What happens when a home suddenly has no heat, the air conditioning stops working in the middle of summer, or a plumbing or sewer problem brings daily life to a halt? Without reliable home service professionals, small problems can quickly become expensive disruptions for families and businesses. Essential systems keep homes comfortable, safe, and functional, and when the right support is unavailable, the impact can be immediate.
At the center of this essential work is Bryan Enders, President of HL Bowman Inc. and Founder of Drain Magic, who has built his career from the trade up, learning plumbing and HVAC before moving into leadership. He oversees the growth of HL Bowman across residential and commercial plumbing, heating, and air conditioning services, while also leading Drain Magic’s drain and sewer operations.
Under his leadership, HL Bowman has grown from approximately $1 million in residential revenue to more than $100 million annually in under ten years, expanding into a multi-state operation. He also built Drain Magic from the ground up into a $20 million business in less than five years. Behind these milestones is a leadership approach centered on trained people, strong systems, transparent service, and consistent customer care.
From the trade to building a multi-state home services business
Bryan Enders’s journey into home services began with hands-on experience in the trade. He learned plumbing and HVAC work from the ground up before taking ownership at HL Bowman, when the company was generating about $1 million in residential revenue. Over time, he realized that many home service businesses struggle to grow not because of a lack of technical knowledge, but because they lack strong systems, a clear culture, and capable leaders who can support expansion.
With this understanding, Enders focused on building HL Bowman as a strong business rather than simply a trade operation. He invested in employee training, better processes, and people who could take on greater responsibility. In less than ten years, these efforts helped the company grow from its $1 million starting point into a multi-state operation generating more than $100 million in annual revenue.
For Bryan Enders, the experience reinforced a simple leadership lesson: lasting growth comes from discipline, not ambition alone. Rather than chasing revenue, he believes a home services company grows by creating reliable systems that trained technicians, dispatchers, and managers can follow consistently across every market.
Making home services more reliable for customers
Homeowners often contact HL Bowman when they are already dealing with a stressful problem, whether it is a failed water heater, a furnace that stops working in winter, or an air conditioner that breaks down in summer. At such moments, they need more than a quick repair. They want a correct diagnosis, a fair price, a technician who arrives on time, and someone who respects their home.
HL Bowman focuses on making the entire service experience clear and dependable. Every technician completes structured training and certification before working independently. The company also follows transparent, flat-rate pricing to avoid unexpected charges, while its scheduling and follow-up processes help customers stay informed throughout the service. By maintaining the same standards of workmanship, communication, and customer care across every location, HL Bowman has been able to grow across multiple states without losing the trust that helped build the company.
HL Bowman’s toughest period
The toughest period for HL Bowman came when the company expanded into a new state faster than its leadership team could support. A regional general manager with an impressive resume was brought in, and while revenue remained strong during the first two quarters, callback rates, customer reviews, and technician retention soon began to decline. Recognizing the risk, Bryan Enders stepped into the market for 90 days, joined technicians on service calls, retrained the team on HL Bowman’s standards, and replaced the general manager with a leader developed through the company’s own training program. Within six months, the market became the highest-rated in the region.
The experience reinforced an important lesson for Bryan Enders: a strong culture cannot simply be hired from outside, and growth without the right leadership foundation can create more problems than progress. Since then, every new HL Bowman market has been led by someone who understands the company’s values and standards from within.
A culture around people, quality, and accountability
HL Bowman’s approach begins with hiring people for their character as well as their skills. The company measures success through safety records, customer satisfaction, and the quality of its work, rather than focusing only on revenue. Regular training helps technicians strengthen their technical knowledge and their ability to communicate with homeowners, especially when customers are dealing with costly or stressful repairs.
Accountability applies at every level, with leaders expected to follow the same standards they ask of their teams. The company’s values are simple: do what is right for the customer, treat every home with care, and keep learning. These values are reflected in how employees are trained, how complaints are handled, how performance is rewarded, and how future leaders are chosen.
Using technology to improve everyday service
HL Bowman has invested in digital scheduling and dispatch systems that allow customers to track technicians in real time while helping the team plan routes more efficiently across its growing multi-state operations. The company also uses AI-assisted tools for handling calls and identifying leads, helping customers receive faster responses while reducing administrative work for its teams.
Alongside these improvements, HL Bowman continues to train its technicians on smart-home and energy-efficient equipment, including smart thermostats, heat pumps, and leak-detection systems. The company also uses information such as call volumes, technician performance, and customer feedback to identify areas for improvement, support its teams, and strengthen service quality.
