Why PE's New Growth Targets Should Worry Every Home Services Operator

Bain's latest PE report has a finding that should matter to every home services operator. And it doesn't matter if they're PE-backed or not.

Their shorthand: "12 is the new 5."

It means PE-backed companies now need 10–12% annual EBITDA growth to hit target returns. And that's way up from the long-running 5% target.

Why? Because cheap debt is gone and financial engineering alone doesn't work anymore.

78% of PE executives say operational improvement is now the primary value creation lever. That's straight from Simon-Kucher's 2025 study.

Here's why this matters even if you're independently owned: those PE-backed competitors are now under massive pressure to find operational gains they never had to look for before.

And you better believe they're starting to look HARD to see what's hiding in their data. They're aggressively searching for margin leaks, churn signals, and pricing patterns.

So here's the question worth asking yourself as an operator...

Are you using AI as just a productivity tool? Or are you using it strategically to see things you haven't been able to see before?

Both are valid. But only one solves the problem that's now on the table.