How to grow a heating and air conditioning business

How to grow a heating and air conditioning business

All businesses need to grow if they want to expand and get more customers.

If you’ve ventured out into a career with heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), then you’ll soon be needing to expand.

To help your heating and air conditioning business to thrive, we’ve outlined all our tips on scaling and marketing below.

Growing your HVAC business

When it comes to growth, scaling your business appropriately is going to be a must. If you don’t scale as you grow, your quality of work will slip, and you might miss jobs.

Therefore, you should consider all of the following as you look to grow:

• Business streamlining – Make sure that all areas of your heating and air conditioning business are running smoothly with each other
• Financial stability – To grow an HVAC business properly, good finances are essential, such as a stable workflow and profit margin
• Quality consistency – Too much growth in a short time can sometimes affect work quality
• Team growth – Additional team members are going to be required, but make sure to do it right (such as a quick hire rather than a decent hire)

Marketing strategies to grow your HVAC business

If you’re looking at how to grow a heating and air conditioning business, chances are you’ll need to do some marketing.

Marketing can be done both:

• Online through digital channels
• Offline through more traditional methods such as print marketing

For the best results, you should consider doing a combination to help with your HVAC growth strategies.

Digitally marketing your business

All modern trade businesses need a good online marketing strategy, especially when you’re looking to grow your HVAC business rather than just exist.

This means factoring a marketing budget to include the following areas:

• Business website – Think of this as your online business card, so can include your details, services, photos and areas covered, and there are many ways how to build a small business website
• Social media – Marketing through social media is a great way for trades to attract more customers, even those working in the HVAC industry
• PPC – Not sure how to operate the “Promoted” ads in Google listings? You could speak to a local PPC expert about how it could help your business
• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation is designed to help your website to show higher in relevant Google searches, so people are more likely to find you online
• Online directories – Plenty of people still use directories as their main method of finding reputable tradespeople (i.e. why not speak to our team to learn more about signing up today?)

Traditional advertising for your HVAC business

As important as digital marketing is for growing your heating and air conditioning business, so too is traditional advertising.

Implemented right, any of the following methods below could bring in new customers for your HVAC company:

• Print media – Far from being obsolete, print media is an excellent way for trades to advertise themselves
• Company signage – Having visible company branding on your vehicle and work uniform will let people know who you are while you’re out working
• Event sponsorship – Sponsoring local events helps you get known in the local area, and can also put you in touch with other local businesses and tradespeople

Other marketing ideas

Remember, the more people you can reach, the more work you’ll get, leading to more revenue and hopefully more profit!

• Customer reviews – Good reviews are the hallmark of a good business, and help with your social proofing, so don’t forget to ask for them
• Networking – Talking with other local tradespeople is a great way to find more work, sending new customers your way through word of mouth or subcontracting
• GMB listings – Helping you appear in local searches online, registering on the Google My Business list is another way to raise your visibility

As with your business plan, there is a lot to consider with marketing. We suggest downloading our free marketing guide to learn more about it in detail.

How to make money as a heating and air conditioning business

Stay up to date with modern HVAC systems and tech

HVAC installers and maintenance technicians are always in high demand. If you stay up to date with the latest technology, you’ll be able to make an excellent wage as an HVAC engineer.

If you get qualified to install modern heating systems, such as air source and ground source heat pumps, you can unlock a wide range of potential new customers.

Upsell to existing customers

You can offer a range of services not only to new customers, but your existing customers.

This relies on helping people be aware of what you can do to improve their heating and air conditioning setups.

• Servicing heating systems – either annually or bi-annually
• Flushing radiators
• Leak detection
• Upgrading boilers
• Replacing pipes
• Commercial air conditioning installation

Keep connected with your customers so you can work with them again in the future

If you help a customer out with a new installation, ask them if you can keep their details on file. That way, you can add them to your CRM system and keep in touch with them through email marketing, giving regular reminders about how you could help.

Make sure that your customers understand the importance of regularly servicing their heating systems. If you can sign them up for an annual system check, it will benefit them and ensure that you have a regular customer scheduled for a yearly service.

You can even suggest that they may be eligible for government funding to upgrade their heating systems.

Contact your local authority about any grants in your local area

You can also consider contacting your local authority to see what grants are available for homeowners in your area. That way if there are grants that homeowners or landlords in your area can make the most of, then you can also tap into that if you qualify as a trusted installer on behalf of the local authority.

Expanding your HVAC services

When you want to take your HVAC business to the next level, you could look at diversifying your services.

Some things to consider include:

• Carrying out commercial heating installations and maintenance work
• Working on new build housing developments
• Offering your services to property developers and building companies

These methods of expanding your business involve building professional partnerships with other trade specialists. If you can secure an agreement with a property developer or commercial business owner, it can open up huge opportunities for your HVAC business.

Boost your heating and air conditioning business with Checkatrade

As mentioned above, one of the most effective ways to market and grow your HVAC business is by becoming a member of an online trade database.

Where better to start than by getting Checkatrade approved?

Becoming a member is a great way to grow your HVAC business and build customer trust.

With over 90,000 searches for air conditioning jobs in 2024 alone*, being part of the Checkatrade database is a great way to promote your brand and grow your HVAC business.

Other reasons to get involved are:

• A share of existing customer interest
• Optimised business profile to show off reviews and photos
• Exclusive offers and discounts
• Guaranteed work when booked through us (T&Cs apply)

Find out more about becoming a Checkatrade-approved trader! 

* Data sourced internally from users of the Checkatrade.com website in 2024