY — even if they're two years out. If you're a trades or services operator planning to sell in the next two to five years — or you just want to run a business that throws off real cash instead of just looking good on paper this is the episode that saves you six figures. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 Website: talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583722127699 ▶️ YouTube: Ask Frank — @talktofrankai 🟢 Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1aSkX5ccK1U15oU4gte1Ug

    15 min

  7. May 6

    The #1 SBA lender in America on the five things that get approved

    55% of SBA loan applications get denied. A lot of that is on the numbers. A surprising amount is on the packaging. Marie Askew has been in SBA lending since 2007. Today she's VP of SBA Lending at Live Oak Bank, the #1 SBA lender in America by dollar volume. In this episode, Marie walks through the five things she wishes every borrower did before hitting submit: - The "elevator pitch" every borrower needs before they call a lender (and the one question most fail) - Why your industry experience matters more than your credit score — and what counts as "transferable" - The skeletons in the closet you must surface in week one (and why hiding them kills the deal in week eight) - The add-back trap: how sellers writing off "their entire life" through the business torpedoes their own sale - Why the seller carry note is the single biggest signal of a deal that will actually close Plus: the FICO threshold most banks won't go below, why customer concentration above 20% is a red flag, what a Quality of Earnings report actually does for a $500K deal, and the one thing Marie tells every buyer who asks her where to start. If you're a trades or services operator thinking about buying a business, or selling the one you've spent 20 years building, this is the episode that saves you six months and six figures. Got a question for the show? Submit at talktofrank.ai. 🌐 talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/people/Frank-Talk-to-Frank/61583722127699 Talk to Frank — the wealth playbook for trades and services operators.

    15 min
  • 7 Episodes

About

Real talk for America's small businesses to help them grow Ask Frank is the weekly 15-minute show for small businesses where every Tuesday: one owner question, one expert in the field, clear steps. From breaking $1M to scaling past $10M to exiting on your terms. We do the playbook from one truck to ten, smart debt as a wealth lever, stacking assets, and the exit. Got a burning question? Submit at talktofrank.ai and hear it on the show. Hosted by Will Chomley, founder of Frank — 🌐 talktofrank.ai 📬 Substack: substack.com/@talktofrankai 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/talktofrank.ai 🎵 TikTok: tiktok.com/@talktofranktoday 📘 Facebook: facebook.com/people/Frank-Talk-to-Frank/61583722127699

Information

  • Creator
    William Chomley
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 William Chomley