THE PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS

A basic guide aimed at owners of plumbing and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning businesses.

In this conversational debut, DeRose shares numerous anecdotes from his three decades of experience in plumbing and HVAC, and it’s clear that he knows what it takes to start out as a journeyman and build a service business. He offers advice on a variety of topics, including how to be an effective leader, what it takes to provide excellent service, how to negotiate, and how to retain the right customers. Throughout, the author conveys information in a pleasantly chatty and informal style. However, some readers may find the abundance of storytelling a bit tedious, and the chapters seem to be organized rather haphazardly with little regard for overall flow. That said, DeRose begins with a chapter that solidly addresses whether one has the desire required to start and run a business effectively. A subsequent chapter on leadership offers counsel that novices will find particularly useful: “Any time you ask an employee to do something, you should be willing and/or able to do it yourself. That gives you the right to be the leader in that task.” Sometimes the book includes more specific, practical advice, as when it provides the “absolute necessities” for plying a plumbing/HVAC trade (including a truck, hand tools, and so on) and a list of 17 questions to ask oneself when creating a business plan. At other times, the author provides a healthy dose of philosophy; for example, when describing the challenges of running a business, he writes, “I have witnessed many owners decide that the world was against them or that they had the world by the tail and they were invincible. Both ideas are on opposite ends of the truth.” An especially helpful chapter concerns changing the course of a business and provides detailed, authoritative answers to 11 specific questions regarding how to add new capability to an HVAC service business. Overall, the heavy emphasis on HVAC and plumbing makes the work most relevant for that audience, but other businesses may benefit as well.

An earnest and often helpful, if unevenly organized, how-to guide.