When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
- That is the expression, it’s not something I made up.
It never made any sense to me, but I understand the spirit of what it means. Recently my small business started to really ramp up. Our client list doubled in the course of three months, which meant the workload on my employees doubled. I had to hire some new people, and hand out a few bonuses, but it seemed things were really going in the right direction. It turns out that some of my HVAC techs didn’t share in my enthusiasm for the boom in business. Because we were so heavily booked, my HVAC techs started losing their days off. Everyone had to work extra, for many weeks in the row. I always pay my HVAC tech double for overtime, but even that wasn’t enough for them. I have a few techs that were 100% invested in working as much as they could, but ultimately I had to let some of the other HVAC techs go. If they were not willing to put in the work, how could they help my HVAC company grow and expand? The new HVAC techs were told right away that they would need to work 6 days a week. They would be compensated handsomely, but were expected to make heating and cooling repairs their focus for the next few months. I have an eye on the future, and all the work I am doing now will pay big rewards in the future when I have enough customers to open a 2nd HVAC repair shop.