Exploring Life & Business with Jim Forquer of Forquer Heating and Air Conditioning

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Forquer.

Hi Jim, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 

I grew up around the HVAC field my whole life. I grew up in the North Hill neighborhood in Akron. My dad worked as a technician for a local HVAC company, and my mom raised me and my two younger sisters. We lived paycheck to paycheck for the first 10 years of my life. With that said, as a child, I never really knew just how meagerly we lived. I loved our neighborhood in North Hill. Most neighbors got along great, and I have memories of Friday night barbecues with all the kids playing in our backyard. They were years I would not change for anything.

Somewhere along the way, I think my parents wanted more for me and my sisters. I remember my mom coming to us kids one day and asking us, “If we had to give up cable or air conditioning (which was ironic since my dad was an HVAC technician), which one would you want.” Of course, us being kids voted to get rid of the air conditioning! I remember it being shortly after this; my dad and mom made quite possibly the biggest decision of their life. My dad was going to quit his very stable job, start teaching at a local trade school, taking a pay cut that we could not afford, and start his own business. It wasn’t until years later did my sisters and I know just how stressful and the level of risk this move was for us (I don’t think we will ever understand or comprehend my parents’ emotions at that time).

My dad had to turn in his work truck when he quit, and he purchased our neighbors 2 door Chevy Cavalier. He threw his hand tools in the back seat and trunk and also used this vehicle to commute to the school where he taught. He put an ad in the Akron Beacon Journal. This is how he started Forquer Heating and Air Conditioning; we joke about how those first customers must have felt when my dad pulled up in a two-door Chevy to fix their furnace…probably instant regret…but then they received the best service from my dad (and mom in the office answering the phones on our landline) and became lifelong customers (we still service relatives of those first customers in 1996).

Because of my parents’ hard work, it actually wasn’t long before Forquer Heating took off. My dad had to quit his teaching job because he couldn’t keep up with the service calls. He was able to upgrade to quite possibly the ugliest, very used, grey cargo van you would ever see. He got magnets put on the van with our company name on it. The printers of the magnets spelled commercial wrong (they spelled it commerical), and it took about a year for anyone to realize it, which was our neighbor who came over to tell him! This was all around late 1997.

In 1998, he hired his first technician, purchased two gently used vans, and had them professionally decaled. In 1999, we moved out of our 800-square-foot home in North Hill to Green, Ohio. I was just entering the 8th grade when we moved. I was not happy about this move at first. I loved our neighborhood, and Green seemed like a whole other state away! Luckily, they let me finish out 8th grade at the school I went to my whole life before going to Green High School.

For the next 10 years, our family business seemed to coast. My mom and dad kept it at the two of them, with another technician here or there, and continued to subcontract new equipment installs; my sisters and I all graduated from Green. I went on to explore my passion for video journalism, moving out to California to work behind the scenes for a small motion picture company, and my sisters went to liberal arts colleges in Ohio. My parents accomplished their dreams and goals, which were to provide a more comfortable life for all of us while making sure my sisters and I had opportunities they never did.

After working and, quite frankly, partying in Los Angeles for two years, I was finally starting to grow up. I was also homesick as my family was so close. I moved back home and enrolled in business at The University of Akron. I was always the shift manager or lead trainer in all my part-time jobs, so with the guidance of my family, they helped me decide I should go into business leadership. A year into Akron, I decided to narrow down into accounting. I wanted something totally opposite of video journalism in terms of marketability and being able to start a career right away. By my last year at Akron, I knew I did not want to solely do accounting. I had gotten a great internship my senior year and was working hard to get a permanent position there…I didn’t love what I was doing, but it was a great company that treated me really well, and the money was going to be good.

Somewhere at this point is where, for the first time in my life (and my dad’s) that we started to explore the possibility of me coming into the family business. My dad always felt you had to be a technician to own an HVAC business. At the time, I pretty much figured that too. As much as I grew up around all of this, I lacked any kind of technical ability…almost shocking that I didn’t get any of my dad’s talents in this field!

I graduated from Akron in August of 2011 and started right away in the family business. The week prior to me starting, my dad had to fire his only technician. On day 1, it was me, my mom and dad, and a great subcontractor for our new equipment installs.

Even though I had my college degree, I had so much to learn. Looking back to those early years it is sometimes unbelievable some of the decisions I made!

A lot has happened over the past 13 years. To help myself become a better leader, I knew I had to find resources to do that. In 2013, I was accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program. It was basically an accelerated business master’s program. From there, I was connected with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization in Cleveland. Our company was under 1 million at the time, so I was in their Accelerator program for four years, where they helped me scale the business. I graduated from the program in 2019 and then joined EO. I took over 1/2 the business in 2019 and then purchased the rest of the company from my parents in 2023. Today, my dad enjoys training our technicians by holding weekly classes on various topics. He will also perform ride-arounds with the technicians to ensure quality service. My mom, who is and always has been the rock of our family, enjoys and helps watch her 5 (going on 6) grandchildren. They both get to enjoy watching their business continue to thrive, and also my sisters’ careers, both leaders in their fields of nursing and social work.

I am truly blessed with the opportunity my parents provided for me years ago, and even further, because of the risk they were willing to take to provide a better life for me and my sisters.

We have been serving the Akron/Canton area for 28 years, and now, starting in 2024, we have expanded into the Cleveland market!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say it has been a bumpy road, but definitely a road of making mistakes and learning from them. When I started in 2011, I had no ownership experience. My dad, who had run this company for 15 years at this point, did a great job but was always way more focused on the service side, not the business side. I was fortunate enough to be wise enough to know I needed to learn and soak up as much information as I could, or this would not be successful. That is where the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and EO Accelerator came in, as well as help from mentors in those programs and through our supply houses, where we purchased equipment. One of my biggest struggles to this day is my lack of confidence in myself. I analyze everything I do, and a lot of times take too long to make a decision because I don’t believe in myself enough. It is something I work on constantly, and this year, by expanding into Cleveland, I am really pushing myself past all of that to boldly move forward and have confidence in myself and my team that this is going to be a very successful venture.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
We are a family-owned and family-operated business that has been operating since 1996. While a lot of local HVAC companies have been bought out by conglomerates or enterprises from around the country, we continue to still build off of our local roots. We specialize in residential and commercial HVAC service, install, and maintenance. We work on all forms of heat, which is rare for an HVAC company. A lot of companies will not work on radiant heat or oil heat because of the complexities of them. We are truly known for our customer service, and that is never going to change. We do not sell anything. We provide options to our customers, and they make the decision that is best for them. We stand behind our work and guarantee it. If it’s not operating as it should, we will remove it and replace it (and we have had to do that before…not often, but we are not perfect, and we won’t pretend to be either). This is what we truly want to be known for: an honest, hardworking, laid-back business. This starts from the internal culture, and we have that down solid. We look forward to our jobs. A team member won’t be a team member too long if they don’t professionally and personally live by our core values.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Christmas at my grandma’s. My mom came from a family of 9, so we would always pile into my grandmother’s 1600-square-foot ranch every Christmas with 25 cousins. The memories and laughter of us playing in my grandma’s basement all night, then begging our parents to let us have a sleepover (which they almost always let us) was the best. Even though I have great holidays now with my family, I still get a little melancholy every Christmas day, knowing those days are over, and it gets more and more difficult to stay in touch with all my cousins as the years go by.

Pricing:

• New Equipment Estimates – Free
• Service Club Membership – $14.95/month

Contact Info:

• Website: www.forquerheating.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forquerheatingandair/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forquerheating
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/forquer-heating-and-air-conditioning-inc-
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/@forquerair
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@forquerheatingandaircondit5254