We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Morris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.
John, appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?
One of the most unexpected problems in the HVAC industry is the high volume of contractors holding licenses but not following the standards that exists in the industry Homeowners do not know the difference and we find ourselves going back on a lot of other companies’ work not done correctly. We follow the ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America) Standards and can be found on the acca.org website’s contractor finder form as well as the BPI (Building Performance Institute’) website at bpi.org on their contractor finder form. If a company chooses to follow these standards, they will rarely do anything wrong. We find many homeowners experiencing buyer’s remorse after hiring unqualified companies not found to be affiliated with the standardization organizations mentioned and they ultimately reach out to someone else. Sometimes other unqualified companies unable to identify the actual problems. Many of the problems we see are improper refrigerants being used, fan speeds not adjusted properly, mismatched HVAC equipment, incorrect metering devices being used, improperly sized filters installed causing high static pressure and many duct systems not designed correctly. We are able to identify these problems accurately, fast and efficiently with a very high level of success. We possess software for ACCA Load Calculations that assist us in determining why duct systems are not installed and sized properly as well as why HVAC systems are too big or too small for the home or business they serve, we have refrigerant analysis machines to assist us in determining whether or not proper refrigerants are being used in systems and we are factory authorized HVAC technicians that are in direct contact with the manufacturers to better determine whether or not the HVAC systems are installed properly. I would say that 80% + of our work is going behind another company’s work and fixing it. This ties up a lot of our time and many times customers cannot afford the cost of repair due to having paid another company to do the job wrong. In that respect we assist in preparing discoveries for legal purposes so homeowners can recoup all or some of their money back. Oftentimes, too much time has passed and homeowners are unable to recoup their loss and are stuck having to pay for it to be fixed.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is John Morris. I owned a base metal commodity company and went to school for HVAC to learn how to recover refrigerant out of appliances we received. In 2008 when the market crashed everything I was doing was pretty much worthless and I was able to find a job in the HVAC industry as an apprentice. I went through the HVAC program at Tulsa technology Center. I continued my education with ever blue training for photovoltaics and building performance Institute certification. I have since went through specialized training with manufacturers of HVAC products. I’ve always been self-employed since 2004 and as I built up my tools for the HVAC industry I began offering my services to my community and we have been in business for 20 years serving our community’s HVAC needs.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I used to just work odd jobs mainly making dough for pizza places. I was woven out of a position with a pizza company due to staff prioritizing friends over people like me who just worked there and really did not have ties of friendship with anyone. So I found myself jobless. I met a guy named Curtis at a local Ramadan dinner at the local mosque. He had spent 10 years in prison for murdering someone, but it was out of self-defense and he got a 10 year sentence. When he got out of prison, his wife had been sleeping with someone else and he moved from Arizona to Oklahoma. He was sleeping in his truck at the VA hospital, parking lot and the parking lot at the mosque and I met him at the mosque and invited him to stay at my apartment. One day he asked me what I did for work and I told him well. I’m living off my tax return right now looking for a job. He told me I should go outside and pick up cans this is in 2003 or 2004 I started picking up cans and at the height of it was earning $80,000 a year recovering a quarter of 1,000,000 pounds of recyclable material This led to me going to HVAC school and ultimately entering into the industry
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I’ve never done anything outside of my financial needs. I used to wake up at 5:30 in the morning every day and pick up cans until 10 o’clock at night. Just led to meeting lots of people and venturing into other realms of Recycling like Refrigerants. I am still the only refrigerant recycling company located in Oklahoma to my knowledge.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.morrisheatandair.net/
- Instagram: https://www.morrisheatandair.net/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morrisheatair?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enterprise-compressed-gas?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
Image Credits
John Morris