/r/ProHVACR
For HVAC/R professionals and business operators.
This is not a question and answer subreddit. Full stop. Any and all questions from outside the trade go in r/hvacadvice, and all normal HVAC posts from inside the trade go in r/hvac.
This is a subreddit for hvac professionals to discuss starting or operating a business, hiring/firing, paying taxes or whatever.
Ads and offers/requests for work are prohibited.
Related Subreddits:
r/HVAC (the main sub and mother/father to us all.)
r/HVACAdvice (for Homeowners or others looking for HVAC advice, quote reviews and general questions from outside the trade.)
r/askanelectrician (for basic electrical questions)
r/refrigeration (are you cold? Do you want to be?)
r/airbalance (for Test, Adjust and Balance professionals)
r/kitchensuppression (for commercial range hood/restaurant fire suppression)
r/airconditioners (window units, wall shakers and all related equipment)
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/r/ProHVACR
Anyone here a one man shop and would like to share your expense ratio? I’m trying to get my finances straight?
Any one know how many times one can take the exam in Virginia?
So I live in New Jersey and you need to have a Master HVACR contractor's license to buy or start an HVAC business. How easy or how normal is it that you can partner with someone that already has a license? Is there a differantation between installation and servicing as far as that license is conserned? Is the license transferrable from owner to owner? How would you go about buying an HVAC business with no license? What am I missing or it it as simple as i'm just flat out barking up the wrong tree. I got my CFC recently for whatever thats worth.
Anyone know how far they go back on the motor vehicle report? When applying for a refrigeration technician job.
Hey! First post on reddit so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.
Anyways I run a heating and air conditioning business in alabama. I've mostly been doing service, maintenance, repairs, etc. It's my first year in business with my own company and though my service work has kept me busy, I'm wanting to get in with a few builders to get some new construction work, both to help expand my business and develop more consistency in workflow rather than having to continue hustling for service calls as my main source of revenue. I've always worked for someone else up until this last spring, so although I've had the opportunity to work with builders and GC's, I'm not sure what the most effective way to get in with builders as a new business. So far my plan is to find some smaller ones and hand a portfolio + business cards to whoever I can. Any advice or more effective ways to achieve this?
Hey all! Starting up a new company, and wanted to get your advice on bookkeeping.
What software are you all using to manage your books? Ideally I'd like to work with something that's relatively easy for me to use and do 90% of the work, and hand off to a professional to close the books and prep taxes.
I assume a lot of you use quickbooks online, but I've also used one called Xero at a past company. I found one called Puzzle that seems interesting because it gives you live reports before the books are closed at the end of the month, but it seems more geared toward software companies and I'm worried it won't work well for HVAC.
Any suggestions? What has been working well for you all?
Hi everyone. I know this is something that gets asked here all the time, but I am currently a power plant operator (2 years after college) where I happen to deal with some HVAC systems + I also have an engineering degree. I’ve always wanted to create my own business, and since I moved to Florida, I’ve been thinking about starting an HVAC company. I’ve been practicing for the license test and feel pretty confident about it.
Can anyone here share their experience, offer any advice, or help with anything? Thank you all!
Feel like I mainly run into an older crowd that does things 'the old way'. How many owners here are under 30?
Under 35 welcome too :) I'll start I'm 28 and bought HVAC business off my uncle.
Lots of interest for a community, you can join a discord with us here: https://discord.gg/EhddQqc9
Wondering what people are doing at their own companies. Is it the technician, yourself or office? Bonus points if you can walk me through your process (ie. forms, online etc.)
Finding it annoying to adapt to each manufacturer's warranty process.
small 2man mainly-residential business here. we are doing okay off single family homes but are looking to find property groups/owners to offer maintenance/service contracts to. we have a customer with a few properties that has supplied good work and would like to find others like him. any advice appreciated, thanks!
Evening everyone and hope this is the right place to ask! I’ve been approached by a large custom home builder( 5-15 mil range) to consult on pre construction design on new homes and issue solver on older homes within there property management division. My question is how much should I charging per hour/job for my time? I’m currently project managing and have salary/Commision structure but no idea what to be asking for in this case. Any and all help would be appreciated!
Just took over a one man van HVAC business. I come from a tech background so thinking of creating some software for myself. With AI right now it feels even easier to do.
Pretty sure I can replicate the HouseCall Pro functionality that I need and make it even better.
Anyone thinking of doing this or create something in house?
I have a few questions. I have no experience in HVAC. I have 4 year degree in finance.
Thanks. Anything else I should know is welcomed!
Hello! I am looking to start a commercial hvac company in Colorado. I have the knowledge, resources, and finances to do so. What are the next steps I need to take and what certifications/ licenses will help me?
