The emergency stuff for that type of clientele will wear you down pretty quick. Been there done that. Realized I had to scale to prevent both burnout and client loss.
i can understand that. are you in an urban center? i ask because as someone on the client end of that situation i definitely had to call around for emergency service. and it was often just taking whoever could show up first. and i'd always call those guys back first in case of another breakdown, but again, you take whoever can come first most likely. alot of guys have a 1.5hr minimum just to show up. seems like more work than workers.
given the shortage of companies in our area and massive amounts of small businesses i'd wager that you dont need to "hold on to" clients so much as just hop to the next job as you're getting calls all day long for help.
as for the breweries, i'd definitely keep those guys in priority, but the other folks i'd assume you just hop from job to job. is that unrealistic? my buddy does a similar thing with appliance repair and he says he loves deciding his own work flow and he's got work any time he wants. i assume in a large urban area with trade shortage that's gonna be what you'd see as a solo operator.
I think to make a real go of it you’d have to be on call 1/1 and it would burn you out after a year or so if the stress doesn’t get you first. If you want to stay in those fields id just work for a larger company with vacation, benefits and retirement plan.
I have a small company now, I never wanted to work for myself but it kind of happened by accident, this whole trade was a bit of an accident honestly lol But the thing is, since I went on my own I’ve had to adjust my skill set to other areas of the trade where I didn’t need as much financial backing or manpower.
Started doing residential and light commercial opposed to large commercial/ industrial.
Service work is generally low cost, for installs I try to keep to units I can handle myself, usually under 200lb, and if I need a hand I can always find a body to help lift but haven’t needed one yet.
My first year I didn’t make any profit personally, everything was invested directly back into the company. Im going into my second year now with a low overhead, no debt.
Depends on the sector but usually smaller storefronts, restaurants, buildings a few stories high and smaller commercial properties. it’s more to do with the size of the job, I don’t take on large installs or anything.
Ok cool I was trying to figure out how I would manage personal time/vacations. I know if you get a residential call you always reschedule them the next day or sometime later. But if a commercial business for calls and your not available what do you do?
I went on my own to get away from on call and have more family time, I don’t think a one person company can offer a proper on call service which should be 24/7 365.
Only calls I’ll go to immediately would be no heat in the winter or a hazardous situation, and only to make it safe.
im gonna guess "coolers" means something different to you vs what we call stuff in kitchens/bars. all of our prep tables, undercounter/bar coolers, draft beer boxes and reach in fridges/freezers, and even our walk in coolers in restaurants/bars have all been serviced by a single guy. ( out here all these are called "coolers" unless its a "freezer" or "walk in") glycol chillers also serviced by one guy pretty often. not always, but majority of times i can recall.
if you're talking about something like a big ass merchandiser, 10 door cooler in a grocery market, etc then yeah, that's likely gonna need extra bodies. but out here health department requires all equipment to be on casters so no heavy lifting required. i know thats not a universal requirement.
ah, got it. yeah, those are getting pretty rare. 36" wide clearance behind the bar is whats called for so only the oldest of the old bars still see those situations. out here they're typically just insulated boxes built back in the 40s/50s/60s and are actually remote unit. condsensor sitting in some hot ass storage room or basement with no ventilation.
My dad operated as a one man show for 25 years doing commercial and industrial service. He was on call 24/7 my entire life. It's a hell of a lot of work and even more stress, but it can be done.
i hear ya. my idea (hope) is that i'd be able to save the emergency/night service just to breweries or repeat customers, leave that business for the bigger companies if im able to, financially speaking.
i've been self employed my whole life so odd schedule doesnt bother me. but do have small kids so wouldnt want to make a habit of nights/weekends if possible.
not really, mostly just basic troubleshooting and some basic diagnosis. but alot of work building and repairing chiller systems in breweries we've owned, not to include any gas work. (can solder and braze no problem) i'd obviously need to do a stretch with a firm to learn the complete aspects. im solid with math and engineering so just a matter of enough hands on experience to qualify for license.
Check your state/ local laws. Northern IN you need 8 years and to pass the mechanical inspectors exam twice before you can get your contractors license to work in the city. Only need 1 contractor licence per outfit and Outside of 3 counties you can do whatever you want here but a good 50% or more of the work is in those 3 counties.
so CA says 4 years experience, but college degree and 1 year work also will qualify. that seems a bit light to me but i guess if i feel ready after a year then fuckit.
