Playing It Cool

We tend to think that a college education is the only way to become successful but Louis Bruno, owner of Bruno Air Conditioning, proves that notion a myth. Bruno began his career in the HVAC industry in 2006 at age 17 after graduating high school in Fort Myers, Florida.

METEORIC SUCCESS

“I decided to start my own A/C business so in my off time in 2012, I began planning,” says Bruno. “The first thing I did was create an informal Board of Advisers comprised of successful retired/semi- retired businessmen that shared my values and that would want to be involved in helping a young guy be successful.” In December 2012, Bruno began his business and got engaged to Rachael whom he married the following August. The journey was well underway.
Bruno wrote his first business plan and presented it to his Board in 2013. The goal was to produce $400,000 in annual revenue. Three out of four Board members suggested the revenue goal was too aggressive and that he should reconsider. The fourth member noted that even if he hit half the goal, it would be a great first year. Starting his dream on his life savings of $40,000, the plan was for Bruno to work out of his house to keep the business as lean as possible.

“I believed I could do a better job in marketing than the existing HVAC businesses that seemed complacent,” notes Bruno. “I knew I couldn’t afford to hire experienced people so I hired the inexperienced and trained them the way I wanted our customer experience to be – and it worked.”

这是一个繁忙的year and by April 2013 he had reached his goal of $400,000 in revenue. 2013 ended with over $2 million in sales and 30 employees. It was a successful and exciting year as the newlywed had his first child on the way. The goal for 2014 was $5 million in revenue. Keeping with his plan, the business grew and the year ended with 90 employees and nearly $8 million in revenue. By 2015, the company was tracking $15 million in sales statewide with commercial service and grew to over 120 employees by the end of his first quarter.

SCALING FOR GROWTH

布鲁诺通过这一点补充说，他每天工作20小时，极其压力，虽然他有一个令人指责的企业，但他的生命也不感到高兴。“我正在投入res，有很多人的问题，它没有觉得对 - 所以我跟着我的本能。我开始向经验丰富的顾问提供帮助我理解我的问题所以我可以治疗根本原因，而不仅仅是症状，“布鲁诺解释道。他开始研究丰田的方式和精益六西格玛，帮助布鲁诺了解如何运行一个高效的公司。他开始媒体价值，实现他在18小时小时内花了27小时的工作时间。

“It was impossible and not scalable,” Bruno added. “Starting to understand timings and where our opportunities truly lay, I knew I needed to hire professional managers to help set up a solid infrastructure.” Bruno started recruiting talented and experienced ‘people’ managers. He hired a COO who had been an efficiency expert and had tremendous operations management skills. They set out to analyze what the company’s growth drivers were going to be for the future. The decision: people and technology. “We were in an “F” industry for technology and a “C” industry for customer service,” explains Bruno.

NEW OPERATING SYSTEM

2015年，该公司实施了“EOS” - 创业操作系统，第一个目标是分析成长到150多个组织的员工。“我们很快注意到我们在错误的座位上有很多人，许多人不值得在公共汽车上，“布鲁诺笔记。“我们缩小到90名员工并重新组合。”惊人的事情开始发生;员工较少完成相同数量的工作。布鲁诺表示，该公司仍未设置可扩展，他需要重建管理团队。成功的未来意味着他必须专注于核心价值观。

Bruno built his company on ‘vibrational’ frequency – energy reacting to energy. He put out the energy but wasn’t totally sure what Core Values meant. After studying and educating himself, Bruno now knows that his company’s Core Values are the moral guidelines and compass that guide his employees in decision making. He also says he now knows that he doesn’t have a say in every decision.

“What I learned in 2015 was eye opening,” says Bruno. “I obsessed over reading books by the most successful people in the world and their individual stories – they all talked about Core Values. Last year’s process of taking a good look at what I wanted my company to be helped me see, not only what building a business was, but truly understand what organizational development was all about. The process also showed me I have a ton left to learn.” Bruno challenges himself daily to his Core Value #3 – continuous improvement.

Bruno Air keeps growing as the company tracked as high as $24 million for 2015. The story has only begun for Louis Bruno and his team as they are sure to see much more growth. Bruno Air was just named top producer for TRANE in the Southern Region of the USA.