The Successful Contractor

Maxing & Relaxing While Running a Multimillion Dollar Company

July 19, 2010

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Usually running a company with high profits and tremendous growth means long hours and some premature baldness. Thanks to AirTime® 500, Dan Peterson is able to enjoy the former, without enduring the latter.

“I am not stressed out at all,” said the owner of Comfort Tech Service Now in Del Rio, Texas. “I know a lot of people that have this much volume of business, and they are pulling their hair out because of the stress. I mean, they are falling apart and don’t know what to do. Because of the business training that I have had with AirTime over the years, I know my numbers. I know where I need to be. So the peace of mind and the calm is there.”

How does Peterson pull this off? He does it with competent employees and the aforementioned business plan, management systems, turnkey advertising, training, and group buying developed by AirTime 500. When The Successful Contractor® caught up with Peterson, he was getting ready to fly out to Cancun for one of his numerous vacations. Keep in mind that this was in mid-April, the beginning of the busy season for any HVAC contractor located in Texas.

“I have great people running the business, so I do not need to go into the office everyday. I go in early to greet the guys, but by 10 a.m. I leave. I go home to work on my house and do the other things I enjoy,” Peterson said.

When Peterson mentions his house, he is referring to a beautiful 7,000-square-foot home that the great majority would classify as a dream house.

“I am real proud of that house,” Peterson said. “I never had one that nice before, and my dream was always to have a nice home like this. I would not have been able to get this if not for AirTime 500. I am living a stress-free life and all the bills are paid. My accountant tells me I am in the top 1 percent of income earners in the country. I own several pieces of real estate that are worth a lot of money, and they are paid for. Once again, I could not have done that if not for the help I have gotten from AirTime with my business. Those properties will be part of my retirement.”

Peterson even has time to live the rock-and-roll lifestyle. He has always been a fan of the music of the King of Rock and Roll and showcases his Elvis Presley impression at local establishments. Now, his successful business has allowed him to bring the party to his house as the dream home has a stage-concert area where Peterson can resurrect the spirit of Elvis — that is if The King is actually dead.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB

The upward journey for Peterson began in 1995 when he joined Contractor Success Group (CSG), which was a group founded by Jim Abrams and John Young and was the forerunner to the AirTime 500 group. At that point he had been running his business for 15 years, and the only thing he had to show for it was debt. In fact, when he joined CSG he was $300,000 upside down and owed money to both the IRS and suppliers.

“And two and one-half years later, we had turned it around and paid off all the bills. I say ‘we’ because it was the group and me. They are the only reason why I am here,” Peterson said. ‘I was 21 when I kicked off my own company. At 21, what do you know? I was a young guy getting taken advantage of on every call.”

The journey was not all candy and nuts, as Peterson had to get creative to come up with the money to join the organization. After he received a marketing piece about the organization, he was ready to investigate, so Peterson attended a Success Day. The contractor was blown away. The information and ideas he was learning from the group seemed priceless, but alas, there was a price, and Peterson — who did not have two nickels to rub together — was having a hard time coming up with it.

“They were great. I did not have the down payment, so they worked with me, and I gave them eight post-dated checks and made sure by Boot Camp it was all paid for,” Peterson said. “I was overwhelmed at the first Boot Camp. It was five days of great information. I came back and immediately started implementing the programs.”

When Peterson returned home, he had some leads on his desk because he had already used the CSG direct mail marketing piece. It was time to use the selling techniques he had just learned at Boot Camp.

“I was scared to death. I used to be a technician, and the next thing you know, I am a comfort advisor. I sat down with home-owners and gave them the entire presentation I had just learned. I gave them the four different packages, and at the end of the presentation they picked the premier package. I left the house and started screaming like a little baby kid. I was so excited,” Peterson said.

Peterson got back to the office and gave the paperwork to his accounting manager. Their average ticket at that time was around $3,000, and this ticket was $8,500. They both looked at each other and smiled, as they knew if they could sell like this, their debt problems would soon be a thing of the past.

“We went from $25,000 in sales a month to $90,000. I mean that happened immediately after I started taking CSG’s advice,” Peterson said.

The following month, the company did $120,000 worth of business, and this precipitated a visit from Peterson’s CPA. He had made the three-hour trip to Del Rio to have a serious discussion with his client.

“He said, ‘If you are doing anything illegal or under the table, you know I am going to have to separate myself from you.’ He thought because I had such a spike in income and lived right here on the border that I must be selling drugs,” Peterson laughs at the recollection.

