How Becoming a Visible CEO Helped Me Scale a Multi-Location Home-Service Business

By Dimitar Dechev, CEO of Super Brothers Plumbing Heating & Air.

When I first entered the plumbing and HVAC industry, I had no idea what it meant to be a “visible CEO.” I believed that if I worked hard, delivered great service, and kept customers happy, the business would naturally grow. For a while, that approach worked. But as the company expanded, I realized something important:

A home-service business doesn’t just need a good technician. It needs a leader who is seen, heard, trusted, and present - both inside and outside the organization.

Visibility wasn’t something I focused on in the early years. I preferred being in the field, solving problems, and putting out fires. But as our customer base grew, our team got bigger, and we expanded across multiple locations, I discovered that leadership from behind the scenes wasn’t enough. People needed clarity. They needed direction. And they needed a CEO who wasn’t just running the company, but representing it.

Here is how becoming a visible CEO transformed my company’s growth and helped us scale without losing quality or culture.

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1. My team needed a leader they could actually see

As we added more technicians, dispatchers, and managers, I noticed a subtle shift. The more the company grew, the less connected everyone felt. New hires didn’t know who I was beyond a name. Managers weren’t always aligned with what mattered most. Technicians started developing their own ways of doing things.

In short: we were growing, but not growing together.

Becoming a more visible CEO changed that. I started:

• Speaking directly to every new hire
• Leading weekly updates
• Sharing company wins and challenges openly
• Spending time in each location
• Making myself accessible to every employee

The result was immediate.

People became more engaged. Communication improved. The culture tightened. When a company grows, the CEO’s presence becomes an anchor - a source of direction and stability. The more visible I became internally, the stronger the organization became.

2. Visibility built trust with customers — even if they never met me

A CEO’s visibility isn’t just internal. It also shapes how customers perceive the brand.
In home services, customers want to know:

• Who is behind the company?
• Who sets the standards?
  
• Who guarantees the work?
• Who stands behind the technicians that enter their home?

When people can put a human face behind the business, they trust it more. I didn’t aim for publicity — but by sharing our story, values, and approach to service, customers felt they were hiring a company led by a real person, not just a logo.

I noticed something unexpected: customers became more loyal, more understanding, and more appreciative when they felt connected to the leadership behind the brand.

Visibility humanizes a business. And in our industry, trust is everything.

3. Thought leadership helped me attract better talent

When you’re growing a home-service company, hiring becomes one of the biggest challenges. Skilled technicians want to work somewhere with:

• A strong leader
• A clear mission
• Stability
• Long-term opportunity
• Pride in their work

As I became more visible — sharing insights, talking about the trade, focusing on customer service, highlighting the importance of quality — I saw a change in the type of people who applied.

We started attracting technicians who cared about professionalism, training, growth, and customer experience. They came because they wanted to be part of something bigger than just a job. Thought leadership helped us build a stronger pipeline of hires who aligned with our values.

In home services, your people are your company. Visibility helps you attract the right ones.

4. Leadership clarity allowed the business to scale the right way

Every growing company faces the same problem:
Lead generation increases, calls increase, demand increases — but internal structure doesn’t grow at the same pace.

This creates chaos unless the CEO sets the direction clearly.

As we grew, I realized that “being visible” wasn’t just about showing up. It meant:
clarifying our service standards

• Clarifying our service standards
• Defining our communication expectations
• Making sure every location followed the same customer experience model
• Reinforcing our culture
• Communicating decisions consistently

Leadership clarity became the backbone of our scaling process.

People stopped guessing what mattered. They started aligning with a shared vision. When the CEO becomes visible, clarity improves, and clarity is what makes scaling possible.

5. Visibility helped me build partnerships and open new doors

Home-service companies don’t grow in isolation. They grow through partnerships — utility programs, community organizations, local businesses, trade associations, suppliers, and energy-efficiency initiatives.
When I started showing up as a leader — participating in industry conversations, contributing insights, building relationships — opportunities appeared that would never have existed otherwise.

Partnerships:

• Increased our credibility
• Expanded our scope of work
• Introduced us to new markets
• Strengthened our reputation

People partner with leaders, not anonymous companies. Being visible created momentum we could not have built any other way.

6. Visibility created accountability — starting with me

Perhaps the most important shift was internal. When you become visible as a leader, you hold yourself to a higher standard.

You communicate better.
You stay organized.
You make decisions with intention.
You show up consistently.
You represent your team, not just your title.

Visibility forces you to lead by example, and that accountability elevates the entire company.

Final Thought

Becoming a visible CEO wasn’t something I planned. It happened because the business reached a point where leadership needed to be more than behind-the-scenes work. It needed to be seen, heard, and felt across every part of the organization.

Visibility brought alignment.
Alignment brought consistency.
Consistency brought quality.
And quality brought growth.

For any home-service business — or any small business — the message is simple:

You can’t scale what people don’t understand, don’t connect with, and don’t believe in.

Your visibility as a leader isn’t about self-promotion. It’s about giving people clarity, confidence, and direction. When you become visible, your business becomes scalable.

Dimitar Dechev is the CEO of Super Brothers Plumbing Heating & Air. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.