Full transcript8 chapters · 9,174 words
00:00From telemarketing furnace tune-ups to in-home estimates
Katy Higgins: They said 90% of startups fail, but I turned my garage into a $5 million HVAC empire with transparency and heart.
Narrator: Welcome to Profit and Grit with Tyler, where blue collar owners and insiders spill the real story behind their hustle, building businesses that thrive through sweat and smarts. We’ll dig into their journeys, from scaling chaos to growing the bottom line, with lessons and grit that pay off big.
Narrator: Here’s your host, the blue collar CFO, tyler Martin.
Tyler Martin: Today’s guest is Katie Higgins, founder of True Pros in Utah. Katie started as a single mom selling furnace tune-ups, worked every seat in the house and then launched her own company out of her garage. Year one she cleared the $5 million mark, then doubled down on culture with a simple rule ring the bell when something goes right.
Tyler Martin: We get into what that pace of growth really takes, why she leads with education instead of high pressure, how she built a sales-first install machine before adding service and what it means to be a visible woman leading in the trades. If you run HVAC, plumbing or any home service shop, this one will get you thinking about people, process and profit.
Tyler Martin: Hey Katie, welcome to the Profiting Grit Show. How are you doing today? Good?
Katy Higgins: How about you?
Tyler Martin: I’m doing great. Thanks. I’m so excited to talk with you. I’m appreciative. Sarah Gerardo I believe I’m saying that correctly connected us and I’m always. It’s so fun when a guest is willing to trust me and introduce me to someone new.
Katy Higgins: It is scary, for sure, so yeah, Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Tyler Martin: I want to hear what you do professionally, and then I want to hear a little tidbit about you personally.
Katy Higgins: Oh my gosh, how much time do we have?
Tyler Martin: No just kidding.
Katy Higgins: So I have worked in the heating and air industry in Northern Utah for about 25 years now. It was not my life’s ambition in Northern Utah for about 25 years now it was not my life’s ambition. I don’t know that anybody’s life ambition is to work in heating and air, but I think it should be.
Katy Higgins: I’d like to change that story a little bit. Instead of, this is what happened to me. It’s what I chose to do and how I chose to provide for my family, because the best lesson I learned in my life was be prepared to take care of your kids, and I just wasn’t.
Katy Higgins: I became a single mom at a young age and was going to college. I wanted to be a vocal performance major, so I loved singing. But no money in music unless you’re the best, but not. But I was working as a telemarketer at a heating and air company and then putting myself back through school so I could do medical coding from home, and so I was selling furnace tune-ups and I’m like what the heck is a furnace tune-up?
Katy Higgins: And my boss said to me well, do you take your car to be tuned up? And I’m like no. He’s like well, what about an oil change? I’m like yeah, so like finally understanding, like different verbiage to relate to customers, as I’m selling a furnace tune-up over the phone, I’m like, no, it’s like an oil change, everybody should do it and it’s how your car lasts longer.
Katy Higgins: So I went after I finished school. My boss said hey, you are really smart, we’d love to offer you a full-time position, dispatching. So I kind of went from telemarketing to dispatching to lead generator marketing director, service manager and then out into the field.
Katy Higgins: To the best of my knowledge, I was the first female in Utah that did the in-home estimates, like 20 years ago in Northern Utah. So, like when I started, I had the roller that rolled on the outside of the house to measure square footage.
Katy Higgins: I keep it because it’s in my car, because it’s kind of nostalgic. I used to have it in my garage. But it’s like these days, if my laser is missing some batteries, I’m like sorry, I can’t measure your house. And it’s almost funny because, like back in the day, we’re rolling this roller on the outside to measure square footage, so that is funny.
Katy Higgins: Yeah, it’s been awesome, so it’s been this. I’ve worked in every single department until I opened my own company.
Tyler Martin: So, okay, I got so many questions for you. I want to kind of go into the first section. I’d like to start kind of rock bottom, if you will Like. At what point did you kind of go like, wow, I’ve hit the setback or I’ve hit the struggle, and I’m not sure I can go on?
04:07Year one when everything broke for the first time
Tyler Martin: Is there a defining moment like that for you?
Katy Higgins: Lots of them really. I mean, there’s so much, there’s so much about owning a business and starting a business that there is no book or podcast or anything that anybody can prepare you for what you’re gonna go through every single day. I think in year one, everything that happened in year one was the first time that it had happened, and so it was.
Katy Higgins: It’s like, oh my gosh, we, we got a flat tire. What do we do? Oh my gosh, we fell through a ceiling. We do oh my gosh, we ding somebody’s washing machine. What do we do? And it’s like the first time that everything happens.
Katy Higgins: It’s not always great, so that first year will really make or break somebody. You’ve got to have some grit, if you will, just to get through the day to day, because you’re not prepared for every single thing that happens, because it’s the first time that it happens.
Tyler Martin: But is there anything where you kind of like was there ever like a moment where you’re like, man, I’m not sure this is going to work, or I’m not sure Like I’d love to know if there’s just kind of digging a little deeper, if there’s something that ever hit you where you kind of questioned yourself.
