Work ON the business not IN the business

Introduction- 

Tim Palange is the CEO and founder of Pro Elite Electrical Service LLC which is located in Cary, North Carolina. He’s used his skills to develop a successful electrical contracting business and is always looking for ways to continue to grow and expand.

Tell me a little bit about yourself-

Tim explains that he is a life-long electrician and did not take the original college route. He began working on his career straight out of high school. He went to school in Massachusetts. He says that he began getting tired of other people’s dreams coming true, and decided to take the steps necessary to make his dreams come true instead. He currently has a very successful electrical contracting business!

Can you tell us why you decided to take the untraditional route?

Tim says that he always found himself analyzing how certain appliances worked, and for what reason. When he reached the 8th grade, he had the option to either go to a traditional high school or go to a high school that offered the opportunity to work on his trade while doing school work simultaneously. The thought of working on his career during high school enticed him because when the time came to graduate, he’d already have the skills necessary to excel in his career. 

How many people do you have working at your company currently?

Tim says that he has a total of three crews that work for his company and carry out the day-to-day operations. He also has office personnel to keep his business organized. He’s working hard to get himself off of the field so he can spend more time working on his business and begin to scale it to its full potential. 

What do you think you’d be doing to work on the business if you were working less on the field?

Tim’s biggest goal is to expand his business. He would like to find more employees to help run the day-to-day operations for him so he can focus more on scaling his company as a whole. He says that he has a good client base right now, but is very interested in migrating his business into different states and becoming a franchise. He’d like to get this company to the point where he’s also able to help other people to succeed. He admits that he enjoys working in the field and being involved with his team, but would like to take a step back to continue growing.

How do you go about getting leads?

He says that his marketing strategy consists of multiple different tactics. Tim explains that “Next Door” is an excellent way to advertise and market his business. Around 70% of his leads and customers come from this app alone! On average, he gets about 6 phone calls or leads per day from this strategy. Tim’s company has done some digital marketing but mostly relies on Next Door to build clientele. He minimizes marketing costs by performing daily marketing duties himself. 

What do you wish you would’ve known about running a business before you started

Tim expresses that this is a tough question to answer because before owning his own company, he was the manager for quite a few larger electrical companies. Through this, he had the ability to learn the ins and outs of the business. However, he says if he didn’t have this experience, he would focus on learning to better manage employees based on their personality and work style. He believes this is key to running a successful business.

What’s your best piece of advice to someone looking to get into the electrical business?

Tim expresses again that understanding your employees, and managing them based on their individual communication styles and personalities is the best way to propel your business to success! 

Thanks for watching! Stay tuned for the next episode of the Business Hammer Podcast!