We have a PM on our construction side that is currently hourly. We have had a good year and we want to consider a good way to share. Our construction revenue is not consistent so I feel like a semi-annual or annual defined bonus would be a good way. Anyone else doing something like this. Maybe a commission on gross or net profit?
I co-own an HVAC company and we did some work for a facilities maintenance company and they are refusing to pay us for the work we completed. I have all the proof of communication on what they were due to us for the diagnostic and repair. Has anyone ever been through this? Any advice would be appreciated, TIA
i run a 2man hvac startup company with a partner in the state of Illinois, which does not have a statewide license. we are epa certified, insured, registered as an LLC, and have an accountant for taxes. we are <6 months in business and still growing organically. do we need anything else to operate legally?
we've debated getting a contractors license with the City of Chicago, but ive seen some say that once you get a Chicago license, the rules, regulations, and things you need to keep up with are a hassle. and we'd like to focus as much time on the work and growth at this current point. any advice?
Whatever happened to /r/HVACpros?
I don't know if I was on it. Maybe I did. I don't know.
Why is it banned? Holy poop batman.
Looking for some insight from anyone who’s used/uses google ads for leads. We wanted to take it to the next level in getting leads so we started with google ads, built a website, and got listed as a business on google (10 reviews as of day 2). I guess my question is, how well have the google ads worked for any of you? Are they consistent? Do the quality of calls get better as you have more interaction with customers on google?
Hello everyone, just for a little background, this is how I've gotten to my current scenario.
I am 23 years old, growing up my father started running a small residential/light commercial HVAC business. About 5 years in my father started growing tired of the business and putting it aside to focus on other things. The business didn't ever really scale, but we have a solid customer base. About 3 years ago, I saw the potential in the business and decided to go all in on it.
Now it's gotten to the point where I want to be out of the field and manage the business more, except I'm the one doing mostly everything. I have no time to do so because the calls that come in fill up my work day schedule, from 8a to around 7p
Sometimes calls go unanswered and I feel that we are losing customers.
I have no idea where to go from here or how to scale. We currently have 3 vans but I am only using one
I was offered 1.3m for my business. After $200 k in debt(vehicles/equipment), and taxes ill walk away with $700k. I can easily go get a sales job after. Im in my late 30s and have a few rental properties so personally I’ll be ok financially. The business has been wearing me down the last year and I need to cut my overhead by 30% if I keep it which will relieve some stress buy create different stresses. Has anyone else been in my situation and sold? Trying to figure out if I’ll regret selling. Please don’t be an ass. Just looking for different insights.
He started the company 25 years ago, I've been working for it for 15 years. We have 5 employees, we do commercial work only. I handle day to day operations, managing service, and acting as the senior technican and install project manager. His health took a dive last year, and he'll be retirement age in December. His plan is to stay on another year and retire January 2026. I don't think we can take another year of him not being able to keep up with the pace of the volume of work we're completing. He basically sends/receives quotes, completes and sends invoices, and orders parts. Invoices don't get sent out in a timely manner resulting in sporadic cash flow issues. We're talking months, sometimes half a year before some are sent off. Quoting used to be his bread and butter, but I've been doing the legwork and labor estimation, meeting on-site, scope, etc anyway for the past couple years, he basically takes my list and signs off on it and sends it. The parts ordering has been the worst lately. Missing parts, wrong parts, forgetting to order things, ordering off fucking ebay, etc. Not communicating lead times (he rarely answers the goddamn phone/takes hours to text back) and it's all just beyond frustrating. Those are the main issues, there's a lot more but I don't need to go into detail. All the mistakes and issues are starting to affect our morale. I've been trying to get him to delegate away his duties, but he just won't let go fully.
I can't just tell him- look, you used to be great, but you're slipping and it's time for me to take over, now hand it over old man. Is there a better way to approach this, without hurting his pride too much? Kinda let him down easy but firmly say that it's time to go. We can't make it another year with a failure in leadership. Anyone deal with anything similar?
Built my company over the past few years. Hardest stuff early on was finding the first few customers, but as we grew it was finding and keeping the right leads, especially ones that were good enough to mentor green guys and coach them into doing their own independent work.
What have been or are the hardest parts of your business? What's holding you back? Or if you haven't started a shop yet, why not?
Hey everyone. Just signed a partnership deal with Armstrong mid June. Biggest obstacle we are facing is name brand recognition vs manufacturers like carrier and Trane. I truly believe Armstrong makes a quality product and have had nothing but good experiences with them.
My question - does anyone have any info / links / tips / studies that can help ease customers minds about the brand? Something I could post on Facebook or present to the customer at the table. If I need to make something I have no problem doing it - just figured I’d ask before I try to draw something up.