October 11, 2024 • 23 mins
Are you thinking about starting your own HVAC business or taking your current one to the next level? In this episode, we dive deep into the strategies and steps you need to know to build a thriving HVAC company. From understanding the essentials of starting an HVAC business to how to effectively manage inventory and scale, this podcast covers it all.
Stay tuned for more episodes on entrepreneurship, business growth, and industry insights!
0:00 - Teaser
0:16 - Intro
1:08 - What is HVAC Inventory Management?
1:50 - What are examples of poor inventory management? How does that impact business operations and customer satisfaction?
5:38 - What are the best practices for effectively managing HVAC inventory?
12:52 - HVAC industry growth
14:21 - How do you start your own HVAC business?
19:50 - What are your top recommended solutions for starting an HVAC business?
23:00 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
They can take alook at, you know.
Oh, I see that technician A isthe closest to that job.
I'll send them over.
Right.
But if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you could
send them over.
And they don't actually theydon't have what they need.
Right.
Nevermind.
I can't do this job.
Exactly right.
Hello everybody I'm Jared.
Hi, I'm Melinda, and welcomeback to The Secret
(00:20):
Life of Inventory.
This is a showwhere we talk about all
things inventory related.
And in today's episode we aregoing to be talking about HVAC
inventory management,specifically how to start a
successful HVAC business andsome solutions that you can use
to make your life easier.
If you guys didn'tknow HVAC stands for heating,
ventilation,and Air Conditioning.
I only recently learnedthat too, and it's actually a
(00:40):
very complex industry when itcomes to inventory tracking,
because these technicians arespread out across so many
different job sites, and ifeven one component
goes missing, it can bring anentire job to a stop.
That's very true.
And, you know, even though thatthere's so much at stake,
you'd be surprised at how manyHVAC businesses let inventory
management take a backseat.
So today we are very excited totalk about all things HVAC,
inventory management.
(01:01):
And if you guys are interestedin learning more about
inventory management and how itaffects our modern world,
be sure to subscribeto stay tuned for more.
So before we get into it,could you explain to our
listeners what is HVACinventory management?
Of course.
Yeah.
So HVAC inventory managementessentially is, you know,
anything to do with yourphysical items such
as components, equipment,anything that you need to kind
of conduct your business.
So that includeslike stocking, procurement,
(01:22):
tracking, even like thingslike maintenance, planning,
budgeting, compliance,all that stuff.
So what are some examples ofpoor HVAC inventory management
and how does that impactbusiness operations or customer
satisfaction?
Yeah, the biggest oneI would say would be
negligent tracking.
Right.
And what does that mean?
I mean, obviously it means thatyou're you don't really know
where things are.
You're losing trackof items either.
(01:43):
They're getting lost,they're getting damaged,
they're getting stolen,things like that.
Um, so if you're not reallyable to keep an eye on things,
you're going to you're notgoing to have those key
components when you're outon the jobsite.
You mentioned before that HVACtechnicians are kind of
scattered all over the place,so they kind of need to make
sure that they have what theyneed when they're on the job.
If they don't have whatthey need, they're not going to
be able tocomplete that job, right.
So it's really,really important that you have
(02:04):
what you need, the equipmentyou need, the components
that you need.
You know, where you need themwhen you need them.
Essentially, it's something.
Also to keep in mindis HVAC businesses.
They're also dealing with,you know, things that
are sometimes, you know, toxic,dangerous chemicals like like
coolants and things like that.
Right?
So you have to makesure that you know where those
things are.
And they're not just like,you know, in the fridge
(02:26):
somewhere next to your lunchor something, right?
You need to make sure that youknow where they are, how much
of it you have.
I mean, a lot of thetimes you have to keep up with
compliances for that stuff.
So of course, tracking that andnegligent tracking of those
things is, you know, very,very bad, dangerous, dangerous,
not just bad but dangerous.
And there's of course, there'sthere's poor forecasting.
Right.
So like with any businessthere's going to
(02:47):
be seasonality involved.
HVAC is no different.
So, you know, for example,if you're running an
HVAC business, you might noticethat you sell a lot more air
conditioning units in July andAugust during the.
When it's super hot,obviously that makes sense.
And you're going tobe selling more furnaces during
the winter.
And then in the fall andthe spring, you know,
people have the windowsopen or whatever.
They're not reallyusing their systems.
You're not going tosell as much.
(03:08):
So having a good idea of likewhen you kind of need more of
certain things is really,really important.
So poor forecasting is,you know, if you're just
continuously ordering the sameamount all year round,
you're going to find you'regetting an influx of
your inventory, you're going tobe carrying a lot more.
You're going to have less cashflow at certain times when
you can, when you don'treally need it.
So having poor forecasting is abig thing that comes up a lot.
(03:30):
If you have poor inventorymanagement and it kind of what
comes along with that is understocking and overstocking.
So of course under stocking iswhen you're, you know,
you're running out of thosecomponents that you need,
those integral components thatyou need in those
in those moments.
Yeah.
Making people waitis never good.
Never good for business, right?
People want things now.
Yeah.
So yeah, if you're running outof those key components,
you're out on jobsite.
(03:50):
You're you're, you know,you definitely
have poor forecasting.
You're not trackingyour things properly.
And then the flipside of that is,
of course, overstocking.
Maybe you're like, oh, I keeprunning out of this, this,
you know, fan unit orthis AC unit.
Like I'll just order a bunch.
Yeah.
You know, I'll justorder a tower.
Yeah.
Tower of these things.
But I mean, that's obviouslynot a great thing
because you're, you're eatingup into your, your cash flow
(04:10):
and you're also eating up intoyour carrying costs as well.
People think that holding on tothings is going to be free.
It's not you know,it costs money to have
that warehouse space.
You have to pay the rent andutilities and all that.
You could be storingother things instead.
Right?
So you might even have tofind yourself, oh, I need more
warehouse space because I haveall of these components I
need to store.
But in reality you're justordering more than you need,
right?
(04:31):
So keeping that balanceis really, really important.
It's something that comes up alot for, you know,
companies that aren't managingtheir inventory properly.
So another another big thingthat kind of it's it's kind of
what all of those things that Imentioned kind of comes into.
It's an efficient workflow.
Right.
So if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you don't know
which technician has whatequipment or what components.
You don't know how muchof the things that they have.
(04:52):
You're going to have a reallypoor workflow and with with the
field service, you know,businesses, they need to kind
of be kind of flexible, right?
So if they get a call from acustomer who needs a specific,
you know, job done, they cantake a look at, you know, oh,
I see that technician Ais the closest to that job.
