Foster Plumbing

From Family Venture to Multi-Million Dollar Exit

When serial entrepreneur Amy Carnrick bought Foster Plumbing in 2019, the business was generating just $1 million in revenue. Five years later, it had scaled to $10 million and sold for a six-times EBITDA multiple. The goal at the beginning was to build a sustainable business for Amy’s sons. But to do it right, they needed the systems and visibility to drive consistent performance and profitability.

“I saw the demand for plumbing firsthand through a residential handyman service I previously owned. Foster was an opportunity to build something lasting,” said Carnrick. “But great service alone wasn’t enough. We had to build the operational backbone to scale.”

Building Systems for Growth

Before Simpro, Foster Plumbing’s processes were lean and limited. Carnick wanted more than just efficiency. She needed control, data, and the ability to forecast performance. After evaluating platforms like Procore, ESub, and ServiceTitan, Simpro stood out for its flexibility. While it not only met the needs of the project management of tenant improvement (TI) work it had the ability to expand into whatever future endeavors she decided to grow the business.

“Simpro gave us the real-time job costing we wanted and was invaluable during volatile periods, especially during COVID and the following years' pricing escalations,” said Carnrick. “It helped us move fast, quote accurately, and make decisions with confidence.”

Simpro’s Over/Under Bill report, pre-builds, catalog features, and estimator controls became mission-critical. Carnrick and her team also developed a custom labor calculator. They also integrated Simpro with PowerBI to forecast staffing needs based on project start and progress. "Consistently planning, staffing, and completing projects on time gave us a huge competitive edge. It sounds basic, but for plumbing companies handling small to medium-sized tenant improvement (TI) projects, reliability isn't the industry norm,” said Carnrick.

Making Every Project Count

With Simpro fully implemented, Foster Plumbing transformed the way it worked. From estimating and job tracking to technician enablement and profitability analysis, every part of the business became more efficient. Carnrick trained the field team to use Simpro Mobile to access blueprints, submittals, and project data in real time. She said even larger firms failed to offer this level of field support.

“In the field, our techs had more information at their fingertips than most big companies,” said Carnrick. “That meant higher productivity, fewer errors, better ability for our techs to preplan and a more professional operation across the board.”

Simpro also helped standardize and professionalize Foster Plumbing’s quoting and estimating process. Their estimators were able to complete up to 25 TI blueprinted bids per week complete with more accurate labor and materials requirements. The company’s detailed, transparent schedule of value quotes helped them win trust, even when their pricing wasn’t the lowest.

What Simpro Delivered

Simpro powered Foster Plumbing’s transformation from a small family business into a high-performing, scalable operation. Key outcomes included:

• Real-time job costing and profitability tracking across all project types
• Custom labor forecasting through Simpro and the PowerBI integration
• Estimator output increased to 25 large TI blueprinted bids per week and many more service bids
• Technician access to field data improved efficiency and consistency
• Detailed quoting with Simpro prebuilds and a 7,000+ item catalog, which included photos, and multiple vendor pricing, reduced revenue leakage
• Reduced collection period by 33%, from 90 days to around 60 days, which improved cash flow
• Sale at six-times EBITDA multiplier

While profitability percentage stayed stable due to increased employee investment, the business saw major gains in dollar profit and market value. This was proof that operational clarity drives long-term return on investment. "Our ability to monitor projects in real-time enabled us to anticipate and prevent profit erosion. The result? We stopped incurring losses on projects almost entirely, and our margins climbed by roughly 10%. Organizing and refining our operations was the key to this significant improvement in profitability,” said Carnrick.

Room to Grow and Share

Carnrick sees massive potential in leveraging Simpro to power the future of Foster Plumbing.

“We feel like we only scratched the surface with implementation of Simpro’s tools. If I were still the CEO, I’d be pushing to implement even more,” said Carnrick. “Simpro wasn’t just a tool. It was the foundation of our success.”

Now serving as a mentor and advocate for trade-based entrepreneurship, Amy continues to support other business owners looking to scale. She hopes Foster Plumbing’s story can show others what’s possible with the right platform and mindset.