Must Read Business Books |

What’s In The Maintenance Department eBook?

by: Michael Glover - Filed under: Must Read Business Books

Our book “The Maintenance Department Business Model” includes six chapters.

Chapter 1 is an actual business plan I put together for an HVAC business I managed. Most of us just need a template and a format to walk us through the process and make us think about the decisions we need to make when building a business plan.

Chapter 1 also includes a detailed description of service agreement plans and the tasks to be completed in a service agreement.

Chapter 2 includes the budgeting process which is different from a business plan. The budgeting process includes all the detail including sales forecast, the cost of trucks, payroll, materials and overhead. The budget will also give us monthly breakdowns of where our business will come from and what actions will be used to generate our business and leads.

Chapter 2 also includes details on service technician and precision tune-up specialist compensation. The recommended maintenance department commission and spiff program are also detailed.

Chapter 3 covers staffing. This includes the opportunity manager or sales manager, Service technicians and PTS. Key performance indicators which are the measures you will use to judge performance are included. Position descriptions for all key positions are included.

Details on hiring the precision tune-up specialist are also included in Chapter 3. You will be interested in the training agenda and interview questions when hiring for these key positions.

Chapter 4 includes additional training information including personality profiles to hire for these key positions the first time. Instructions on converting service calls to tune-ups, training the precision tune-up specialist, information on the tune-up tasks such as how to clean a condenser are described.

Chapter 5 details marketing deployment. Step-by-step instructions for direct mail and initial marketing steps are included.

Chapter 6 includes step-by-step instructions for managing the maintenance department. This chapter will detail managing service agreements, debriefing, renewing service agreements, and a manual system for tracking service agreements. There is no need to buy and learn expensive software when starting a service agreement program.

You can find most of this material if you search the internet and read dozens of articles, but this eBook will save you a lot of time by documenting everything in one digital file.

Good luck with your HVAC Maintenance Department.

Book Review for HVAC Marketing “Who Moved My Cheese?”

by: admin - Filed under: Must Read Business Books

Do you think HVAC Marketing is changing? Who was it that said the only thing that doesn’t change is the fact that everything is changing?

This is one of those books you should keep in stock. A classic since it rolled off the press in 1998. Hand one to any employee especially those in your HVAC Marketing Department, you see struggling with accepting change.

Some of us are just wired to fight change to the death. Personality profiles show technical people are the most adverse to change. HVAC companies are full of technical people. Do us a favor and help us work through the issues.

The book is a business fable about two mice and two little people and their four reactions to change.

Written by: Spence Johnson

“One Minute Manager” Book Review

by: admin - Filed under: Must Read Business Books, Service Agreements

There are a few books that I consider standard operating policy for my company.
When it comes to management style “One Minute Manager” is the only book you need.

The days of driving employees to perform have long gone. Today only motivation and leadership works. I think Mark Twain said something about “things need to be as simple as possible, but not too simple”. This book has three simple principals that are proven methods.

We should treat our employees how we would like to be treated.

You can read this simple book in less than a day. It is written in a story telling format that is entertaining. You should read this book, practice the principals and give a copy to your managers.

Author, Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D, has sold more than nine million copies of this book.

HVAC Marketing, Book Review, Guerrilla Marketing

by: admin - Filed under: Must Read Business Books

I read Guerrilla Marketing for the first time in the mid 1980’s. I was blown away and this book became my marketing bible. This book was written for every small business.

For the first time someone had written a HVAC marketing book for a small business.

The fourth edition is the latest of a dozen different versions of the basic book.

HVAC Marketing is everything you do to promote your business and a lot of it is free. Advertising is a small part of marketing.

Some will say this is the old basic marketing methods and they are right. I’m going to read it again since I tend to get distracted and need to be re-grounded in the basics on a regular basis.

Buy from Amazon Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business

HVAC Books Review, The E-Myth

by: admin - Filed under: Must Read Business Books

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
You started your business because you wanted independence and freedom from working for someone else. That’s a bad reason to start a business. Gerber calls this an “entrepreneurial seizure.”

You’ve started what you thought was a business. You have become a slave to your venture and now its time to salvage the situation. The first step is understanding why and how you got were you are.

Michael Gerbers’s E-Myth and E-Myth revisited is a great book that should do the trick.

To become a business owner, you must remove yourself from being the business. A business should run without you being there every minute. You will also learn that a business must be comprised of systems and not superstars. Systems are easily duplicated and superstars are rare and very expensive when you find them

This book is on my must read list for all business owners.

I prefer the audio version. The E-Myth Revisited CD : Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to do about it, Audio CD