The Sharpest Tool™

Chad Peterman is the president at Peterman Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. He shares how his company is developing a unique process to allow their technicians to grow and thrive in their workspace.

Chad knows the importance of putting in the time required to elevate the trades industry as a whole. Building a company made up of over 180 employees does not happen if you do not have a solid process and vision in place for developing your people.

Through Peterman Top Tech Academy, Chad’s team brings in people who have no background in the trades and gives them the opportunity to learn from Peterman HVAC technicians. After a three-and-a-half-month period of spending three days in the classroom and two days on the field, the students are ready to start their careers in an entirely new industry.

In an environment where good techs are difficult to come by, Chad believes it is important to open up the opportunity to all individuals and then narrow the applicants down from there.

“Hungry, humble, smart. We took those three qualities and basically created a rubric for which we would grade people.”

Knowing the applicants they were taking in did not have a technical background, provided them with the advantage of being in the driver's seat. Instead of feeling rushed to hire someone new simply to fill a spot, they were able to assess individuals for who they are and decide if they would be a good fit for the team. They narrowed 600 applicants down to 30-40 through their rigorous process, but ended up with students who were willing to learn the skills without any preconceived ideas.

“I would say the non-negotiables were really the values for us. We kind of went into this process saying we are going to be very, very stringent on, ‘you need to answer these questions and really show us that your values align with the company.’ And that is really what we were looking for.”

Chad shares that as his team has made it through this year, they have uncovered where their training program will continue to help them, moving forward. As you continue to grow, your rate of customer acquisition and membership acquisition will naturally begin to pick up velocity. The more technicians you have on the field, the more memberships you will acquire.

“When you add more people, you can run more calls which equates to more opportunity. What we have found is if we were sitting in this exact same spot and we didn’t have the school in the works, we would be in a very peculiar place because I don’t know that we could hire enough people to satisfy the demand.”

Through the school, they are able to bring more people in and impact more lives. Allowing people who would normally not have a chance to work in the trades the opportunity to thrive is something Chad is most proud of.

Chad encourages all home services owners to stay focused on serving others. Through this process, you will see exponential results and find authentic success. 

Resources: 

Peterman Top Tech Academy

The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni

Chad Peterman is the president at Peterman Heating, Cooling and Plumbing. He shares how to build leaders by setting the foundation for culture and providing a roadmap for people who want to advance or take on a leadership role.

Chad has always been a visionary. He explains that you can’t be afraid of taking risks and using your imagination. You must be willing to learn new things and be open to new technology or ideas that may help your company along the way. Don’t be afraid to take someone’s idea and put your own spin on it!

“Rather than think up ten reasons why it can’t be done, say well they’re doing it, we just really have to dive in to figure out how they’re doing it or put our own spin on it to make it successful.” 

Finding applicants for your company can be tough, and ensuring you are attracting the right people for your team can be even tougher. Chad recognized that most people are not regularly introduced to the trades as a viable career option. So his company decided to create a place where they could attract people, introduce them to the trades, and provide them with opportunities for success.

“Maybe it’s not that there aren’t a lot of good people, maybe it is more so that they don’t want to work for my company. And so we kind of went and took that perspective and understood that we’ve got to make this a place that people want to come. And I think after kind of getting through those two phases, what we figured out is there may not be good people and we may have a great place to work so how can we build those people? Because there’s a lot of great people out there, they just may have never been introduced to the trades.”

Chad highlights that the quality of people entering his company now, is far higher than before they changed their mindset around who they take on. Introducing people from different walks of life into the trades, allows for the industry to grow as a whole. 

Chad wants future generations to see the potential in having a trade career. There is so much honor to be had in becoming someone who can fix something. Take pride in the industry you work in. 

“The one thing that has allowed us to grow is to understand that the quality and the integrity with which you treat your people, ultimately results in your growth. I always explain it to people. If I can take whoever in whatever position and they can be better next year than they were this year, then we’re going to grow. And then when you multiply that by 180 people you start to grow exponentially which is really what you’re looking for.”

