Career, Business & Soft Skills

If you own an HVAC or refrigeration business, there may be times when you think giving a discount might be the right thing to do. Maybe you have a friend who’s having a hard time and suddenly has an evaporator coil leak that needs attention. You may consider offering him a discount to help him […]

I knew a tech when I was just starting who was hands down, no questions asked, the best technician at the company I worked. EVERYONE, we are talking over 60 techs… we all knew it. His name was Mike Gilford. Being the little brown-nosing ladder climber I was, I made a complete study of Mike […]

We’ve all been new at one time or another. So, there is no need to get all judgy about some of the mistakes new techs make just because they are inexperienced. However… These are some very preventable mistakes that occur due to simple oversights and carelessness that need to happen 0% of the time. 1. […]

So, I hear you’re just finishing trade school. Well done. You chose to take an excellent path, and now your journey is just beginning. How this will go is really up to you, and that’s a good thing! You aren’t going to be forced in one direction or another; you get to choose. Let’s talk […]

For years, I’ve worked with and around people who view work, problems, and goals differently than I do. I’ve often told my wife that I have an issue managing and leading administrators, salespeople, and other inside staff. Why? It’s because I just don’t communicate in a way they seem to like. It’s been 20 years […]

It was an awkward conversation, bringing a technician nearly twice my age into my office for a talk. “I’m good at fixing units. I’m not some fancy-talking sales tech,” the technician half-mumbled as I sat looking at him. “The customer complained that you made them feel uncomfortable, you were unfriendly, and you tracked dirt in […]

Training is important for businesses of all industries, but it’s especially vital to the success of your HVAC business.  When new people join your team, you need to be able to teach them the basics of your team’s operations, such as how to report time and log their travel expenses. Then, they must get up […]

In the residential HVAC industry, technicians are faced with customers every day. Each interaction presents its own set of unique challenges since no two customers are ever the same. While the variety of people we may encounter is wide, the HVAC technician’s variety of soft skills and intuitive ability to communicate needs to be even […]

Every year. We watch it EVERY YEAR, and it still gets to me again and again. Call me a sucker, but especially living a blue-collar life working in the trades, It’s a Wonderful Life describes the way many of us live. Even more so, it captures the way we can start to feel about our […]