I'll send them over.
Right.
But if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you could
send them over.
And they don't actually theydon't they don't have
(05:13):
what they need.
Right.
Nevermind.
Can't do this job.
Exactly.
Right.
So if you're trackingthings really, really well,
you can, you know,you'll get that call.
And instead of saying I'll sendthe closest technician over,
you can say, well, whohas the component that I need?
Oh, this person actually has.
How close are they?
Okay.
They're not as close as Trucktruck B, but I'll send them
over because they have whatthey need to actually
complete the job.
Right.
(05:33):
So having a really good,efficient workflow is going to
be indicative of havinggood inventory management.
That makes sense.
So what are somebest practices for effectively
managing HVAC inventory.
Yeah.
So I always start with this one.
No matter the industry thatyou're in cycle counts.
It's really important.
Everyone hates them.
I say that all the time becauseeveryone hates them.
but they're very,very important.
(05:54):
Some people think that ifthey're using software that
they don't need to do cyclecounts because, hey, it's all
being updated in the software.
It should have.
Exactly right.
So why bother?
You know, it's got the software.
That's what I'm payingthem a good money for.
But regardless of how you'remanaging your inventory,
you need to bedoing cycle counts.
And they don't haveto be daunting.
Um, I kind of recommendespecially for field services.
Um, they kind ofdo it in sections, right?
(06:15):
So if you're doing acycle count, maybe just do
truck 1 one day, do truck 2 thesecond day truckload.
Yeah.
Divide it into different daysand then warehouse on a
separate do it allin separate days.
That way you don't have to.
Yeah.
Not just overwhelming, but likeyou don't have to stop
your business, you know, like,you obviously want to keep
the ball rolling.
You want tokeep the customers happy,
keep the jobs going.
(06:36):
And you can't really do that ifyou have to, like, uh,
stop everybody.
We've got a counter inventoryto make sure we have what we,
we actually have in our system.
We actually have those things.
Right?
So yeah, it's all about, um,kind of separating it,
making it more manageable.
Another big one, of course, is,uh, setting strict reorder
points for items.
We talked about how componentsare just very important to have.
I mean, for everything.
(06:56):
But for HVAC businesses,especially because you need to
make sure you have thosecomponents to, to to do
the job right.
So if you want to make surethat you're not running out
of those, um, components,you want to make sure that you
have those data points in place.
And what does that mean?
That means that you basicallyyou set a number like
for example, you know, that youhave ten AC units, and once you
hit ten, you need toorder more, right?
So whatever system you're using,make sure that it
(07:18):
alerts you, uh, so that whenyou hit that ten, you know,
it's time to order more.
Yeah.
Because it gives you timebecause it's not just
about like one.
Oh, I got, you know,zero left order.
It takes time for these thingsto get to you.
Reorder points factor in thingslike lead time,
things like safety,stock factors, all those things
in to make sure that you'renever going to run out of stuff
(07:38):
no matter what if you orderthem at that point.
So they're very, very important.
Another big one for HVACcompanies would be a
mobile jobsite workflow.
Of course, we talked aboutagain everyone's located all
over the place.
Big service area.
You're going to people's houses.
You're going to stores,you're going to factories.
Wherever the job needs tobe done, you need to go
to that place.
Right?
So if you have a mobile jobsite workflow, it's kind of a
(07:59):
great way for you to plan thosethose job routes better
for your technicians.
And also make sure that allyour technicians have the
equipment they need.
They have the componentsthat they need.
So what a mobile jobsite actually is.
Essentially, it's setting upeach of your trucks and your
warehouse is kind ofa separate locations.
So all of your trucks will havelike their set inventory and
their components and all that.
(08:19):
And then they would go aroundand they would do their jobs,
and then they would go back tothe warehouse and just kind of
replenish their stock as needed.
So the warehouse kind of actsas like a central hub.
Yeah.
Essentially analyzinghistorical data, of course,
is really, really important for,you know, demand forecasting,
knowing what you need whenyou need it.
We talkedabout seasonality earlier.
So that kind of plays into that.
(08:39):
So if you kind of understandthat okay, last August I look
at my historical data.
I know that I sold 25 of theseAC units for example, so you
probably can guess.
I'll probably need at least 25.
You might want to factor inthings like oh well,
my business is actually grownby 25% since last year, right?
So add that in, maybe get that25 plus to 25% more, maybe even
(09:02):
a little more wiggle room justin case because you don't want
to run out, you know, and seehow that goes kind of thing.
So it's really important tokind of see what you've done to
kind of, you know, influence.
Yeah, influence what you'regoing to do essentially.
Right.
And something that, you know,we're biased of course,
but using software.
So using HVAC business softwareis really, really important.
(09:23):
It's going to help with all thethings that I mentioned right.
Reorder points reorder points,cycle counts multiple locations.
They're going to be ableto do all of all of
those things right.
So of course if you're usingsoftware you're going to have
real time tracking.
So if you're scattered all overthe place and you're doing
things on a spreadsheetor manually, when those,
you know, when thosetechnicians are using
those components, there's goingto be no way for them to kind
(09:44):
of communicate that toother technicians, right?
It's not going tobe updating in real time.
It's going to be theend of the day when
everyone consolidates.
Then you're gonna be like,okay, we've used this,
this and that.
You know, for example, let's sayyou're out on a job
and you need a specificcomponent that you've just run
out or whatever.
So, you know, oh, well,there was some back at the
warehouse when Ileft this morning.
I'll just head backand grab more.
So you go back and you go topick up more, and then when you
(10:06):
get there, you realizesomeone else, okay,
someone else came during theday and grabbed all
of the components.
And then now you're now youdon't have any of that.
Now you've wasted the time togo all the way back, and now
you can't even go back andfinish the job like you
promised you would, right?
So if you have a real timetracking system, you'll be able
to know that, you know.
Oh, I ran out of this part.
I'll go back to the thing.
You can actually check to seethe stock available at the
(10:27):
warehouse and realize, oh,there's not even any
at the warehouse.
So you can, you know,act accordingly from there.
Right.
And these systems are alsogoing to allow you to restrict
access by user.
And that's actually reallyimportant for
field service people.
Um, you know, if you're runninga company something you don't
know everyone that well.
So hierarchy right.
There's a hierarchy.
Right, boss?
You're the boss.
(10:47):
And you know you can be trusted.
But sometimes a lot oftimes you have.
I'm not saying, you know,don't trust your technicians,
but if you've justhired someone, they're,
you know, they're with theirbrand new, they're greenhorn.
They've only been there withtheir company for a few weeks.
