People in the News

Second annual program recognizes the home service heroes, smooth operators, career builders, and community caretakers who demonstrate excellence in their industries

Jobber, the leading provider of home service operations management software, today announced the recipients of its $150,000 Jobber Grants program. Twenty-five entrepreneurs were selected from thousands of applications and rewarded with funds ranging from $2,500 to $15,000 USD to help grow and amplify the community impact of their home service businesses.

“Jobber Grants is the only program specifically designed to spotlight the hardworking and often overlooked entrepreneurs who make up the home services category,” said Sam Pillar, CEO & co-founder of Jobber. “We are thrilled to recognize these people and to support their ambitions to build something out of nothing. The contributions of these individuals, whether they’re new to home service or industry veterans, are helping to create stronger and more robust communities across North America, and it’s our honor to recognize that.”

Recipients from this year’s program fit into four categories: home service heroes who keep our homes safe and running; career builders who help hardworking people build meaningful careers; smooth operators who strive for high standards in every area of their businesses; and community caretakers who give back to the communities where they live and work. Individuals were selected based on written submissions, followed by interviews with a Jobber judging panel.

The top grant of $15,000 was given to Shane Fast, founder of Renew Painting located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The company, which provides an array of painting and staining services, focuses on giving a diverse group of employees including women, minorities, and individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds valuable experience in skilled work while providing fair living wages and profit-sharing. Shane also donates 10 percent of all profits to non-profit organizations in his community.

“I spent many years in the inner city near St. Louis where I saw a lot of poverty and watched people really struggle to overcome obstacles,” said Shane. “The experience molded me to love people more deeply, recognize the position they’re coming from, and inspired me to give back to my community as much as I can. Jobber created an opportunity for us to ramp up our plans to provide meaningful employment to more people and equip existing staff in various ways, an investment that will also relieve some of the stress and pressures that come with juggling family life with rapidly scaling a business. To be entrusted with this Jobber Grant leaves me with profound excitement and gratitude.”

Shaylyn and Timothy Bliss, new entrepreneurs and founders of Home Roots Lawn Care in San Marcos, Texas, received a $10,000 Jobber Grant. Home Roots Lawn Care was founded in the middle of the pandemic while Shaylyn was pregnant and Timothy was mowing lawns in between shifts as a firefighter, working roughly 150 hours per week. The business quickly grew large enough to provide full-time roles for both Shaylyn and Timothy who are using the grant to expand their team and purchase equipment. Home Roots Lawn Care recently donated a significant amount of resources and time toward cleaning up low-income properties as part of a city-wide event, which they plan to participate in annually. Shaylyn and Timothy intentionally purchase supplies and equipment from local small businesses and employ many individuals who struggled to find work during the pandemic.

“This Jobber Grant is such a big push forward for our business, and comes at a great time, too,” said Shaylyn. “We’re in the process of training several new hires, which will allow us to focus on more complicated jobs and big picture planning.”

“It’s important that our people have a positive onboarding experience and that we create a strong sense of community among our employees,” adds Timothy. “We want to instill the importance of giving back to the community with every new hire, and Jobber is helping us achieve this.”

When asked how the grant will impact their companies, Justin and Jolene at Double J Plumbing and Heating shared, “The impact this grant will have on our business is monumental. We are very calculated with our expenditures, relying only on credit when absolutely necessary, and only take growth steps once we have saved the investment required, or when our monthly budget has grown enough to allow for investment. We have been saving each month in hopes to be able to hire in the New Year, but this grant will give us the ability to make this move ahead of our busy 2022 fall season, which will give us an incredible benefit going into the new year, and a headstart on our other future business goals! We also recently had some very unexpected vehicle repairs, so this has allowed us to redirect some of our savings towards the necessary repairs required to keep Justin working.”

In addition, Brandon Arnold, BDA Comfort Heating & Cooling stated, “As an aspiring business owner, it is my pleasure to soon be able to offer customers a myriad of HVAC services from residential maintenance and troubleshooting to commercial rooftop unit replacements. Like with most bourgeoning business owners, I have quickly identified there are a number of administrative costs associated with legally establishing a business name and the various day-1 essential items required for a service-based business to be considered operational. The Jobbers Grant will be used towards the goal of managing those costs, which allows me to be one step closer to my dream.”

