Cody Novini -- one of American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning's 2021 winners of the annual "Building a Higher Standard" Award, has lots of experience in serving. First, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Later, a fellow Marine veteran introduced him to heating and air conditioning as a possible career path. He liked it, and the two friends worked about four years at an HVAC company, serving a variety of customers. He also learned as much as he could.
After those four years, he took some time off, to spend time with his family, and then, he started his own company, SoCal Airflow Pros, in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Thanks to Novini's methods, It didn't take long for good things to start happening.
“The business grew organically as I serviced systems for friends and an expanding referral network. And the business grew quickly because of the way I do things," Novini said.
“I grew the team, read many books, and learned from intelligent people. Now, at 29 employees I have my eye on greater growth in 2022. We have a nice office team here, rather than a couple of us trying to run things and handle the logistics," he shares.
In conversation, Novini gives off a vibe of someone who is methodical, careful and sensible about the quest for growth.
“We’ve learned so much. I feel that we’re able to do many real nice things without being greedy. Greed can be a problem in a company when you get big. I learned about not being greedy from my time as a professional blackjack player.”
In conversation, Cody Novini gives off a vibe of someone who is methodical, careful and sensible about the quest for growth.
Novini says the most challenging aspect of starting the business has been learning how best to work through the HVAC “slow season” in between late summer and fall. Because, even Southern California has a shoulder season.
"We’d make a lot of money during summer, but I didn’t know how to handle the slow season the right way. So, we’d spend all the money we made during summer trying to keep everybody alive for rest of the year. Because I didn’t want to build up for the summer, fire everyone, keep my money and then build up again in spring for the next summer. I don’t think that’s very ethical. So learning that side of things, seeing my team come to me saying, it’s tough to make rent or have financial struggles. Those things were the hardest.
"Two years ago we started to make plans, and understand a business path and how to afford to continue to give great service."
American Standard = Quality
Novini has been an American Standard dealer from Day 1, and he couldn't be happier with the brand's performance.
"As a service technician you want to help people improve what they have. But when you go to a client’s home and see they have an American Standard or Trane brand, there’s not much to improve. That was a big part of why I went with American Standard. And to this day, I always remember a client who had a system that was so badly installed, the static pressure was very high, which is the number one killer for an HVAC system. This system was scorched, but it was still operational."
Doing the Right Thing
Novini says the "Building a Higher Standard" Award signifies that he and his team are doing the right thing, and also that American Standard is about doing the right thing, "not just selling. I've been to other manufacturers' annual trade shows, and the messages were about how to sell [customers] again. Sell, sell, sell. Money, money, money.
"At American Standard’s trade show, the messages are, 'here’s how great our products are, here’s we’re going to make our products better. Here’s how we’re going to provide better service and maintain our reputation, and build the strongest, highest-performing equipment.' That’s the kind of group I want to be a part of, and that’s the path we take. Not being the common group, and doing the right thing is very rewarding."
Novini campaigned for a dual-fuel solution (heat pump and furnace combination) to address the Southern California Ultra Low NOx challenge.
The award, he said, is not about who sold the most heating and air conditioning in a year. "It’s about who had the best all-around good company, and much we were involved with helping the community, building a team, investing in training, building up what we can provide our clients, and also how involved we were with the government, the industry and different organizations, to bring the industry up as a whole."
Among owner Cody Novini’s efforts to support customers, he campaigned for a dual-fuel solution (heat pump and furnace combination) to address the Southern California Ultra Low NOx challenge after the Southern California Air Quality Management District banned typical gas furnaces. As a result, Novini’s efforts led to $1,500 heat pump rebates becoming available to assist homeowners.
'HVAC for Heroes'
In part because of his experience in the Marines, Novini started an organization call "HVAC for Heroes." which provides HVAC systems to combat-disabled veterans at no cost. They have also started to help families of law enforcement officers and firefighters, and internships for military veterans.
Cody Novini wants prospective technicians to understand, appreciate and respect the position, "so kids growing up can say they want to be a police officer, or fireman, or astronaut, or join the military, or get into the trades."
Novini explains: "When veterans are interested in getting into the trades, they can visit us and hang out with the team, learn how dispatch works, go into the field with installers, sese how we manage an HVAC team. They can learn about any aspect of the business to see what it’s like. We want them to have to opportunity to see if this is an industry they want to get into," he says.
Industry Image Enhancement
Novini has as another goal the enhancement of the image of heating and air conditioning as a career path. He believes the actions of some HVAC businesses have caused HVAC dealers to be regarded as stereotypical "used car salesmen." He wants prospective technicians to understand, appreciate and respect the position, "so kids growing up can say they want to be a police officer, or fireman, or astronaut, or join the military, or get into the trades. I want to build up the reputation of the HVAC industry, because there are so many good dealers, so many who want to do the right thing. I think I’ve made the first few steps."