Newbie looking for guidance.

[Indio]

I'm currently participating in a 600 hour HVAC-R course with the hopes of starting my own business focusing primarily in commercial refrigeration (while always doing installs and service calls of course) and electrical wiring in residential, commercial and industrial. Electrical would be my next step after I finish my HVAC-R course and get my universal EPA cert. In the mean time, I know a guy with a Hvac and appliance business and he wants me to partner with him when I finish my class this coming June. I figure partner with him on the appliances, help each other out with our separate hvac businesses, start electrical next fall and then try to focus on refrigeration. With no experience yet in the hvac field, does my plan sound a little to lofty? My shop stopped clocking me at 800 hours of overtime last year so drive won't be a problem. I'm also fairly intelligent and mechanically inclined though I'm not an overly attractive fellow (haha). Sound off if you would and thanks in advance for anything you may have to say however critical it may be.

Also, does this post count as #2 towards my Pro classification?

[earlburnermann]

I think you will need some time working on commercial equipment before you are ready to go into business. Here on Long Island you could actually go into business on the commercial side of the business as soon as you graduate. But you need years of documented experience before you can get a license to do residential work.

[Mike19]

Welcome to the site.

I wouldn't recommend going out on your own without some serious experience under your belt.

Partnering with the other guy sounds like an ok option, it would help you see firsthand all the things that are involved with owning your own business.

The shop you are currently working at, what line of work are they in?

[Indio]

In Ohio, you need the EPA cert to buy refrigerant and then it's up to the county and then municipality. To be honest, any hack could do it after they pass their EPA test but I'm not going to do hack work. Businesses will get certifications like NATE or whatever but nothing like that is required. State certification is required for some places, and not others. Kind of like a wild west situation I guess.

I completely understand your recommendation concerning experience. I wouldn't do it if I didn't kind of have to because I know that the field is never mastered. Everyone on here is always saying how you never know it all and my teacher started the course with the opening statement of "I've been in this business for 40 years and I learn something new every day.".

The guy I may partner with has been working under his father for the last ten years and decided to strike out on his own. We'd be helping each other with installs and service so I'm hoping to ramp up my experience that way. If conditions were different, I'd work for an bigger, more established company first before starting up my own van. I don't plan on being a one man operation but I'm not wanting to be a huge company either. Maybe just a 8 to 10 man operation with enough work to keep at least 6, including myself, busy year round.

I work for GE Energy and make conventionally cooled stator bars for power plant generators. Then someone in my classification goes out to the power plants and repairs or replaces everything after we crack the generator open. Technically I'm a Winder and I rewind generators. It's fun. It sucks. It's ALWAYS interesting.

[toocoolforschool]

I would wait ummm 10 yrs before touching commercial refrigeration.

[jtrammel]

Sounds extremely "lofty", good luck though. Hope you can beat the odds. A 600hr course is not going make you a good tech let alone a buisiness owner, both take a fair amount of hands on experience.

[Indio]

I know that. The course is the starting point with the rest being my goals. Small business runs in the family Experience will take care of itself. Where do you get continuing ed? Manufacturers? Dealers? I'm in rural Ohio. My town is about 35,000 people. Not a lot of opportunity for education other than experience around here...