Like many businessmen, Roger and Donald "Duck" Costner learned painful lessons during the Great Recession.
But unlike most, the brothers already have been able to use those lessons to grow their company at a time when others continue to shrink.
Brothers Air, Heat and Plumbing is not just growing, but is on pace to be bigger than ever by the end of the year. The company recently broke ground on a 9,000-square-foot addition to its Rock Hill headquarters and plans to fill 22 new jobs by midsummer.
The success is, in a way, a blessing that's emerged from the economic turmoil, the brothers say.
"It's been a lot of stress to get to this point," Roger Costner said. "When the economy was good, we were kind of coasting."
In the fall of 2008, just as the recession was taking hold, business dropped by 30 percent and the company laid off 13 employees. It was a time of collective soul-searching that led the brothers to examine every aspect of the business to strengthen customer service, become more efficient and find more ways to serve customers.
A survey of customers found that price wasn't as important as being prompt on service calls and finishing the work in just one visit. Greater emphasis was put on prompt arrival.
GPS systems were installed in all service vehicles to better keep track of technicians in the field. The company also stepped up technical training and added a "happy call" follow up after service calls to gauge customer satisfaction.
"What didn't we do? That's what we focus on," Donald Costner said.
Other changes included new uniforms to exude a more formal look and making sure vehicles maintain a clean appearance. In fact, each vehicle is now treated as its own business, with the company tracking inventory, travel time and other factors to keep one question on the workers' minds: Are you making money for the company?
"If we do what we need to do and do it right, we're going to capture more of the market," Roger Costner said. "If we're going to grow when the economy gets going, we need to have all this in place."
One growth area was the addition of plumbing to the company's line of service. That began about a year ago and has helped attract customers for the other aspects of the business, the brothers say.
"It's kind of snowballing," Roger Costner said.
In all, business this year is expected to be up 28 percent over 2009.
Roger, 51, and Donald, 46, both graduates of Rock Hill High School and York Technical College, started Costner Brothers Air Conditioning in 1985 and owned it for more than a decade before selling to Houston-based Encompass Services in 1997.
The brothers stayed on board to run the company - then called Costner Brothers/Encompass Residential Services - but realized after a few years that the corporate mentality wasn't for them. They left in 2001 to wait out a one-year non-compete clause and opened Brothers Air and Heat in May 2002.
Later that year, they bought the old company - and name - back after Encompass filed for bankruptcy amid a decline in business after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
The decline was felt in Rock Hill, and it took an intense advertising blitz to get the company back on track.
The right approach
The top-to-bottom approach the Costner brothers took to restore their business' strength is one that should be emulated by others looking to rebound from the recession, said Michele Abraham, director of the Small Business Development Center of South Carolina, which offers consulting and other services to small business owners.
"They did exactly the right thing," she said. "The tendency sometimes is for companies to stick their heads in the sand and hope it's going to get better. Sometimes people think that it can't last that long and if I can just hang in there and survive, I'll come out of it.
"A lot of people never imagined this recession was going to last this long and get as bad as it was."
While the recession has led more small business owners to look for ways to be prepared should the economy go south again, Abraham said, many feel overwhelmed at the thought of rethinking their business from top to bottom.
"It's kind of hard for them to figure out what do I do first," she said.
Having apparently weathered another economic storm, the Costner brothers' focus now is on expansion. The addition under construction at the Rock Hill headquarters will serve as warehouse and inventory space, and an expansion of the company's training room also is planned.
The initial growth also has the company hiring more plumbers, HVAC technicians and customer service workers. More hires are expected in the coming months.
Next spring, the brothers want to expand into Columbia, and the company's five-year plan calls for locations in other Charlotte-area cities. Despite the fact that 80 percent of their business comes from North Carolina, the Costner brothers have no plans to leave Rock Hill. They plan only to grow.
With 68 employees now, the 22 new positions would push the company's work force well past the 75 workers it enjoyed at its peak.
