Daryl Pater, owner of Clarksville-based Mainstream Heating and Cooling, says he was fortunate that he didn’t have to start his business from scratch, but had the opportunity to purchase it from a husband-and-wife team who had built the business over a decade.
“I’ve always wanted to be in my own business and spent more than 20 years working for large companies, learning how to be a business owner,” he says. “While I got great training in the corporate world on processes, accounting, and management skills, it didn’t exactly prepare me for the joys and pain of being a small business owner.”
Pater purchased the business in 2006 and faced his first rude awakening in 2008 with the recession, when the company went from full speed ahead to a 60 percent drop in demand over a 30-day time frame.
“It was definitely the lesson of a small business owner trying to rub two nickels together in the desert,” he says. “Since the recession, we’ve grown over 300 percent, and the one lesson that still sticks with me is the challenge of managing cash flow with growth. Our business model has been to offer fair pricing and make profits from volume.”
Pater says Tennessee is the fourth state he’s lived in, and he believes middle Tennessee is the perfect place to do business in the U.S. Mainstream Heating and Cooling’s location in Clarksville is near Fort Campbell, so Pater says they’ve benefited from a diverse environment, strong workforce, and military-trained work ethic.
“What I like about conducting business in Tennessee is properly managed fiscal activity, practiced by both state and local leaders,” he says. “Regulation is not overpowering, and all levels of government seem to be interested in keeping our business environment thriving through balancing the demands from business owners and employees.”
He is concerned about the ongoing healthcare discussion in Tennessee, however, and keeping costs reined in.
“This is a problem that requires more than Band-Aids,” he says. “After having spent over 20 years as a healthcare consultant, I’m confident that there is no single discussion that is actually addressing the problem. TennCare has been a huge boon to business in our state, especially the way it covers pregnant mothers and children. Changing the funding model for such a successful program means our tax base will need to pick up the slack or will go back in time. Being able to manage this previously financially volatile program has enabled our state government to focus their time and energy and fiscal policy elsewhere.”
For issues like this and others, Pater says NFIB has been a big help.
“I joined NFIB because I’m convinced that small business owners have little voice as compared to large companies,” he says. “To date, I have found the information shared from NFIB to be highly beneficial, and NFIB has given me an opportunity to get to know my local legislators much more informally. I recommend any business owner join, since there is strength in numbers.”
