20 Years in Family Business from the Kalos Founders

Key takeaways

Grit and perseverance are the most crucial ingredients for sustained small business success.
Building a culture of quality and belonging leads to motivated technicians who care about craftsmanship.
Family businesses thrive on clear roles, honest conflict, and respecting individual strengths.
Growth phases are the riskiest times; handling setbacks with resilience and faith is essential.
Effective delegation, building systems, and focusing on strengths are key strategies for scaling.
Private equity growth models do not translate well to owner-operated trades businesses.
Continuously learn, surround yourself with supportive yet challenging team members, and own your mistakes.

Summary

Celebrating 20 Years of Kalos Services and Family Business Insights

This section covers the reflection and celebration of Kalos Services' 20th anniversary. The founders—Bryan Orr, his father Robert ('Bob'), and uncle Keith Huntington—share their journey from humble beginnings with $100,000 startup capital to managing multi-million-dollar contracts. They discuss the importance of grit, perseverance, and personal support in entrepreneurship, emphasizing that building a trades business requires much more than technical skill. The panel highlights the human and unpredictable aspects of small business, with stories illustrating resilience during tough times, including Bryan’s experience living in a trailer with seven kids and improvising solutions rather than taking on debt.

Motivating Technicians and Cultivating Quality Culture

In this segment, the panel discusses how to motivate technicians beyond just meeting revenue targets. Bryan emphasizes that building a culture of belonging and pride in quality work creates better engagement than systems based solely on commissions. Practical tools like daily photo posting and peer comments reinforce standards and accountability. Keith adds that many frustrations stem from unclear expectations and poor systems, not laziness. The importance of cultivating a culture where people genuinely care about craftsmanship, supported by internal communication tools like Google Chat, is also stressed. This environment encourages technicians to hold each other accountable and strive for excellence.

Running a Family Business — Roles, Conflict, and Long-term Success

The panel offers candid insights into the dynamics of family-run businesses. Keith notes that their success derives from being '120 degrees different'—each founder’s strengths do not overlap, reducing conflicts. Bryan remarks that healthy conflict for the sake of the mission is vital, and organizational structure helps prevent micromanagement. They discuss how family members like Bryan’s son, Gavin, are integrated into the business via layers of management, allowing independence. The conversation emphasizes that shared care for each other's well-being is the foundation of smooth family business operations. Honest reflections reveal that friction can happen, but respect and clarity in roles help sustain long-term harmony.

Growth, Risks, and Adaptability in Small Business

This section explores the concept that the riskiest moments often occur during growth phases, even after years of operation. Bryan shares that recent contract delays caused significant stress, illustrating that new scales bring new challenges. The founders emphasize that perseverance, faith, and emotional resilience are critical, especially when facing setbacks. They advise that entrepreneurs need to surround themselves with trusted, complementary team members—those who support and challenge them—rather than just yes-men. The panel advocates for patience, strategic delegation, and continuous learning, acknowledging that mistakes are inevitable but part of growth. The importance of building systems and processes gradually, with focus on what works now, is underscored as vital for scaling sustainably.

Key Lessons and Takeaways for Small Business Owners

This concluding section encapsulates core lessons such as the critical role of grit, the necessity of a strong support system, and the importance of clear systems and standards. The speakers advocate that success involves daily perseverance, owning mistakes, and fostering a culture of quality and accountability. They emphasize that private equity growth models are incompatible with owner-operated trades businesses, which thrive on personal integrity and customer trust. The panel encourages business owners to delegate tasks they dislike, focus on their strengths, and invest in their team's development using resources like HVAC School, Ruth King, and other training providers. Finally, they remind listeners that the most challenging phases of business are ongoing and require resilience, patience, and a strategic vision grounded in personal values.

Show notes

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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