Episode #163: Jim Anderson - JL Anderson Heating & Cooling

Jim Anderson is a lifelong resident of the Lafayette Indiana area, lived within the same county block for (50) years then relocating across the river to suburbs West Lafayette.

He has been married to his beautiful wife Cindy since 1984, they recently celebrated their (40th) wedding anniversary on 10/27

He has (3) adult children, identical twins Ashlie & Amanda (37) son Jeffrey (32) and (8) grandchildren: Haley, Carson, Mason, Milo, Clara, Anna, Taylor & Emmie.

Jim grew up with the trades, his father worked for a large commercial contacting firm as a superintendent / project manager over large projects, schools' hospitals, and such. He had been on numerous job sites as young as (7) riding with his dad & learned at a young age that he wasn't a fan of building walls & ceilings, however an interest was sparked on the mechanical side of the contracting.

During high school, Jims’s focus was on industrial arts, his first real job was working at a grocery store as a sacker & cart chaser, gathering carts around the parking lot. In his senior year of high school, a friend asks him to come to work at a local tool & equipment rental store, his friend knew he had mechanical ability especially for someone so young. Jims’s mechanical aptitude came from not only his father, but his passion for minibikes, go carts, then motocross bikes, those type of things, however they break a lot and need continuous maintenance, if he wanted to ride, he had to figure out how to keep them running, after a few years that turned into street rods and so on. The mechanical experience that was learned at the rental store proved invaluable, repairing everything from repairing electric tools, lawn mowers /anything with a small engine, you name it. He worked there until getting into the HVAC trade.

1980, when Jim graduated high school, his plan was to be an Apprentice Electrician. In those days, the economy was a wreck for example 20% interest rates were the norm. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot going on construction wise. for the next (3) years no apprentice applications we accepted. It became clear that he couldn’t wait any longer & one day a flyer from IVTC community collage came in the mail and the HVAC program looked interesting, so he pursued it, while going to tech school he landed his first job with an HVAC contractor.

Jim went on to work for 3-4 different companies working from residential & commercial new construction installation, residential & commercial replacement installation, & residential & commercial service. He spent most of his time in the field running commercial industrial service for a company call Sagamore HVAC, their company is mirrored after today. He would have most likely retired from that organization; he said they were in his opinion, Sagamore was the only professional organization he had ever worked for. However, that all change when the owner (a mechanical engineer that he had the utmost respect for sold the business) after that everything changed. It didn’t take long for the company culture changed & all the key staff left, a thriving company fell apart.

After working for such a first-class organization, he felt lost, after a (3) years of trying to find a new HVAC contracting firm comparable he found no such place existed in his area, with this being his way of making a living he thought he could create one.

Jim knew his limitations & his weakness, even though he did his best to self-educate, he knew it was imperative for help on the business side of things. He had that lined up a group of mentors prior to starting, he knew he wasn’t qualified for to handle those type of things and would be heading for failure without the expertise of others. RE taxes insurance, correct pricing, that type of thing. With the help of many mentors that were experts in their respective fields that were willing to help him, keep him out of tr