Katy Higgins: Every day. Yeah, no, being the first female in Utah to do the in-home estimates. I mean, if we go back in time to when I started doing presentations, cell phones had just become a thing and I had coordinates, books, and the first time that I heard a customer say, honey, it’s a woman on the phone Like I could still hear them it was like oh my gosh, like a panic attack of what do I do?
Katy Higgins: I’m still scheduled to go out to their house. I don’t know what to do. And so at first like that was painful and I’m like I’m in the wrong field, I’m doing this wrong. But then I realized you know what? I know that I’m the best person that they could have at their home to educate them.
Katy Higgins: But that came with a couple of years of like building my confidence and educating myself. So I decided, like from that first phone call of honey, it’s a woman, to change that to. I spent my presentation, so I spent about five minutes. And when I first get to somebody’s house, when I am doing sales calls, really just educating the customer but mostly letting them know I know what I’m doing and I probably have more knowledge than anybody else they’re going to have there.
Katy Higgins: I don’t want them to remember that it was a woman that came to their home, but I want them to remember that man. That person gave us the most information and was the most knowledgeable. So about the time I built some confidence, I changed it and showed up to the door and be like and I’m still a girl.
Katy Higgins: The first time I did that the lady was so embarrassed she’s like oh my gosh, you could hear me. I’m like yeah, I was on the phone, but sometimes I would say things like if you’d like, we have men that I work with and they’re like no, but that is painful and that takes a lot.
Katy Higgins: I mean the easiest thing to do would be like put me back in the shop. I’ll keep answering phones because this still happens today. Like it’s crazy. I’m like you realized you called a woman owned and operated heating and air company, like I even had a.
Katy Higgins: I will leave that yesterday. I’m like interesting. I’ll leave that Yesterday. I’m like it’s interesting. But the first phone call, I think, was where I could actually hear somebody say the words that sometimes I knew they were thinking yeah, honey, it’s this woman.
Katy Higgins: Yep.
Tyler Martin: Wow, you know, based on my research, I think you also had some challenges, and I don’t think this was gender related, but you had some challenges from distributors in terms of credit.
07:24The failed partnership and Johnstone betting on her credit
Katy Higgins: Oh yeah.
Tyler Martin: Can you talk? Us through that Because that’s kind of a rock bottom moment too, because you think like, hey, I’m going to have access to these relationships, and then you kind of hit a snag.
Katy Higgins: Yeah for sure. I oh man there’s been lots of like. This is deep. So I had sold a particular line the majority of my career and so I had just assumed that I would have access or credit and I just didn’t know how any of it worked.
Katy Higgins: But, honestly, when we were going to, when I was going to start this company, there was no real plan to start. I had just been through and I haven’t talked about this yet. It was a partnership that just failed, wow, and I was just at home crying.
Katy Higgins: Basically, like you know, dave Ramsey says the only ship that doesn’t sail is a partnership. Now, I don’t know that, that’s true, but some really big lessons from that. But I was just at home in tears, didn’t know what to do, and the only thing I know how to do is heating and air conditioning.
Katy Higgins: I didn’t have any money set aside. I didn’t have any money set aside. I didn’t have a vehicle. I didn’t have a shop. I owned a truck. I sold it to myself, basically, and wrapped it and bought a trailer because that was the least expensive way to get one vehicle out on the road.
Katy Higgins: But I had hoped that, because I’d been selling particular brands for 20 years, that maybe I wouldn’t have such a tough time signing up with distributors. Johnstone was the one that really stepped up and said you know what? Actually, we know what this girl can do.
Katy Higgins: Not only did they give me a credit limit, but they gave me enough breathing room that I have paid them back tenfold. I think we’re their fastest growing company in Utah, for sure, and our credit limit is crazy, crazy high. But I think they’re their fastest growing company in Utah, for sure, and our credit limit is crazy, crazy high.
Katy Higgins: But I think they’re very thankful that they bet on this horse, so to speak. So, yeah, the other distributors that weren’t so willing to help had been knocking at the door like how can we, what can we do? Do you want this travel voucher?
Katy Higgins: Do you want this? I’m like where were you two years ago Now? I’m like locked in and it’s been a little, a little crazy, for sure. So that was tough and it was stuff I just couldn’t anticipate.
Tyler Martin: Yeah, that’s always. You know. It’s interesting to me because, as someone that’s in finance, when the bean counters have a little bit too much say in decision-making, because it’s like you have credibility and authority with the product line and someone should have authority within that organization to be able to evaluate that as part of you getting approved.
Tyler Martin: And it’s interesting it seems like they just had their you know, typical kind of big company. I had to say I don’t know how big they are, but because I don’t know the companies but it sounds like they were just following I’ll tell you offline.
Tyler Martin: Yeah. They were just they were just following process, basically and that’s unfortunate because shame heating and air was a great way to do it.
Katy Higgins: I actually, as I was working in the day-to-day as the dispatcher and then lead generator and marketing director for a very, very small company at the time. They’re gigantic now but at the time they only had four trucks, so during the day I was like answering the phones and then at night I was selling Mary Kay.
