Last year, I got laid off and decided to offer my services for money.
I am an air conditioning professional.
When I got laid, I set up a social media account and advertised my services to home and commercial property owners. I started with the people around me, gradually got referrals, and could sustain myself through that rough period. My first job was to repair my neighbor’s ductwork. He had woken to find a puddle of water near his HVAC system. At first, he thought the cat spilled water, but when the air quality reduced that week, he sought my help. He heard about me from a friend that I had advised on how often to schedule quality AC service. Sometimes there is a challenge working alone in this line of work because when you are confronted with a complex system or issue, you can get another opinion or idea from a colleague in the same profession. When I worked for the air conditioning company, I was paired with an experienced cooling expert, and we worked perfectly together on residential and commercial air conditioning systems. Several weeks ago, a customer called me and requested I have a look at his electric heat pump. After checking the AC setup and replacing the AC filter with quality HEPA filters, I still could not figure out the issue. I discovered that my ex-colleague was in the next city and would pass by to help me. The air conditioning technician from the next city was a good friend and colleague for four years. We discovered the problem was a rusted component that we replaced. We also fixed the digital thermostat.