Starting and Running an HVAC Business: Expert Tips for Entrepreneurs

Discover the steps and insights on starting and running an HVAC business. Learn about licensing, equipment, and marketing strategies to establish your business.

An HVAC business is an appealing prospect for many people, particularly due to the consistently high demand for HVAC management. The potential for higher earnings and a steady income is also a significant advantage for many aspiring entrepreneurs.

However, to run a successful HVAC business, you need more than an excellent HVAC business plan, marketing strategy, and well-trained technicians. In addition to all the training your employees will need, you also need to have a business that runs in an organized and efficient manner.

Consider the following tips on how to run an HVAC company successfully.

8 Easy Steps to Start Your HVAC Business

1. Make Sure to Register & License Your HVAC Business

The business’ name is the first consideration in learning how to start an HVAC business. When selecting a name, choose something professional and easy to remember. Register your business name with the area government. Select the business structure that best suits your operation, such as sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company.

You will also need to apply for a small business license and get insurance for your HVAC company. HVAC work is difficult and sometimes dangerous, so you need insurance to protect your business and your technicians against liabilities.

Talk to your insurance advisor so you know which policies you need to get. These may include equipment insurance, liability insurance, or workers’ comp insurance.

2. Procure Funding For Your HVAC Business

Second on the HVAC business startup checklist is securing the funding you need. The startup costs for a small HVAC company can range from a few thousand dollars to up to $40,000 or more.

Equipment and supplies like vans, ladders, tools, and PPE or personal protection equipment are just some of the costs you can incur. Create a startup budget and apply to banks and other government agencies for funds.

3. Get The Appropriate Licenses and Certifications for Your HVAC Business.

HVAC business management also involves getting certified to work in the industry. To ensure your technicians are providing quality work, make sure you get the right licenses and certifications. Anyone in the US servicing refrigerators or AC units will need an Environmental Protection Agency or EPA certification.

You also need your HVAC contractor license, and this is unique to each state. It generally requires some years of apprenticeship and an official HVAC certification.

4. Create an HVAC Service List For Your Clients.

An important factor in running an HVAC business is figuring out which services you want to offer customers.

Some basic services you want to consider offering are installation and maintenance of AC units and furnaces, heat pump installation, and duct cleaning. You may also offer services for improving indoor air quality, like the installation of air purifiers, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers.

5. Buy HVAC tools and equipment.

Even with all the technological advancements in the HVAC industry, you will need some basic tools such as hammers, pliers, wrenches, gauges, cutters, staple guns, and screwdrivers. You will also need PPE such as goggles, gloves, masks, and earplugs.

Procuring all these tools involves looking for the right suppliers or distributors who can offer high-quality products at prices that meet your budget.

6. Price your HVAC services.

Now you need to consider how to price your HVAC services. Research competitors in your area and what they are charging. Determine what your markups and profit margins will be. Consider your services and figure out pricing that will provide the best value to customers.

You can go with an hourly rate, a flat rate, or a materials and labor pricing module to cover your services.

7. Promote your HVAC business.

Once your HVAC business is set up, you can start marketing and promoting your business. You need to consider your brand and how to apply it across social media accounts and websites. Create an online presence for your HVAC company and keep it updated.

You can also create and launch local marketing campaigns to let potential customers know about your business.

8. Hire HVAC technicians.

You can’t have a successful HVAC business without a team of technicians who hold HVAC certification and HVAC license. Make sure to hire qualified HVAC technicians and pay them competitive salaries. The right salary may depend on the technician’s skill level or the state where you live.

How To Start & Run an HVAC Business Successfully In 10 Steps

1. Create flexible team schedules.

An online schedule can help you keep work orders organized efficiently and get techs to HVAC jobs more quickly. For a successful schedule, consider the following tips:

Use a calendar that can be edited and allows you to move jobs around easily. This should also make it easy for your team to see notifications and stay on top of them. Making sure your crew has access to this schedule, and any changes that are made to it, is key to running a smooth operation.

Consider color-coding information and filtering it to see what is important more quickly. Color coding is an excellent way of conveying important details for work orders that are urgent. This also helps prevent problems such as double-booking and overly complex service runs.

Many HVAC software for small businesses comes with built-in scheduling. Podium has useful features to help you keep your HVAC teams organized. Case and point: an all-in-one inbox routes leads from all online sources so you can respond to prospects quickly and close the deal.

2. Dispatch and route your team efficiently.

At the start of each workday, your company needs to dispatch HVAC technicians to their jobs efficiently. When scheduling is done well, your technicians spend less time on the road and finish more appointments. You also stand to make more profits.