You might not want to give themfull access to the systems.
You can kind of restrict theiraccess to either just like
view only, or.
It takes time tobuild trust, you know?
Exactly.
And once that trust is built,then you can give them,
(11:08):
you know, instead of no access.
You can give the view only.
And then once they're fullytrusted and you love them,
give them full accessto the system.
And it's not justabout like, you know,
getting things stolen, but it'salso just like if they're using
the system improperly,then they're maybe they're not
updating it properly.
You can't trust them to evenuse the system how it's meant
to be used.
And then maybe you don't wantto give them full access
because they're just going tomess everything up for all the
(11:29):
other technicians, right?
So it's really important.
And just in general,these systems are great for
just automating menial tasks.
Things like we talked abouthistorical data, like if you
have a system that has reallygreat reporting features,
you don't need to go throughand manually look at the data
and crunch the numbers.
It's going to kind of giveyou that, that data just at a
glance really quickly,really easily.
Right.
So I mean, inFlow isa great example of this.
(11:51):
You know,we have reorder points.
So that's great for obviouslymaking sure that you're not
running out of things.
We have the realtime data tracking.
So everything's in the cloud.
So you can kind of track whohas what equipment, how much of
it is on each truck,all of that stuff.
We also have multiple jobs,multiple locations, so that you
can set up that mobile jobsiteworkflow really easily.
(12:12):
Um, we have a mobile app too,of course, that is really
useful when you're outon super convenient.
Yeah, bring yourcomputer over the.
Huge laptops and stuffin your truck.
Obviously not ideal when you'reout on the job.
Um, we have a built inbarcoding system as well,
and you can even use the mobileapp and use the camera to scan
the barcodes, right?
So you don't even need to scanor either it's all kind of the
(12:33):
system all built into intothe phone, which is great.
So yeah.
Um, that seems likea very seamless.
Yeah, package.
Very seamless package.
And of course there's areporting features which makes
a historical data tracking andall that stuff on
demand forecasting,all that stuff.
Way, way, way.
Easier to use.
You don't have to useso much brainpower.
Exactly.
Who wants to do that?
Nobody.
So I heard that the industryhas been experiencing a ton of
(12:55):
growth in the last few years.
Like by the end of 2024 it'sexpected to be valued at
281.7 billion USD.
And by 2029, experts arepredicting that it's going to
exceed over 389 billion USD.
So that's a compound growthrate of 6.7% annually.
Yeah.
That's huge.
I mean, and it's it's reallynot shocking when you
think about it.
There's obviously there'spopulation growth that
(13:16):
goes into that.
Right.
So our population is growingwith that is new buildings that
need to be built,new houses, new stores.
All that stuff is goingto be required.
But it's not just thepopulation growth actually,
but it's also peopleare really more interested in
new technology,eco friendly solutions,
things like that.
So older buildings are going tobe getting a lot of
(13:36):
updates as well.
So it's not just new buildingsthat you're going to be seeing
potential business in, but youcan also get potential business
from older buildingsgetting those updates.
So there's a lot ofpotential for HVAC.
I know older businesses,I mean not older businesses.
I know for older condos.
Um, their AC units arelike high, medium and low.
And then they're just hot andcold and like there's like a
adjustable thing where there'sno like you can't
(13:57):
see the number.
It's just a.
Yeah, see.
It's very old.
That has needs to be updated.
And I think we're all so usedto being able to set like
exact temperatures, you know,like I'm more of a 71
person or a.
What is that in Celsius?
I don't know why I saidthat in Farenheit for all our.
We're Canadian here.
It's all for it's for theAmerican viewers, you know.
(14:18):
So yeah 22 to 20 degrees.
So what if people want to starttheir own HVAC businesses?
What are some tipsthat you would give them?
Yeah of course I mean like wetalked about there's a ton of
growth going on.
So if you're an HVAC technicianyou're experienced enough.
Uh, you might wantto actually just start your
own business obviously.
Right.
So how do you do that ?
Of course.
It's pretty daunting.
Um, what you need to startoff with, first and foremost is
(14:39):
looking at the legislation inyour whatever region you're
operating in, making sure thatyou register your business,
and then obtaining any,you know, certifications,
licenses, all of that stuff.
A lot of places, depending onwhere you're located,
they require you to actuallyhave a university certificate
to show that you've, you know,your skilled trades person and
you can't just like be a randomperson being like, I'm going to
(15:00):
start an HVACbusiness, you know ?
Yeah, especially because wetalked about you're dealing
with hazardous materialssometimes like coolants and
stuff like that.
So it's important that you makesure you do all your research,
make sure that you haveall of those things in place.
So all of your certificates,all of the
registration licenses,anything, all the paperwork,
essentially all theboring stuff, the paperwork,
make sure that is done and inplace before you even get
(15:21):
started in anything else.
That's the most important thing.
Yeah.
And then from there, once youhave all of the paperwork,
all of the boring stuff done,you can actually start planning
a little more.
And we recommend that you kindof hone in and choose, you know,
a sector essentially.
So the HVAC business is kind ofit's separated into like
three major sections.
So there's like residential,there's commercial
(15:41):
and there's industrial.
So residential of course isgoing to deal with any
like homes, condos, apartments,places where people live.
Essentially.
Right.
Self-explanatory.
Commercial is goingto be like storefronts,
shopping malls,things like that.
You know, any retail thingslike that, spaces like that.
And then industrial aremore like, you know, factories,
data centers, placesthat need like climate
(16:01):
controlled locations, like ifyou have like indoor gardens
where doing agriculture,things like that, those are
obviously need tobe climate controlled.
Pharmaceutical companies oftenwill have their labs need to
be climate controlled.
So those are like big projects,a lot more important.
Um, and all of these,these different sectors kind of
have slightly differentrequirements as far as
components andequipment is concerned.
(16:22):
So while you can kind of,you know, be the jack of all
trades to, so to speak,we do recommend kind of honing
in on specialty.
Yeah.
Having a specialty because it'smore you know it's more
appealing to theconsumer as well.
The people are more likely tohire you if they see, oh,
this person has hashad many successful jobs
in residential.
They can definitely do the job.
They've done it before.
You have a track record for itwhere they're going to be less
(16:43):
likely to see, oh, well,we're not going to have this
person do the HVAC system inour data center if they've
never done anything.
Like that can mess things up.
Yeah.
Very expensive.
If you mess up a datacenter that's, you know,
has all of these incrediblyexpensive equipment
and whatnot, so they're notgoing to entrust you.
They're probably going to go tosomeone who's done it before.
So and it alsohelps in marketing efforts too.
