“All of our work must meet our high standards. Period,” he says. “This approach is something we implemented from the first day of our business, and the result is that our referral rate is unbelievable.”
Today, the company continues to do encapsulation work but focuses mainly on HVAC systems.
“I’m a building science geek. I look at the whole house as a system,” he says. “I sold everything that had to do with the building science of the house, including blower door testing. My average job in 2006 was $15,000.
Growing Worley’s through Acquisitions
Worley says, “In 2021, near the end of the worst of the COVID Pandemic, we bought another $300,000 company that had a great reputation but no internal processes or procedures. We implemented our systems, and by 2023, we hit $12.2 million in sales.”
Worley Home Services employs 75 people today, fields 60 service and installation trucks, and focuses on residential service and replacement. The company does several other types of work as well, including the following:
- 80 to 85% of their revenues are residential
- 15 to 20% are commercial.
He says of the residential revenues:
- 55% comes from HVAC
- five to 10% from encapsulation
- 10% comes from electrical work
- 25% comes from plumbing.
Plumbing is one of the latest areas the company has ventured into. Worley says one of his technicians did plumbing work part-time. It wasn’t until an acquaintance of Chuck’s told him about a plumbing company whose owner had passed away and asked Chuck to try and help the widow out.
“The widow asked me to buy the company, which I did. I helped her pay off all the trucks and some other debt and helped get her out of a financial hole.
“We did not take any employees because they didn’t pass my character/integrity test. I put my part-time plumber in charge, and now we have three additional people working in that business.
“Today, nearly three years later, we do around $3 million in plumbing.”
Most importantly for Chuck Worley, this allowed him to do the one thing he never thought he could – go back and pay off the $500,000 in debt he incurred when his first company went bankrupt.
“That is the best part of this story,” he says. “I paid all 70 of those creditors back. I knew that was the right thing to do. How could I judge employees on character and integrity and doing the right thing if I didn’t practice what I preach?”
Ah-Ha Moments
From the start of Worley’s career, keeping himself educated was important. Though the college experience was a bust for him, he stayed on top of the HVAC Industry, the technology, and the changes continuously coming down the pike by reading, attending training, networking, and working with trade groups and associations to help better the industry.
“I learned about the National Comfort Institute (NCI) by reading Contracting Business magazine and thought they had a better approach to the technical side of the HVAC business. So I went to one of their early HVAC Comfortech shows, walked around the exhibits, and saw all these airflow hoods,” he explains.
“I had no idea what they were or how they worked. I knew about static pressure but had no idea what that had to do with air conditioning.”
There, he met NCI President Rob “Doc” Falke. When Rob explained to him how most systems in the U.S. had such poor performance, Chuck didn’t believe him. After all, he says he thought he was selling the highest-rated HVAC equipment of the time and promising customers the ultimate comfort.
“Now this Falke guy told me I wasn’t delivering on that promise! He said I was only delivering 50% of the capacity based on poorly sized ductwork and its impact on efficiency. I argued and argued, but Doc explained the math and made it so simple that I couldn’t argue with him anymore.
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