Turning customer feedback into better service
Trust in the home services industry is built through every customer visit. HL Bowman focuses on proper licensing, strong safety standards, transparent flat-rate pricing, and personal responses to customer complaints. The company also pays close attention to customer reviews, especially negative feedback, to understand where its services can improve. This approach helped the company identify that customers were often more frustrated by not knowing when a technician would arrive than by the waiting time itself. In response, HL Bowman introduced live technician tracking and text updates for every job, helping customers stay informed and reducing same-day complaints.
Success story
One memorable case involved a woman in her seventies who lived alone. Her main sewer line suddenly collapsed under her front yard on a Friday afternoon, just as a cold front was approaching. Fixing it through traditional digging could have damaged her landscaping and taken several days.
Instead, the Drain Magic team used trenchless pipe relining, which allowed them to repair the sewer line through two small entry points without digging up the yard. The work was completed in just one day.
The customer later shared that the repair gave her peace of mind during a stressful situation. Her experience reflects Drain Magic’s focus on solving problems carefully while treating every customer’s home with respect. Both HL Bowman and Drain Magic also have manufacturer-certified technicians and maintain strong customer ratings across major review platforms.
Preparing for the next chapter of home services
Bryan Enders highlights that the coming years are likely to bring a growing shortage of skilled workers, making training and apprenticeships increasingly important for the home services industry. As more experienced workers leave the trades, companies that prepare and train new talent will be better positioned for the future.
Changes in home energy use will also create new demands. More homeowners are choosing heat pumps, electric water heaters, and smart home systems, requiring technicians to keep learning and updating their skills. At the same time, customers want simple and convenient service, including online booking, clear pricing, and real-time updates about their appointments.
To prepare for these changes, HL Bowman is strengthening its internal training and apprenticeship programs while keeping its technicians ready for new equipment and changing requirements. Bryan believes the industry will benefit most from leaders who are willing to develop new talent rather than simply competing for experienced workers.
Life before and after stepping into an entrepreneurial role
Before: 18-hour days, one truck, hands always dirty, chasing every job personally, uncertain paychecks
After: Multi-state operator, building leaders instead of doing every job myself, planned growth, financial stability, and an industry voice.
Snapshot of daily routine
- Early Morning: 5:30 AM – Coffee and a review of overnight call volume and dispatch metrics across every market
- Start of Workday: 7:00 AM – Leadership standup call with regional general managers
- Midday: 9:00 AM – Site visits and market walk-throughs, rotating which market each week
- Key Work Priorities: 1:00 PM – Growth pipeline, new-market planning, and technology rollouts
- Evening: 5:30 PM – Family dinner, kept as protected, no-phone time
- Night / Wind-down: 8:00 PM – Industry news and prepping priorities for the next day
Contribution to the wider home services industry
Beyond leading HL Bowman and Drain Magic, Bryan Enders also gives back to the home services industry by mentoring growing business owners, sharing his experience on panels about expanding without compromising quality, and supporting local vocational training programs. Through these efforts, he encourages more young people to view the trades as a rewarding and long-term career choice rather than simply a backup option.
Advice for next generation of home service leaders
Bryan’s advice to the next generation of home service leaders is to avoid expanding too quickly. He believes a business should first prove that its systems, team, and culture work well in one market before entering another. Chasing growth without a strong foundation can simply lead to bigger mistakes. For him, a company can grow only as far as its people and systems allow. His goal for HL Bowman and Drain Magic goes beyond revenue. He hopes to leave behind strong examples for other business owners and a team of skilled leaders and technicians who have grown through the companies’ training programs and become better at what they do.
Quick takes
- One tool or app you’d recommend: Avoca AI — AI-powered call answering that makes sure no customer call goes unhandled, even after hours.
- One quote that motivates you most: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
- One piece of advice for upcoming entrepreneurs: “Build your systems before you build your empire.”
- One movie or book you recommend: To Sell Is Human, by Daniel Pink
Bryan Enders’s 5 impactful business mantras
- Build Before You Scale: Strengthen your systems, team, and culture before expanding into new markets.
- Let Discipline Drive Growth: Sustainable growth comes from consistent work and strong processes, not ambition alone.
- Put Customers First: Earn trust through honest pricing, quality work, clear communication, and genuine care.
- Invest in People: Train, develop, and promote capable people who can grow with the business.
- Grow Without Losing Your Values: Expansion should never come at the cost of culture, quality, or customer trust.