So we definitely recommend youkind of pick one and
(17:05):
stick to it.
Right.
So once you've kind of decidedon which sector, then from
there you kind of create yourbusiness plan, right?
So that'll look like thingslike looking at your
startup costs, you know,what you're going to need for
your trucks, your warehouses,all your components,
your equipment, your payroll,all of the things.
How much are you going to needfor that, how much you have
available is going to dictatehow big of a business
(17:26):
you can start to begin with?
Right.
There's also going to be thingslike doing competitor research
at this stage.
So looking at in your area whatother HVAC businesses are doing
as far as like marketing,you know, what are get some
quotes from them even likemight seem like it's a
little shady, but it'snot at all.
And they woulddo the same, right?
Yeah, it's totally okay tocall around, get quotes,
(17:46):
see what they're charging.
That way youcan stay competitive.
Right?
So and then once you have thatbusiness plan in place,
then you can start procuringall of the things that you need.
Right.
So the equipment that you needto to do the jobs,
the components that you'regoing to need to do, the jobs,
the service trucks,you're obviously going
to need those.
You don't want to be carrying abackpack around with all
of your components.
That's not going to be a thing.
And then, of course,you're probably going to need a
(18:07):
warehouse more than likely.
Um, the mobile job siteworkflow is great for
minimizing the space needed fora warehouse, because your
service trucks are going tokind of act like little
mini warehouses, but you'restill going to need some sort
of central hub,some sort of space.
Um, a lot of times you evenmight need even a storefront,
right?
So somewhere where customerscan actually go if they
if you, you know, want that notall HVAC companies need that
(18:29):
or want that.
So it's not necessary.
But sometimes you do need that.
And in that case you cansometimes just get like a,
a storefront that has a littlewarehouse in the back.
So it kind ofserves dual purposes.
So things like that.
And you're also goingto like things like personal
protective equipment,like basically anything that
you need, you're going to haveto procure all of these things.
Like again, working withhazardous material,
you're going to need certainthings to keep
(18:50):
your technicians safe.
And then once you have all ofthe things, all of those
physical things that you'regoing to be tracking,
which we're talking about,you're going to need to find,
um, trusted people, like findinga team that you can trust,
finding technicians.
And that's a really,really important thing that a
lot of people just like, oh,I'll just hire somebody.
I'll put it a thing on LinkedInand get, you know, whatever.
Super easy, right?
(19:10):
Yeah.
But with HVAC businesses,it's important to find people
that are a good fit for yourbusiness because you got to
make sure not only are theyskilled in their trade and they
can do the job requiredof them, but they're also the
face of your company, right?
So they're going to be the ones.
Yeah.
Like it's your reputation'son the line.
They're going to be going andtalking to the customers.
They're going to beinteracting and stuff.
You want to make sure thatthey're good with customers,
not just good with their handsand their tools skills.
(19:33):
They need the people skills.
Right?
So yeah, they're goingto be the ambassador of
your brand essentially.
So finding the right peoplethat are the right fit that you
can trust, that's really,really important.
Yeah.
Eventually you can givethem full access.
Yeah.
If and then once you trust themthey can get full access,
but only not until then.
So to wrap things up, could yousummarize what are your top
recommendations for people whowant to start their own
(19:53):
businesses?
Yeah of course.
So I mean, this is the one thatI will always say no matter
what is embrace technology,embrace, you know, not just the
technology like the softwaresolutions we talked about,
but also the, you know,the smart technology, all of
the advancements thatwe're seeing, the innovation
that we're seeing in the HVACindustry adopt those as well.
It's becoming way more popularamong the consumer, and people
(20:16):
are being more eco friendlyand eco conscious.
It's important to them.
Right.
So it's importantthat you actually adopt
that technology.
It's going to give you the edgeover your competition or
at least, you know, put you onthe same level playing field,
because chances are they'realso adopting that technology.
Yeah.
But I mean, the softwareis a big one too, right?
And it's not just, um,inventory software, of course,
that's important.
But other software solutions,you know, you can have like
(20:37):
accounting software likeQuickBooks online or zero,
for example,customer relationship
management software,CRM software.
Um, so like House CallPro is an example of that.
Jobber is anotherexample of that.
Having those things in place isgoing to just make your life
way easier and make runningyour business on the day to day
way more simplistic.
It's going to saveyou money, streamline it right,
(20:57):
and choosing software thatactually work well
together as well.
For example, inFlow works hasan integration with
QuickBooks online, has anintegration with Xero .
So you can have those twodifferent pieces of software
kind of working together.
That kind of eliminates a lotof the, you know, double data
entry you're going to haveto do, you know,
inevitably there will be some,but it's going to eliminate a
(21:18):
lot of it.
So it's just going to yeah,it's going to save you a
lot more time.
Right.
So that's important for sure.
And um, I guess going back alittle bit to, you know,
the technology and the ecofriendly solutions and the
innovation that we'reseeing is, um,
being sustainable, right?
That's a huge thing.
Customer sentimentis being sustainable.
So finding those sustainablesolutions is very,
very important.
(21:38):
Going green.
You know, that's a big one.
Um, for sure.
And that kind of goeshand in hand with, you know,
adapting to customer needs.
Right.
So I mean, things aregoing to change over time.
Different customers are goingto want different things.
Making sure that you'rekind of flexible and you're
able to pivot.
That's important.
Obviously always be able topivot to what
your customer needs.
It's not about you orwhat you want.
You know, there might be youmight think that a
(21:59):
certain solution, a certaintype of furnace or
whatever is, you know,what this person
would should use.
They might not want that.
So make sure that you'readaptable and that you're able
to kind of give them what theyneed at the end of the day.
And a big onetwo would be strengthening your
supply chain.
Uh, so something I think wetalked about this all the time.
Covid.
Yeah.
You knew what I wasgoing to say.
(22:20):
When we start talking aboutsupply lines, it's like,
oh Covid right.
Yeah.
So something that Covid taughteverybody is supply chains
are very precarious.
Right.
We cannot rely on them.
So we always recommend that you,you keep kind of an
open supply line withmore than one supplier, right.
Keep relationships up with afew different ones, 2 or 3
whatever and kind of maintainthem over time.
(22:40):
Maybe order one fromone person, one from
another person, kind of backand forth to maintain those
relationships just in casethere's a disruption in one.
You have a backup, right?
You're not just like, oh,I guess I don't sell jobs.
For a while, you know, like.
Yeah.
So it's important to kind ofkeep maintain relationships
with a few differentpeople to keep your supply
line running smoothly.
All right.
(23:00):
So that's it for this episode.
