Remember … it might take a long time to develop trust, but it can take less than a minute to completely destroy it.

You may have noticed that the contractors featured in The NEWS as “The Best Contractors to Work For” seldom mention the availability of qualified people as a problem. The reason is, they treat their people right. That means they are paid fair wages, given appropriate benefits, and treated with gratitude.

St. Louis is home to the largest rental car company in the world — Enterprise Holdings. Besides Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the company owns National Car Rental and Alamo Rent a Car.

I have always been very proud of our company. We are 123 years old, we have received a number of awards — both locally and nationally — and our customer reviews are generally very good.

I and many others have written articles for this magazine about the importance of planning, and all of those articles were right on target. We must plan in our businesses.

I have been involved with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) here in St. Louis for about 30 years. I continue to serve on the Standards and Compliance (formerly Ethics) Committee. This committee reviews cases where a company has not responded regarding a complaint and, therefore, is in line to be expelled from the BBB.

Recently, there has been a great deal of conversation among contractors regarding the new concept of selling HVAC equipment on the internet. While the pros and cons of a consumer buying equipment online and finding a local contractor (or having one “selected” for them) are many, that is not the purpose of this article.

I recently attended a function held by the St. Louis Business Journal regarding family businesses and how they had transitioned to the second, third, and even fourth generations. It was a program of interest to me because so many HVAC and sheet metal businesses have traditionally been family-owned and have been passed from father to son.

I want to sincerely thank Mike Murphy, Kyle Gargaro, and the staff of The NEWS for selecting me as one of three “Legends of the HVAC Industry” presented Sept. 7 at Service World Expo in Las Vegas. I couldn’t be prouder to have been selected for this award. As I looked back on the information provided in my entry form, I noticed a number of things that I felt would be pertinent and worthwhile to share with you.

I know most contracting business qualify as small, and I speak from experience when I say that small contractors can easily differentiate themselves by empowering their people to perform random acts of kindness to benefit their customers or potential customers.