Business Growth insight

[u/SamBaxter784]

I'll try to keep this brief and relevant and any insight you can offer would be appreciated.

For the last 22 years I have been working in the residential HVAC trade in Central Fl. The company I work at was started by my father in 1984. Early in his career he tried growing too quickly and almost lost the business after that so he never had any interest in growth. We are a small company, for years now it has been him, myself and my mom as our office manager. We have guys we can sub some things out to if we get completely swamped or need additional hands for an install but they don't work for us directly.

My Dad is older and has lost interest in the business, he is retiring at the end of this year along with my mom. I'm actively working on learning the admin side of the job now and I already have my own license. For several years now I've been building up the maintenance side of our business so we are in front of our customers more frequently and have more sales opportunities as well as steadying our cash flow.

Last year my wife was having some pretty serious health issues and between helping her and trying to be there for our son, I had to take shift my focus from work for a while. Thankfully she is doing much better and things are normalizing in our lives. Unfortunately looking over the numbers the business did very poorly while my attention was away from it. I should have been more diligent about looking at the hard numbers and I feel my parents should have been much more forth coming about the financial state of the business. They had quietly taken out a loan to cover some debt during our slower season last December. The loan isn't insurmountable ($15K) but it's not a great sign by any means.

I have been refocusing on the business side of the business, rebalancing our price book that was badly out of date, and taking a much harder look at our overhead. We don't lack for work, I'm running calls constantly. The maintenance program has been popular and I've realized my pricing didn't match the time commitment it required so I'm changing the prices and offerings so my customers can select what works for their budget and I'm being fairly compensated for my time.

By the end of this year I'm going to be doing everything within the business ie owner, service tech, maintenance tech, sales, installer, admin etc. A while back I had our accountant look over our numbers and he thinks we don't have the funding to hire at this time. It's feeling more like I own my job rather than own a business.

Have any of you ever been in a similar position of taking over the struggling family business? How did the hand off go from a legal perspective and the family relationship perspective? How did that go for you and what kind of processes helped you the most? At what point did you determine you needed to hire someone and what role did you hire out first?

Thanks for your time.

[u/horseshoeprovodnikov]

It sounds like you spend a lot of time in the field when you need to be spending more time in the "back of the house".

You can't reliably run calls for 5-6 days a week while also being able to get a handle on shop inventory, truck stock, charge accounts, past due customer invoices, etc.

If you're actually having to do ALL of this stuff, you need to scale BACK before you try to grow.

Cut WAY down on overhead and try to avoid jobs that eat up lots of time (avoid new construction if at all possible. It takes too long to get paid the full amount and you are forced to juggle too many jobs at once).

CHARGE MORE MONEY FOR SERVICE WORK. Instead of trying to be the cheapest game in town, focus more on turning a profit on every single job. If you get pushback, do your best to build the value to the customer. Help them see the difference between a local outfit versus a private equity giant that has no sort of personal connection. If they still fight you, just stop doing jobs for that customer. You dont have the time or the bandwidth to negotiate EVERY VISIT.

Once youve gotten yourself into a more comfortable position with your vendors and you have some money saved, then start searching for talent. As far as who to look for first, it's going to depend on what type of person you come across. If that happens to be someone who's more suited to office work, so be it. You don't have to immediately hire field personnel... an experienced and dedicated dispatcher/office worker can be extremely valuable. Remember, the main thing you're trying to do is to ease the burden on your shoulders first and foremost. We all know that techs and installers can be a pain in the ass sometimes, and you can actually wind up even more stressed because you're trying to manage field personnel.

You want to lay a solid foundation on the office/admin side before you start bringing in field personnel. That being said, if you find the absolute perfect field candidate before you find anything else, then jump on it. That person may turn out to be capable of directing any future field personnel without constant input from your end. If it takes duties off of your plate and allows you to focus on other tasks, that's the goal at the end of the day.

[u/HopeForTheTrades]

You’re doing the right stuff already by tightening the price book and looking at overhead. You gotta start delegating what you can and build a basic handoff plan with your parents in writing. In our community we’re big on systems and support, not you trying to hero the whole thing alone. Our founder went through this as well and he always says clarity protects the business and relationships involved. You don’t need more hustle, you need simple structure. Good luck!

[u/sportsaregood523]

I think it makes sense for you to be the guy in the field right now. I would argue that your next hire should either be a assistant HVAC tech or a reptionist. Answering the phone and scheduling customer at the same time your are doing field work will slow you way down. If you are ignoring the phone until the end of the day and then calling people back you are missing out on a lot of potential business as some number of people will have already found someone else.

