I was fired 10 weeks from my first child’s birth, lots of things led up to it, I’ll list some. They threatened to garnish my wages to pay back medical insurance they didn’t subtract for, then I got my 401k statement and my allocations hadn’t been submitted, I complained. A superior smashed my work because I was doing it right instead of how he wanted it done, I appealed for mediation. My wife is pregnant they brought me into the office to smugly discuss my plan I was pretty much a bitch and said I’d need to take a day or two off once the water breaks the altitude was sociopathic. I got told to stay home for 7 out of 10 days then was let go without two weeks notice via text and the PTO they offered was retracted. Its a scam industry (hvac) so I am not surprised. But for fucks sake, I’m the only one working, why did they target me for their mistakes. I was just taking their shit and looking for a new job discreetly on the side. I found a better job but I can’t let this shit slide without consequences.
2. How good are you at HVAC? Get better. I want you to save up and buy your own HVAC tools and equipment. You and I, friend, are starting up our own HVAC company. I want you to expand into running gas lines, installing water heaters, and a wider range of equipment and installation and maintenance and repair. repair refrigerators and freezers,
3. Tell your friends, family, church congregation and any other groups of good people in your life that you are going into business for yourself, and you'd like them to be your first customers, and you want to be their new HVAC techs. Tell them that you will do free quotes for them and discuss the potential work they need for free while you get your business off the ground. Also advertise in your local neighborhood and close by. The first marketshare you want is the places near where you live so you do not have to commute far. Your own neighbors, the businesses nearby. You will be their new HVAC tech. Look professional, be on time, let them watch or be involved, explain what you're doing, make sure there's no questions or confusion or miscommunication about what you are doing, what it involves, labor and materials, what it will cost. Good communication, eye contact, build trust, show appreciation, take pride in your work.
4. Get a work van or SUV or work truck and load it up with every piece of HVAC tool and begin stockpiling common replaceable parts for HVAC jobs. If you know any customers from your previous job, start poaching them now!!! "Hey it's me, SnakePlisken1776 touching base with you. I want you to know that I no longer work for "xxxx shit company" but since I always did most of the work myself, i figured you and i should cut out the middle man. Would you be interested in signing a maintenance contract with me. It's a better deal, lower price, I'm a small company that can dedicate more time and loyalty to you, less overhead, etc."
5. Talk residential customers into paying cash by offering cash discounts. Cashing checks is risky and time consuming and taking credit cards is expensive. Commercial customers will want invoices and will want to write checks. So basically i suggest you run a legitimate business with state business license number and a federal ID number for your business, set it up as LLC, etc. But i'd worry about that down the line. For now you just need to line up work and get the operation going. Just dont commingle business money and finances with personal finances. That's a huge no no.
6. Running your own small HVAC company is fucking easy. Don't be intimidated by this.
7. In 3 years you will look back and be very happy you got fired by this shit company.
8. The first year you are going to make less money, spend a lot re-investing into the company. So you have to make some budget cuts in other parts of your life. No new clothes, no eating out, no new guns for a while, stop buying alcohol, cancel memberships and subscriptions you pay for, etc
9. By year 2 you will be making just as much money (less the benefits) and have more free time
10. By year 3 you will be very busy, but at least be managing your own schedule and time. By year 3 you will be making more money than your old job and turning down work.
11. Don't worry about reporting checks and income to IRS. You want to run income through your business because you are going to become eligible for lots of loans and financing. This is a good thing. Also, don't worry too much about taxes because you will have lots of stuff to deduct. For now on your business will be paying for all your meals, clothes, most of your gas, tools, vehicle maintenance, etc. What would have gone to taxes will now go toward these expenses. You get to deduct far more stuff as a small business owner than you did when you were an employee.
12. Working for someone else in a field such as HVAC is silly. Man up and run your own local town HVAC shop and mobile business. Stockpile your own equipment and parts, familiarize yourself with the equipment people have locally, maybe start introducing superior better value equipment to people when their old equipment fails, make money on parts supply and labor, build reputation, eventually hire your own employees and treat them better than these scumbags treated you.
What do people pay a lot of money for or have high demand or wait lists for out of the city?