Katy Higgins: I don’t even wear makeup, but the first time my boss sent me out with an indoor air quality monitor to place if this, this’ll tell you how old I am and how long I’ve been doing it placed an air monitor, went out and sold a furnace and I was like I just made as much as I make selling 300 lipsticks.
Katy Higgins: I think I’m going to sell furnaces Like I don’t want to sell I don’t even like lipstick. So anyway, but they had taught me some great sales. There was some great sales training and I believe that, like sales is something it can be taught, but if you learn how to sell, then it will translate in whatever you’re selling.
Katy Higgins: So I had a wildly successful career in heating and air as a salesperson in 20,. If it’s okay, I’ll roll into this, if that’s okay.
Tyler Martin: Well, that’s where I kind of want to go with this. You’re kind of setting it up for me. I love talking. I mean, I feel like we could probably spend another hour talking about rock bottom, because there’s so many shades in there. I mean, I feel like I got to be honest.
Tyler Martin: I’m fighting with myself right now because I even want to talk about the partnership that didn’t work out, but that’ll be part Okay, noted, that’ll be a part two, I think you will a part two. Let’s talk about the turning point, though, because I want to get into, like when did you start to hit?
Tyler Martin: I mean 5 million in your first year, and now you’re in year two and I Sounds like double again, which is pretty crazy.
12:01Short $800 for workers comp and buying trueproscom
Tyler Martin: At what point do you go? Oh my gosh, I’ve got something real here. This is awesome. Like is that day one.
Katy Higgins: No, I can tell you exactly when that happened. No, definitely not. So imagine, I’m in my garage, right, I was short $800 to get workers comp and my husband, who owned a little cabinetry company, was like, hey, I am going to go get a W-2 job so I can pay our bills, because I know what you can do and it’s something special.
Katy Higgins: So you go build a company, I’m going to get a regular job, pay our house payment. I’m like okay, but I’m short $800 to get workers comp. And he’s like I’ll borrow it from the neighbors. And I’m like what? I actually had $13,000 to my name and trueproscom was a.
Katy Higgins: Somebody was selling the domain for $15,000. I sent the guy an email and said I only have $13,000. He’s like sold. I’m like man, I wish I would’ve told him I only had 12.
Tyler Martin: Yeah, they, they, they buff those up big time. Yeah, who knows?
Katy Higgins: So I bought trueproscom. But anyway, that whole first year was like I talked about, was like rock bottom all the time, but just not understanding what it was. Fast forward 10 months later and Jim Henshaw calls me, and he’s the vice president, I think, of Service Nation and I just had signed up on this little roundtable part, and I didn’t know what roundtable was, I just knew I could get some rebates if I signed up.
Katy Higgins: And so he called me and said hey, katie, did you know you’d been nominated as woman of the year? And I’m like no, and he’s like well, are you planning on coming to our conference? A, I’ve never been to a conference. B, I don’t know what the conference is.
Katy Higgins: And C, I think I’ve won because the president’s calling me and saying that I’ve been nominated and am I coming and he’ll pay for it? If I’m, we’ll pay for you to come. And I’m thinking in my mind I must have won. I did not win and I wasn’t even on their radar, not even close.
Katy Higgins: However, something so important happened on this trip While I’m down there. I was sitting in this class. I didn’t have any right to miss a few days of work, like we’re still in, not even year one and I’ve taken now a few days off to go, hopefully, win an award that I wasn’t even on the radar for.
Katy Higgins: I had been nominated but didn’t win. But that is okay. I’m sitting in this class and this guy next to me, he’s like, jotting down some notes and he’s like this year I’m going to do it. I’m like, what are you going to do?
Katy Higgins: And he says I’m going to hit 5 million this year. And I’m like well, how long have you been in business? And he’s like this will be my 20th year. I started shaking and I walked out into the hallway and called my husband and I said honey, I think what we’re doing is something special.
Katy Higgins: He has nothing to do with the industry, he’s a carpenter, pays the bills but he’s like what do you mean? I’m like this guy I’m sitting next to has been doing this for 20 years and he’s hoping to get to where we’ve already gone past.
Katy Higgins: I think we ended that first year at like 5.6, but I had no idea that what we were doing was something special, because I think, because I didn’t have blinders or a goal, it just allowed me to go. But that also was my defining moment of oh my gosh, we’re doing something special.
Katy Higgins: It also allowed me time to reflect on all of the negativity.
15:15Ringing the bell and the scrapbook of good weeks
Katy Higgins: All they were hearing was oh my gosh, the transmission just blew up. What do we do? We don’t have enough money for another band. What do we do? Where do we get another? Everything was just a crisis. And now, understanding the volume, we had five years of growth in less than a year and I wish I would have given myself grace or space around the people that were closest to me, because I think I could have kept some of them so like after this meeting, after being down at Service Nation.
Katy Higgins: There were 5 million great things that happened that year, but I let the things that happen once a week really dictate my attitude of oh my gosh, it’s so hard. So we added a bell at the office and we ring the bell every time something great happens, and it’s a loud bell.
Katy Higgins: The girls are like here she goes again. But we’ve also put a scrapbook by the front door where we write down the good things that happen every week, so that we have this scrapbook of the great things that happen Instead of letting the one bad thing like tank us.
