Trades Over Tech: Buying an Appliance Repair Business

October 9, 2025
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oday's guest was mid-career and looking to return to entrepreneurship.

He had co-founded an IT services firm, an MSP, in earlier years, and wanted to get back to the life of growing his own business.

And growing his people, which was actually the thing that attracted Brian Seeling most to business ownership.

He wanted a blue-collar business, where he thought he'd be able to add the most value.

And he wanted there to be a manager of some kind, someone who could run operations from day one of Brian's ownership, leaving Brian room to learn and of course work "on" the business, not in it.

PGM Team in front of the business
PGM Team

Sounds ideal — and Brian found it.

In PGM, a $2.6m servicer of commercial kitchen equipment. Think of it as a B2B appliance repair business.

PGM services just the "hot side" of the kitchen, and just the Tampa metropolitan area, and even within those constraints, Brian thinks there is room for this business to grow to $5m in annual revenue.

When you add in servicing the "cold side" of the kitchen (meaning refrigeration) or expanding to other markets, the potential becomes even bigger.

A classic example of a niche business you didn't even know existed, with lots of marketshare still to grow into.

Here is Brian Seeling, owner of PGM.

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Trades Over Tech: Buying an Appliance Repair Business

Brian Seeling sought a blue-collar business with a good manager in place. He found exactly that — with $2.6m in revenue.

Key Takeaways

Introduction

Listen to the introduction from the host
T

oday's guest was mid-career and looking to return to entrepreneurship.

He had co-founded an IT services firm, an MSP, in earlier years, and wanted to get back to the life of growing his own business.

And growing his people, which was actually the thing that attracted Brian Seeling most to business ownership.

He wanted a blue-collar business, where he thought he'd be able to add the most value.

And he wanted there to be a manager of some kind, someone who could run operations from day one of Brian's ownership, leaving Brian room to learn and of course work "on" the business, not in it.

PGM Team in front of the business
PGM Team

Sounds ideal — and Brian found it.

In PGM, a $2.6m servicer of commercial kitchen equipment. Think of it as a B2B appliance repair business.

PGM services just the "hot side" of the kitchen, and just the Tampa metropolitan area, and even within those constraints, Brian thinks there is room for this business to grow to $5m in annual revenue.

When you add in servicing the "cold side" of the kitchen (meaning refrigeration) or expanding to other markets, the potential becomes even bigger.

A classic example of a niche business you didn't even know existed, with lots of marketshare still to grow into.

Here is Brian Seeling, owner of PGM.

About

Brian Seeling

Brian Seeling
Brian Seeling

Show Notes

Episode Transcript

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