Thank you guys somuch for watching.
We hope you enjoyed it.
And if interested in learningmore about inventory management
in the future, makesure to subscribe for more.
Yes!Thanks so much for watching and
please leave us a five starrating if you enjoy this
episode and stay tuned for more.
Bye bye! Yeah, I thinkwe covered everything.
That's a wrap on Episode 9.
That's it.
Boom! Yay yay!
They can take alook at, you know.
Oh, I see that technician A isthe closest to that job.
I'll send them over.
Right.
But if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you could
send them over.
And they don't actually theydon't have what they need.
Right.
Nevermind.
I can't do this job.
Exactly right.
Hello everybody I'm Jared.
Hi, I'm Melinda, and welcomeback to The Secret
(00:20):
Life of Inventory.
This is a showwhere we talk about all
things inventory related.
And in today's episode we aregoing to be talking about HVAC
inventory management,specifically how to start a
successful HVAC business andsome solutions that you can use
to make your life easier.
If you guys didn'tknow HVAC stands for heating,
ventilation,and Air Conditioning.
I only recently learnedthat too, and it's actually a
(00:40):
very complex industry when itcomes to inventory tracking,
because these technicians arespread out across so many
different job sites, and ifeven one component
goes missing, it can bring anentire job to a stop.
That's very true.
And, you know, even though thatthere's so much at stake,
you'd be surprised at how manyHVAC businesses let inventory
management take a backseat.
So today we are very excited totalk about all things HVAC,
inventory management.
(01:01):
And if you guys are interestedin learning more about
inventory management and how itaffects our modern world,
be sure to subscribeto stay tuned for more.
So before we get into it,could you explain to our
listeners what is HVACinventory management?
Of course.
Yeah.
So HVAC inventory managementessentially is, you know,
anything to do with yourphysical items such
as components, equipment,anything that you need to kind
of conduct your business.
So that includeslike stocking, procurement,
(01:22):
tracking, even like thingslike maintenance, planning,
budgeting, compliance,all that stuff.
So what are some examples ofpoor HVAC inventory management
and how does that impactbusiness operations or customer
satisfaction?
Yeah, the biggest oneI would say would be
negligent tracking.
Right.
And what does that mean?
I mean, obviously it means thatyou're you don't really know
where things are.
You're losing trackof items either.
(01:43):
They're getting lost,they're getting damaged,
they're getting stolen,things like that.
Um, so if you're not reallyable to keep an eye on things,
you're going to you're notgoing to have those key
components when you're outon the jobsite.
You mentioned before that HVACtechnicians are kind of
scattered all over the place,so they kind of need to make
sure that they have what theyneed when they're on the job.
If they don't have whatthey need, they're not going to
be able tocomplete that job, right.
So it's really,really important that you have
(02:04):
what you need, the equipmentyou need, the components
that you need.
You know, where you need themwhen you need them.
Essentially, it's something.
Also to keep in mindis HVAC businesses.
They're also dealing with,you know, things that
are sometimes, you know, toxic,dangerous chemicals like like
coolants and things like that.
Right?
So you have to makesure that you know where those
things are.
And they're not just like,you know, in the fridge
(02:26):
somewhere next to your lunchor something, right?
You need to make sure that youknow where they are, how much
of it you have.
I mean, a lot of thetimes you have to keep up with
compliances for that stuff.
So of course, tracking that andnegligent tracking of those
things is, you know, very,very bad, dangerous, dangerous,
not just bad but dangerous.
And there's of course, there'sthere's poor forecasting.
Right.
So like with any businessthere's going to
(02:47):
be seasonality involved.
HVAC is no different.
So, you know, for example,if you're running an
HVAC business, you might noticethat you sell a lot more air
conditioning units in July andAugust during the.
When it's super hot,obviously that makes sense.
And you're going tobe selling more furnaces during
the winter.
And then in the fall andthe spring, you know,
people have the windowsopen or whatever.
They're not reallyusing their systems.
You're not going tosell as much.
(03:08):
So having a good idea of likewhen you kind of need more of
certain things is really,really important.
So poor forecasting is,you know, if you're just
continuously ordering the sameamount all year round,
you're going to find you'regetting an influx of
your inventory, you're going tobe carrying a lot more.
You're going to have less cashflow at certain times when
you can, when you don'treally need it.
So having poor forecasting is abig thing that comes up a lot.
(03:30):
If you have poor inventorymanagement and it kind of what
comes along with that is understocking and overstocking.
So of course under stocking iswhen you're, you know,
you're running out of thosecomponents that you need,
those integral components thatyou need in those
in those moments.
Yeah.
Making people waitis never good.
Never good for business, right?
People want things now.
Yeah.
So yeah, if you're running outof those key components,
you're out on jobsite.
(03:50):
You're you're, you know,you definitely
have poor forecasting.
You're not trackingyour things properly.
And then the flipside of that is,
of course, overstocking.
Maybe you're like, oh, I keeprunning out of this, this,
you know, fan unit orthis AC unit.
Like I'll just order a bunch.
Yeah.
You know, I'll justorder a tower.
Yeah.
Tower of these things.
But I mean, that's obviouslynot a great thing
because you're, you're eatingup into your, your cash flow
(04:10):
and you're also eating up intoyour carrying costs as well.
People think that holding on tothings is going to be free.
It's not you know,it costs money to have
that warehouse space.
You have to pay the rent andutilities and all that.
You could be storingother things instead.
Right?
So you might even have tofind yourself, oh, I need more
warehouse space because I haveall of these components I
need to store.
But in reality you're justordering more than you need,
right?
(04:31):
So keeping that balanceis really, really important.
It's something that comes up alot for, you know,
companies that aren't managingtheir inventory properly.
So another another big thingthat kind of it's it's kind of
what all of those things that Imentioned kind of comes into.
It's an efficient workflow.
Right.
So if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you don't know
which technician has whatequipment or what components.
You don't know how muchof the things that they have.
(04:52):
You're going to have a reallypoor workflow and with with the
field service, you know,businesses, they need to kind
of be kind of flexible, right?
So if they get a call from acustomer who needs a specific,
you know, job done, they cantake a look at, you know, oh,
I see that technician Ais the closest to that job.
I'll send them over.
Right.
But if you're not tracking yourthings properly, you could
send them over.
And they don't actually theydon't they don't have
(05:13):
what they need.
Right.
Nevermind.
Can't do this job.
Exactly.
Right.
So if you're trackingthings really, really well,
you can, you know,you'll get that call.
And instead of saying I'll sendthe closest technician over,
you can say, well, whohas the component that I need?
Oh, this person actually has.