When working with several vans, make sure to get locations pinned into sectors that each van can service. This will make it easier should you get an emergency call. Then after the job is complete, you use a tool like Podium to organize invoices and track payments.

You can also manage any delays with GPS to keep your teams and vans on track. This is an excellent tool for keeping fuel costs down as well as keeping billable hours low.

3. Access job and client details anywhere.

When managing any HVAC team, you need to make sure that every detail on work orders is coordinated well so that each job is successful. Your CRM or customer relationship management system can help you keep all this information well organized.

With Podium, your technicians can easily check in when they show up at a job site as well as update customer’s files. Team members can also add important notes so that everyone can do their best work and offer personalized service.

Speed to lead is critical in today’s fast-paced market, and Podium offers an unparalleled advantage by ensuring businesses engage with leads within a couple of minutes—guaranteed. Podium’s AI Employee is “always on,” so you and your team don’t have to be, offering 24/7 customer support and sales. In the same vein, Podium’s AI CSR improves response times and quickly answers basic questions to free up time for the staff of the HVAC business to focus on setting appointments.

Book more jobs with Podium’s AI CSR for HVAC businesses. Watch a demo today!

4. Use checklists to ensure high-quality work.

Checklists are essential to not only completing work orders but also learning how to run an HVAC business. Your technicians can forget important steps of projects when they don’t have a checklist in front of them. These lists should detail every portion of the job so that your technicians can go through the process item by item and check them off.

You can also develop a protocol that your technicians can use to ensure they are following the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule preventative list. This is another area where Podium can help business owners.

5. Send professional and detailed estimates.

Your estimates are one of your first impressions for new HVAC clients. For this reason, you must make sure these estimates are detailed and professional. You want to make sure your estimates are created with an HVAC service template that can be reused. You will run a more profitable HVAC company when you spend more time turning over repairs and less time building estimates and invoices.

Podium offers a large selection of templates for you to use with your HVAC business. All you need to do is plan the work and then plug the estimated information into the template and you have all the details to send to your customers. With these templates, you can add descriptions and even photos to describe your installations and work. This will lead to more satisfied clients who give you referrals by word-of-mouth, bringing in new business for years to come.

6. Keep invoicing and payment collection easy.

Any business owner will tell you that cash flow is key to maintaining day-to-day operations. And getting paid quickly is the best way to improve cash flow.

The best way to invoice quickly is to use HVAC templates for invoicing. Podium offers templates you can customize with details like invoice payment methods, contact details, branding, and service pricing. The software also offers the ability to track invoices and send reminders for payments and new invoices on jobs finished with your HVAC contractors.

Keep invoices paid by offering several payment methods such as credit card processing and bank payments, which are excellent check alternatives. You can also use HVAC invoicing software like Podium Payments which makes it easy to request and receive payments via text.

7. Inform Your Clients Every Step of The Way.

Another pillar to running an air conditioning and refrigeration company is great communication with your clients. You want them to be updated and informed about all parts of the job so they have peace of mind that it will be completed.

The following is a suggested schedule for client communications:

• Before the job: Send a reminder to get them prepared for your visit, including any instructions.
• First day on the job: Send a quick message that you’re en route. This can prevent cancellations.
• After the job: Follow up via text to collect payment and see how the HVAC system is working and if the customer is satisfied with the services. This is also the perfect time to send a survey and collect reviews to further your HVAC marketing efforts.

8. Hire the best technicians and HVAC contractors.

Your HVAC business will only ever be as good as its best technicians on staff. This means you need to hire the best employees you can afford and continue investing in their training and certifications for refrigeration and other HVAC industry certifications.

Because of this, make sure to outline any of your HVAC company goals thoroughly and set a reasonable timeline for achieving them. Make sure to establish a thorough interview process and recruit all the time. Offering pay based on performance is an excellent way to keep growth as an incentive for your small business.

9. HVAC business owners should build a solid company culture.

Your HVAC business plan should include ways to make sure your employees are happy and that they have a company they want to work for. Focus on your team’s success stories to inspire other techs to succeed. Make sure your HVAC company culture shows how much your employees mean to you.

One way to communicate this message is to send birthday gifts and holiday bonuses. Likewise, you should organize gatherings and events for your small business to host for its employees to help them get to know each other.

10. Revisit business operations regularly.

Your marketing strategy needs to consider more than just your startup costs. You need to figure out how to use reputation management and social media marketing to get more potential customers. Consumers look to the internet to do research on companies before committing. Glowing reviews can help your cause because they help position you as more credible.

Grow Your HVAC Business With Podium

The right tools can transform your business and greatly reduce your stress. Podium’s AI solutions make connecting with more customers and closing more deals faster and easier. Learn more about how your HVAC business can benefit from an all-in-one solution.