Franchisee Success Stories
The owners who do well here aren’t chasing a quick flip. They’re the ones who’ve already run something, or fixed something, or spent years watching other people do it wrong. They want a square deal for themselves, so they can offer one to every homeowner who calls. Here’s how four of them found their way to Fireside.
Meet Our Owners
Brian H. - Indianapolis, Indiana
Brian spent fourteen years as a commercial electrician before a knee replacement slowed him down on the ladder. He’d always been the guy coworkers called when a furnace control board didn’t make sense, so he got his HVAC certification and worked for a regional outfit that changed its pricing structure every six months. “I got tired of apologizing to customers,” he says. A Fireside franchise gave him the systems he’d never had time to build himself, plus the 90-Day Done Right Promise he could actually stand behind. Three years in, his daughter runs the dispatch board and his son-in-law is apprenticing toward journeyman. Brian says the thing that still gets him is the 2 a.m. call answered by a person. “I’ve been that homeowner. I know what it means.”
Adel N. - Columbus, Ohio
Adel came to the U.S. from Egypt in 2007 and worked his way up from warehouse stocker to service manager at a big-box HVAC chain. He learned every brand, Carrier to Daikin, but couldn’t stomach the commission pressure on technicians to sell equipment people didn’t need. He heard about Fireside through a supplier who mentioned the no-hassle upfront pricing. “No arguing, no paperwork,” Adel says. “I thought it was marketing.” He called the franchise line at (866) 561-3358, talked to Glen Hartman for forty minutes, and drove to Indianapolis to ride along with Brian H. for two days. That was 2019. His shop now sponsors the Westerville Little League and keeps a technician on call every holiday. Adel’s mother still asks why he doesn’t take vacations. He tells her: “I finally found a company that acts like it plans to be here in thirty years. So do I.”
Carmen R. - Louisville, Kentucky
Carmen was a hospital facilities director for eleven years, managing boilers and chillers for a 400-bed campus. She knew HVAC inside out, but she’d never quoted a job or hired a technician. What she knew was how to hold people accountable and how to spot when someone was cutting corners. Fireside’s K.E.Y.S. values weren’t new to her; they were what she’d always demanded from her contractors. The difference was finding a brand that demanded it of itself. Her first year, she made every service call herself, wearing the uniform, putting on shoe covers without being asked. Now she runs three crews and still checks the trucks every morning. “Krafted right, every time,” she says. “The 400th job gets the care of the first. I count them. I make sure.”
Daniela F. - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Daniela inherited her father’s small heating shop in 2015. He’d built it on handshakes and home phone numbers, but he never wrote anything down, and when the big national chains moved in, she couldn’t compete on advertising spend. She nearly closed in 2017. What saved her was a Fireside franchise conversion: she kept her customer list, her two best technicians, and her father’s reputation, but gained the systems, the nine-brand training, and the 90-Day Done Right Promise that let her look homeowners in the eye again. She still has her father’s original desk, and she still answers the phone herself when the office line rings after hours. “Named for the warmest word in the American memory,” she says. “My dad would have liked that. He was all about keeping people warm.”
Your Story Starts Here
If you’ve already run something, or fixed something, or you’re tired of watching it done wrong, call (866) 561-3358. Glen Hartman or someone on his team will answer, day or night, and send you the franchise information kit. No pressure, no voicemail tree, just a straight conversation about whether Fireside fits what you’re trying to build.
Written by Glen Hartman, Owner at Fireside Heating & Air Co., serving local communities since 2018.