How close are they?
Okay.
They're not as close as Trucktruck B, but I'll send them
over because they have whatthey need to actually
complete the job.
Right.
(05:33):
So having a really good,efficient workflow is going to
be indicative of havinggood inventory management.
That makes sense.
So what are somebest practices for effectively
managing HVAC inventory.
Yeah.
So I always start with this one.
No matter the industry thatyou're in cycle counts.
It's really important.
Everyone hates them.
I say that all the time becauseeveryone hates them.
but they're very,very important.
(05:54):
Some people think that ifthey're using software that
they don't need to do cyclecounts because, hey, it's all
being updated in the software.
It should have.
Exactly right.
So why bother?
You know, it's got the software.
That's what I'm payingthem a good money for.
But regardless of how you'remanaging your inventory,
you need to bedoing cycle counts.
And they don't haveto be daunting.
Um, I kind of recommendespecially for field services.
Um, they kind ofdo it in sections, right?
(06:15):
So if you're doing acycle count, maybe just do
truck 1 one day, do truck 2 thesecond day truckload.
Yeah.
Divide it into different daysand then warehouse on a
separate do it allin separate days.
That way you don't have to.
Yeah.
Not just overwhelming, but likeyou don't have to stop
your business, you know, like,you obviously want to keep
the ball rolling.
You want tokeep the customers happy,
keep the jobs going.
(06:36):
And you can't really do that ifyou have to, like, uh,
stop everybody.
We've got a counter inventoryto make sure we have what we,
we actually have in our system.
We actually have those things.
Right?
So yeah, it's all about, um,kind of separating it,
making it more manageable.
Another big one, of course, is,uh, setting strict reorder
points for items.
We talked about how componentsare just very important to have.
I mean, for everything.
(06:56):
But for HVAC businesses,especially because you need to
make sure you have thosecomponents to, to to do
the job right.
So if you want to make surethat you're not running out
of those, um, components,you want to make sure that you
have those data points in place.
And what does that mean?
That means that you basicallyyou set a number like
for example, you know, that youhave ten AC units, and once you
hit ten, you need toorder more, right?
So whatever system you're using,make sure that it
(07:18):
alerts you, uh, so that whenyou hit that ten, you know,
it's time to order more.
Yeah.
Because it gives you timebecause it's not just
about like one.
Oh, I got, you know,zero left order.
It takes time for these thingsto get to you.
Reorder points factor in thingslike lead time,
things like safety,stock factors, all those things
in to make sure that you'renever going to run out of stuff
(07:38):
no matter what if you orderthem at that point.
So they're very, very important.
Another big one for HVACcompanies would be a
mobile jobsite workflow.
Of course, we talked aboutagain everyone's located all
over the place.
Big service area.
You're going to people's houses.
You're going to stores,you're going to factories.
Wherever the job needs tobe done, you need to go
to that place.
Right?
So if you have a mobile jobsite workflow, it's kind of a
(07:59):
great way for you to plan thosethose job routes better
for your technicians.
And also make sure that allyour technicians have the
equipment they need.
They have the componentsthat they need.
So what a mobile jobsite actually is.
Essentially, it's setting upeach of your trucks and your
warehouse is kind ofa separate locations.
So all of your trucks will havelike their set inventory and
their components and all that.
(08:19):
And then they would go aroundand they would do their jobs,
and then they would go back tothe warehouse and just kind of
replenish their stock as needed.
So the warehouse kind of actsas like a central hub.
Yeah.
Essentially analyzinghistorical data, of course,
is really, really important for,you know, demand forecasting,
knowing what you need whenyou need it.
We talkedabout seasonality earlier.
So that kind of plays into that.
(08:39):
So if you kind of understandthat okay, last August I look
at my historical data.
I know that I sold 25 of theseAC units for example, so you
probably can guess.
I'll probably need at least 25.
You might want to factor inthings like oh well,
my business is actually grownby 25% since last year, right?
So add that in, maybe get that25 plus to 25% more, maybe even
(09:02):
a little more wiggle room justin case because you don't want
to run out, you know, and seehow that goes kind of thing.
So it's really important tokind of see what you've done to
kind of, you know, influence.
Yeah, influence what you'regoing to do essentially.
Right.
And something that, you know,we're biased of course,
but using software.
So using HVAC business softwareis really, really important.
(09:23):
It's going to help with all thethings that I mentioned right.
Reorder points reorder points,cycle counts multiple locations.
They're going to be ableto do all of all of
those things right.
So of course if you're usingsoftware you're going to have
real time tracking.
So if you're scattered all overthe place and you're doing
things on a spreadsheetor manually, when those,
you know, when thosetechnicians are using
those components, there's goingto be no way for them to kind
(09:44):
of communicate that toother technicians, right?
It's not going tobe updating in real time.
It's going to be theend of the day when
everyone consolidates.
Then you're gonna be like,okay, we've used this,
this and that.
You know, for example, let's sayyou're out on a job
and you need a specificcomponent that you've just run
out or whatever.
So, you know, oh, well,there was some back at the
warehouse when Ileft this morning.
I'll just head backand grab more.
So you go back and you go topick up more, and then when you
(10:06):
get there, you realizesomeone else, okay,
someone else came during theday and grabbed all
of the components.
And then now you're now youdon't have any of that.
Now you've wasted the time togo all the way back, and now
you can't even go back andfinish the job like you
promised you would, right?
So if you have a real timetracking system, you'll be able
to know that, you know.
Oh, I ran out of this part.
I'll go back to the thing.
You can actually check to seethe stock available at the
(10:27):
warehouse and realize, oh,there's not even any
at the warehouse.
So you can, you know,act accordingly from there.
Right.
And these systems are alsogoing to allow you to restrict
access by user.
And that's actually reallyimportant for
field service people.
Um, you know, if you're runninga company something you don't
know everyone that well.
So hierarchy right.
There's a hierarchy.
Right, boss?
You're the boss.
(10:47):
And you know you can be trusted.
But sometimes a lot oftimes you have.
I'm not saying, you know,don't trust your technicians,
but if you've justhired someone, they're,
you know, they're with theirbrand new, they're greenhorn.
They've only been there withtheir company for a few weeks.
You might not want to give themfull access to the systems.
You can kind of restrict theiraccess to either just like
view only, or.
It takes time tobuild trust, you know?
Exactly.
And once that trust is built,then you can give them,
(11:08):
you know, instead of no access.
You can give the view only.
And then once they're fullytrusted and you love them,
give them full accessto the system.
And it's not justabout like, you know,
getting things stolen, but it'salso just like if they're using
the system improperly,then they're maybe they're not
updating it properly.