Katy Higgins: We’ve got 30 other things that we’re like we had this great hire, we finally figured out this guy’s service call, we built a service department.
Tyler Martin: So really, reflecting on the great things, Katie, I don’t want to gloss over that because that is just so huge. In business, like we are so conditioned and I know I’ve built and sold two businesses so I’ve been guilty of this myself we’re always getting the high of the next like big thing that’s going to happen, like we’re looking for that, and everything in that journey tend all the bad stuff that happens tends to get magnified and then even when we hit that big thing, we’re like, ah, okay, the next big thing, and so we’re never really like I’m talking for myself, but I’ve seen a lot of business owners do this too we never really acknowledge all those little steps that get us to the big thing.
Tyler Martin: So that’s huge that you have the awareness. In two years of business you already have the awareness to really bring that out among your team and the company, because it’s huge. I mean that’s a big thing that you acknowledge those points. I bet you it helps your culture a lot.
Katy Higgins: Well, we have like part of our logo is this hex pattern we think we’re like. So it’s true pros, but there’s a hex pattern behind it and it’s kind of our in our mission statement talks about that we’re a beehive or a hive to join our hive, and it’s really all about teamwork.
Katy Higgins: My husband, the carpenter, has built these wooden hex things that go on the wall and it doesn’t matter if you work for us for one, work with me. I never say anybody works for me. If you work with me for one day, you’re part of that pattern, because we wouldn’t be anywhere without every single person that’s been there, and so your name gets to go up on the board, no matter what, and you’re part of that beehive and part of the collaboration, no matter what good, bad, ugly, but we wouldn’t be here without every single everything that has happened.
Katy Higgins: So we have a great culture.
Tyler Martin: We really do. Well, you know one thing I do want to ask, though, though like I think you said 5.6 million in your first year, well, north of 5 million.
18:27Why she built sales and install before any service department
Tyler Martin: Is that because you’re such a great salesperson, like I know? There’s people maybe out in the audience going well, yeah, she used to be a salesperson. Of course they got 5 million. That’s what drove all that. Is that what drove all that? Or how did you do that?
Katy Higgins: Honestly, I think that there is a lot to that. I knew everything about sales and knew everything about installation. So I took this class right out the gate, called chief of operations or accountability or something, and in the class was like, okay, you want 60% install, 30% service and 10% maintenance.
Katy Higgins: I, frankly, didn’t know anything about service. I knew everything about memberships and sales and installation. So that’s what I built is we didn’t even anything about service. I knew everything about memberships and sales and installation. So that’s what I built is we didn’t even have a service department until after the first year because all I knew how to do was sales and install.
Katy Higgins: I’m like, if I could figure out how to drive the work and drive the leads we didn’t have a database, just had to figure out how to get the leads to come in and put me in front of a customer, or I had some.
Katy Higgins: I had a really great salesperson and then I’ve now trained another one. We’ll sell the work. So I think, not knowing or just not doing what the industry said we had to do you need service techs, which you do, oh my gosh, like now you’re asking.
Katy Higgins: If you ask, like, how are we able to double? It’s well, now we’ve got a service department and they generate work and leads and it’s crazy, wow. The idea was we’d installed the systems and then, if there was a warranty, our installers would go back, so they were able to help.
Katy Higgins: But I really just knew everything about this one part and it’s like there’s some questions in my mind of like when do you, when do you allow yourself to hire a manager and get some help or wave the white flag? Probably should have done it much earlier.
Katy Higgins: But now I’ve got a general manager. That is like the yin to my yang. He used to be a service manager. He came in and he’s like well, where’s the service techs? And I’m like that’s a great question. Where are they? You should get them, because I don’t know you.
Katy Higgins: That’s a great question. Where?
Tyler Martin: are they?
Katy Higgins: You should get them because I don’t know You’re hired. Yeah, exactly, we had six install crews and six helpers, no service techs, just a couple of maintenance techs, and now we’ve got six service techs, and so that’s just been in the past like six months.
Katy Higgins: So that has been incredible. So, yes, when you say, how did I grow to 5 million Blinders? I only knew everything about sales and installation.
Tyler Martin: Wow, that’s amazing. So, hey, I want to switch gears. I want to talk about good advice, bad advice in the industry. What’s some of the best advice you received and then what’s some of the worst advice you’ve received in the industry?
Katy Higgins: Yeah, I would honestly, because I thought I was going to fail because I didn’t have a service department and I kept like knocking on my neighbor’s doors hey, how do I build a service price book or how do I do this? And the neighbors really aren’t super wanting, for whatever reason, to help you.
Katy Higgins: But joining the Service Nation group after I went down to that meeting I was like I want to. They have groups of owners that are at your same revenue. They call them their advisory boards. It was super helpful for me. So I’m not rallying for anybody, I’m just saying at the place I was in, I needed so much advice and so much training and knowledge that I didn’t have accessible or I didn’t have anybody to ask.
Katy Higgins: That would, I felt like, was giving me honest information. I felt like people were not giving me honest information. So the best information is to join a group and they have no reason to lie to you. Worst information was reading a book about how to build my company because all of a sudden I was sure I was going to fail because I was missing this whole part.
