Mandatory Questions –
- Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located, and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities. Alabama Climate Control is an HVAC company that has been serving North Alabama since 1977. We have two locations located in Huntsville and Florence.
- Kindly give us a brief description of yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements). Graduated from University of North Alabama in Florence. I have been in the mechanical realm since 1994. I started selling industrial fans and automated control for Siemans, Transitioning to owning and operating air conditioned and electrical companies in 2007.
- What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about? I hated decisions coming down from high above. I wanted to understand why decisions were being made and the one in control of the business making decisions. I can make the decisions and if people don’t agree, we can have a conversation to talk it through. It is a big deal to me to understand why decisions are made.
- What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs? Always do right by the customer, even if this cost you money. Consider short term pain for long term gain. Leverage is bad, avoid the leverage. Always have the back of your people. Sometimes it will put you in an interesting place between your people and the customer, always understand the situation fully, you can make the right decision. Try to hire people smarter than you, understand your weakness and hire accordingly to fill the gap
- What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur? You need a relentless effort, self discipline and delay in gratification.
- How many hours do you work a day on average? I am at the shop roughly 10 hours a day. In the early days it was more like 10-14, then I got the right people around me.
- To what do you most attribute your success? The people. It all comes back to the people you surround yourself withand give them ability to their job.
- How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing? Word of mouth is the number 1 way to grow your business and that is done through your reputation, both to your customers and employees.
- Where did your organization’s funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture? I did not have investors, we were able to get a bank involved after 6-7 years because of our assets. Our sources came from rolling every dime we made back into the business.
- What is the best way to achieve long-term success? The people and no leverage, don’t borrow money if you don’t have to. You can outrun your borrowing ability pretty fast.
- Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years? I hope in 10 years we are transitioning to the next generation and we are double the size we are today! You hav eot grow to create opportunity, you can’t stop growth. Opportunity for the business and opportunity for people in the business. If you don’t have growth you will lose your key members.
- Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most? Charlie Munger, he knew he what he was doing and a very smart guy. You want to try to learn from every successful entrepreneur you come across, grab something from everyone.
Recommended Questions –
- How important have good employees been to your success? It’s all of it, 100% of our success is due to the success of our employees.
- How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
- What motivates you? Creating the opportunities for people that work for me and creating opportunities for my children. Watching the decimation of HVAC industry through private equities, motivates me to go against the grain and do what is right for the customers and employees. The people that treat their people right and treat their customers right will be standing on top of the hill in the end.
- How do you build a successful customer base? Always doing right by the customers and understand it takes time and experience!
- For more information Visit us at https://alabamaclimatecontrol.com/