You can't trust them to evenuse the system how it's meant
to be used.
And then maybe you don't wantto give them full access
because they're just going tomess everything up for all the
(11:29):
other technicians, right?
So it's really important.
And just in general,these systems are great for
just automating menial tasks.
Things like we talked abouthistorical data, like if you
have a system that has reallygreat reporting features,
you don't need to go throughand manually look at the data
and crunch the numbers.
It's going to kind of giveyou that, that data just at a
glance really quickly,really easily.
Right.
So I mean, inFlow isa great example of this.
(11:51):
You know,we have reorder points.
So that's great for obviouslymaking sure that you're not
running out of things.
We have the realtime data tracking.
So everything's in the cloud.
So you can kind of track whohas what equipment, how much of
it is on each truck,all of that stuff.
We also have multiple jobs,multiple locations, so that you
can set up that mobile jobsiteworkflow really easily.
(12:12):
Um, we have a mobile app too,of course, that is really
useful when you're outon super convenient.
Yeah, bring yourcomputer over the.
Huge laptops and stuffin your truck.
Obviously not ideal when you'reout on the job.
Um, we have a built inbarcoding system as well,
and you can even use the mobileapp and use the camera to scan
the barcodes, right?
So you don't even need to scanor either it's all kind of the
(12:33):
system all built into intothe phone, which is great.
So yeah.
Um, that seems likea very seamless.
Yeah, package.
Very seamless package.
And of course there's areporting features which makes
a historical data tracking andall that stuff on
demand forecasting,all that stuff.
Way, way, way.
Easier to use.
You don't have to useso much brainpower.
Exactly.
Who wants to do that?
Nobody.
So I heard that the industryhas been experiencing a ton of
(12:55):
growth in the last few years.
Like by the end of 2024 it'sexpected to be valued at
281.7 billion USD.
And by 2029, experts arepredicting that it's going to
exceed over 389 billion USD.
So that's a compound growthrate of 6.7% annually.
Yeah.
That's huge.
I mean, and it's it's reallynot shocking when you
think about it.
There's obviously there'spopulation growth that
(13:16):
goes into that.
Right.
So our population is growingwith that is new buildings that
need to be built,new houses, new stores.
All that stuff is goingto be required.
But it's not just thepopulation growth actually,
but it's also peopleare really more interested in
new technology,eco friendly solutions,
things like that.
So older buildings are going tobe getting a lot of
(13:36):
updates as well.
So it's not just new buildingsthat you're going to be seeing
potential business in, but youcan also get potential business
from older buildingsgetting those updates.
So there's a lot ofpotential for HVAC.
I know older businesses,I mean not older businesses.
I know for older condos.
Um, their AC units arelike high, medium and low.
And then they're just hot andcold and like there's like a
adjustable thing where there'sno like you can't
(13:57):
see the number.
It's just a.
Yeah, see.
It's very old.
That has needs to be updated.
And I think we're all so usedto being able to set like
exact temperatures, you know,like I'm more of a 71
person or a.
What is that in Celsius?
I don't know why I saidthat in Farenheit for all our.
We're Canadian here.
It's all for it's for theAmerican viewers, you know.
(14:18):
So yeah 22 to 20 degrees.
So what if people want to starttheir own HVAC businesses?
What are some tipsthat you would give them?
Yeah of course I mean like wetalked about there's a ton of
growth going on.
So if you're an HVAC technicianyou're experienced enough.
Uh, you might wantto actually just start your
own business obviously.
Right.
So how do you do that ?
Of course.
It's pretty daunting.
Um, what you need to startoff with, first and foremost is
(14:39):
looking at the legislation inyour whatever region you're
operating in, making sure thatyou register your business,
and then obtaining any,you know, certifications,
licenses, all of that stuff.
A lot of places, depending onwhere you're located,
they require you to actuallyhave a university certificate
to show that you've, you know,your skilled trades person and
you can't just like be a randomperson being like, I'm going to
(15:00):
start an HVACbusiness, you know ?
Yeah, especially because wetalked about you're dealing
with hazardous materialssometimes like coolants and
stuff like that.
So it's important that you makesure you do all your research,
make sure that you haveall of those things in place.
So all of your certificates,all of the
registration licenses,anything, all the paperwork,
essentially all theboring stuff, the paperwork,
make sure that is done and inplace before you even get
(15:21):
started in anything else.
That's the most important thing.
Yeah.
And then from there, once youhave all of the paperwork,
all of the boring stuff done,you can actually start planning
a little more.
And we recommend that you kindof hone in and choose, you know,
a sector essentially.
So the HVAC business is kind ofit's separated into like
three major sections.
So there's like residential,there's commercial
(15:41):
and there's industrial.
So residential of course isgoing to deal with any
like homes, condos, apartments,places where people live.
Essentially.
Right.
Self-explanatory.
Commercial is goingto be like storefronts,
shopping malls,things like that.
You know, any retail thingslike that, spaces like that.
And then industrial aremore like, you know, factories,
data centers, placesthat need like climate
(16:01):
controlled locations, like ifyou have like indoor gardens
where doing agriculture,things like that, those are
obviously need tobe climate controlled.
Pharmaceutical companies oftenwill have their labs need to
be climate controlled.
So those are like big projects,a lot more important.
Um, and all of these,these different sectors kind of
have slightly differentrequirements as far as
components andequipment is concerned.
(16:22):
So while you can kind of,you know, be the jack of all
trades to, so to speak,we do recommend kind of honing
in on specialty.
Yeah.
Having a specialty because it'smore you know it's more
appealing to theconsumer as well.
The people are more likely tohire you if they see, oh,
this person has hashad many successful jobs
in residential.
They can definitely do the job.
They've done it before.
You have a track record for itwhere they're going to be less
(16:43):
likely to see, oh, well,we're not going to have this
person do the HVAC system inour data center if they've
never done anything.
Like that can mess things up.
Yeah.
Very expensive.
If you mess up a datacenter that's, you know,
has all of these incrediblyexpensive equipment
and whatnot, so they're notgoing to entrust you.
They're probably going to go tosomeone who's done it before.
So and it alsohelps in marketing efforts too.
So we definitely recommend youkind of pick one and
(17:05):
stick to it.
Right.
So once you've kind of decidedon which sector, then from
there you kind of create yourbusiness plan, right?
So that'll look like thingslike looking at your
startup costs, you know,what you're going to need for
your trucks, your warehouses,all your components,
your equipment, your payroll,all of the things.
How much are you going to needfor that, how much you have
available is going to dictatehow big of a business
(17:26):
you can start to begin with?
