Small businesses come and go, that’s a given. The sheer volume of business start-ups and failures each year suggest that all sectors of the business community, including the HVAC contracting trade, are affected. Some estimates show that 600,000 businesses start up each year and the majority of them go out of business within five years. That creates a lot of turmoil — or opportunity — for small business owners who see a chance to grab a bigger share of the market as competitors fold their tents.
But are HVAC contractors taking advantage of the misfortunes of others? Some are and some aren’t. There are some interesting stories attached to this topic, like the one about the HVAC contractor who bought some office furniture from a defunct competitor only to find a file cabinet full of customer information. Another business owner hired a former competitor to download service agreement customer files into his own database.