The full list of Jobber Grant recipients:

The Career Builders:

• Mohamed Bouryal & Krista Keithly, Tidy Vibe (Tacoma, WA)
• Shane Fast, Renew Painting (Spartanburg, SC)
• Jenny Joy, Ruby Red Cleaning (Orlando, FL)
• Michal Kenins & James May, Vista Tree Management Inc. (Toronto, ON)
• Chris Reid, Shoreline Plumbing (Tampa, FL)
• Jason & Joelene Sturm, Sturm Plumbing Inc. (Harrison City, PA)

The Community Caretakers:

• Andrew Kennedy & Dave Sera, Streamline Renewables (Gibsons, BC)
• Ashley Loveless, Organwize Professionals (Columbus, GA)
• Stefanie Menzie, Tree Wizard LLC (Norman, OK)
• Doug & Kristen Shoup, Shoup’s Cleaning (New Philadelphia, OH)
• Antonio Taylor, Pressure Family Exteriors LLC (Oklahoma City, OK)
• Garvin Thomas, Philtrin Holdings LLC (Philadelphia, PA)
• Alycia Wolosezky & Nicholas Twigg, Twigg Transformations (Victoria, BC)

The Home Service Heroes:

• Brandon Arnold, BDA Comfort Heating & Cooling (Houston, TX)
• Ashley & Matthew Grant, Mosquito Mom (Courtice, ON)
• Alex Neville-Verdugo, Lefty’s Handy Services (Springfield, MO)
• Justin & Jolene Shewchuk, Double J Plumbing & Heating (Okotoks, AB)
• Katharyn Snyder, Full Swing Land & Tree Care (Lake Clear, NY)

The Smooth Operators:

• Shaylyn & Timothy Bliss, Home Roots Lawn Care (San Marcos, TX)
• Nathan Fournier, HomeHarvest Central MA (Worcester, MA)
• Nick Kilburg, Fayette Ecological Restoration and Design (Fayetteville, GA)
• Callum Ng, Green Grads Window and Gutter Cleaning (Vancouver, BC)
• Ben Pennoyer, Ben’s Electric Solutions Team (Calgary, AB)
• Esteban Rodriguez, Esteban Land Design, Inc. (San Tan Valley, AZ)
• Ethan Rossler, Wash Wizards (West Palm Beach, FL)

Asked how the challenges of the past couple years (supply chain, pandemic, economy, and workforce) created an impetus for looking outside the box for opportunities like the Jobber Grant, From Jason & Joelene Sturm, Sturm Plumbing Inc., shared their thoughts.

“We never got the time off that a lot of other industries did through the pandemic. We were extremely busy throughout and yes, add in all the supply chain issues and everything else and it was a bit overwhelming! Once I realized everyone was dealing with this and there’s nothing I can do, I relaxed a lot.  We use jobber every day and applying for the  grant was an instant gut feeling when I received the email, I knew I had to apply and sent it to some others I knew could use the opportunity just starting out in business,” they said.

 

To learn more about this year’s Jobber Grants recipients visit: https://www.jobbergrants.com/.

PumpMan® Expands Southern California Coverage with Acquisition of Ransom Pump & Supply in Ramona, California

 

PumpMan®, a leader in the sales, service, maintenance, and repair of pumps, motor, and control systems in the United States, announces the acquisition of Ransom Pump & Supply based in Ramona, CA.  Ransom Pump & Supply will join PumpMan’s Baldwin Park-based PumpMan SoCal and PumpMan San Diego in serving, the commercial, industrial, municipal, agriculture and multi-unit residential pump systems in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial counties.

Ransom Pump & Supply designs, services, repairs, and installs complete residential and commercial well based freshwater systems.  These complete systems include pumps, motors, system controls, water storage and pressure boosters, and include generators or solar panels as back-up power supplies to ensure service reliability.

