Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Edwards.
Tim, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started learning heating and air conditioning at the age of 8, running service calls with my dad. In the summer time, I would help with installs along with evenings and weekends. I started by being told go get this and go get that. Once I learned the tools of the trade, I started learning how to troubleshoot issues. By the age of 16, I was able to run my own calls, at 18 I was fulltime running installs, service calls, etc. I moved to Dallas area from St. Louis. I have no family, and didn’t know anyone here. I left for Texas and about midnight I received a call from an ad I posted looking for a job. It wasn’t in heating and ac, but I was just trying to get my family a new start. So I took the job knowing nothing about construction, I arrived in Dallas at 2am, and woke up at 5am to start my new job. I only had enough money for one week in a hotel and lived on ramen noodles and hotdogs for about a month. I finally was able to rent an apartment and moved my family here. Then I found a job working for a local hvac company. After some time, I was tired of just being a number at a company. I choose to study and took the state exam for licensing of hvac contractors, I used only one book, when you could bring something like 7 books. I passed the test the first time. Started my company The Air Guy, LLC. I have put a ton of hours, long days, a lot of stress along with it. But this is what I love doing and they say if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. Although like I said it can be stressful being the main bread winner. I know there is not one person who would or could help me out of a bad situation. I make sure to keep my customers happy, and just be honest and upfront with them. I answer my phone when most others turn theirs off. My customers can reach me any day, anytime. And I think that’s a big key to success. Great customer service and professionalism will take you a long way. I have tattoos and I had companies tell me to cover them. Well to me my tattoos have meaning, I have my kids’ drawings, I have an f15 eagle which my grandpa built the wings on. He was a big influence on my life and that’s I think a big reason why I am where I am today. I truly care about each and every customer I come in contact with. Doesn’t matter who or where you live. I’ve been to the bottom 100s of times. It seems that to be successful you have to be kicked back many times before you perfect it. Winners are not people who never fail, they are people who never quit.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has never been a smooth road for me. I was physically, mentally, sexually abused as a child. Like I said previously, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past to you. Or even what happens now. If you fail it’s because it wasn’t meant to be. You have to keep moving forward no matter what. I had to live in my car in the freezing cold before, wake up every 30 minutes freezing start the car, get warm, then shut off and do it over again. But as far as struggles with the business. I had the hardest time getting the state to allow me to test. It took my applying multiple times. Also looking young, people had a hard time trusting that I know what I’m doing. Trying to manage family time and being able to be able to be there 24/7 for my customers. It was literally just me. So I answer the phones, I run the calls, I done many installs by myself because it is hard to find workers that are ok with an attic at 150 degrees. I just know I have a job to do and I will not stop until they are happy and have heat and air.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Air Guy, LLC story. Tell us more about the business.
We specialize in residential and light commercial heating and air conditioning sales, service, and installations, we also do attic insulation. Being named the air guy, we are very talented in fixing airflow problems. I’m mostly proud of my reputation I created as a company and as a person. I mean, these reviews reflect me and how I treat people. I believe if you go out and do your best on every job and make sure you don’t cut corners. Success is a given. We will never sacrifice pricing in order to do a cut-rate job. We do it right or not at all.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see the era changing many things about what refrigerants we use in the industry. There is great technology coming out that is going to change big time. So many smart people I know and we are all working on ways to make hvac improve and be much more user friendly.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3301 Conflans Rd. #105
- Website: Www.irving-air.com
- Phone: 214 60 11758
- Email: timedwards@irvingair.com
- Facebook: Facebook.com/irvingair
- Yelp: Yelp.com/biz/the-air-guy-irving-2
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