Why 2019 was our toughest year yet.

How was our year?

This past year and the year previous (2018/2019) will likely go down as two of the hardest years of my life. Any business owner, especially a start up owner, will agree it is not an easy thing to do. On top of us trying to establish the business, my wife and I have also been extremely busy on the home front.

Our son Rhett was born in August of 2017, essentially the final push needed to make the leap to go off on my own. Copper Mechanical was started out of my pickup truck, a crew cab Dodge Ram; not ideal for 12’ lengths of pipe or the several trips to my plumbing suppliers as we didn’t have any room for stock. I quickly traded it in for the 2015 Ford Transit we still run to date.

Our next move was renting a 40×80 shop owned by a good friend of mine. We did some updating and poured a concrete slab turning it into usable space for us move forward with our company. I cannot stress enough how important keeping an organized truck and shop are to a successful completion of jobs. Even at my previous jobs prior to becoming owner I would spend weekends emptying and creating organizational systems in my company work vans. To me it is essential. 

Between being on site, quoting jobs and lining up more work as well as a new family at home, it didn’t leave much for organizing the truck and shop. I can easily count half a dozen nights where I worked through the night at the shop to get it ready. 

On top of that at home we decided to get a new vehicle for the family and with that came a new garage… The tiny Nissan Versa Hatchback Kylie had from back in University no longer cut it for a car seat and our two dogs, one who weighs almost 120 pounds. Our current garage built in the 1920’s wouldn’t fit anything larger than the Versa plus we have share driveway with our neighbour and this would allow more vehicle parking on our side. Another project on the go.

We made it through the year what I would say pretty successfully. We made relationships with a handful of renovation contractors some custom builders as well as several private build homeowners, all through word of mouth.

     2019 came with more new challenges. 

We hired our first employee. A green apprentice I would teach everything I know from day one. This was more of a challenge than I expected it to be. No longer did I just put my head down and work, I had to invest my time into showing him the ropes. I have had apprentices in the passed at both companies I worked for, and with great success. I speak with all of them to this day and they have all become exceptional plumbers. The difference this time was it was my own time I was investing into him. He put in an amazing year of work. With ups and downs and many late nights, he has progressed very well and it will be exciting to see how much more headway he will make in the new year. A worthwhile investment. With a second set of hands we were able to take on more work this year than the last and took on a few more contractors. 

This past year Kylie and I found out our second child would be arriving in early October so naturally knowing Kylie and myself, we decided it was a good idea to finish the basement at home for some more space. Another project on the go. (We seem to enjoy the chaos ;)) Early mornings and late nights continued, completing jobs in a timely manner keeping clients on schedule as well as our own schedule which meant late nights chipping away little by little at our garage and basement projects and most weekends whenever I had the time I could, though I struggled immensely as I missed them very much. I struggled enough through a work day without seeing them, let alone my time at home. The end of September brought a wonderful surprise. On the 24th our baby boy Maverick was born! Ten days early! What a beautiful day. This brought me yet another challenge. Maverick coming ten days early meant I still had ten days of work to do before I had a gap in the schedule to take time off to spend with my family and getting to know our newest addition and adjust to our new responsibilities. I spent that day with Kylie, Rhett and Maverick and the next morning it was back to work. I didn’t feel right about it. At the same time I had put so much effort into building this business and keeping my clients jobs on schedule and I couldn’t stop that now. I struggled through being away from my family and that carries on to this day.

Work days are very tough to get through compared to what they used to be, especially the late nights. I struggle to be away from my family and always will. My hopes are high for Copper Mechanical to continue to prosper, my hard work is paying off in the hopes to have a little more freedom in future years. 

Due to this busy schedule and many days when I was awake before my kids were and home after they fell asleep, it was important to me to spend the 2 weeks from Christmas to New Years with family. I have always thought this way and will always shut down the business over this period year after year. A rewarding break with family and a chance to recharge and think about the upcoming year. To make this happen, the early weeks of December were very busy. 

Everyone is wrapping up their final projects of the year resulting in several finishings overlapping. Eliminating two work weeks out of the month meant more long days jumping from job to job finishing projects so our clients could wrap up their jobs. This even consisted of two all nighters working through the night to keep projects on schedule and fit them all into ours! As our holiday comes to an end I am thankful for a good year of business, our wonderful growing family especially my wife and business partner and look ahead to being better in 2020!