“Since 1924 Ransom Pump & Supply has been serving the agricultural, municipal, and residential markets throughout Ramona and San Diego County California. Our focus is to provide the highest quality of customer service, as well as the design of efficient productive pump and electrical systems” – Sommer Adams, General Manager Ransom Pump & Supply

“PumpMan’s goal is to expand our presence throughout Southern California with multiple locations and expanded service capabilities.  Ransom’s focus on well pumping systems is a nice complement to our Pumpman SoCal capabilities and provides the local community with access to groundwater water supplies as California continues to experience severe drought conditions.  We will be expanding Ransom’s staffing levels and capacity as market demand requires” said Donald Devine CEO of PumpMan, LLC.

Ransom Pump & Supply will continue operate with its full staff of pump technicians, field service mechanics, and administration personnel at the facility located at 533 B St, Ramona, CA 92065 24/7 Service is available 760-789-5955.

More information at:  www.ransompump.com, www.pumpman.com

Leading customer service training company positions itself for future growth with new leadership position

With a focus on continuing the growth of the business, Garside brings a wealth of experience to the executive position.

“Zac has been an asset to the company since he joined the team,” said Brigham Dickinson, Founder and President of Power Selling Pros. “Good home service companies are constantly busy, so they don’t have much time to focus on ways to improve company culture or the customer experience. Zac has been at the forefront of helping these companies learn how to grow their business with an enhanced company culture and a better customer experience since 2015.”

“Zac is now in a position of leadership at Power Selling Pros that will enable contractors and their teams to focus more on people and service skills using our trademarked Pattern for Excellence and the principles found therein. Zac is the perfect person to drive the direction of this company moving forward.”

Garside graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He joined Power Selling Pros in 2015 as a customer service coach and has held various positions since then including business developer, trainer, sales manager and head of marketing.

With a strong dedication to helping home service businesses grow through personalized coaching and group training, Garside is also the host of “This Call May Be Recorded.” The popular YouTube show is where Garside listens to recorded customer service phone calls and coaches them up live.

“At Power Selling Pros, we have been creating positive change for contractors for almost 15 years now – teaching them and their teams a proven set of customer service and communication skills utilized by literally thousands of growing companies in our industry.” Garside said. “I am grateful for the trust that Brigham has placed in me to take the lead of what Power Selling Pros has become from scratch under his stewardship and continue to grow it by building our people internally as well as the many companies we serve in this industry.”

“A long time ago, Brigham heard Zig Ziglar say that you can have anything you want in life as long as you help other people get what they want. In other words, personal and business success comes from the extent to which you serve others. Our intent is to help more contractors see that customers no longer compare you to your direct competition. They now compare you to everyone they buy from! The new standard for customer service is to create a ’WOW’ experience every single time, and we’re going to arm contractors everywhere with the confidence, self-reliance and service mindedness they need to create that kind of experience in every employee and client interaction.”

As CEO of Power Selling Pros, Garside is looking to evolve services by making the voices of their clients and partners the driving force behind the company.

“In my new executive role, I want to utilize all the tools at my disposal to grow the company,” Garside said. “I will ask for help and recognize the strength and expertise of the great people in our industry while owning my mistakes. Knowledge is power, and I will accept feedback from industry professionals that understand the goals of Power Selling Pros.”

For more information about Power Selling Pros, visit https://powersellingpros.com/.

A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE: AOS), a leader in water heating and water treatment, today announced the appointment of Noelle Brigham, P. E., Env. SP. as the Company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Director. Brigham will lead and drive all aspects of the ESG initiatives while developing a long-term strategy for the Company’s global commitments and strategy in this field.

Brigham is a licensed Professional Engineer and Envision Sustainability Professional with more than 20 years of experience in sustainability and environmental engineering in the consumer products and consulting industries. In her sustainability role at S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Brigham created global strategies and led international implementation plans for research, development and engineering for consumer product formulation and packaging. As an Instructor, Professor of Practice in the Opus College of Engineering at Marquette University, she developed a new sustainability management executive education program.

“Noelle’s extensive experience in the ESG space will prove invaluable as we continue A. O. Smith’s efforts to blend our business and sustainability goals,” said Chuck Lauber, A. O. Smith executive vice president and chief financial officer. “Underpinning our corporate values is a commitment to sustainability and we are proud to welcome Noelle to lead this critical initiative as her singular focus.”

Noelle is completing her PhD in environmental engineering at Marquette University. She received her master’s in environmental engineering and Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from Marquette University as well. She is a member of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam Development committee member, in addition to participating in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources air management study group.