Don’t get ahead of yourself and try to do too many things too quickly. If you provide the correct platform for your team, allowing the room for them to be successful, you will have a group of people who are intent on getting better. 

“Reading has no value unless you share what you’re learning. You can read all the books in the world, but if you refuse to tell anybody or share with anybody what you’re learning… that’s not really beneficial to what you’re trying to do.”

Chad recommends giving your team the chance to learn from you but explains that not everyone will take the opportunity. Set the foundation for the culture and provide a roadmap for people who do want to advance or take on a leadership role and you will see organic and sustainable growth.

Howard Partridge is an internationally recognized business coach, bestselling author, and experienced business owner. He continues his discussion on how to build a scalable, turnkey home services business by focusing on systems, leadership, and vision.

Howard emphasizes that in order to scale, you need to have the right systems and processes in place that you can duplicate. You can’t grow if you are trying to do everything yourself. Over the years, he has been able to grow his service company into a multi-million dollar turnkey business by prioritizing:

1. Systems that will move you off of the organization chart so that you can work on the business instead of in it.
2. People who will do the work the way it needs to be done. 
3. A leadership team that will help these people and systems work together synergistically.

For Howard, his dream to spend as much time on his favorite beach and build a house there while helping other people build a phenomenal business. This vision is what kept him committed to building a turnkey business. He identifies defining your vision as the first step to building your business framework.

“My definition of leadership is leadership effectively communicating the vision. You have to have a vision. People who are on your team want to know ‘Where are we going, and why are we going there?’… So that’s the first piece of the framework.”

1. Define your vision.
2. Fill in the organization chart to see how all of the levels and departments should fit together.
3. Develop your Performance Results Description (PRD): how your employees need to perform in order to reach your business goals. 
4. Create policies and procedures for every role in the company. These need to be updated consistently as your business evolves. 

Howard also emphasizes the importance of meeting with your leadership team weekly and monthly to review the numbers, address any issues, and adapt any processes to make your workflow more effective. 

Howard says that in order to get yourself off of the truck, you need to want it and know why you want it. This is why having a vision is so important.

“You’re so in love with the technical, you know you feel like you can do it better than anybody and that’s probably true, but you’re going to be stuck there forever as long as you have that mentality. You have to want to. You have to have a vision - a life off the truck. You have to fall out of love with the technical part and understand that if someone else can do it 85% as good as you can, you’re able to scale.”

Howard outlines this process to systematically replace yourself in every role at every level of your business in a few steps.

1. Train your technicians in the classroom and do ride-alongs. Once they can do the job to your satisfaction with your supervision, you’re ready to get off the truck. 
2. Next, encourage them to utilize the manual instead of calling you with every question. 
3. Now that you’re off the truck, use this time to develop the rest of your organization and remove yourself from the administration work to become the manager. 
4. Finally, help develop your employees into great managers and leaders so that you can move from the manager role into the director role. Now, you’re ready to work on your business instead of in it. 

Howard recommends investing in a coach, someone who has scaled before, in order to do this because building systems and seeing this process through will be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Finally, stay focused on your vision and let that drive you to build a phenomenal business and a phenomenal life.

Howard Partridge is an internationally recognized business coach, best-selling author, and experienced business owner. He discusses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their crucial role in building a successful home services business. 

Howard likens KPIs to a scoreboard for your business. It helps you understand how you are performing in the game of business, when you are winning and losing, and where you can improve. 

Howard says that there are several important data points and numbers to track, but the priority should be: “The Critical Number.”

He learned about “The Critical Number through the Great Game of Business” program by Jack Stack. This is the number that is most important for you to focus on during the specific chapter of growth your business is in. 

He shares the example of when his business was bringing in an income of 2 million dollars but had a very small profit. Ellen Rohr, business makeover expert, helped him build on his understanding of “The Critical Number” by identifying his Known Financial Position (KFP). Identifying your KFP requires going through line by line of your income statement and balance sheet and knowing exactly what each number means and where it goes. 

