Small Business Today Magazine MAR 2016 AMERICAN SERVICES | Page 10

COVER STORY

to become an entrepreneur or a business
owner but I had to put bread on the table and that’s why I went into business,”
recalled Tony. That is when he started a
company that dealt with maintenance
for other companies.

Tony, Master Electrician,
reviewing Close-out Documentation on a
chiller replacement project.
Photo courtesy of American Services.

Tony’s background had mainly been
in sales and marketing. He got into the
air conditioning business really just by
chance. The air conditioner in his office
had broken down in the middle of July.
Someone called him from his office and
informed him that it was broken so he
rushed back to troubleshoot it. Upon his
return to his office, Tony examined the
air conditioner and determined that the
compressor had burned out. Tony’s company used to have the contract for maintenance with Maxwell House Coffee and
they would get parts and supplies from
Grainger which was just across the street
from the Coffee Plant. Tony instructed
someone in the office to call Grainger and
order an air conditioning condensing unit
and he would go pick it up.
After going over to Grainger to pick up
the condensing unit, Tony was told to
back up to door number one but first give
them his license. Tony handed them his
driver’s license and when he did that, they
started laughing. The manager then was
more specific and said, “Tony, you need to
have an HVAC license.” Tony was taken off
guard and exclaimed, “This is a free country! This is a free economy! This is free
commerce!” Seeing that Tony was upset,
the manager tried to cajole him by asking,
“Can you go to Walgreen’s and buy one little pill of penicillin without a prescription
from a licensed physician?” That’s when
Tony had his aha moment and said to
himself, “That’s where profits lie!”

“Larry and I have been friends for over
30 years,” recalled Tony. “When I realized
there was money in the air conditioning
business, I called Larry and said, ‘Let’s
team up because if you do what you do
Larry is seen here checking the DDC Controls
for proper performance against factory specifi- well and I do what I do well, we’ll be able
cations. Photo courtesy of American Services. to succeed. I can market and sell it; you
can fix it. There’s nobody that I know who
8 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ MARCH 2016 ]

knows more about refrigeration, air conditioning, and electrical than you, Larry.’”
Larry quickly replied, “No. I don’t need a
partner!” Larry initially said no because
he had heard horror stories about partnerships that hadn’t worked out and he
was used to doing things on his own from
the time he began in business in 1983
until early 2000 when Tony asked him to
team up.
Larry began contemplating the advantages of partnering with Tony. He had
learned everything through trial and error and running his own business was
a lot more than he had bargained for. “I
learned everything the hard way,” related
Larry. “I thought I was a great air conditioning technician and that’s all you need
to run a business. I found out the hard way
that one thing doesn’t have anything to do
with the other! I made a whole bunch of
costly mistakes in learning how to run a
business.” Larry finally agreed to work
with Tony after thoroughly analyzing the
pros and cons. One of the biggest reasons
he decided to partner with Tony was that
he recognized that they shared the same
values: integrity, honesty, and ethics.
Initially, Tony and Larry d Y