TradesHVAC Technicians

You Keep Everyone Cool. Who Is Running the Business?Training, and Greg Allan, for air conditioning owners sick of the summer scramble and the winter silence.

This is the business side of running an air conditioning and refrigeration company. It is written for the owner who holds the trading authorisation, quotes the jobs, chases the money, and still installs when a tech calls in sick.

Join the waitlist Get the free app

A painted scene of an air conditioning technician kneeling at an outdoor condenser unit against a brick wall, gauges and vacuum pump beside him

The week this is about

Running An Air Conditioning Business Looks Like This.

The summer scramble, then the winter silence

December hits and every line runs hot. You are quoting installs at 9pm, sending techs to breakdown callouts in a heatwave, and turning work away. Then May arrives, the diary empties, and you pay winter wages out of summer's cash.

Quoting against a bloke with a ute and a mate

Someone quotes a supply and install split at a price you cannot buy the head unit for. You know their labour is unpriced and their warranty is a mobile number. The customer does not. So you shave your margin again to stay in the running.

The compliance stack sits on you alone

The trading authorisation, every tech's handling licence, the state contractor licence, refrigerant records, and now flammable refrigerant rules changing what you can install. None of it wins a job. All of it lands on your desk after the last call.

Another year of trading your best summer for a survivable winter, while the business stays worth nothing the moment you step out of the van.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Nine Ways We Help HVAC Technicians.

Every one of these is a way air conditioning business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

HVAC Business Training

Structured training that turns what hvac technicians know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

HVAC Business Coach

Greg Allan in your corner, holding hvac technicians to the plan. By application.

Systems

HVAC Business Systems

Systems hvac technicians build on their own data, so the work runs properly without them standing there.

Software

HVAC Business Software

Software hvac technicians build on their own data, instead of renting tools built for every trade at once.

Business apps

HVAC Business Apps

The simple screens hvac technicians build for their crew and customers, on their own data.

AI for HVAC Businesses

AI agents that do the office work for hvac technicians, their way, so people stay on customers and the crew.

Marketing and leads

HVAC Business Marketing

How hvac technicians get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

HVAC Business Pricing

The number hvac technicians should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

HVAC Business Hiring

How hvac technicians build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every HVAC Technician Running A Business Should Know.

Award coverage for air conditioning tradespersons and refrigeration mechanics is confusing enough that the regulator publishes a dedicated advice article on which award applies.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, library article K600597

From 1 July 2025 Australia banned imports of high global warming potential multi-head split systems, one step in an HFC phase-down that runs to 2036.

Source: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

Read how Greg built a trade business that runs without him

What changes for you

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

HVAC Technicians Ask Us These.

Do I need a refrigerant trading authorisation as well as a handling licence?

Yes, if the business buys, sells, stores or uses refrigerant. The handling licence covers the individual technician, the trading authorisation covers the business, and the Australian Refrigeration Council requires that permit number on your advertising, quotes and invoices. The Academy does not issue licences. We train you to cost them properly, diarise every renewal, and stop compliance eating your Sundays.

Which modern award covers my air conditioning technicians?

It depends on what your business actually does. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that air conditioning and refrigeration work can sit under the Electrical, the Manufacturing or the Building and Construction award, and the Building and Construction award carries its own air conditioning and refrigeration industry allowance. Get the classification right first. Our hiring training then shows you how to build that cost into your rate.

How do I stop the cash flow falling off a cliff every winter?

You stop selling only installs. Preventative maintenance agreements, commercial plant servicing and asset replacement planning move money into the quiet months and give you a base to hire against. The Academy's training and Greg walk you through what an agreement should include, how to price it for an Australian cost base, and how to sell it at the end of an install.

Do New Zealand air conditioning businesses need an ARCtick licence?

No. There is no ARCtick scheme in New Zealand. Filling work is handled through WorkSafe New Zealand Approved Filler compliance certification, with voluntary industry certification sitting alongside the Australian and New Zealand refrigerant handling code of practice. The compliance layer differs, the business problems do not, and the Academy works with owners in both countries.

Straight answers

Answers for HVAC Technicians.

A new question from air conditioning business owners, answered every day.

How do I find the best HVAC business coach for my air conditioning company?How do I choose a good business coach for my HVAC business?

Every answer for HVAC technicians

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

Join the Waitlist to Work With Greg.