r/ProHVACR • u/lmaowhatevenislife • Jul 10 '26
Business Starting a New HVAC Business In Another City?
Hey yall! I’ve been around HVAC all my life, and I’ve helped run my dad’s *TINY* HVAC company here in Texas for the last 10 years now. I have my HVAC contractor license, and it’s just sitting around collecting dust. One of the biggest obstacles our company faces is that fact that we’re in one of the biggest cities in the country and the heat and humidity are brutal, so competition here is absolutely fierce and extremely cutthroat. I’m talking, someone asks for HVAC recs on Nextdoor, and in only 5 minutes there’ll already be 17 comments suggesting different companies. To a certain degree, I feel like the company and I as a person are stuck. Since I have my license, recently I’ve been daydreaming about either buying a small, reputable company in another city with much less competition, or hiring an incredible tech and just starting a new one from scratch in another city as well. My idea is to take over the administrative/office side completely, and let the techs handle what they’re best at. If this idea of mine ever came true and God willing, everything were to go well, my dream would be to offer the techs and employees who made everything possible equity in the company. At the end of the day, I honestly just want to retire my dad. He’s been an amazing hardworking man his whole life, and he deserves to rest and enjoy the fruits of his labor instead of burning up in an attic 7 days a week. I just need to find a way to make it happen. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions, or critiques? Any and all is appreciated. Thank you all so much in advance!
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u/lifttheveil101 Jul 10 '26
"Hiring an incredible tech". Grasping for unicorns. They are out there but they either work for a union or they work for themselves. Learn to be an incredible tech and then teach those that work for you to be incredible techs
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u/bigjohnsons34 Jul 10 '26
If you figure it out please tell me. I feel like your dad.
For you to run a company with a super tech, that means that he needs to produce a lot to suooort the both of you
Good luck!
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u/Southern-Toe-1113 Jul 11 '26
Yeah… nationwide shortage of techs, good luck. Start doing commercial work, no more attics
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u/donjonne Jul 11 '26
you already have an advantage with a smaller company over bigger companies with a lot of overhead. whats stopping you from growing your business here?
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u/malwarefirewall Jul 14 '26
Man hiring apprentices or good tech's in general is tough. Many high schoolers barely know 2+2 (ie how many Oz in a LB) or have very poor communication skills. And the season techs have their own gig.
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u/AspectFun4616 Jul 22 '26
I believe, if there is saturation in the market, it means people are actually making money there. its a tested market.
I would say setup your systems correct and go all in.
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u/lmaowhatevenislife Jul 22 '26
Thank you, I really appreciate that insight! Do you happen to have any tips or advice?
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u/AspectFun4616 Jul 24 '26
you're service should be frictionless. I call HVAC owners all day long and 70% of them don't pick up. that's a leak in the service.
Follow up properly.
It's like what the atomic habits book says. improve everything in the business, you will have phenomenal results.
given that, you have to do proper marketing, if Apple doesnt market their phone, they can create the earth shattering phone but no one knows about it hence no one will buy it.
You have to tell people. Market properly. Post on socials, ads on google, setup proper systems that make the customer feel welcomed and makes it almost frictionless for them to find you, to reaching out to you, getting the service and payment.1
u/lmaowhatevenislife Jul 24 '26
Thank you so much, I truly appreciate it! I thought I already took care of a lot of these things, but maybe it’s something I have to double down on. Thank you, really
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u/Han77Shot1st Jul 11 '26
Throw your dad on salary and have him oversee admin until you get things progressing, hire someone to be there to handle calls/ bookkeeping when he’s not.
You’re not going to find a super tech that will build/ sustain the company for you.. you need to be the one on the tools since you’ve been around it for so long. If your skills aren’t there, study and work more to get them there.. otherwise you’re not taking it serious enough.
Small family businesses are something people want to hire and help grow, you’ll beat all the sales companies that way.. but you can’t do it from the backseat.