Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine January 2026

News Magazine January 2026

FEATURE STORY

or may not give you the answer you're looking for. There's no reason to find the same professional pride in a blue-collar work ethic. What satisfaction is there in solving a problem when everything is "easy" and doesn't last? What kind of life is that, and who would willingly be part of it? Nevertheless, those questions sink, collapse, and dwindle down into bedposts, and when we awaken, we realize... Luckily for us, the grim image of HVAC yet to come is the HVAC that may be, not the HVAC that will be. Just like Scrooge on Christmas morning, we know there's still time to choose a better future for the trade. Treat HVAC Businesses as a Way of Life, Not an Investment While HVAC businesses are a means of making money and providing for our families, they also provide for communities. Would you rather be the one doing a service for your neighbors, or would you rather have a large company do it and provide substandard service? When technicians are the ones who own their businesses, they are connected to the community, and that's what humans are wired for anyway — connection . We do need money to survive, but isn't there something to be said about earning money while providing value to the community? Particularly when the The Time Before Us Is Our Own

alternative is walking away with a bunch of money from a private equity investor who will jack up prices and push sales over workmanship?

A lot of industry leaders and educators own their HVAC businesses and have specialized in some area of building performance or consultation. That's their path to continuous improvement, and it would be great for more people to follow in their footsteps: master fundamentals, and then open up your service offerings. This is the way to upward mobility within companies: give apprentices a solid foothold and then commit to education to build their skills and grow into specialized roles that suit them. Maybe those techs will stay with your company and train the new blood, or maybe they'll work for another company (or start their own!) and bring their skills with them. No matter where they end up, they've been trained with the commitment to craftsmanship and best practices that our industry thrives on.