Katy Higgins: And it’s not because I didn’t want to have that part is because I didn’t know how to build that part. Yeah, you.
Tyler Martin: I think you’ve also got some advice around, like high pressure sales tactics, and it sounds like that’s exact opposite of what you do. You’re very information-based. Try to educate the buyer. Take me through like not necessarily who gave you that advice, but what kind of advice did you get?
Katy Higgins: And how did you deal?
Tyler Martin: with like did you try?
Katy Higgins: that path or were you like rejected immediately. It’s hard to not sign up for the shiny penny right Like cause. I joined all these Facebook groups and there appears to be this like big followings and big groups and just sign up and pay $30,000 and your life is going to be amazing and we’re going to do everything for you is really hard to know what’s right for Tyler and his company or Katie and my company.
Katy Higgins: I would say you know yourself the very best I know as a salesperson. I was never the high pressure. Do it today, like I want you to want to buy from me, I want you, if you want to get your estimates, I want you to, because I don’t ever want you to wonder if you got the best deal or the best information.
Katy Higgins: I want you to do your research and feel like, nope, that’s where I want to buy from. So that’s the sales approach that I take. There’s some other people that are like no, get it in, get it done, and that works for them.
Katy Higgins: They’re clearly very successful, but it is not how I built and not the information that I teach my people and I very clearly set up different departments Like our service techs only do service, our maintenance only do maintenance, sales only do sales. And some people completely disagree with that, and that is okay, I’m just doing it different.
Tyler Martin: Yeah, what works for you. I mean and I think that’s an important thing too think we get so stuck into. This is the way it has to be done, and we know. You know there’s so many things on the internet that are all soundbites and they lose context, like you don’t really know the whole story to that soundbite that you’re hearing.
Tyler Martin: So it’s interesting. I love that you say you do it your way and it’s working. I mean, I think that’s the other obvious, important part.
Katy Higgins: Well, I think who doesn’t want to think I could spend my life savings and all my problems will be fixed? Because that is super enticing it is. I didn’t have any money to invest. I didn’t have any options. One of the best things that happened to me was trying to apply for an SBA loan.
Katy Higgins: I had never done projections I had never had to, so to speak so I knew everything about sales and installation. Now, all of a sudden, I need to understand my P&L and my numbers, and so somebody had suggested I apply for an SBA loan.
Katy Higgins: Well, I went to the school local school and they had a teacher there that helped me apply. But we applied over and over again for months and the bank kept declining it, saying our projections were too good. And by about the fourth month, where we had doubled the projections each month, they were like okay, we’re going to loan you and it was the littlest amount.
Katy Higgins: It’s so funny now. And they make you get whatever you’ve applied for. So this is like if I could tell anybody anything if you’re going to apply for a loan, apply for working capital. When they granted me this money, they’re like okay, we want you to go buy the van and the computer and the ladder racks and I’m like, at that point I had five vans, 10 computers.
Katy Higgins: I’m like what they’re like? Well, that’s what you applied for, they won. I’m like oh crap. So I wish that somebody would have explained that part to me.
Tyler Martin: Yeah, it is kind of funny, though, in fairness, I do projections. I see projections and it’s so common you see these projections like, in fact, yesterday I had a client who was going to be a $60 million business in three years and it’s like someone had prepared a projection for him.
Tyler Martin: I’m like dude, this isn’t happening, like this is ridiculous, and but you see them all the time. But the funny thing about you is is you’re like real, like you really. I mean, most businesses are $5 million in their first year, especially in the HVAC space.
Tyler Martin: So it’s just kind of funny that you did have probably some lofty projections, but you could back them up.
Katy Higgins: Yes, well it was. I remember sitting across from the banker. Well, the first time when I went to go get a bank account, I had two banks just declined me from getting a bank account. I’m like what do you mean? I can’t open an account.
Katy Higgins: This is weird. And they’re like so two banks turned me down to even get a bank account. I’m like I have an EIN, I’ve got like my social, my driver’s license, my contractor’s license, so finally, the bank that gives me a bank account.
Katy Higgins: No credit, just a bank account. They’re the ones I’m going to supply through the SBN. I remember the guy leaned back in his chair and he’s like so what’s your plan? You’re going to just put your phone number on the side of a van and drive around.
Katy Higgins: And I’m like that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Like. And he’s like well, how are you going to get this work? And I’m like that’s a great question. Like, do you want the answers to that. Social media, google, networking, bni, the Chamber of Commerce, like all of those things, were where I was able to generate work and drive work from.
Katy Higgins: Yeah.
Tyler Martin: One thing I want to that you said that was just so brilliant. If you can get a credit line, get the credit line even if you’re not going to use it, and even if it’s like some pathetic amount like 10 or 20,000, because what happens is most banks is they give you a little fake amount originally and then you keep working them in.
Tyler Martin: Before you know it is two $300,000. You just, you just kind of have to play the game.
Katy Higgins: Yeah, well, last year, cause I I’ve got a gentleman that, who I’ve been meeting with for several years, just once a week for an hour. He used to own a trucking company, retired and he wanted to kind of give back. He’s my tennis partner’s dad and the day I opened she’s like my dad would love to just coach or give back.