Right.
There's also going to be thingslike doing competitor research
at this stage.
So looking at in your area whatother HVAC businesses are doing
as far as like marketing,you know, what are get some
quotes from them even likemight seem like it's a
little shady, but it'snot at all.
And they woulddo the same, right?
Yeah, it's totally okay tocall around, get quotes,
(17:46):
see what they're charging.
That way youcan stay competitive.
Right?
So and then once you have thatbusiness plan in place,
then you can start procuringall of the things that you need.
Right.
So the equipment that you needto to do the jobs,
the components that you'regoing to need to do, the jobs,
the service trucks,you're obviously going
to need those.
You don't want to be carrying abackpack around with all
of your components.
That's not going to be a thing.
And then, of course,you're probably going to need a
(18:07):
warehouse more than likely.
Um, the mobile job siteworkflow is great for
minimizing the space needed fora warehouse, because your
service trucks are going tokind of act like little
mini warehouses, but you'restill going to need some sort
of central hub,some sort of space.
Um, a lot of times you evenmight need even a storefront,
right?
So somewhere where customerscan actually go if they
if you, you know, want that notall HVAC companies need that
(18:29):
or want that.
So it's not necessary.
But sometimes you do need that.
And in that case you cansometimes just get like a,
a storefront that has a littlewarehouse in the back.
So it kind ofserves dual purposes.
So things like that.
And you're also goingto like things like personal
protective equipment,like basically anything that
you need, you're going to haveto procure all of these things.
Like again, working withhazardous material,
you're going to need certainthings to keep
(18:50):
your technicians safe.
And then once you have all ofthe things, all of those
physical things that you'regoing to be tracking,
which we're talking about,you're going to need to find,
um, trusted people, like findinga team that you can trust,
finding technicians.
And that's a really,really important thing that a
lot of people just like, oh,I'll just hire somebody.
I'll put it a thing on LinkedInand get, you know, whatever.
Super easy, right?
(19:10):
Yeah.
But with HVAC businesses,it's important to find people
that are a good fit for yourbusiness because you got to
make sure not only are theyskilled in their trade and they
can do the job requiredof them, but they're also the
face of your company, right?
So they're going to be the ones.
Yeah.
Like it's your reputation'son the line.
They're going to be going andtalking to the customers.
They're going to beinteracting and stuff.
You want to make sure thatthey're good with customers,
not just good with their handsand their tools skills.
(19:33):
They need the people skills.
Right?
So yeah, they're goingto be the ambassador of
your brand essentially.
So finding the right peoplethat are the right fit that you
can trust, that's really,really important.
Yeah.
Eventually you can givethem full access.
Yeah.
If and then once you trust themthey can get full access,
but only not until then.
So to wrap things up, could yousummarize what are your top
recommendations for people whowant to start their own
(19:53):
businesses?
Yeah of course.
So I mean, this is the one thatI will always say no matter
what is embrace technology,embrace, you know, not just the
technology like the softwaresolutions we talked about,
but also the, you know,the smart technology, all of
the advancements thatwe're seeing, the innovation
that we're seeing in the HVACindustry adopt those as well.
It's becoming way more popularamong the consumer, and people
(20:16):
are being more eco friendlyand eco conscious.
It's important to them.
Right.
So it's importantthat you actually adopt
that technology.
It's going to give you the edgeover your competition or
at least, you know, put you onthe same level playing field,
because chances are they'realso adopting that technology.
Yeah.
But I mean, the softwareis a big one too, right?
And it's not just, um,inventory software, of course,
that's important.
But other software solutions,you know, you can have like
(20:37):
accounting software likeQuickBooks online or zero,
for example,customer relationship
management software,CRM software.
Um, so like House CallPro is an example of that.
Jobber is anotherexample of that.
Having those things in place isgoing to just make your life
way easier and make runningyour business on the day to day
way more simplistic.
It's going to saveyou money, streamline it right,
(20:57):
and choosing software thatactually work well
together as well.
For example, inFlow works hasan integration with
QuickBooks online, has anintegration with Xero .
So you can have those twodifferent pieces of software
kind of working together.
That kind of eliminates a lotof the, you know, double data
entry you're going to haveto do, you know,
inevitably there will be some,but it's going to eliminate a
(21:18):
lot of it.
So it's just going to yeah,it's going to save you a
lot more time.
Right.
So that's important for sure.
And um, I guess going back alittle bit to, you know,
the technology and the ecofriendly solutions and the
innovation that we'reseeing is, um,
being sustainable, right?
That's a huge thing.
Customer sentimentis being sustainable.
So finding those sustainablesolutions is very,
very important.
(21:38):
Going green.
You know, that's a big one.
Um, for sure.
And that kind of goeshand in hand with, you know,
adapting to customer needs.
Right.
So I mean, things aregoing to change over time.
Different customers are goingto want different things.
Making sure that you'rekind of flexible and you're
able to pivot.
That's important.
Obviously always be able topivot to what
your customer needs.
It's not about you orwhat you want.
You know, there might be youmight think that a
(21:59):
certain solution, a certaintype of furnace or
whatever is, you know,what this person
would should use.
They might not want that.
So make sure that you'readaptable and that you're able
to kind of give them what theyneed at the end of the day.
And a big onetwo would be strengthening your
supply chain.
Uh, so something I think wetalked about this all the time.
Covid.
Yeah.
You knew what I wasgoing to say.
(22:20):
When we start talking aboutsupply lines, it's like,
oh Covid right.
Yeah.
So something that Covid taughteverybody is supply chains
are very precarious.
Right.
We cannot rely on them.
So we always recommend that you,you keep kind of an
open supply line withmore than one supplier, right.
Keep relationships up with afew different ones, 2 or 3
whatever and kind of maintainthem over time.
(22:40):
Maybe order one fromone person, one from
another person, kind of backand forth to maintain those
relationships just in casethere's a disruption in one.
You have a backup, right?
You're not just like, oh,I guess I don't sell jobs.
For a while, you know, like.
Yeah.
So it's important to kind ofkeep maintain relationships
with a few differentpeople to keep your supply
line running smoothly.
All right.
(23:00):
So that's it for this episode.
Thank you guys somuch for watching.
We hope you enjoyed it.
And if interested in learningmore about inventory management
in the future, makesure to subscribe for more.
Yes!Thanks so much for watching and
please leave us a five starrating if you enjoy this
episode and stay tuned for more.
Bye bye! Yeah, I thinkwe covered everything.
That's a wrap on Episode 9.
That's it.
Boom! Yay yay!
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