Increasing the profitability of HVAC companies is not something that is achieved overnight. Instead, it is a result of creating a detailed plan, collaborating with the team, marketing execution and adjustments, and tracking analytics and results, among others. If you want to succeed and improve your bottom line, implement these strategies.

In the 1990s, consolidation swept across the HVAC industry. Contractors were rolled up into large publicly traded companies like American Residential Services, Group Maintenance America Corp., Service Experts, and the utility-owned Blue Dot.

Is it possible that buildings of the future will be a strategic asset — that they will operate in an intelligent way to be productive facility managers and monetizable for real estate owners? Is it possible that the traditionally conservative and risk-averse building and construction industry would leverage the latest technologies, such as the IoT, big data, cloud computing, data analytics, deep learning, and artificial intelligence, for the benefits of saving energy, reducing operational expenditures, increasing occupancy comfort, and — most importantly — meeting increasingly stringent global regulations and sustainability standards?

The HVAC industry, and in particular the replacement sector, is attractive to private equity investors because of its exposure to a large base of installed equipment that requires regular service and, ultimately, replacement. The critical nature of HVAC equipment for ensuring comfort means that customers tend to place the most emphasis on service responsiveness and equipment quality, in addition to price and other considerations.

If you’re an HVAC company and you say “anyone who needs HVAC work,” that might be the answer to why you can’t seem to get any traction.

“My company has high service sales and yearly growth, but it doesn’t translate into bottom-line profits. I don’t know why it’s happening or how to fix it.”

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.

Managing employees is tough. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to herd feral cats, right? Sure, that’s not always the case, but there are probably days when it feels like your employees require way more work to manage than they actually produce.

Financial power is what put me on an intentional path to make money at work versus working for what I called exercise and hoping the money would follow.

Even contractors who are diligent about training their teams often overlook their own personal training needs. Make sure you look for personal training opportunities to become a better business person, manager, and leader. Shore up your areas of weakness, whether it’s marketing or finance.