Martin Hoover's entrepreneurial spirit sparked back when he was a young boy watching his grandfather run his floorcovering business.
"Some of my earliest memories were of watching the day-to-day life of a small business," he recalls. "I had no doubt growing up that I would someday own my own business."
It was his love of HVAC that provided the means to his goal. A stint working at a local gas station in high school allowed him to take automotive air-conditioning classes — which led to a job with Moncrief Heating and Air in Atlanta, where he started as a telemarketer.
"I reviewed the many old paper files for customers who had not had service in a while, and called them to solicit service and leads," Hoover explains. "At the time, I didn't realize how valuable that would be when the time came to open my own shop."
He met his wife Gila in 1984; a year later, the couple founded Empire Heating and Air Conditioning in Decatur, Ga., an Atlanta suburb.
"We had little money and no customers; we worked the phone every evening to hustle up some work for the next day," Martin Hoover says. "When we got a call set up, we called neighbors to let them know we would be in the neighborhood and could take care of them while we were there. Along with hand-signed, direct-mail letters and many in-person events, we were able to get off the ground and self-fund our growth."
The Hoovers have amassed a core group of team members who consistently contribute to the company's profitability.
Today, Empire Heating and Air Conditioning employs a staff of 20, with 12 trucks for its HVAC service and install technicians in the residential and light commercial HVAC markets. The Hoovers have amassed a core group of team members who consistently contribute to the company's profitability: Pat Teti, Empire's production manager for the last 28 years and a top-notch installer; Chris Adolph, a dedicated salesman who has been with Empire for 16 years; Cindy Salonus, the office manager, who has been with the firm for 20 years; and Jorge Gonzalez, who has helped Empire "make huge leaps toward our goals" after only two years on the job.
"We have a great team of solid and conscientious people working with us in the office and field," Hoover notes. "We have always been about doing what's right and following the golden rule. And we have worked very hard to develop a good culture of being responsible for ourselves and our work."
Valuing values
Hoover notes that while Empire is "blessed with some great competition here in the Atlanta market," he and his team developed methods of conducting business and going to market while focusing on the company's primary goal of becoming a reliable partner to customers.
'We have a great team of solid and conscientious people working with us in the office and field," Hoover notes. "We have always been about doing what's right and following the golden rule.'
"We live by our core values," Hoover notes. "We still answer our phones with real people and work hard to pay attention to every little detail. We do special things, such as delivering cookies and personal letters of appreciation to customers. We take responsibility for our actions and always make things more than right when there is an issue. And we try to be good, responsible corporate citizens."
Hoover described Empire's core values:
• Embody honesty, character and integrity in all we do.
• Excel in the delivery of our services with a sense of urgency.
• Observe the golden rule by treating everyone with kindness and respect.
• Apply best practices as a minimum standard.
• Practice environmentally sustainable methods.
• Be responsible and active in our community.
• Take pride in our appearance.
• Commit to the Continual Improvement Process.
• Accept responsibility for the health, safety and property of our customers and ourselves.
• Reinforce that our "Safer Cleaner Better" tagline is a constant reminder of our core values.
"We're not a huge company," Hoover says. "We've never been about being big or turning volume just for numbers. We've been about slow and steady growth, being profitable, having a great place for our team members to work at and providing a great service to our customers. Pretty simple values."
Assess, adjust, overcome
Those values are helping the HVAC contractor survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company experienced a slowdown in work this spring and early summer as many customers were wary of having HVAC techs in their homes and businesses.
"It is a new and interesting world for the service business," Hoover notes. "Of course, we follow CDC recommendations. We developed a pandemic response protocol very early and we've edited it as time goes along."
Hoover is a big believer in training his techs as well as staff; the company regularly uses resources from NATE and ACCA, as well as manufacturer training.
That protocol entails frequent hand-washing, coughing into elbows, not touching their faces, physical distancing (more than 6 ft. apart), and staying home when ill. Each truck has a hand-washing station. Technicians use hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, disposable coveralls and boot covers when at a customer's home or business. Empire went paperless many years ago, so techs use iPads in the field to digitally record all aspects of a job.
Martin Hoover recently received ACCA's Distinguished Service Award. He was selected for this honor due to his high-energy and enthusiasm to help ACCA and its members be better businesspeople by becoming more active in the industry.
Hoover says the company is "slightly off" its year-to-date numbers, but business has been picking up as the summer continues. "2019 was the best year in our history; I anticipate this year to come in very close to those figures," he adds. "There are many unknowns, and we assess, adjust and overcome as needed."
By necessity, training at Empire is a virtual experience in the age of COVID-19, as are the company's service and install meetings. Hoover is a big believer in training his techs as well as staff; the company regularly uses resources from North American Technician Excellence (NATE) and Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA), as well as manufacturer training.
Other recognitions and achievements include:
- Recipient of the Angie’s List Super Service Award for 15 Consecutive Years, Consistently One of the Highest Rated Companies
- A+ Better Business Bureau Rating
- NATE (North American Training Excellence) Certified Quality Circle Contractor
- NCI (National Comfort Institute) Contractor, HVAC System Diagnostic, Design Balancing Certified
- DET (Duct & Envelope Tightness) Certified Contractor
In light of the novel coronavirus that is still causing havoc across the globe, Empire has "greatly enhanced" the use of indoor air quality products and educates its customers on the benefits. The company also has promoted variable-speed technology on jobs where it is warranted.
Recently, Hoover was honored with ACCA's Distinguished Service Award. He was selected for this honor due to his high-energy and enthusiasm to help ACCA and its members be better businesspeople by becoming more active in the industry. Hoover served on the ACCA board of directors for three years and currently serves as the chair of the Membership Committee and the ACCA-PAC.
"I have learned a lot of how participating in advocacy and government relations can leave a huge impact on our everyday lives," Hoover notes. "And having a resource of contractors all around the country is important so we can all work toward a common goal."
Kelly Faloon is a contributing writer to Contracting Business magazine. The former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, she has more than 20 years' experience in the plumbing and heating industry and B2B publishing. A native of Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a journalism graduate of Michigan State University.