1 – Q) 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.
A) Gadaleta Heating and Cooling was established in 2001. Through it’s leadership from David Gadaleta the company quickly grew to have a strong reputation of quality workmanship, affordable pricing, and first class customer service in the residential and commercial sectors of the industry. Gadaleta Heating and Cooling is conveniently located in Belleville, NJ with quick access to all major highways in northern NJ.
2 – Q) Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
A) I am a 47 year old business man with 3 children and a beautiful and supportive wife. I graduated High School in1993 and immediately went into vocational trade school to learn the HVAC trade. After working 7 years for another company, I learned that I wanted to own my own company and build my own brand.
3 – Q) What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
A) I was inspired to start my own business as I grew in the industry and saw how I could improve the customer experience. I knew I could provide a different, more personal touch, while maintaining quality service and affordable pricing. I wanted to create my own brand, something I could be proud of. So I formed Gadaleta Heating and Cooling and became dedicated to building it. As any small business owner knows, thing change quickly from day to day. This made me learn that I had to continue self-development and the development of my staff to make sure we could continue to change with the times.
4 – Q) What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
A) People, processes, and planning are the key essentials to building a successful organization.
5 – Q) What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
A) To be a successful entrepreneur in today’s environment you need to be a Visionaire with a clarity on your company’s goals, flexibility to pivot quickly as things happen and change, and dedication to your employees and customers.
6 – Q) How many hours do you work a day on average?
A) When you are the owner of a small business, you are never off the clock. But on average, I would say I am in the office 10 hours a day.
7 – Q) To what do you most attribute your success?
A) My success is attributed to customer concentration and building a solid team that lives within the values and culture of the company.
8 – Q) How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
A) Prior to a few months ago, our biggest marketing tool was satisfied customers who recommended us to their friends, families, or associates. Today we have branched out to SEO on our website and Social Media Marketing.
9 – Q) 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?
A) With no outside funding, I was able to manage my money to build the business. This is difficult to do, and I learned that many others go to outside or 3rd party funding. However, this has given me a great sense of pride that I was able to do this on my own.
10 – Q) What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
A) Long term success is built on persistence and dedication to your customers, your employees, and yourself.
11 – Q) Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
A) I see the company doubling in 5 years, and then again in 10 years. I are currently restructuring the company for growth without losing the personal touch with our clients. We are expanding to different marketing tools and business development processes to build new relationship and revenue streams.
12 – Q) Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
A) A specific company in the industry doesn’t come to mind. But I admire the larger organization with automated systematic process to deliver consistency in customer experience with efficiency.
13 – Q) How important have good employees been to your success?
A) Good employees are the back bone to my success. They represent the companies values when dealing with our customers. I couldn’t grow the business with out the loyalty and dedication of my core team.
14 – Q) How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
A) If an idea doesn’t work, I like to fail quickly so I can pivot and adjust or correct it. Things move quickly and we need to keep up.
15 – Q) What motivates you?
A) Motivation comes to me in 3 ways. The thrill of the win keeps me going to try and get more work and new clients. Obviously, I am in business to make a profit so that keeps me going. And lastly, helping and building my employees provides me a lot of satisfaction and motivation.
16 – Q) How do you generate new ideas?
A) New ideas come to me from self-development seminars, trade shows, reading, and watching other business successes and failures.
17 – Q) How do you define success?
A) I define success as being a great father and husband, with financial security, and the ability to mentor and help others.
18 – Q) How do you build a successful customer base?
A) Building a successful customer base takes a lot of time and trust to build relationships. Obviously, quality workmanship, and fair and honest prices plays a huge part in creating that trust and relationships.
19 – Q) What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
A) I would say my favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur is building employees, and customer relationships.
20 – Q) What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
A) One of the most satisfying moments in my business was hiring my first crew and buying my first truck. I remember the sense of accomplishment I had that day that I was beginning to build my company and brand.
21 – Q) What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
A) The biggest difference between and entrepreneur and employees is tolerance for risk, having a clear vision, and determination.
22 – Q) What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture?
A) We have a family type culture consisting of respect, honestly, and dedication.
23 – Q) In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur?
A) Adventure!
24 – Q) If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
A) That’s a loaded question. As you build a business, you continue to learn every day. I would say I need to go through everything I went through to learn what I know today. So maybe I wouldn’t do much different.
25 – Q) How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
A) Being a small business owner, you tend to be on the job 24/7. So I had to learn how to shut it off when I was with my family. Of course from time to time it is difficult, but if you don’t master that skill it will affect your family life.
26 – Q) What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
A) My greatest fear is failure, and the only way to manage it is not to allow it to happen.
27 – Q) How did you decide on the location for your business?
A) When I started the business I located it in Wood-Ridge, NJ. That is where my roots were being raised there. As we began to grow we needed a larger location that was convenience to be able to get to the customers quickly. I found Belleville to be nicely centralized to get to most of our areas of service quickly without adding too much cost or time to my clients.
