Motorcycles And Milking Cows Lead To An Amazing Business
What do a former dairyman from East Texas and a guy from Waco who used to race motorcycles for a living have in common? billyGO.
Jeff Sims, former dairyman turned master plumber, and Adam Mennenga, who decided to give up the thrill of the motocross dirt tracks for a really cool career in air conditioning, now are owner/operators of the fastest-growing plumbing and HVAC company in the area.
Their separate paths merged in 2005, thanks to Billy Stevens. He mentored both and helped them develop the business and leadership skills that paved the way for their current success.
Jeff Sims
Jeff worked on a dairy farm and studied agriculture in high school in the 1990s and had dreams of having his own dairy business. When milk prices took a dive, he knew he needed to find a career with a better financial outlook to provide for his family.
The Sims moved to the DFW Metroplex. Jeff had a friend at a plumbing supply company who introduced him to a plumber looking for help. He became an apprentice plumber, working in new residential, commercial and industrial construction. By the end of the first year, he had become a licensed journeyman plumber.
When a colleague began working for a residential plumbing and HVAC service company, Jeff interviewed for an open position. He didn’t get the job offer after the first interview (he had to go back two more times), but he persisted because he saw something special in the way Billy Stevens ran his company.
Three years later, he was running the plumbing side of the business.
Adam Mennenga
About three years after Jeff joined the company, Adam Mennenga came aboard to learn the air conditioning business. He had met Stevens, also a competitive rider, at motocross races, where they developed a mutual respect and friendship.
Adam completed technical training at Lindsey-Cooper Refrigeration School in Irving, Texas, while he worked alongside veteran AC techs in Stevens’ company, getting hands-on experience.
The first year and a half he only installed new HVAC systems. Many central HVAC problems result directly from faulty installation, so that experience laid the foundation for the diagnostic and repair work he began 18 month later when he was promoted to service technician.
After five years as a service tech, Adam was promoted to manager of the company’s HVAC side of business. With the management team of Sims and Mennenga in place, the business prospered.
In fact, it did so well, Stevens eventually was made an offer he couldn’t refuse and sold the company to an investment firm.
As Stevens stepped away, Sims and Mennenga continued in their management roles. The business continued its impressive growth and was sold again, this time to an international concern. The company had evolved over time, but now Sims and Mennenga saw it becoming more profit-driven than customer focused.
There HAD To Be A Better Way
After a lot of discussion, Jeff and Adam decided the best way to operate a customer focused business the way that had been so successful for them earlier in their careers was to start a new company. There was one big difference: They knew they had to go high-tech to improve efficiency and slash operating costs. Lower overhead would allow them to get the pricing right and pass the savings on to customers.
When they started their careers, dispatchers used radios or phone networks and kept track of jobs with spreadsheets and manual status boards. Dispatchers had to track every appointment and service call.
When things got off schedule, they had to call each tech, customer, supplier or other person involved to adjust everyone’s schedules. BillyGO automates those time-killing processes with its serviceSHIFT operating software to keep costs down, saving customers additional money.
While Adam and Jeff were looking into automation, Stevens was having similar thoughts. Sims, Mennenga and Stevens put their heads together, and in 2018, they launched billyGO with software the three of them designed. They hired developers to make the software to their specifications. The serviceSHIFT software made such a huge difference in running billyGO that they decided to make it available to all contractors in the near future.
There IS A Better Way
The results have been spectacular. Today, after two years in business, billyGO has a customer base of more than 8,000 households and performs dozens of service calls each day, including weekends.
“Our message is that we are big enough to serve you, but small enough to know you,” Sims says.
Mennenga says the most pleasant surprise has been enthusiastic customer support of the way billyGO uses technology. Far from dehumanizing the business, it provides more time to pay personal attention to customers. The software automates routine or repetitive tasks, from scheduling to dispatching and parts management.
Sims gives a lot of credit to the techs and office staff for the company’s success.
“Too many businesses put making money ahead of serving customers,” Sims says. “We believe if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers, and happy customers are good for business.”
Challenges…
The fact that business growth has been rapid doesn’t mean it has been easy. No one had heard of billyGO when the company opened for business, so brand building was essential. Implementing one-hour appointments that can easily be scheduled online at billyGO.com was the message heard around the Southlake and Grapevine area.
In fact, billyGO attempts to stay within 15 miles of Southlake because being a locally owned company involved in the community is essential to the company’s business plan.
COVID-19 has been challenging for all businesses. Because of the understandable reluctance of people to let others into their homes during the pandemic, Sims and Mennenga have taken extraordinary steps to assure the safety of employees and customers. There are no group meetings. Techs wear masks and gloves and clean their tools before each service appointment and bring nothing into a customer’s home they don’t need to do their work.
… And Opportunities
Perhaps the biggest ongoing challenge is finding good talent. Vocational training for the trades has all but disappeared in recent years, and many high school students figure the only path to a satisfying career starts with a college degree.
“Many plumbing and HVAC technicians earn six-figure incomes,” Mennenga says. “I chose this field because I had a high school education and a family to support. I never dreamed when I began how good this would be.”
To provide the same opportunities for others, billyGO has established first class training for those looking to start a career in plumbing or HVAC.
Sims and Mennenga agree that anyone who has ever considered a career in HVAC or plumbing should take a closer look and not be afraid to give it a try.
“Every day is different, and you get to help people by solving their immediate problems, “Sims says. “That makes every day a good day.”