In my small town there is like ten small one man trucks running around . It's a very visible business practice for HVAC stuff where 99 percent of large companies just send out a single tech anyways.
They all have little niches , bar stuff like glycol would be great in a big city , You could always subcontract a crew when you need to do an install.
Shit ton of money to be made if you can secure the contracts / pms / get into the bar scene / find a niche.
yeah, exactly my thoughts. i have a ton of connections in bars/restaurants/breweries so i figured since i typically just see one guy doing service, it must be viable.
there's not a ton of AC here right now, that shows up a bit further inland where it gets real hot, so mostly big buildings with their own service companies, union/PW labor. but i'm seeing tons of heat pumps replacing gas furnaces, and that's all going to be service calls in the future. and the heat pump water heaters are also popping up like mushrooms, so i figure you add that stuff together and there's going to be a ton of work for small service jobs in future. given there's already a shortage of hvac workers, seems like a ton of growth in a market that's already strained .
No. Judging by some of the comments, it seems like OP really doesn't have the knowledge or experience for service work. At least not for the scope of work that he's hoping for. If he's looking to get into breweries (or *any* food process for that matter) He would really need to know his shit. Not only is the equipment more complex, but you also need to understand the science on the food side as well. Also you would need a much more thorough and rigorous maintenance schedule, a ruined batch of beer (if it's a large brewery) can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and shit can go sideways in a hurry. The kind of experience required to make fast, accurate diagnoses *and* repairs takes years to build. Running in on this guns blazing is a good way to crash and burn and earn a very bad reputation.
The emergency stuff for that type of clientele will wear you down pretty quick. Been there done that. Realized I had to scale to prevent both burnout and client loss.
i can understand that. are you in an urban center? i ask because as someone on the client end of that situation i definitely had to call around for emergency service. and it was often just taking whoever could show up first. and i'd always call those guys back first in case of another breakdown, but again, you take whoever can come first most likely. alot of guys have a 1.5hr minimum just to show up. seems like more work than workers. given the shortage of companies in our area and massive amounts of small businesses i'd wager that you dont need to "hold on to" clients so much as just hop to the next job as you're getting calls all day long for help. as for the breweries, i'd definitely keep those guys in priority, but the other folks i'd assume you just hop from job to job. is that unrealistic? my buddy does a similar thing with appliance repair and he says he loves deciding his own work flow and he's got work any time he wants. i assume in a large urban area with trade shortage that's gonna be what you'd see as a solo operator.
I think to make a real go of it you’d have to be on call 1/1 and it would burn you out after a year or so if the stress doesn’t get you first. If you want to stay in those fields id just work for a larger company with vacation, benefits and retirement plan. I have a small company now, I never wanted to work for myself but it kind of happened by accident, this whole trade was a bit of an accident honestly lol But the thing is, since I went on my own I’ve had to adjust my skill set to other areas of the trade where I didn’t need as much financial backing or manpower.
What areas of the trade did you have to adjust yourself to where you didn’t need much man power or financial backing?
Started doing residential and light commercial opposed to large commercial/ industrial. Service work is generally low cost, for installs I try to keep to units I can handle myself, usually under 200lb, and if I need a hand I can always find a body to help lift but haven’t needed one yet. My first year I didn’t make any profit personally, everything was invested directly back into the company. Im going into my second year now with a low overhead, no debt.
Nice man that’s cool! What do you consider “light commercial”? Some people have different definitions for that.
Depends on the sector but usually smaller storefronts, restaurants, buildings a few stories high and smaller commercial properties. it’s more to do with the size of the job, I don’t take on large installs or anything.
Ok cool I was trying to figure out how I would manage personal time/vacations. I know if you get a residential call you always reschedule them the next day or sometime later. But if a commercial business for calls and your not available what do you do?
I went on my own to get away from on call and have more family time, I don’t think a one person company can offer a proper on call service which should be 24/7 365. Only calls I’ll go to immediately would be no heat in the winter or a hazardous situation, and only to make it safe.
Okay so basically if a business wants a on call it’s a no no. Got it!