Peterson showed the CPA his marketing pieces, presentation, and books to convince his moneyman that everything was on the up and up.

BUYING AND SELLING

Now that the company was heading in the right direction, the sky was the limit for Peterson and his business. He sold his business to Service Experts in 1998, and then was able to buy it back in 2002.

What was the first order of business when he reacquired the company?

“As soon as I found out I would be able to get it back, I made sure I got to the next Profit Day with AirTime 500, the latest innovation of Jim Abrams,” Peterson said. “Jim Abrams was at the front there, and I said, ‘Jim, I am coming back.’”

It was as if Peterson had never left. He went right back to growing the company and last year — despite a very large recession — was the best year for Comfort Tech Service Now. The company did $4.9 million in business, a record, and they have already budgeted for $6.2 million in 2010 as they have added both plumbing and electrical, which, of course, includes memberships in Plumbers’ Success International® (PSI) and Electricians’ Success International® (ESI), sister companies to AirTime 500.

“My idea was, instead of traveling to other cities and buying up companies, I would just add more services and get more dollars out of the same people, and that is working very well for us. It was great to join ESI and PSI and have everything at your fingertips to kick it off,” Peterson said.

Peterson’s company kicked off Plumber Now and Power Now officially in January. They have averaged $62,000 per month the first four months of this year in plumbing and $31,000 in electrical. “Pretty cool for an a/c guy that does not know anything about plumbing and electrical,” Peterson said. “I’ve surpassed companies in volume of business that have been in business 30-plus years. It’s like I’ve been given a GPS success system. All I have to do is follow it to be successful. It works for me, and I know it will work for you. I can’t ever imagine being in this business and not being in this organization,” Peterson said.

He has found that a lot of the practices that AirTime 500 preaches work in all aspects of business.

“The key for us is maximizing on every call. That is what allowed us to have such a great year. Sure, we had a hot summer, but so did other companies, and they are going out of business. It all comes down to good leadership and great training. AirTime 500 has provided me great practices in both,” Peterson said.

While AirTime 500 offers an abundance of training and programs that helped Peterson grow his business, he is particularly fond of the club membership program, which is a way of dealing with service agreements.

“The first time I heard about it I was hooked,” Peterson said. “I just knew it was going to be our future. It has turned out to be the backbone of the business.”

Comfort Tech Service Now has an 82 percent conversion rate on the club membership program. Even more impressive, Peterson has noticed that 50 percent of the company’s revenue is coming from those club members. One of the keys is that the company drafts the bank account of the members every month so there is never any concern about renewals.

“The club membership is our lifeblood. All you have to do with the club memberships is do a great job when you do your annual maintenance. We impress homeowners so much that they never want to cancel,” Peterson said.

Another great part of this practice is the fact that it allows Peterson to keep all his techs busy, even during the off-season months.

“That is when we do all of our tune-ups so the guys stay busy. It creates a lot of opportunities,” Peterson said. “Club memberships are the key. When you go out on the call, they are either a club member or they are not. If they are not club members, the technician has not won the trust of that customer. If they sign up on the club, it is just like a girlfriend saying, ‘I do.’ They have said, ‘We want to marry you; put the ring on my finger.’ The No. 1 goal is to sign them up for the club because if you do that they are now really your customers. You always know when that customer wants to leave you because they have to cancel with us. That allows us to go into marriage counseling and figure out exactly what we are doing wrong. Why do they want a divorce?”

Peterson also is very thankful for the Success Academy® training provided by AirTime 500.

“That really helps. There are always some good nuggets I pull out of there,” Peterson said. “It really gets us back to basics.”

With the help of a great organization like AirTime 500, Peterson is proving the naysayers wrong. He laughs at the recollection of all the people who tried to put limitations on his business. He was often told that with his area’s population of approximately 35,000, the best he could hope for was between $2 million and $2.5 million worth of business. Luckily, AirTime 500 and Peterson did not subscribe to that line of thinking.

“For a while I believed it, and whatever you believe is what you are going to do. What we are finding now is that it was a myth. Our aspirations are of being a $10 million organization, and we can do it,” Peterson said. “The programs from AirTime let you blow away the competition. We are fixing to hit milestones that I never could have imagined before joining the group. AirTime has all the tools. It is just a matter of listening to them and implementing the programs.”

So life is good in the small Texas town of Del Rio.

“The most important thing is AirTime allowed me to re-establish my credibility,” Peterson said. “Banks love to get our business now. I remember a time they would not even look at me or shake my hand. Now they are all coming in the front door trying to get our business.”