Petroleum Service Business

[DeletedUser86]

First let me start by giving thanks. Thank you to MJ for creating a place for higher-learning and thanks to contributors who give information freely. This progress thread is not my own business but a part of business I will be starting mostly from scratch (no inventory, no customers, but deep pockets and other avenues already established)

My story: I fell into this line of work at a job fair: they said they would train me and the job seemed interesting enough to keep my interest. I always take pride in my work and do my best and my supervisors quickly learned that I am a person they can throw a challenge at and it will get done. They threw certifications and training at me that were normally reserved for someone who was over 5 years in the business. I was well rounded when I left the company at the 2.5 year mark. The company under-paid because they justified that they paid for training, but this is a competitive business: not just for customers but also for experienced/certified technicians. I shopped around and found a company that was trying to do what I was doing. Set up an interview, learned that the manager had some prior experience in the industry, and had a good impression from everyone I met there. I knew that once they paid for tickets for the interview it was a done-deal on their end, as I know I will live up to my end. I agreed to their terms and am looking at a $6 raise and a chance to grow. The manager asked me if I would be interested in being a service manager, to which I told him that we will have to see how this thing goes once we get it off the ground. I report for work next week.

Here is where we currently stand: construction team and electrician team already established. The manager I interviewed with knows his shit (I can't stand working for dumb people in a technical job), but I will be the first technician on and will train others. He is currently looking for other technicians that already have experience, but like they say you have to fight with the Army you have, not the Army you wish you had.

What I need to do in the near future: train others (but they won't be certified), get a working inventory to fix common issues, figure out dispatch and invoicing, and once prepared get some customers (I have a plan for this). This business is the old chicken and the egg problem: we need techs to handle business load, but we need business to justify having techs. This will be an interesting problem to solve

 

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[DeletedUser86]

Preface
Much work needs to be done but I figured I'd start with a little background. First off, I found this job on a website forum that specializes in the business. On the forums there are people looking for work and people looking to hire. I found a 'help wanted' that was in an area I wanted to go, and responded to the post and emailed my resume. The post said the company he worked for was trying to do what I was already doing. Short phone interview, lifestyle survey through their HR, and two weeks later I was contacted by HR to schedule a flight for an interview. If their numbers were right I knew the move was a given. They were willing to spend the extra money just to fly me from my local city instead of spending half the money for a flight from Dallas or San Antonio. This would save me a 3-4 hour trip one way out of my own pocket, it was good faith and showed the company was willing to work with me, and I will surely return the favor. I don't like wasting people's money, so once they sent me tickets I knew it was a done deal.

Got the numbers before getting tickets and was pleased with the offer. I knew I would hold up my end of the deal as long as I like working with whom I'm dealing with, and they had to be serious about this business. At the same time I get to play business without having to pay for business (free education), and as I found out later there is room to grow. Later during the interview he asked me if I would be willing to be a manager.

'A chance to excel' means different things in the military and the free market.

Have value. As I printed out the tickets for the interview I received another email from a company out of California (I posted once in the "looking for people to hire") asking if I would work for them. They hit me up even though I never posted a resume publicly, just off the fact that I said I was interested in another job doing what we do. Demand. I replied to the email for the job offer as such: 'Thank you but I am having an interview with another company, if it doesn't pan out I will keep your info.' The man on the other end said thanks for the reply and I wish you success and if it doesn't work out let us know. Have options.