Howard recommends tracking on a weekly basis so that you can pivot and take action based on real numbers. Questions to consider to improve your business success:

1. What are your weekly and monthly profits and losses? What is your profit margin? Set up a 12-month budget to guide you.
2. Look at your labor cost and what percentage of it is of your income. How can you improve in this area?
3. Are you pricing profitably?
4. What are your daily sales?
5. Look at your marketing: How much does it cost to acquire a client? Market to your past and existing clients and work on generating referrals.

Howard recommends Ellen’s book “Where Did the Money Go” for a more in-depth understanding of how to implement these strategies.

Howard makes sure he includes his team is in the game by tracking their company sales and updating them on the numbers each day. This keeps everyone invested and working toward hitting their monthly sales goal. If they hit it, rewards like bonus checks are passed out. 

The important numbers Howard recommends focusing on in order to track your ROIs begin with a financial forecast or annual projection for your year. 

1. Consider the busy and slower seasons to identify trends during the 12 months that you should be prepared for.
2. How much profit do you want to make?
3. Create a budget and stick to it.
4. Decide in advance what you want to invest in marketing.
5. Track how your marketing is performing in key areas:
   • Repeat business.
   • Referral business
   • Direct advertising

This helps you understand your client acquisition cost. 

“I know how hard you work. One of these days, it’s all going to be over. And my question to you is: ‘Do you want to do all of this work and not have anything to show for it? Do you know what the score is?’ I mean some people are working seven days a week, 24 hours a day to lose money! If you’re like me and you hate the numbers, do yourself a favor, get some help, get somebody to help you understand those numbers. Because the way to win the game is through profit. And if you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know whether you’re profitable or not.”

Lenny Gray is the CEO of Rove Pest Control and D2D Millionaire. He shares the skills and traits that make a door-to-door salesman successful, and why communication is key. 

Lenny started Rove Pest Control in 2003 after working in door-to-door sales for another pest control company and also serving as Vice President of training for door-to-door sales for Orkin. 

Lenny is straightforward when he says that door-to-door sales is not for everybody. Most people will find out within two weeks of trying it out if it is the right role for them. For him, it was about a month into his first door-to-door sales job that he realized he could be successful. 

He had just finished selling in Homewood, AL, a blue-collar neighborhood. He decided he would go to Mountainbrook, a well-off neighborhood nearby, although most of his fellow salesmen said it was too hard to sell there. 

On his first knock in Mountainbrook, he was able to sell to a doctor and his wife. In that moment, he says he realized he could sell anything to anyone, anywhere. 

He shares that he learned everything about selling by doing, as his company had a very short training manual. It wasn’t until after he wrote his own sales book that he read other books. He felt he had his own selling style that he didn’t want confused with other styles. 

Make each door think you’ve sold to everyone else in the neighborhood. 

“In our company, we call it mental toughness. But at the end of the day, it’s being able to go to one door and have that person at that one door be incredibly rude, condescending, you know, they call your mom a name. I don’t care, whatever it is, and then you bounce back to that very next door and you act like that never happened. You can just erase it from your memory.”

On July 4, 2000, in Jacksonville, FL, Lenny remembers selling 23 accounts. It was his best day ever. Two or three weeks later, he had a day where he didn’t sell anything. His advice is to stay balanced during these times of highs and lows. Don’t carry your negative momentum with you, only the positive. 

He captured these stories of success and failure in his book “Door-to-Door Millionaire” and eventually started his consulting company that goes by the same name. During his time working in pest control and consulting other home services businesses, he has identified the traits that make or break a salesman.

Successful salesmen are:

• Good communicators:
  • Eye contact
  • Smile
  • Creative 
  • Think on their toes
  • Know a little about a lot
  • Relatable
• Hardworking
• Mentally tough
• Ask open-ended questions instead of yes or no questions
• Never forget to close the sale

“I’m convinced that you can sell anything door to door, any type of trade industry you have, any type of home service industry, you can craft a way to have people go out, knock doors, and generate interest. Because you’re actually kind of at that place where those things are needed, so it’s pretty easy.”

