In the days after the official start of spring, it is not unusual for weather-dependent businesses to start turning to long-range forecasts to get some idea of what the summer has in store. Some contractors plan for a busy summer regardless of the forecasts, while others prefer to have a long-range forecast to shape their planning.
Gene Kranz, lead flight director for Mission Control said these famous words to his staff during Apollo 13's ill-fated flight: "Failure is not an option." Do businesspeople consider themselves failures if they don't reach their planned goals and objectives? I think not.
Business owners who wish to control their financial destiny need to consider the benefits of having a retirement plan. That's the message Heather Proctor and Joe Klarberg of A.G. Edwards delivered to attendees at the Quality Service Contractors' Power Meeting.
A study from The Freedonia Group Inc., a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm, shows that the demand for HVAC equipment will grow to $14.3 billion in 2009, fueled by the uptick in nonresidential construction and the ongoing strength in residential remodeling.
Kevin Dougherty scheduled two seminars for the Quality Service Contractors' Power Meeting called "Dynamics of a Family Business" and "Strategies for Buying and Selling a Business." He felt there were so many similar elements, however, that he combined them into one.
During the Continuing Education (ConEd) Conference in Atlanta, members of the Linc Service® Network, a network of commercial HVAC mechanical contractors, got a glimpse of the future of their business: selling bundled energy solutions (BES).
I noticed a feature on an HVAC contractor's Website the other day titled, "Do It Yourself." I know that it is a nice public service to offer free advice on the Web - but at what cost?
A Website that provides reports on area businesses can be a useful tool for service companies such as HVAC contractors - especially when the contractors get positive reviews from satisfied customers.
Goodman Global Inc., parent company of Goodman Manufacturing, the world's largest privately held HVAC manufacturer, recently announced its plans for an initial stock offering that could raise as much as $460 million. In IPO documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Goodman said there are "areas of opportunity and elements of potential risk."
Dan O'Halloran, service manager of Murphy & Miller, could never have anticipated what was about to happen. On Feb. 3, he was part of a three-man team that rescued a woman from her car as it was sinking into the muck of a retention pond.