Katy Higgins: And I’m like what am I going to talk to him about? And I’m so thankful because he has guided me through some really tricky stuff. But he told me go get a line of credit. Well, last year the bank wouldn’t give me a line of credit.
Katy Higgins: I’m like what do you mean? Like I’ve had over. At that point I’d had over two or 300,000 in the bank every day, never dropped below. I’m like I want to get a $50,000 line of credit. And they said no, that I hadn’t been in business long enough, and I’m like I don’t actually think I’ll need it.
Katy Higgins: I just it’s just in case. And then my the coach at the school said go to a different bank. And I told my banker and she’s like wait, wait, wait, we, we can do it. I’m like so we got it, we never used it, it just sits there but, that was so yes To your point.
Tyler Martin: get a credit line. Yeah, yes. One thing before we move on to the next topic, as I’m listening to you, one thing you’ve done just so great is it sounds like you put really strong people around you that you trust, and I think we shouldn’t gloss over that as being part of good advice.
Tyler Martin: Bad advice is that you put really solid people that sound like they give you good advice and you have a high level of trust. Is that a fair assessment?
Katy Higgins: Yeah, but I’m a salesperson and I love everybody and so that has been tricky too, like finding out who’s got my best interest at heart but weeding those people out, because there have been some amazing advocates for true pros and women in the industry.
Katy Higgins: I was on this HVAC forum yesterday and literally yesterday this person had posted I can’t believe they let women in the industry what do you guys think about it? And it just reminded me of how special true pros is. Not only do we have female technicians and female installers, we have men and women in leadership.
Katy Higgins: But I didn’t really think about it until, like I’m reading this gentleman’s post yesterday and how hurtful that was. We’re doing something special and we’re doing it very visibly. So we have some wonderful advocates and then we have some very big haters. I remember getting a one-star Google review that just said gross.
Katy Higgins: And I’m like gross, what? It wasn’t a customer. So they eventually removed it, but I’m like gross, what Pants driving what? Just some weird hate sometimes. And but I’m sure everybody deals with it, just on different levels. So figuring out who’s actually a supporter of True Pros and wants to see us grow and thrive, and then who’s not, yeah, it’s part of the challenge, hey.
Tyler Martin: so I want to talk about this next topic. I kind of call it the blueprint, the step-by-step blueprint. So I know you’ve adopted tools like Service, titan being one.
30:01Doing her own ServiceTitan onboarding and learning the P&L
Tyler Martin: What are some of the tools you’ve adopted and how did you manage those around your team and implementing into your company, and what impact did they have on your operations?
Katy Higgins: I’m. So that’s a big one because so with Service Titan I knew I worked at a company where we went through three software implementations and I had to help with each one and it was so painful. So in my mind I was like I want to start wherever I know I’m going to end.
Katy Higgins: So I know that Service Titan is where everybody wants to end. So I thought I’ll just start there. And onboarding was so frustrating, but I’m so thankful the way that they did it. So if I could give some advice, it would be as an owner or an operator.
Katy Higgins: You do the onboarding yourself, even if you have people. Every week they would give me an assignment Okay, we want you to make a code for these 5,000 things in your price book. Okay, next week, I want you to give these 5,000 things a name.
Katy Higgins: Okay, the next week I want you to give images to these 5,000 things you have. And it was like the most redundant, frustrating thing. But guess what? At the end I had a price book that I built because the way they made me do it and it was annoying as crap.
Katy Higgins: But at the end I’m like I have this beautiful price book that I knew the codes and and screamed so much but and it was like three months of onboarding but I knew every single part and instead of having a team do it, now I know how to do all of it.
Katy Higgins: So ServiceTitan has been key for us. So we tried some of the pro products. Some of them work, some of them haven’t.
Tyler Martin: So yeah, what other tools have you guys implemented that have had a big impact to your operations?
Katy Higgins: Service Nation, Service Nation yeah. My business coach I’ll just call him that who’s just been, more than anything, a sounding board, for I never had to write somebody up before or hold someone accountable, and every rule that we have is now related to something that’s happened.
Tyler Martin: Are you comfortable telling us his name? You’re, and every rule that we have is now related to something that’s happened, are you?
Katy Higgins: comfortable telling us his name. You’re welcome to say it on the show. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, dan Powell, he’s been OK. Yeah, I give him so many props because he’s done it in a way that has been more like well, you know, what you’re saying doesn’t really sound right, right.
Katy Higgins: And then he’d mail me books like the one minute manager, like we’re growing so fast. He’s like. So I want you to read these 10 pages, or read this book and figure out, like, how to empower people but also hold them accountable, because I I’m, like I say I’m a salesperson, I want everybody to love me and I love everybody.
Katy Higgins: I’m not allowed to do the hiring anymore, because I want to hire everybody.
Tyler Martin: Yeah it’s hard. You know, as a salesperson, I love everyone. Yeah, it’s hard because you’re so good with people, and usually I say kudos to you, though, because usually what I’ve found with salespeople is they are good with numbers as it relates to commission or sales, but they’re not generally the best when it comes to like more of like the profit and loss and understanding good business decisions, cause they’re always thinking like, hey, I can close this next sale, I’m going to get this next deal, which is great.