Lenny highlights that he has even seen his plan work for a no credit check finance company. If you have the right processes and system, you will be successful, no matter what industry you are in. 

Lenny has just finished the rough draft of his new book that covers next level door-to-door sales tactics. You can learn more at LennyGray.com.

Lenny Gray is the CEO of Rove Pest Control and D2D Millionaire. He shares how he built his million-dollar home services business based on principles of hard work, mental toughness, and commitment. 

Lenny says that his door-to-door experience all began when a buddy encouraged him to take a door-to-door sales job to pay for tuition and books in college. In the summer of 1998, he drove across the country to Birmingham, AL with his wife. That summer, he became the top sales representative for a pest control company and never looked back. 

After graduation, he was hired to run Orkin’s marketing team and developed their sales training for them. He set out to start his own business Rove Pest Control once his first child was born, with a partner who knew how to do the fieldwork. With his expertise in knocking on doors, and his partner working in the field, they did half a million in sales in the first year and hit the million-dollar mark in two years. 

“We put it all on the line. It wasn’t just me, it was my business partner as well. We needed each other to make this thing work from the get-go. And I mean It was 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, whether I was busting out knocking doors, or he was spraying, from sun up to sundown. And I mean you hear that all the time, but that’s the first core value, we call the value of victory in our company, is it’s hard work.” 

Lenny highlights that scaling with door-to-door sales is a numbers game. How many doors you knock on and how many customers you are able to interact with each day, will determine how many opportunities you have to sell. 

In order to maximize these opportunities, Lenny prioritized growing smart, not crazy. He also says that they focused on growing with the right people, which is key. These steps led to them hiring new salesmen, and opening new locations across states in the Midwest. By year five, they became the largest pest control company in Alabama, and an acquirer bought them out in that state. Lenny shares that they continued to grow in their other locations by:

• Delegating.
• Letting go and trying to get to know people and their fears.
• Helping employees overcome those fears so that they can do their best.

“There’s not a single rep that’s not from my company that hasn’t been on the doors with me. And that’s crazy to think because I’ve been doing this for a long time. But I still go knock doors with my guys. I kind of feel like if I can’t see them, hear them, kind of interact and read kind of those nonverbals, that’s a big part of the communication and sales game is just reading some of those nuances that you’re not going to pick up any other way than just being there. And for me, actually spending the time to be on the doors with my guys, I mean that holds a lot of values in other ways too, right. They see you’re willing to go to bat for them, they see you’re willing to be there side by side with them.”

He credits this training system as an important part of being able to replicate himself, build a positive company culture, boost employee retention, and cultivate strong personal relationships. 

The company principles that define Rove Pest Control are: 

1. Hard work
2. Mental toughness
3. Commitment

Lenny says that whether you’re a tech or a CSR or middle management or a door-to-door sales representative, if you can stick to these values, you will be successful in any area. He also emphasizes that you will only have success in business if you have success at home. 

“If you want to be the type of person that other people want to work for, I hope you’re a good husband, I hope you’re a good father, I hope you’re a good person not just those 8 to 10 to 12 hours you’re at work but those five or six to eight hours you have to be home with the people you should care about the most. So I think it all goes together and those that are the most successful aren’t just successful in business.”

As a busy leader, Lenny’s tips for success are simple: 

1. Pray and maintain an organized, detailed calendar filled with your personal and professional commitments. 
2. Be willing to do anything in your company that is necessary for success. Just get the work done.

Mother-daughter duo of Texas-based S & D Plumbing, CEO Rhonda Dowdy and Director of Business Development Amanda Dowdy Lawson share how they have invested in leadership training in order to grow and evolve as a business. They highlight the importance of staying innovative, humble, and curious. 

As CEO of S & D Plumbing, grandma, and mother, Rhonda has a lot on her plate. After starting S & D Plumbing 40 years ago, it has now grown into two locations with 35 employees. While she now has a General Manager that handles the day-to-day processes, she shares that it took hard work to find and develop the right business leadership. Rhonda credits this training to creating a culture of teamwork that they have worked hard to foster. 

