Most people take their machines for granted. HVAC should cool the house. The car should run. Water should just magically appear when you turn the faucet. All of these ideas are foregone conclusions — until they’re not.
It’s easy to depend on domestic machines, but as soon as something goes wrong, customers will pay practically any price to return to their standard way of life.
This is the main advantage of owning a mechanical services business: you are the gatekeeper between customers and their expected way of life.
From HVAC, to running water and refrigeration, to functional cars, and much more. As the owner of a mechanical services business, your team ensures that the necessities of modern life operate as expected.
You may be a mechanical expert, but that doesn’t mean you’re an entrepreneurial master…yet. So, here is how you can set your mechanical services business apart.
Get involved
Your greatest asset is your expertise. From your first day to your last, you will be expected to deliver the impossible: making stuff work.
As the owner of a mechanical services business, you should offer highly technical, hands-on services to those lacking the know-how to do it themselves.
For example, if customers were able to repair their own HVAC unit, they would. Instead, they contract your team because you have the expertise to get this technical work done.
This is why HVAC services brought in just under $100 billion in 2018, and why the mechanical services industry as a whole is projected to see growth into the foreseeable future.
Surround yourself with smart people
According to the old cliché: the key to success is surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. When it comes to mechanical services, the cliché happens to be true — you can’t do it all, so you should assemble a team that can.
Are you lacking an installation expert? Hire one. If you are usually the last to hear about the latest appliance release, consider hiring someone to prioritise this. As you attempt to grow your business you must surround yourself with experts in their own field within your business – and you can’t expect to do it all!
The advantage of running a small to medium-sized business is that you get to handpick your staff. This is especially advantageous within a specialized field such as mechanical services, because you can fill operational gaps as needed, especially as mechanical developments, releases and trends come and go so fast these days.
Contending with seasons
Anyone who has worked in mechanical services long enough is painfully aware of the peaks and valleys that come with this type of work. Pipes freeze in the winter, AC units fail in the summer, and the mechanical services industry will always be a rollercoaster of clientele with issues and queries.
Due to seasonal demand, mechanical services businesses are plagued by uncertain work and variable income. Lulls are as reliable as, well, the changing of the seasons.
So, how can you ensure a consistent stream of income when faced with invariably variable work?
Diversification
This is the simple answer: diversifying your services. You might employ the best indoor heating technicians in the world, but that won’t get you very far in the middle of summer.
This is why many mechanical services provide a greater variety of services and try to cover their bases for the offseason. You can’t be everything to everyone, but it will help your bottom line to have at least one offering for common problems during every season.
Specialization
Then there’s a less simple answer: make the seasons count. If you’re set on specializing in one field, and have no interest in expanding your services, then you need to make the profitable seasons extra profitable.
You will need to bankroll enough business during your busy periods to fund operations during down periods. This business model is most effective for stable, established businesses, which can depend on guaranteed work.
Owning a mechanical services business can be very challenging but that’s exactly why it’s so rewarding.
Few things in life are more satisfying than working with your hands and doing fulfilling work and so with your sights set for the future you’re in good shape to run a successful mechanical services business.
If, however, you are looking for something a little different, why not take a look at other businesses for sale near you.
@BizForSaleUS
