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Most business owners don’t like to talk about their long-term financial goals. Then there’s Matt Murray, founder of Evolution Mechanical, a heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) company that deals exclusively with large commercial and industrial clients in Southern California.
Matt Murray hangs his company’s long-term financial goals on the wall for all to see!
Evolution Mechanical has 25 team members, including Matt’s wife, Heather, who is an account executive. Everyone knows precisely how much Matt expects Evolution Mechanical to progress financially during the next few years, because those numbers are spelled out on a sign in the lobby: $6.5 million in revenue this year, followed by $8 million in 2020 and $10 million in 2020.
“Our goal last year was $5.5 million, and we hit that,” said Matt Murray, who began working in the HVAC industry when he was 22 years old. “I believe that we can get to $50 million some day, although I can’t say exactly when. But I think everyone should know exactly what we’re trying to get done and what’s expected of them.
“I like to think of that sign as a scoreboard. Would you want to watch the Super Bowl if there was no scoreboard?”
Born in Los Alamitos in 1975, Matt grew up in nearby Cerritos and graduated from Cerritos High School in 1993. He holds no college degree and jokes that he graduated from the “school of hard knocks,” but says he’s learned things operating his own business that he probably never could have learned in a classroom.
One thing Matt has learned is the importance of values, purpose, attitude and responsibility. In fact, he has created a unique Evolution Performance Academy that has as big an emphasis on these things as it does on ensuring everyone has the technical skills to get their jobs done. This is how Matt ensures that Evolution Mechanical delivers the “Wow” service that is fueling their steady growth.
Currently, about 60 percent of Evolution Mechanical’s business is what Matt Murray calls “preventive maintenance,” meaning an inspection is done and potential problems are taken care of before they become real problems. The rest of the company’s business is replacing broken parts or entire heating, air conditioning, or refrigeration systems.
Most of Evolution Mechanical’s estimated 350 clients fall into one of three categories: healthcare/hospitality, commercial/retail and industrial/manufacturing.
During an interview at his Capital Avenue office, Murray discussed how he got into the HVAC industry, what having to close down a division taught him about running a business and why he’s one of the few entrepreneurs who can say, accurately, that his business is recession-proof.
Q: Why did you decide to call the business Evolution Mechanical?
A: “Evolution” means change. To be successful you must constantly be changing, growing, evolving and coming up with new ideas. This is what we do, and our name reflects that. We stay at the cutting edge of technological developments in our industry, and we are constantly working to improve ourselves, our business and our processes.
Q: Have you always been mechanically inclined?
A: Yes. My father was a mechanic in the supermarket industry. I remember being in the garage with him when I was just five or six years old and handing him wrenches while he worked. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to use the tools myself!
Q: Your first job was retrofitting and replacing air conditioning units. What was it that attracted you to that work?
A: I liked it because it was electrical and mechanical, and I was familiar with both of them. I enjoyed helping people and being part of a team. When you repair something mechanical and get it working again you make someone happy, and I liked that part of the job.
Q: Wasn’t it difficult to learn? HVAC technology appears to be complicated, especially if you’ve never dealt with it before.
A: Yes, it’s very complex, but I liked that part of the job, too. In fact, I could not get enough of it! I used to ask for the most complicated jobs because I enjoyed figuring them out. I’ve spent the night on rooftops because that’s how long it took to finish a job.
Q: Can you give an example of something you learned running the business that you don’t believe you could have learned in business school?
A: Yes, about a year ago I had to shut down our construction division. We realized we were not passionate about it, and it wasn’t making money, so we closed it. About 20 people lost their jobs. We had to let them go gradually. It was brutal. But it was a million dollar lesson that caused me to clear my head and realize that we needed to focus on what we are best at. Construction is so competitive, so cutthroat, that it will squeeze the life out of you. I didn’t want to kill myself just to make small profit. It was an incredibly expensive lesson that I don’t believe I could have gotten from business school.
Q: Is the HVAC/R industry immune from economic downturns?
A: Yes, it is. If you’re in the food business it doesn’t matter how the economy is doing, you still have to keep your food frozen. If you’re running a hospital you still need good air quality. We might even do a little better in a recession than we normally do, since people are more likely to embrace preventative maintenance as a way to avoid costly replacements. I don’t worry too much about a slowdown.
