Business Training for HVAC & Refrigeration Techs in British Columbia
BC-specific business training for HVAC and refrigeration technicians running their own operation. Built for sole operators and small crews, not multi-truck service shops with a dispatcher and a parts runner.
You know the job cold. The business is a different story.
RACM ticket. Gas ticket. Years on the tools. Customers who call you because you find the fault and stand behind the fix. But the money doesn't match the hours. Your rate was set by what other shops in the area charge, not what it costs to run your service truck, your tools, your refrigerant recovery gear, your insurance, your gas permits, and your time. You don't know your real break-even rate. You have commercial accounts and property managers paying on 60-day terms while you've fronted refrigerant, compressors, and controls on your credit card. You've eaten warranty callbacks this year and never billed for them. You drove an hour for a no-cool call that turned out to be a tripped breaker, and you absorbed the trip. Your draw is whatever is left after everything else gets paid. You're running a real operation on gut feel, and the gap between what you gross and what you keep is getting harder to ignore.
The Problems That Cost You Money
Do any of these problems sound familiar? We have specific fixes for your specific problems.
No Real Break-Even Rate
Rate borrowed from other shops in the area, not built from your actual costs. Every service call you take may be subsidizing the customer.
Mobilization Time Eaten
An hour across the valley for a no-cool call absorbed as dead overhead. Never billed, never discussed.
Diagnostic Time Given Away Free
Forty minutes pulling the unit apart to find a failed capacitor, a leak, or a bad control board. Quote written for the repair only. Diagnostic time doesn't show up on the invoice.
Materials Markup Not Calculated
Compressors, motors, controls, and refrigerant sold at supply-house cost plus a guess. Freight, pickup time, returns, and carrying cost all absorbed invisibly.
No Emergency Rate Premium
A 9pm refrigeration call from a restaurant gets the same rate as a Tuesday morning residential service. That is not a pricing decision, it is a habit.
Overhead Not Built Into Quotes
Truck payment, tool financing, recovery gear, insurance, gas permits, software subscriptions — none of it formally calculated and included in the quote structure.
Billable Hours Overestimated
Pricing assumes 8 billable hours a day. Reality for a BC sole-operator HVAC tech is 4.5 to 5.5 after travel, supply-house runs, permit pulling, and quoting.
Scope Creep With No Change Order Habit
Open the unit to replace a capacitor, find a corroded contactor and a failing motor on the way out. Replace them. Never written up, never billed. Twice a week, all year.
Commercial And Property Manager Accounts Paying In 60 To 90 Days
Materials fronted on the credit card in week one. Invoice paid in week ten. On new construction mechanical work, the 10% Builders Lien holdback sits another forty-five days. Interest is a cost of doing business that was never priced in.
No Deposit on Large Jobs
Mobilize for a $14,000 heat pump install with no money up front. Equipment delivered to the site on your credit. Customer goes quiet at invoice. No leverage left.
Disputed Hours, No Defense
Customer questions five hours on a service call. No signed daily time record, no documented authorization. The dispute wins by default.
GST Sitting in the Operating Account
Tax season bill wipes out the balance that looked healthy all year. The 5% was never separated and now it's already spent.
Builders Lien Act Never Used
Completed work, supplied equipment, invoice still unpaid on a new construction or major reno install. You had forty-five days from substantial completion to file a lien. Nobody ever told you.
Draw Is Whatever Is Left
CRA, suppliers, and fuel cards get paid first. The owner's pay is whatever survived. That is not a business model.
One Or Two Accounts Carry Everything
Lose one property manager, one restaurant group, or one general contractor and 60% of revenue disappears. The risk is known. The fix has never been built.
Refrigerant Cost Not Tracked Or Marked Up
Refrigerant prices have climbed every year. Charges per ounce on the invoice have not. Recovery time, cylinder deposits, and waste are absorbed.
Service Contracts Underpriced
Annual PM agreements priced years ago at a number that does not reflect today's truck, insurance, or refrigerant costs. Renewals roll forward at the same price out of habit.
Equipment Swap Quotes With No Buffer
A $12,000 furnace or heat pump install quoted as a flat rate. Half a day of unexpected duct rework absorbed because the change order conversation never happens.
​Start with a free call. Choose the program that fits. Move at the pace your operation can handle.
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Step 1: Book a Free Discovery Call
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A 30-minute call. Bring the problems, not a list of questions. We figure out what's actually hurting your operation and which program is the right place to start.
No cost. No pitch. If we're not a fit, you'll know on the call.
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Step 2: Start With the Right Foundation
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Where you begin depends on where your business actually sits.
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The Tradesman Blueprint
is the foundation for new operations. 60 days. We build your real break-even rate from your actual costs, rebuild your quote structure so mobilization, diagnostic time, parts markup, and overhead are priced into every job, and set your deposit policy, account terms, collection protocol, and GST discipline. By the end, the operation runs on systems instead of gut feel. ​
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Journeyman Pathway
is the flagship for established operators, whether your financial fundamentals are broken or your base systems are solid and you're trying to scale without creating problems you don't have time to fix. Every membership opens with the Recalibrated diagnostic. We put your real numbers on the table and fix what's broken before building anything on top. If your foundation is already solid, you confirm it fast and move on. From there you work the tracks that matter most: Advanced Sales, Expanded Marketing, Operations & Structure, People & Growth, and Business Protection & Sustainability. Month to month, at the pace you choose.
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MasterKraft Consulting
is for operators whose situation doesn't fit a fixed program: multi-trade operations, partnership or family structures, business transitions, or specialty regulatory work. Hourly or retainer, scoped on the call. Quote-based pricing.
The discovery call confirms which one fits, and how fast you should move.
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