“It’s a continual journey. Because as long as you’re wanting to grow, as long as you’re wanting to stay in business, much less grow your business, you’ve got to have that leadership capability. I could tell you some of the things we’ve implemented. We believe in training. We train at every level of the company, all the way to me. I have a leadership coach, my General Manager has a leadership coach. We train our technicians, we train our CSRs, and we’ve got the best of the best.” - Rhonda 

Amanda Lawson recently moved from California to Texas after spending nearly a decade as a professional beach volleyball player. During this time, she shares that she had to create her own path and personal brand. Now, as the Director of Business Development, these skills are playing an important role as she builds the S & D brand and networks in the community. 

Rhonda says that while their legacy is important to them, they also value innovation and understand how important it is to evolve with the times. Her tips for staying on the cutting edge of the industry include:

1. Join best practice groups. These will encourage you to invest in your business and yourself, and equip you with valuable tools, connections, and resources.
2. Hire young people.
3. Prioritize work ethic and value hard work.

From the beginning, Rhonda emphasizes that S & D Plumbing has been about establishing a business that can be passed onto the next generation. She says that they named their business after their two sons, Sam and Dan, and that this generational value is instilled in the very foundation of the company. 

Their mission is to help people hone their skills, grow into management positions, and learn leadership skills. With this approach and mission, S & D Plumbing has been able to cultivate and build a business legacy that can stand the test of time.

Both Rhonda and Amanda share the view that leaders are learners, and have leadership written into their character. Rhonda also believes that true leaders often lead before they even command a leadership position or role. To inspire leadership and personal growth in their business, Rhonda says that they all share resources and learn from each other as a team. Most importantly, they implement what they learn. 

Podcasts: 

Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast

Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast

Books: 

What the Heck Is EOS? A Complete Guide for Employees in Companies Running on EOS by Gino Wickman and Tom Bouwer

Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman

The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni

“Life is a series of decisions. And you make one decision at a time. And depending on where you are in your business, because I remember where we were 20 years ago, and where we are today, it’s just a huge difference. And I remember when we first got started in the best practices groups and we’d go and we’d learn all this stuff and it would just blow our minds and we would go ‘Oh my gosh, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this,’ and we had to say ‘What’s the most important thing we can take away from this conference? We’ll go back. Let’s implement it.’ And then you build on that. You can’t do it all at one time.” - Rhonda

Rhonda:

1. There will always be challenges in life and business. It’s a journey.
2. Let go of things and delegate. Hire the right people so that you can focus on what you need to do.
3. Take it one day at a time and one step at a time.
4. Value and exemplify servant leadership.

Amanda: 

1. Take chances.
2. Look for opportunities.
3. Be present and show up with your best self every day.
4. Stay humble and open-minded.

Mother-daughter duo of Texas-based S & D Plumbing, CEO Rhonda Dowdy and Director of Business Development Amanda Dowdy Lawson share what it takes to create a family-centered home services business. They highlight the lessons, relationships, and new projects that are taking their company to new heights. 

Rhonda shares that the business began when her husband Sam Dowdy decided to build his own business after working in the industry as a tech for several years. When they founded S & D Plumbing 40 years ago, she had a background as an accountant, but no experience running a business. The first 20-25 years were filled with many lessons and challenges, but in the last 15 years or so they have really perfected best practices and found their niche. 

Although Amanda grew up in the family business, it is only in the last month that she has become an official employee. In her role as Director of Business Development, she is focused on building relationships with vendors and employees, branding and social media, and shaping her position as she learns how she can best serve the business. Her first project was the successful grand opening of their second location. 

About 28 years ago, Rhonda shares that Sam was able to make the move from working in the truck to working on building the company.

“It’s scary to do, you know, it’s a big step, but it’s what it took to be able to build his team and his technicians as well as go out and meet customers and kind of be the PR of the company in that way. And then you know, really what happened over time is we realized the need for processes, it’s a big step, and so we have processes now and that’s critical for starting that second location.”

The way you do business builds your brand and reputation. Rhonda emphasizes that preparing your techs with training and processes to represent your company well is essential. 

