Running a small HVAC business is hard.
8 months ago, I was in the car with Ryan Walker, owner of Skywalker HVAC (the best-named business in New England). Ryan was rattling off the million things he had to do: outstanding invoices to send, an estimate to schedule with a customer, equipment to order, payroll to run, permits to pull, and oh yeah his Google My Business profile just crashed. My head was spinning just listening to him, and I wasn’t the one in the driver’s seat.
At the time, Ryan didn’t have an office manager. Despite running a profitable business with three technicians, he was managing everything out of his head.
A few months later, things changed. Ryan hired Debbie, an office manager with decades of experience in the HVAC industry, who was able to take over critical functions like billing, bookkeeping, payroll and marketing. Suddenly, Ryan had the bandwidth to focus on customers and growth.
It was a lightbulb moment for us: the right office support can be the difference between an HVAC business surviving and thriving. The best office managers know the industry inside and out. They do more than just handle tasks for an owner, they bring the capacity and experience to help an owner accomplish their goals - whether that’s growth, profitability, or getting their free time back.
We founded WorkHero to make this kind of transformation possible for every HVAC owner.
There are thousands of small HVAC owners out there.
According to US Census data, 84% of HVAC businesses have fewer than 15 employees, which means there are tens of thousands of HVAC owners just like Ryan. These are hardworking contractors who excel at their craft but struggle with the endless administrative tasks that come with running a business. As Michael Gerber points out in the E-Myth, they are technicians first, entrepreneurs second, and managers third.
This creates what we call the “missing middle” problem. These businesses are:
- Too big for the owners to manage all the administrative work themselves.
- Too small by revenue or EBITDA to attract private equity buyers.
- Unable to afford the right office manager that can take them to the next level.
Software tools like Housecall Pro and Jobber can help. But anyone who has used them knows they take time to set up and manage. Plus there’s a whole host of tasks they can’t handle, where you need a human in the loop. That’s where WorkHero comes in.
WorkHero: expert office managers + technology.
Behind every great HVAC business is a rockstar office manager. Often it's a spouse or family member working part-time – the unsung heroes keeping these businesses running. But finding experienced help is hard, and affording full-time support is even harder.
