This page collects the questions heating company owners ask before they commission an annual growth plan. The answers are deliberately short. If a question here touches your situation, the linked pages go deeper, and you can always call, text or email to ask it directly.
Frequently asked questions
What does an annual growth plan cost?
The growth plan is quoted in writing after a first conversation, because its scope depends on your job lines, regions and records. If you want the marketing run for you, HVAC.Agency plans start at $2,998 per month, plus GST/HST for your province.
How long does it take to write?
The schedule is set in writing in your proposal. The biggest variable is how quickly your data arrives, so starting well before the busy season makes the process easier for everyone.
What information do you need from me?
Installs and service calls by month, your agreement member list, crew and technician headcount, average tickets, rough margins, and what you spent on marketing. Exports from your dispatch or accounting software are ideal, but estimates are a fine start.
Am I locked into a contract?
No lock-in. The terms of any engagement, including length and notice, are written into the proposal before you sign, so you know exactly what you are agreeing to.
We hired an agency before and it did not work. Why is this different?
Many agency relationships fail because marketing was bought before anyone knew what the crews could deliver or what a booked install could afford to cost. The plan answers those questions first. You can then hire any provider, or none, with a clear brief.
Who owns the plan, the website and the ad accounts?
You own the plan outright. If you also hire us to run marketing, ownership of the website, domain and ad accounts is written into your proposal; ask for it to be explicit, with any provider.
Can you promise the plan will work?
No one honest can. Weather, supply and the economy move every season. What we commit to is a plan with stated assumptions and checkpoint dates, so you see early whether it is on track and what to change.
How will I know if the plan is on track?
Each checkpoint compares installs booked, active agreement members and marketing cost per booked install with the plan. If a number misses by more than the tolerance written into the plan, the plan says what to do next.
Do you give advice on equipment, sizing or codes?
No. We are not an HVAC contractor, and our work is business and marketing consulting, not engineering, mechanical design, inspection or code-compliance services. Those decisions stay with your licensed staff.
Do you work with small heating companies?
Yes, as long as there is enough history to plan from, usually at least one full season. Very new companies need a launch plan before an annual plan.
Do you handle rebate applications for my customers?
No. The plan tracks which programs are open, closed or announced as of the planning date and how they may move demand. Applications, eligibility and paperwork stay between your company, your customer and the program administrator.
Can the plan help if I want to sell my company one day?
It can help you present a cleaner business, because buyers often ask about recurring agreement revenue and seasonal cash flow. For valuation or exit planning itself, the group works through Sedighi.ca and BizSell.ca, its business-sale and exit brand.
Do we need to meet in person?
Only if you want to. Consultations can be in person or by video call, as well as by phone, text and email, which is why we can plan for heating companies in every province and territory.
Questions about price and terms
Price and terms come up first, and they should. The growth plan itself is quoted in writing after a first conversation, because a single-line furnace shop and a multi-line company across two provinces need very different amounts of work. Ongoing marketing, if you want it, uses the published HVAC.Agency plans. Everything that affects what you pay, including the scope, schedule, term and notice, is written into your proposal. The pricing page explains what drives the quote and includes a worked comparison.
Questions about the work itself
Most owners want to know what they will actually receive and how much of their time it takes. The answer is one written plan with a summary page of monthly targets, seven chapters of reasoning behind it, and a calendar of checkpoint dates. Your time goes mostly into gathering records and one or two review calls where you correct what we misunderstood about your market. The annual growth plan page lists the sections and the steps in order.
A common follow-up is whether a small company is too small. If you have at least one full season of history, there is enough to plan from. If you are brand new, a launch plan comes first.
Questions about timing
Owners often ask when to start, and the honest answer is "earlier than feels necessary". The decisions that shape a heating season, such as hiring, training, supplier commitments and campaign dates, all have long lead times. A plan written in spring can still change who is on the trucks in October; a plan written in October can only change how the trucks are used.
That does not mean waiting a year if you are reading this in the middle of the rush, with the phones full and the trucks out. A short first conversation now, while the season's problems are visible, gives the plan better material. The fuller work can then happen in the quieter months, with your notes from this winter in hand. The seasonality and capacity chapter explains why the timing matters so much for heating in particular.
Questions about results and accountability
Owners who have been disappointed by an agency before ask the sharpest questions here, and rightly. We do not promise targets will be hit. We commit to stating every assumption, showing the arithmetic and setting checkpoint dates when you will see whether the plan is holding. That is a more useful kind of accountability than a promise, because it tells you what to change and when.
Named examples of heating work and what they show are on the results page, with a note on what each one does not prove.
Questions about scope and boundaries
We are not an HVAC contractor. We do not install, repair or service equipment, give technical or code advice, or handle rebate applications. The plan links to regulators and program administrators in each province so you can check requirements yourself; the province pages list them. We provide business and marketing consulting, and we keep that line clear.
A question we wish more owners asked
"What should I stop doing?" Most plans find at least one thing: a campaign that runs in months when the crews are full, agreement visits booked into the peak, or a channel nobody measures. Stopping it is often the quickest gain in the plan, and it costs nothing to do. The guide on writing an annual growth plan shows how to find these on your own.