by Jim Hinshaw
Just got back from a trip to California for a PHCC meeting, was in Savannah GA last month for an ACCA meeting. I had a table at each event, got to talk to a lot of companies in the two days. Here are my observations.
First of all, in both cases, the investment to attend the event was manageable, hundreds of dollars, not thousands of dollars. Since there are PHCC and ACCA groups all across the nation, you can drive to one of these in most cases, a short airplane ride at worst. What did you get for your money? A trade show with exhibitors that showcase the latest in technology, systems and software fo help build your business. You get a chance to ask questions, have dialogue with the reps that are there to help you with business improving tips and tools. A great question to ask them is: How are you going to help my business?
In both of these events there was a session on AI, it is coming to a company near you weather you are ready or not. My advice is to see how you could use it, but proceed carefully, there are multiple sources and applications vary greatly.
In the PHCC sessions, the keynote did a great talk on branding and what strategies have worked for others, how your brand can help with retaining employees as well as attracting them. Branding is one of the great mysteries of life, no one has it figured out completely, so more information is a good thing.
In the CAAG (Conditioned Air Association of GA) conference, we heard from a financial group the difference between Protective and Reactive Taxes, how to Recruit, Retain and Reward Employees and how to Transform Your Business from a business broker, among many other sessions.
In both events we had plenty of open time with Meet and Greet, happy hours, social mixers, lots of time to chat with other people who do what you do, share struggles and successes. People who come to these events sometimes think that they don’t want to share their “secret Sauce”, the honest truth is that the only secret sauce is: Hard Work! In most cases we come to an event like this and go home and employees ask, how was the conference? We sometimes say, well, the food was great. What happens at some companies that are growing and getting engaged, when the key team members come back from a conference, employees hide, they are sure changes are coming.
The other benefit to being involved with these associations is that they are in your corner, helping your business by promoting legislation that will help, not hurt our industry. They have influence and a voice in the political arena that you cannot get by yourself. That is probably reason enough to be involved, not to mention the training, both technical and operational they provide.
Most of us are busy running the business, maybe too busy to keep up with legislation from both the state and federal level. That is what these associations do, they have your back, keeping you informed as to the latest changes coming our way. And changes are coming. At the PHCC event we just attended, the hotel we stayed at was putting in 46 heat pump water heaters, one of the members in attendance at the meeting was doing the work. There were some excellent credits coming from the federal and state level, as well as incentives from the local utility. The local PHCC chapter helped them sort thru the maze of paperwork to get the project put together so that everyone would benefit, the contractor, the hotel, the state and the local utility.
Also, at that meeting there were HVAC and Plumber Roundtables that had some great conversations about the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today. How to find, recruit, train, pay and retain good employees. The sessions gave the audience an idea of the innovative solutions some have used to improve their business, as well as the ideas that did not work so well.
There were sessions on how to navigate the changes in Osha guidelines as well as the state codes that affect our industry, what you can or can’t do today in how you work with employees.
We at Service Nation are proud to be involved with both PHCC and ACCA, helping to support them as they support their members and our respective industries. Check into your local chapter, the benefits are many and you will get a great ROI on that investment.