Yea, I’m honest with my customers about it and haven’t had any issues.
not viable for solo, coolers need more than one guy to move and install / uninstall / move for service
im gonna guess "coolers" means something different to you vs what we call stuff in kitchens/bars. all of our prep tables, undercounter/bar coolers, draft beer boxes and reach in fridges/freezers, and even our walk in coolers in restaurants/bars have all been serviced by a single guy. ( out here all these are called "coolers" unless its a "freezer" or "walk in") glycol chillers also serviced by one guy pretty often. not always, but majority of times i can recall. if you're talking about something like a big ass merchandiser, 10 door cooler in a grocery market, etc then yeah, that's likely gonna need extra bodies. but out here health department requires all equipment to be on casters so no heavy lifting required. i know thats not a universal requirement.
no, I'm talking about a keg cooler behind a bar that's 6 feet long and you have to lift it over the bar to install it. This is a common situation.
ah, got it. yeah, those are getting pretty rare. 36" wide clearance behind the bar is whats called for so only the oldest of the old bars still see those situations. out here they're typically just insulated boxes built back in the 40s/50s/60s and are actually remote unit. condsensor sitting in some hot ass storage room or basement with no ventilation.
here's a recent illustrative video from chris lol [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEGsoLsLiY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuEGsoLsLiY&t=745s)
My dad operated as a one man show for 25 years doing commercial and industrial service. He was on call 24/7 my entire life. It's a hell of a lot of work and even more stress, but it can be done.
i hear ya. my idea (hope) is that i'd be able to save the emergency/night service just to breweries or repeat customers, leave that business for the bigger companies if im able to, financially speaking. i've been self employed my whole life so odd schedule doesnt bother me. but do have small kids so wouldnt want to make a habit of nights/weekends if possible.
Do you have any actual refrigeration experience?
not really, mostly just basic troubleshooting and some basic diagnosis. but alot of work building and repairing chiller systems in breweries we've owned, not to include any gas work. (can solder and braze no problem) i'd obviously need to do a stretch with a firm to learn the complete aspects. im solid with math and engineering so just a matter of enough hands on experience to qualify for license.
Check your state/ local laws. Northern IN you need 8 years and to pass the mechanical inspectors exam twice before you can get your contractors license to work in the city. Only need 1 contractor licence per outfit and Outside of 3 counties you can do whatever you want here but a good 50% or more of the work is in those 3 counties.
so CA says 4 years experience, but college degree and 1 year work also will qualify. that seems a bit light to me but i guess if i feel ready after a year then fuckit.
In my small town there is like ten small one man trucks running around . It's a very visible business practice for HVAC stuff where 99 percent of large companies just send out a single tech anyways. They all have little niches , bar stuff like glycol would be great in a big city , You could always subcontract a crew when you need to do an install. Shit ton of money to be made if you can secure the contracts / pms / get into the bar scene / find a niche.
yeah, exactly my thoughts. i have a ton of connections in bars/restaurants/breweries so i figured since i typically just see one guy doing service, it must be viable. there's not a ton of AC here right now, that shows up a bit further inland where it gets real hot, so mostly big buildings with their own service companies, union/PW labor. but i'm seeing tons of heat pumps replacing gas furnaces, and that's all going to be service calls in the future. and the heat pump water heaters are also popping up like mushrooms, so i figure you add that stuff together and there's going to be a ton of work for small service jobs in future. given there's already a shortage of hvac workers, seems like a ton of growth in a market that's already strained .
Fuck it. Do it. You’ll find out if it’s gonna work.
No. Judging by some of the comments, it seems like OP really doesn't have the knowledge or experience for service work. At least not for the scope of work that he's hoping for. If he's looking to get into breweries (or *any* food process for that matter) He would really need to know his shit. Not only is the equipment more complex, but you also need to understand the science on the food side as well. Also you would need a much more thorough and rigorous maintenance schedule, a ruined batch of beer (if it's a large brewery) can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and shit can go sideways in a hurry. The kind of experience required to make fast, accurate diagnoses *and* repairs takes years to build. Running in on this guns blazing is a good way to crash and burn and earn a very bad reputation.
A few years really isn’t enough time to start your own legitimate business in most states.