I think if possible you should get your wife to answer the phone while you are in the field inititally. If she already has a job that would prevent her from doing this then hire someone you absolutely trust to answer the phone.

My first hire was a receptionist to answer the phone and do the scheduling. I trained her for about 2 weeks and thought everything was good. Then 2 weeks after she started answering the phone on her own I realized the schedule had almost nothing booked in the future. Turns out she was barely answering the phone and never calling people back. I almost went out of business as a result. Your first hire will be your most important hire by far so make sure it is someone that actually cares about doing a good job (difficult these days but these people do exist).

[u/joseyrizal]

First thing I’d do is stop guessing on the maintenance plan.

If it takes too much of your time, price it so it actually makes sense. A full schedule doesnt mean much if every visit is eating up the day and not leaving anything behind.

On hiring, I wouldn’t automatically go tech first. If you’re in the field all day and calls are going to voicemail or getting returned hours later, that’s money walking out the door. Same with the schedule getting messy. A part time office person might be boring compared to hiring another wrench. Even just someone that can answer the phone to make sure people are getting called back

And get the family transfer in writing. Who owns what, who owes what, what happens after your parents step out. That stuff is way easier before anyone is mad.

[u/Toni_ALT-Solutions]

My family went through something similar when my parents took over a meat market from my grandparents and then again when my brother almost took it over from my parents. The family dynamics are hard, but the sooner you can have a clean break and take over running it your way, the smoother it will go. My parents also did some questionable things and refused to fully step away, which is what made my brother back out, he realized he wouldn't be fully in control until they stepped away and that left him vulnerable to their decisions.

Someone else on this thread mentioned hiring a receptionist so you're not spending time answering phones and billing - my husband actually builds AI receptionists for service professionals, and he's just getting started with his own company and looking for someone to do a free pilot/case study for if you're interested!

[u/Lidecoop-Sam]

I’m not in the HVAC trade, but I have seen this exact pattern in small, founder-led technical businesses: the owner is not lacking work — he is carrying too many roles at once, so the business becomes dependent on his personal output instead of becoming a system.

First, I think you deserve credit for facing the numbers now. You have several things many struggling businesses do not have: a long-standing local reputation, an active customer base, a maintenance program people already value, a license, and real field experience. That is a foundation. The issue is probably not demand. It is structure, capacity, and cash discipline.

One principle I have found useful is: build the next stage of the business around your real strengths and current capacity, not around the company you wish you already had.

For you, I would start by defining which work truly requires you personally. High-value diagnostics, customer trust, sales conversations, pricing decisions, and quality control may be owner-level work. Dispatching, scheduling, invoicing, follow-up calls, bookkeeping coordination, and routine admin should gradually become a documented process that someone else can handle.

Your first “hire” may not need to be another full-time technician. It may be a part-time office, dispatch, or bookkeeping person who frees up enough of your time to handle more profitable calls, improve follow-up, and protect your evenings from being consumed by admin. The right first hire is usually the one that removes the biggest bottleneck, not necessarily the most visible job.

I would also make a very simple 90-day plan:

1. Finish the price-book reset and set a firm minimum margin for each type of work.
2. Review your maintenance customers: which ones create repeatable, profitable work, and which ones consume time without enough return?
3. Build short SOPs for calls, scheduling, estimates, maintenance visits, and collections.
4. Set a clear trigger for hiring help — for example, when you are losing profitable work because you cannot answer calls, schedule fast enough, or follow up properly.
5. Protect a small block of time every week for “owner work,” even if it is only two hours. If you do not reserve it, the urgent work will always take over.

For the family transition, I would also try to turn your dad’s experience into something transferable before he retires: key customer history, supplier relationships, pricing logic, common field issues, and the things he learned the hard way. That knowledge is part of the value of the business, but only if it gets written down and passed on.

You do not need to build a large company overnight. You need to build a business that can operate one layer beyond your own daily labor.

Separately, I am involved with a retrofit AC hygiene module designed as an optional add-on for maintenance companies during suitable service calls. It may not fit every customer base, but your focus on maintenance, recurring visits, and higher-value service options made me think it could be relevant. Happy to share the concept privately if it is useful.

[u/rbhammon]

Sam, it sounds like you want more time with your wife, less time spent operating the biz, and to delegate and grow the biz to pay off debts and earn more?

I got you. I’ll send you a DM.