Our mom and dad taught us everything they knew, which was a fair amount.
We worked for them for many years, starting when we were teens.
When mom and dad retired and went down south, they handed us their customer list. We were young, a little naive, however we knew as much as anybody inside of 200 miles. Our mom and dad had loyal customers because they had no competition, but they were still unregistered and off the books in terms of being a licensed enterprise. In other words, we worked for currency only, no credit, no paper trail, plus no taxes! The fact that we were now the only HVAC service expert in this area kept us busy, however we had to consistently keep quiet. We couldn’t advertise, you get it, because we weren’t collecting taxes or paying insurance for any of our HVAC work. But believe us, there was no shortage of work, mostly from heating and ventilation systems in barns and livestock pens than in homes. There were less calls for a/c work, and the jobs we did get were usually for the window mounted units! With Winter Times as harsh as we experienced, everyone needed a reliable heating program for themselves and their animals. The furnaces in a barn are entirely easy, however they need to be reliable and above all else safe, because if there is a fire then it will bring down the barn and all the animals. However, none of our customers mind that the HVAC work is off the books, in fact we know they want it to remain as is.