20 Years in Family Business from the Kalos Founders

In this special live panel session recorded at the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium, the three founders of Kalos Services — Bryan Orr, his father Robert (Bob) Orr, and uncle Keith Huntington — sit down together to celebrate the company's 20th anniversary and answer questions from the audience and online attendees. Hosted by Bert, the conversation blends humor, hard-earned wisdom, and surprising candor about what it actually takes to build and sustain a trades business over two decades. From humble beginnings with $100,000 in startup capital to managing multi-million-dollar commercial contracts today, the founders pull back the curtain on the messy, unpredictable, and deeply human reality of entrepreneurship in the skilled trades.

A recurring theme throughout the panel is that starting a business requires far more than technical skill — it demands grit, personal support, and an almost stubborn refusal to outspend your income. Bryan shares a raw, memorable story about living in a double-wide trailer with seven kids while Kalos was already nine years old, choosing to improvise a drainage workaround rather than take on debt he couldn't afford. The founders agree that the number-one ingredient for small business survival is grit — the ability to wake up the next morning after a terrible day and take the next step anyway. Robert adds a philosophical note that extreme negative emotions in business are almost never accurate; they pass, and tomorrow tends to look better than the night before suggested it would.

One of the most discussed topics in the panel is how to motivate technicians to care about quality — not just revenue targets. Bryan makes a pointed distinction: if you build a compensation system optimized purely for money, you attract people who are only motivated by money. Instead, he advocates building a culture where belonging is tied to quality of work. Practical tools like daily photo-posting of installs in Google Chat, public shout-outs for great work, and peer commentary create an environment where craftspeople hold each other to a standard — not because they're forced to, but because it's who they are. Keith echoes this, emphasizing that most technician frustration stems not from laziness but from unclear systems and expectations set by leadership. When people don't know what's expected, they disengage — and that's a leadership problem, not a people problem.

The panel also dives into the nuances of running a family business, with all three founders offering surprisingly candid takes. Keith notes that the key to 20 relatively friction-free years has been that all three founders are "120 degrees different" from each other — their strengths don't overlap, so they rarely fight over territory. Bryan adds that healthy family businesses require the ability to have real conflict for the sake of mission, not just harmony. He also speaks to the importance of organizational structure when family members are involved: his own son Gavin, at 21 years old, works at Kalos but reports through multiple layers of management precisely so Bryan doesn't micromanage him. The session closes with reflections on the riskiest moments in the company's history — and Bryan's honest admission that four weeks prior to the symposium ranked among the most stressful, as large promised contracts delayed in paperwork can shake even an established business to its core.

Topics Covered

• Expanding HVAC services into electrical and plumbing — what technicians can realistically do and when to partner with specialists
• The real prerequisites for going out on your own: craft knowledge, personal support system, and financial discipline
• Why grit — not capital or credentials — is the single most important ingredient for small business survival
• How to attract technicians who genuinely care about quality, not just technicians who chase commissions
• Using internal tools like Google Chat to reinforce a culture of craftsmanship and peer accountability
• The danger of building systems that look great on paper but don't survive contact with real-world field conditions
• Advice on contractor mentoring programs — how to absorb outside coaching without losing your own identity and standards
• Lessons from running a family business: complementary roles, honest conflict, and the importance of organizational separation
• How Kalos Services grew from $100,000 in startup capital to a multi-trade general contractor over 20 years
• The role of visionary vs. operator personalities in a founding team, and why both are essential
• The founders' biggest career mistakes — including owning full responsibility for a six-figure grocery store power outage
• Why private equity growth models don't translate to owner-operated trades businesses
• Hiring to fill your weaknesses: from permitting to office management, delegating what you hate frees you to lead
• Recommended training resources: HVAC School, Ty Craig / Skill Cat, Ruth King, ESCO, and Dirk Nauman
• Why the riskiest stage of business is never behind you — it scales with the size of your contracts

 

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