S & D Plumbing’s second location is a managed repair location. Over the years, Rhonda has seen how many of their best techs go on to build their own company. The creation of this second location was born out of their desire to provide a platform for these techs who want to grow in leadership and ownership without having to worry about where their leads are coming from or the customer service side of the business. 

S & D Plumbing has built its business on a reputation of excellence. Rhonda shares that even in the early years when they were learning the ropes, Sam was confident that they were going to find their niche. They did, and leak detection became an innovative path to consistent leads and business growth. 

Amanda also emphasizes that her parents were both willing to adapt to current trends and new approaches in order to grow. 

• Went paperless
• Provided menu pricing
• Offered commission pay
• Created opportunities for techs and employees
• Showed up every day and made sacrifices 

When they first went into business, Rhonda says they took any lead that came in. Experience taught them to focus on their strengths in repairing residential and they eventually moved away from commercial jobs.

Although S & D Plumbing moved away from commercial jobs, their son Sam Dowdy Jr. decided to pursue it and he founded Coppera Co., of which Rhonda is also an owner. Their son Dan Dowdy was instrumental in leading S & D Plumbing to its successful position today, and has now begun to focus more on building a coaching business. Amanda shares that unlike her brothers, she didn’t want to work in the plumbing industry or family business initially. But now she sees that there is room for growth and opportunity.

“The pandemic is actually what shifted my mindset into coming into the family business, realizing how essential it is and I love being on a team and it’s even better when that team is your family. And so it’s been extremely positive to see all of the hard work they have put in and really those seeds starting to grow now, and I get to step and learn on fast forward and be a part of this amazing team and just see it grow even more.” 

Rhonda and Amanda both have a vision for building S & D Plumbing into a generational business not just for their own family, but also for their employees and techs. In the future, they look forward to building a school for tech training, leadership, and business ownership.

Ellen Rohr is the President and Franchise Operations Manager of ZOOM DRAIN and a home services business makeover expert. Howard Partridge is an internationally recognized business coach, bestselling author, and experienced business owner. Together, they discuss the timing, terms, and negotiating tactics that make up successful acquisition deals. 

Ellen shares the reminder from Michael Gerber that you want to build your business so you can sell it. The people who are buying companies are looking for valuable businesses. What makes a valuable business? Profits that are:

• Predictable
• Consistent
• Turnkey

At the same time, if a business presents the potential to reach profits that check these boxes, it is worth considering. Howard echoes Ellen’s advice, adding that considering a business’s current client base and potential client base is also a good indicator of whether they might bring in a strong, predictable income. 

“The idea of acquiring companies is really so that you don’t have to spend marketing elsewhere. So when is the time right? Always… our recommendation is that you get a list together, you make up that list, you get it from a list service, or you go through and search your market area for your competitors, and you assemble a list, and then you’re going to reach out and try to make a friend.” - Ellen

Once you create your list, Ellen recommends beginning to fish and connect. You are reaching out to see how you could be of service to their company. You will face rejection, but eventually, you might find someone who will say, “Why don’t you just buy my company?”

Howard points out that even if you don’t get the acquisition of a company right away, you might acquire a great employee through that relationship or plant a seed that will blossom down the road. 

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, some home services businesses are struggling right now. If you are looking to acquire, Howard recommends looking at three areas of that business:

1. Quality of their service experience.
2. How they are currently marketing or using referral strategies. 
3. Potential to increase revenue and profits. 

Ellen emphasizes that no matter where you are as a buyer in your financial place, you can offer creative arrangements for compensation, like an owner finance arrangement to take an income stream instead of a lump sum.

Howard shares that his first acquisition was one of his suppliers. When he acquired his second business, he quickly was able to take his business from $360,000 to over 4 million, and today they are a turnkey business. These first mergers helped him build his staff internally and scale. 

