Getting Out of the Truck, Training Boosts Business
by Tom Watts
March 2, 2010
Brett Hadley and his wife, Shannon, share a bicycle ride in Moab, Utah with their children, Logan, left, and Emilie.
Hadley, 35, President of Master Electrical Service in Ogden, Utah, employs an office manager and five electricians in the field, as well as a part-time payroll person. “I would say that we are about 80 percent residential service work and 20 percent commercial,” he said. “We like the residential side a lot better. We really enjoy getting in front of the homeowners and providing outstanding service.”
Hadley has been an electrician nearly all his life, except for in high school when he made sandwiches at the local Subway. He received a scholarship to Weber State University, but only spent one year in school before leaving for Germany to serve a two-year mission for his church. “That was definitely a learning experience, one that no university could ever match,” he said. “After two years, I finished one more year at Weber State and received my Associates of Arts degree in General Studies. By that time I was married and the family business was looking great, so I started school to get my journeyman’s license.”
Within the next four years, Hadley had completed both his journeyman and Master’s licenses. “I started as an apprentice electrician when I was 14 years old,” he said. “My grandpa started Hadley Electric Incorporated 50 years ago, so I have been around it my whole life.”
Hadley said he had no intentions of becoming an electrician when he started college. “I just didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he said. “I turned to what I knew the best.”
Brett Hadley and his daughter, Emilie, enjoy a day of fishing on the Strawberry Reservoir outside of Heber, Utah.
Hadley started his business with two trucks and himself answering the phone, all while trying to conduct work. “We had a pretty good base to start out on because of all the contacts we had with 50 years of electrical work behind us, plus Hadley Electric was giving us all their service work,” he said.
Hadley brought in Kindra to handle the office duties. “She does a fabulous job and has since moved on to managing the office,” he said. “I think we got in at a very good time and found a niche that not very many electricians wanted to fill. In fact, we had at least four other electrical companies giving us referrals because they didn’t want to do service.”
Hadley’s company continued to grow and grow. “I have been able to get out of the truck and train five outstanding electricians,” he said. “I can now concentrate on managing, training, and marketing — three things I have learned to love to do.”
Over the last five years, Hadley has built a business that does just over $1 million in sales. “We are hoping to match that this year,” he said. “Things are looking great.”
Hadley said he owes much of his success to his father-in-law, who was a successful plumbing contractor and former member of Plumbers’ Success International. “The reason he wanted to help me is because Success Group International was starting a new group called Electricians’ Success International (ESI),” Hadley said. “He wanted to be the first person to sign up. We went to Las Vegas to the very first Profit Day. That day changed my life forever.”
Hadley said he could see real power in the systems they were presenting. “We had tried doing a little service work in the past, but were charging hourly and weren’t making any money,” he recalled. “In fact, our new construction was supplementing our service work.”
Hadley said ESI taught him that it was all right to have a “win, win, win philosophy” in his company. “They backed it up with systems and procedures that really worked,” Hadley said. “I learned to treat the customer better. I also learned to treat my techs better, too. It is amazing the things they will do when they feel appreciated.”
Thanks to Electricians’ Success International, Hadley’s clients could see a difference right away. “They didn’t mind paying a little more for the top quality service we were now providing,” he said. “The biggest lesson I had to learn, though, was to price myself right. As a company we had the right to make a profit. After all, we wanted to still be in business for a lot of years to come.”
Hadley said his relationship with ESI centered on accountability. “Not only to my client advisors, but also to all the great business owners across the country that I am able to rub shoulders with,” he said. “I have definitely learned countless wonderful lessons simply by having conversations with them.”
ESI also helped Hadley develop systems in his business to help it run more smoothly. “We have a great training program where we not only learn to better our skills as technicians, but we learn how to be better people,” he said. “We have learned how we can be an asset to our society instead of a hindrance. Because our employees know their jobs and what is expected out of them, it makes it easier for me to take some time off or concentrate on other aspects of the business.
“One thing that we like to train on is up-selling to our clients,” he continued. “The most important thing about upselling is simply asking the question. If we don’t ask, then the client has no opportunity to say no.”
One of Hadley’s best tips for other electricians: to train. “Most problems in a company can be traced back to lack of training,” he said.
With the continued success of his company and a debt of gratitude to his father-in-law, Hadley said he has always been a part of ESI since forming the company. “I know that now that I am out of a truck and not trying to be a tech and a manager, I have a lot more free time. I listen to owners who work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and never get to see their families. That is definitely not the life for me.”
Hadley said because of ESI he can finish his day at 5 p.m. and not feel bad about it. “My family means the world to me,” he said. “In June, we were able to travel to Texas to adopt our third child. Normally I would have been sick about leaving the company for two weeks, but I had no fear. My people are trained and know what to do. Plus, we were financially secure enough that we didn’t have to worry. Having the systems and procedures in place to be profitable has definitely been a blessing in our lives.”
As Master Electrical Service heads into 2010, the company looks forward to expanding even more. “We now feel established and that we have a name in the community,” he said. “It is our goal to become the dominant service and repair electrician in our area. We will be a household name and, as always, we want to strive for double-digit profitability.”
Still, the bottom line for Brett Hadley since his family became part of ESI, is “we have felt more secure financially.”
The last few years we have been able to build a secure savings for our family. With this savings we have not had to worry. We love to travel, snow ski, and spend lots of quality time as a family, and having a successful business has given us this opportunity.”
Tom Watts
