It’s Thanksgiving. Here are nine things every HVAC contractor should be thankful for.
1. Your Business is Located in America
While the United States is not as free as it was when you were born, it remains one of the best places on earth to start a business. Whether you were born here or got her as fast as you could, you should be thankful for the combination of freedom, reliable laws, and prosperity that make this one of the most attractive places in the world to start and run a business.
2. Your Work is Meaningful
Lots of people work in rather meaningless jobs where it’s tough to discern how they make the world better. You should be thankful you do not. You keep people warm in the winter and cool in the summer. You improve the environments where people work and live. Without our industry, hospitals wouldn’t be as healthy (open windows and no air purification). Without our industry, many drugs could not be manufactured. Without our industry, home security would be bars on windows that would stay open in the summer. Without our industry, there would be no clean rooms for computer chip manufacturing. Without our industry, workforce productivity would plunge in the summer months. Without our industry, many southern and western states would be all but uninhabitable in the summer. Without our industry, frozen food would be non-existent and produce would be limited to what could be picked nearby. Without our industry, pollution in our northern cities would be much worse as people burned wood or coal for warmth (as a child living in the UK, I can remember burning coal directly in fireplaces).
3. Contracting Cannot be Offshored
With a few notable exceptions, a significant chunk of industry manufacturing is moving to locations with less expensive labor and less onerous regulations and work rules. You should be thankful that can never happen with service, retrofits, add-ons, replacements, and other installations.
4. You are a Necessity
A generation ago, air conditioning was considered a luxury. You should be thankful it is now a necessity. People cannot live without HVAC. Homes and office buildings are designed for HVAC and could not be occupied without it.
5. Service is Recession Proof
While we are not immune to economic downturns, you should be thankful that service is largely recession proof. In fact, repair work increases during recessions because consumers opt to repair rather than replace. While you might prefer the replacement, you at least get the repair work.
6. Replacements Can Only Be Delayed
While people will delay a replacement during a recession or tough personal economic times, you should be thankful that it can only be delayed so long. Eventually, the products will be replaced and a contractor will do the work.
7. HVAC is Down to Earth
When I was a marketing consultant with Decision Analyst, I worked with clients in high tech, software, wireless, telecommunications, dot coms, commodities, transportation, steel, consumer magazines, and many other industries. While there are good people and pretentious jerks on every line of work, the HVAC industry has more of the former and less of the latter than any industry I worked with. You should be thankful that our industry is by and large, filled with down to earth people.
8. You Can Become Wealthy
You should be thankful you work in an industry where you can build a company from scratch and turn it into a multi-million enterprise in just a few short years. It is possible to earn great wealth with integrity in the HVAC industry.
9. Help is Readily Available
Few industries have better support systems than HVAC. You will find a wealth of information from Contracting Business magazine and it’s free. You can access a vast library of information on the Contracting Business website and others for free. Most successful contractors are quite willing to help anyone who calls and asks for help. Industry icon, Ron Smith wrote a virtual “how to” guide for contracting in HVAC Spells Wealth and sells it for $20. The conferences in our industry are cheap compared to other industries. And today, there is an array of business alliances and support groups. You should be thankful that there are so many places you can turn for help.
###
For help in your business, reach out to the Service Roundtable. Call 877.262.3341 and see what they can provide for a mere $50 a month.