06 Feb Stepping out on one’s own The Story of Two Members’ Quest to Launch C&L Mechanical in Moreau, NY
Dan Levo grew up as a decorated Eagle Scout and an auto mechanic by trade before joining Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 773 in Glens Falls, NY, where he served his five-year apprenticeship. He started as a service technician for Technical Building Services and then worked his way up to becoming the plumbing and fabrication shop foreman at Saratoga’s historic racetrack. Dan also had the experience of serving as the Vice President of the Executive Board for the local. While Dan was happy with his career, he dreamed of owning his own mechanical contracting company one day. He knew it would be a long process, but he was anxious to get started. With the help of his father, Mike, and a few friends and family members, after working at the Saratoga Racetrack all day, Dan would come home to the project of sectioning off a portion of his property and constructing a 3,000- square-foot building. During the same time frame, Dan’s local union brother, Nelson Charron, was working in the field and teaching apprenticeship school at night. He was working on completing his associate degree in construction supervision and industrial training from Washtenaw Community College in hopes of starting his own business one day. Nelson came to the UA as an eight-year Army veteran, who had attended Modern Welding School in Schenectady, NY, before going to work for a non-union fabrication shop. Organized into Local 773 as a first-year apprentice, he was employed by R.F. Gordon Mechanical for many years before he became the local’s Organizer. Over the years, he held many leadership positions within the local union that would prove to be beneficial in the years to come. Nelson said, “One night after a union meeting, Dan and I met for a beer, and we were talking about his plan to open his own business, and he mentioned how close he was to getting started. He threw ideas out at me about what it would take to start his business, and he questioned who might be a good business partner. At that time, we talked about pairing up, but I was deeply involved with Local 773 business, and Dan wasn’t quite to the point where he was ready to go out on his own. A few years went by, and we had the same conversation every six months, and then every couple of months. Each conversation became more serious and more realistic.” In the Fall of 2017, Nelson had just lost a mid-term election for Local 773 Business Agent. He said, “I was starting to feel the burnout we heard so much about in our UA organizing classes. During those classes, I would say, ‘That will never happen to me.’ Yet there I was. I let the holidays pass, and on January 2, 2018, I called Dan and asked, ‘What are you going to need from me to get this thing done?’ With a handshake, a few hours later, we became partners, and we devised a definitive plan for C & L Mechanical.” Dan and Nelson had 18 months to secure funding and to get prepared. Nelson said, “I helped Dan trim out the building with offices and a bathroom, and we constructed a fullblown fabrication shop. We created a business plan with some help from SCORE, which is a nonprofit that helps small businesses get off the ground. We devised a financial plan, secured an attorney and an accountant, and all of the tools and equipment we would need to get started.” On September 3, 2019, C & L Mechanical Corporation was officially launched in Moreau, NY, serving northeastern New York— from Albany to the Canadian border—and Dan and Nelson haven’t looked back since. Nelson stated, “Dan has been an incredible business partner, and he brings so much to the table that even the challenges seem easy to overcome. We are thrilled with the decision we made, and the 16-hour days to get it launched were so worth it.” C & L Mechanical covers residential, light commercial, commercial, and industrial piping systems. Nelson said, “We feel this sets us apart from other contractors. With the UA’s new residential/light commercial agreements, the work is out there, and we have been competitive in those areas. Additionally, we work on steam, plumbing, hydronic, and process piping systems. We work on all pipe, not limiting ourselves to just plumbing or paper mills. We represent the plumbers, steamfitters, pipefitters, and gas fitters that the UA trains so well. There aren’t very many open shops in our area that can offer what we do.” During the initial months of going into business, Nelson said the largest challenges stemmed from balancing cash flow and managing their time. They would run field operations during the day, and in the evening, they were completing the office work and bidding additional work. He said, “During those initial months, there was a fine line between cash coming in and jobs going out. One wrong equation, a missed item on a bid, or a mistake in the field could cripple a contractor quickly.” He added that spending hours on a heating and plumbing design for a customer that didn’t always result in a job award was challenging as well. Both Dan and Nelson feel that Local 773 has been instrumental in helping to get their company off the ground. Nelson continued, “Business Manager Mike Jarvis and Business Agent Brian Kill visit our office a few times a month to see how we are doing. They are both aware of how critical the first year can be for a new company. Business Manager Jarvis has promoted our company in the local arena during hockey games and has run advertisements in several media outlets over the last few months. Local 773’s Organizer, Bill Austen, has been in contact with us weekly with help on combating the open-shop competition, as well as giving us new job leads. UA Special Representative and former Business Manager Larry Bulman has also been a great asset by recommending C & L to customers. C & L will be taking part in any new member/contractor initiatives Local 773 provides. Before I left the Organizer’s position, I was fortunate to sit in on Director of Plumbing Services Tom Bigley’s Business Development class.” Both Dan and Nelson’s advice to apprentices is to stay diversified and learn every aspect of the trade offered. Nelson advised the apprentices, “If you are uncomfortable with anything—dig deeper. It will make you a great mechanic someday. Prepare to fail. It will happen, and it will be OK. C & L Mechanical is the result of years of training, hard work, successes, and failures. Our past failures have become our most-valuable learning tools right now.” Dan and Nelson would encourage anyone who is on the fence about starting their own business to devise a plan and stick with it. “Becoming a UA contractor,” Nelson said, “is not an overnight decision, and neither is the preparation it takes to become one. You must have a solid business plan and stick to what you know best—UA work. Get help from bookkeepers, accountants, and attorneys. Lastly, and most importantly, make sure your support team at home is fully involved and onboard through the entire process. If it weren’t for our wives, Esther Levo and Kara-Leigh Charron, who took on the extra burdens at home, C & L Mechanical would have remained just a dream.”