I was in a networking group with an HVAC guy. Now this guy literally ran his business out of his truck and he was a one man shop.

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that the business had a transitory feel to it, I was reluctant to pitch his services to any clients. I once had him look at a furnace of mine and it took him no time to resolve the issue. I thought he comped it since I didn’t get a bill. Ten months later I got the invoice…

To make things stranger, he would talk about all of the large projects that he could do. The one that stuck with me was a heated driveway. Now I thought this was a bit odd to begin with from an HVAC guy. But he was looking for clients to hire him to remove their existing driveway so heating elements could then be installed and then a new driveway would be installed over the heating elements. No more need for shoveling the driveway in winter. An interesting concept, but not one I was willing to talk to clients about.

Also, I never really did get a satisfactory answer as to how a lone guy in an old truck was going to be able to perform this task. Let alone make good on any long term warranty on the work.

Now I have quite a few clients who work for themselves and work from home. This is not a bad thing. But for some businesses the illusion of being more stable has an impact. Even a simple website will help add to the illusion.

But if you are interested in doing big jobs you cannot appear to be transitory. People need to believe that you will still be in business if they need some assistance or want to take advantage of any warranties.

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