Tyler Martin: You need that mindset, but it seems like you’ve been able to kind of balance that in your own personality, or at least get people around you that can help you keep that all in line.
Katy Higgins: Yeah, If I can give some mad props to Christy Owens. Ishmael Valdez has actually been super helpful for me too. So let me go back to Christy. She and I played tennis together. I was a tennis captain and I had posted on our little group me hey, I’m going to retire because I’m going to open a company.
Katy Higgins: And she sent me a message. She’s like do you know how to use QuickBooks? And I’m like well, yeah, I’ve got QuickBooks. And she’s like so it doesn’t do this, cause she’s. She’d asked me have you reconciled? I’m like I don’t know what that means.
Katy Higgins: I said my bank account just feeds to QuickBooks. And she at that point was like okay, we’re going to have to build, I want you to understand buckets and I want you to understand your chart of accounts. And those words had never even been said to me before.
Katy Higgins: And so I was taking a class at Chief of Operations where they’re like above the line, below line, I’m like what line? Like what are you talking about? And so, like Christy really put everything in perspective and I had seen owners like take cash out of the bank and give like $20 bonuses.
Katy Higgins: And she’s like no, no, you cannot do that. Like everything that we did was 100% above the line in line with the law. Yeah, exactly, she’s like no, no, you have to do that, it’s on taxes.
Tyler Martin: Above board actually.
Katy Higgins: Income. Yes, yeah, one time we were missing $1.07. There was a charge for $1.07. And I’ll never forget because we found it. It said it was for an aero fastener, like an aero freshener. So we’re thinking somebody bought a car freshener at the gas station $1.07.
Katy Higgins: In a month we figured it out it was air for the tire.
Tyler Martin: That’s hilarious. What about Ishmael? You had mentioned Ishmael.
Katy Higgins: Yeah, so recently, and I’ve never met him, which is so crazy. So I’m just this little company, woman-owned, whatever. But I’ve done a couple of podcasts and I signed up right away. I think that thermostats are brilliant the Nuve thermostats. If I know anything about marketing which is not a lot but what I do know is that in my own home I don’t ever go to my furnace room but I pass by my thermostat every day.
Katy Higgins: I think what he’s done is brilliant. By putting your logo on there you could send messages. So I signed up for those thermostats right out the gate. But he and I connected just over the thermostats and he’s like you know, I would love to have a couple phone calls with you and he has not asked me for a penny.
Katy Higgins: We set up like three or four meetings where we had private one-on-ones and now I’m part of his like the 23 group, where he’s going to take 23 companies to 20 million some ridiculous. But you know what? He mentors the 23 companies as if he is running each one.
Katy Higgins: He’s like at what point do you get a manager? At what point do you get a CFO? Like, when do you have a bookkeeper? Or when do you go to a CFO and these are all questions, like new owners just don’t know. So he’s been fantastic.
Tyler Martin: That is awesome. Once again, I mean, you put good people around you that help you grow. That’s great. And then last area I want to get into before we wrap up here, I have two more things I want to talk about looking ahead.
Tyler Martin: So what’s in both personally and professionally like where do you see this going? I’d say next year and then maybe next five years. What are your goals?
Katy Higgins: I would love to add different verticals right. Like you’d ask me about the name, is it True Pros Heating and Air? No, it’s just True Pros, because I wasn’t sure I was like it might just be True Pros Fingernails. True Pros Pickleball. True Pros Tennis.
Katy Higgins: We’re going to be the true professionals of whatever we’re doing. So heating and air is what I’m really good at. So that’s what we focused on, but now we’ve added plumbing. Just as we’re not big, we have our plumbing license we can replace a water heater, but adding the other verticals as they naturally grow.
Katy Higgins: I want to stay really good at what we’re doing, but I want to be very visible in being a woman owned and operated heating and air company and opening up that door for others.
37:10Winning the Lennox contest and 40% female in a 2% industry
Katy Higgins: I wanted to touch on this because this was so important in my career. In 2015, lennox started this ultimate comfort advisor contest and there were four winners from the United States of four salespeople that had sold the most equipment or the most high efficient equipment in the United States four salespeople that had sold the most equipment or the most high efficient equipment in the United States and in year one there was probably five I want to say 500 to 700.
Katy Higgins: In the Western Conference and on the first several pages there were no women except for me. In year one I won for the Western Conference and I was competing against like California, texas, oregon, it was crazy. So at that time the awards were a man’s class ring, a smoker and a Home Depot gift card or something.
Katy Higgins: And when we got there for the award ceremony to Lennox’s credit they were like and we weren’t anticipating this, but we went ahead and got her a Borlino Buffalo bag and I’m like what the is a Borlino? So I’m Googling Borlino Buffalo bag and it’s like a leather satchel, like they were trying.
Katy Higgins: Right, they were not. But in year two there were three other women on that first page in our Western conference. So what that told me is that I think that I had shown other owners that it was okay to hire a female.
Tyler Martin: Katie. It could have been way worse, though. It could have been 300 lipsticks.
