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HVAC's Financial Fairy Godmother

HVAC's Financial Fairy Godmother

How Ruth King Turns Financial Nightmares into Sweet Dreams

January 02, 2025

Picture this: It's 2 AM, and a contractor is sitting at his kitchen table, surrounded by a mountain of receipts, three empty coffee cups, and what can only be described as the world's most confusing Excel spreadsheet. His wife walked in an hour ago, took one look at his glazed eyes and disheveled hair, and wisely decided to go back to bed.

"I'm a technician!" he mutters to himself. "I can fix anything with a motor, but these numbers... they're trying to kill me!"

Enter Ruth King, the HVAC industry's financial fairy godmother, who's spent 40 years teaching contractors that numbers don't bite (unless you ignore them for too long). With a mix of tough love and practical wisdom, she's transformed countless "checkbook managers" into savvy business owners who actually look forward to reviewing their financials.

"You wouldn't diagnose an AC unit without checking the measurements," she says with a knowing smile. "So why are you running a business without checking the numbers?"

Today on Service Business Mastery…

STOP MANAGING YOUR BUSINESS BY YOUR CHECKBOOK BALANCE

That healthy bank account might be hiding a financial time bomb.

Ruth King reveals how simple financial habits can transform your business from surviving to thriving.

Watch the interview here (or listen here):

You can also read the show notes here.

In this issue of the Service Business Mastery newsletter, you’ll discover:

📈 3 Tactics To Implement Right Away

🧠 2 Big Ideas To Think About

🧐 1 Question To Ask Yourself

Let’s achieve mastery:

In partnership with:

This issue of 3-2-1 by Service Business Mastery is thanks to our partners at MarketStorm. MarketStorm helps you advertise across the internet to the exact customers you want to buy from you. Learn more »

Take these, implement them right away:

1️⃣ Price maintenance services to at least break even - those "$29 diagnostic specials" are killing your profits faster than a refrigerant leak.

2️⃣ Track your true billable efficiency - if you're only billing 70% of your hours, you need to divide your break-even rate by 0.7 to find your real hourly rate.

3️⃣ Include inventory on your balance sheet - that $100,000 in parts you're not tracking could be reducing your business valuation by up to $600,000.

Revenue comes from billable hours, not services - it doesn't matter what service you're providing if you can't bill for the time.
Financial management is a skill like any other - just as you learned to diagnose HVAC systems, you can learn to diagnose your business's financial health.

Are you losing money on maintenance agreements hoping to make it up on repairs, or have you actually calculated what it costs to provide that service?

3 Ways To Experience The Full Episode:

▶️ YouTube

📝 The Show Notes