 

[DeletedUser86]

The Interview

After dealing with the cattle treatment at the airport I finally landed. Set up a time for the interview and showed up the next day. I walked in to a nice building and was greeted by a young beautiful receptionist. I told her I was here for an interview and she called on the division manager. We sat down in the conference room and he gave me his 30 year experience highlights. I gave him my background and he asked if I would be willing to be service manager. I told him I am open to the idea but for right now we don't even have parts or business. He took me to a site the company was working on. Showed me a trailer of equipment recently bought to bring the construction team up to par, no expenses sparred. A good sign I thought, as I could gauge how serious they were about this venture. Went back to the office and went for the physical. No problems there and I asked how soon can I start. Immediately he said. I told him I would report the following week. Thus far I was the only technician hired on, and I was introduced to another guy that was with the company but doesn't currently do service work. I will train him but we will need more. Everyone I met there so far seemed cool and I didn't get that "you're the new guy" vibe, I came in as someone with specialty knowledge

First Week

I loaded my car with all the tools I had, pretty much everything needed to do the service work, and most of my clothes. Reported in and they gave me a company vehicle but it is not ideal for what we do. I can make it work for now but I will convince them later to get the right gear for the job. Couple days spent on training, and my immediate supervisor is divided on a construction project so I don't have his full attention. Ordered $20k in basic parts, but will need to order more specialty equipment. They offered me a home depot card, but I told them the kind of stuff we work on you can't find at home depot. Will need to created accounts with certain vendors once we get the ball rolling. Will also need to order certain equipment so that the company can provide basic services. We currently don't have inventory, don't have enough techs, don't have a solid parts guy, don't have dispatch, and have an untested idea of how to do invoices. In short we need to get the back-end in line so I can start pushing sales. I was disappointed at the lack of urgency I experienced so far. One team member was to create a simple form so I could push sales. By the end of the week I had some downtime so I created most of this form myself. I went to her office to show her and she wasn't there multiple times. When I finally caught her I found out later that they were going to have her do dispatch. I about lost my shit. If I am going to put my energy into this I need a team that is responsive. Customers don't have patience for bureaucracy-I am not worried about getting business I'm worried about keeping business. I'm sure she has a lot on her plate, we still need people that are dedicated to perform a function.

The other thing I told them was that we need company shirts. Currently what I see is construction wearing "come as you are" attire. They throw a safety vest on and call it a day. While that works for construction, if we are to do service and interact with customers it is best we look like professionals and not wearing 'affliction' t-shirts. This is a word-of-mouth business, so reputation is everything. Look professional, solve problems and timely service

 

[DeletedUser86]

First Customer

First customer came to us because he saw what we were working on and noted the company vehicle. His electrician said there was a wire short inside the conduit at his location which would require breaking concrete. We coordinated equipment, broke concrete, reran wire, hooked everything back up, and poured new concrete. Then we find out his equipment is still having issues. I find out that this has been an ongoing issue for months and his local guy has replaced many parts and worked on this thing for several weeks.

The customer is located 2.5 hours away from our shop, and many trips were needed-it could have been planned better. Finally I stay overnight there, work late, run through troubleshooting procedures and by lunch the next day I have it figured out and had parts ordered. I must have driven that trip at least 6 times, not counting construction crew and electrician trips. If we had better planning we should have just stayed a couple of days and got it knocked out. We will work our billing as to not charge all of the return trips, and hopefully get some repeat business with this customer and also word-of-mouth recommendation


Venders

We need tools, equipment, and parts. We have most of what we need in the tools and equipment department. The parts we need require different venders for different things. We have to decide which parts are worth keeping stock at the risk to having a customer wait for shipping and return trips. There is OEM and rebuilders. I met with a rebuilder of circuit boards in our state, got an idea of what he has in stock and placed a 5k order. Cool guy and quick responses, I look forward to working with him. I don't want to order too many specialty parts until I know what type of equipment our customer base is going to have. We had a supplier stop in and give us some training and also somewhat of a sales pitch. I got the impression that they were just middlemen with supplier connections. I asked if they carried stock of any parts and he said no. He offered to help me with an online account with a supplier and I asked him if I could just go direct. He seemed kind of disappointed but said I could. We shook hands and they gave us their business cards...

Business cards

Maybe this is me being easily impressed, but they had plastic business cards. We all commented on how nice the business cards were and one the reps said "they are but it kind of sucks you can't write on them." I said maybe that's a good thing. Paper business cards tend to fade in the wallet over time and these plastic ones really made an impression. I will look into it when I get to the point of pushing sales

 

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