Bill BrownFounder of ServiceTitan Hacks community (9k+ pros) | INC 5000 Contractor | Helping contractors win with AI & Automation

Residential to Commercial: What You Must Know

9 May 2025 · 1 min

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1:28

The video is an advisory monologue about transitioning a business from residential to commercial HVAC/services. The speaker emphasizes that commercial is a different marketplace, urges clarifying vision, goals, and a strategic plan, recommends assessing current staff capabilities to identify immediate serviceable equipment (e.g., rooftop units), and stresses hiring A-player talent suited for commercial sales and operations rather than relying solely on residential staff.

Well, the first thing is, is that they may be very accomplished in the residential world, but they've got to realize that this is a completely different marketplace. And just saying I want to do it is not going to get it done. So I would encourage getting somebody alongside with you to help you through this. So it's not a trial and error experience. The big thing that I think is, is you need to become crystal clear on what your vision and your goals are and that leads to your strategic plan. But a lot of times that has to do with what can we do right now. So most companies aren't going to say, oh, we're going to hire all these technical people and all the different boilers, chillers, etc. So we've got to look at what could our people right now do today. Maybe it's just install rooftop units. And so like Charlie mentioned, you can search companies and look for equipment that they have that you could actually service. Right. So first step is that getting crystal clear on your vision, your goals and your strategic plan. The next step is really you've got to hire some A players and you got to figure out what they're looking for. Because if you take your guys or gals that are selling in the residential world, they not may not be the right people to get you success in the commercial world.