Katy Higgins: Yes, that’s what I’m saying Could have been. It would have been like and I’m going to sell these for $10 each and make $3,000.
Tyler Martin: Look at that salesperson man. You’re already, you’re already cranking in. There’s your true pros, true pros of lipstick. Yeah, yeah yeah, that’s funny.
Katy Higgins: I won. I won years one, two and three. Wow, that is amazing, and then that’s when I decided I should go start my own company kind of Like I was like I’m getting too old to crawl under houses.
Tyler Martin: So I need to do it for, like, train some other people to do it, yeah, yeah, what you know. So what do you feel is your responsibility and I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but your responsibility in terms of helping females get into this industry, be respected in this industry, have some type of avenue to enter and be, you know, just be taken seriously from the get-go?
Tyler Martin: Like, how do you, where do you feel you fit in that, if at all?
Katy Higgins: It’s such a great question because that first and only conference that I’ve been to, that Service Nation I was so excited because they had this group that was going to be all women there and I had no idea that this even existed and that there was even other women in the industry.
Katy Higgins: So connecting and finding the other women in the industry, but also opening the door. So we’re about 40% female at my office, which nationwide it’s 2%, and so just really being visible and doing it. Well, we make mistakes every day, but I really want to have a team around me that allows me to continue speaking in public forums, doing the podcast.
Katy Higgins: So when you asked, I was like, yes, sign me up, because I think it’s important that people hear the story and if it’s something that they’re interested in, oh my gosh, please do it. Because if I wouldn’t have tried, I would never know, and I’m thankful for the people that really did support me, like my husband and a couple of my competitors that were like we could offer you a job, but honestly, you did such a great job.
Katy Higgins: I think you should go do this again.
Tyler Martin: That’s so cool. Wow, that’s good stuff. Okay, I love that. Last thing I want to talk with you about I’m so sorry I had so much to say no, that’s all good, it’s great stuff. Last thing I want to finish up on here is just like, what’s your mantra?
Tyler Martin: Like what do you have a line and I think we’ve already kind of touched on it, but I’d love to end on this what’s your big mantra?
Katy Higgins: Ring the dang bell. Love it, I love it. Ring the bell.
Tyler Martin: You know, if you don’t celebrate the live and they did, it’s true, and for those that I lost along the way, I’m very sad. So yeah, it happens. I mean business. The cool thing is your journey. Right now, the trajectory is like crazy up.
Tyler Martin: Don’t normally get that out the gate for most businesses, so it’s cool that you’re on such a great upswing.
Katy Higgins: Thanks, I appreciate it. I appreciate the support and the opportunity. So hopefully we’ll do this again in a year and I’ll be like, well, we didn’t make it or we did, or whatever.
Tyler Martin: It’s hard. You know I was talking I don’t know if you know Jack Carr. Jack Carr is a guy that’s got a podcast called Jackquisitions and yesterday I was talking with him and he’s had a hundred percent growth every year and he, I think he said he was like at three or 4 million, I can’t remember and he said, okay, so we aren’t making our 8 million this year, but we’re like at seven.
Tyler Martin: So we’ll take it and we’ve decided, going forward, it won’t be a hundred percent, it’ll be 50%. So at some point your numbers are going to get so big you’ll probably have it probably won’t be a hundred percent growth.
Katy Higgins: I’m just happy to have a company and happy to be recognized and, like I said, with the post from yesterday, it really affected me because I sent it to our team. I’m so proud of you guys not only working for a woman but doing it visibly.
Katy Higgins: There are some people that just wouldn’t even apply. Yeah.
Tyler Martin: I mean, it’s hard to believe we’re still like that, that we have that in our society, but it does, unfortunately.
Katy Higgins: I know it’s weird Anyway.
Tyler Martin: Well, hey, thanks for being on the show. You are absolutely an amazing person, amazing guest, and I love your story. So I do hope in the future you can come back and give us an update and you’re probably going to have a book, or who knows what else is going on in your world.
Katy Higgins: I appreciate that, thank you. Thank you Take care.
Tyler Martin: So here’s my take Katie’s story is a blueprint for practical growth. She focused on what she knew cold sales and installs and then she layered in service once the engine was running. She surrounded herself with sharp operators and mentors and tracked the numbers and protected culture.
Tyler Martin: With small wins you can feel. Ring that bell. The lesson for owners pick your lane, build systems that fit your strengths and get help where you are weak. Do that and the profit follows the process. If you want help mapping this to your shop, I’ll walk you through a simple plan for cash flow dialing in your billable rate and financial strategy.
Tyler Martin: Book a complimentary intro call at cfointrocallcom or cfomadeeasycom. And, as always, thank you so much for listening to the show and I can’t wait to share next week’s episode.
Related Episodes
- 5 Red Flags That Kill Profits in HVAC and Plumbing – John Wilson
- The Hard Truth About Starting A Home Service Business – Mike Venidis
- Fired at 19 to Running a $3M Service Business – Brandon Saiz
- The Pay System Top Home Service Companies Use to Double Revenue – Ryan Shank
Tyler Martin works with owners on the numbers behind these stories: a fractional CFO for HVAC contractors.