“If you want to grow, this is like one of the best ways you can do it. It’s instantaneous. You just got to make the right financial deal and so you need to understand the numbers and you need to understand the marketing and sales. Like, you’ll look at some companies, and the reason I know this is not because I’ve acquired a bunch of companies but because I coach small businesses in-home services every single day. And what I know is that some businesses, some service companies, they have this humongo account, if they lose that one account, they’re sunk. So, you want to look for predictable revenue that comes in day in and day out. And because they aren’t doing some of the things they need to be doing, they’re not going as deep into that well as they could be.” - Howard

Ellen also highlights the benefits of bringing your acquisitions under one brand. However, she emphasizes that it’s important to be sensitive to the fact that this may mean a business is retiring a family name that means a lot to them. Be prepared for emotional conversations. 

Whether you’re buying or selling, Howard and Ellen underline that it’s important to ask: what is it that is needed and what is it that is wanted?

• When it comes to money, it’s important that buyers respect what the seller says they want, even if you can’t meet it. Put what you can on the table with respect for the hard work they put into their business, and see what happens. 
• At the same time,  if you’re selling, don’t settle for something that doesn’t meet your expectations. 
• Take the ego off the table.
• Remember that the agreement should benefit both parties. 
• Clearly define your goals and your whys for selling and buying.

Charlene Ierna is the owner of Ierna’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing in the Greater Tampa Bay, FL area and a certified alligator trapper. She shares why culture, training, and creative thinking are foundational materials for building a resilient home services business.

Charlene makes it clear that her focus in the business is the people she serves and the people she employs. At Ierna’s Heating, Cooling and Plumbing, she strives to create a work-family culture, recognizing that most employees spend a significant time in the workplace. Some key features of her approach to cultivating this work-family culture include:
Let your team know you support them and have their back.
Discipline and hold each other accountable as a family would.
Teach and help each other grow with purpose.

They’ve also invested in creating valuable rewards programs that recognize employees who hit their goals. From company cruises to renting yachts and hosting lake days with fun activities, Charlene emphasizes that this relationship and team-building time is what keeps them rooted, humble, real, and human.

On the customer service side, attention to detail and intentionality are hallmarks of the Ierna white-glove experience.

“I think that white-glove treatment today is similar to kind of what we would consider old school treatment. Back in the day when you would call your A/C company, you had his home phone number and you’d call him up and he’d come over next door and fix your A/C. They do those little extra things. They know you by name, they know a little bit about your history, just give a little extra something that perhaps they wouldn’t have received from a prior contractor… just setting us apart and really making sure that we’re going the extra mile for every customer.”

Charlene prioritizes teaching, training, coaching, communication, and lots of touchpoints during the employee training and onboarding processes. She believes that this is key to helping techs be successful in the field and equipping employees with the tools and knowledge they need to do their job well. This translates to strong retention and your staff knowing their purpose.

She also emphasizes that your onboarding process can never be too lengthy or too much. There’s a skill set, industry lingo, and processes to learn, and now COVID-19 measures to maintain. It’s important to stay current, adapt, and check in to see what is working and what’s not working.

While retention in the trades can be challenging, Charlene shares that creating a positive, empowering environment with your team is the best way to create ambassadors. When your team is happy and fulfilled, they become the best marketers for your company.

Operating costs and solvency are always a priority, but during the pandemic Charlene shares that she didn’t want to cut employees. Instead, she focused on reallocating her resources and being creative.

“What I did in terms of cost-cutting was being creative and looking at some areas that were not effective... schools are closed, we sponsor a lot of schools. Restaurants are closed… we didn’t do anything in terms of cutting back employment or cutting back our roster. So I think that trying to stay consistent and again signaling safety to your team is important… I think it’s important to stay calm, stay the course, and just keep moving forward.”

She highlights that people still need heating, cooling and plumbing right now, and their appliances and plumbing are being taxed more now than ever since everyone is home. So, don’t cut your marketing budget. Instead, figure out where your people are in their new environment and connect with them there. Shift your budget from advertising at schools and restaurants and on billboards, and reach people online where they are spending the majority of their time.

Through all of these changes and challenges, it’s important to stay focused and make sure your team sees your passion. This will help retention and help your home services business weather anything that comes your way.