What was your individual career path in terms of education/training, entry-level job, or other significant opportunity?

I finished high school a year early because I was bored sitting at a desk in school. After I graduated, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My dad served in the US Navy, and he convinced me to talk to a Naval recruiter. The recruiter talked me into enlisting and going into the electronics division. I was always a gadget kind of guy, and it seemed interesting. As it turns out, they sent me to a Navy school for three years to become an electrical engineer. So, I was in school year-round, which was kind of ironic. But it was a mix of textbook and lab-based training, so I enjoyed it.

I spent eight years in the Navy—three in school, three onboard a ship, and two years at a naval air station, repairing radars and communication equipment. I loved it. I liked being in the Navy, in general, and I liked my job. I wasn’t mentally ready for college, and I’m sure I would have dropped out if I tried to go.

After the Navy I worked for a company when high speed Internet was just coming to people’s homes in the late 1990s. I worked with a good person, Christopher Gray. We had a lot in common—we were military veterans and had young kids—and we became good friends. But after a couple [of] years, we were laid off. We started working together doing side jobs on anything technology related. We discovered there was a real demand in our area for installing structured cabling in homes and businesses for better telecommunications connectivity. Structured cabling carries voice or data information from any device connected to the Internet. The cabling is designed to work for phones, computer networks, and other IP technology in use today and in the future. Think of the cables as a paved highway that carries traffic of a lot of different types of vehicles. The highways function as designed for cars and trucks that have been on the road for years, and they also function for new models of vehicles as those are released.

Chris and I started our technology and telecommunications company, X-Pert Communications, in 2002; he is vice president.

It took us two years to be able to hire an employee, and he’s still with us. Those first two years were a struggle. One week we might do wiring, the next we might be cleaning gutters, anything to keep us going and build the business. Now, we have 22 employees.

We started out only installing structured cabling and soon branched out to include some of the advanced systems that were using the cabling. All of our work now is in commercial buildings.

We install surveillance systems, HVAC smart technology controls, card readers and facial recognition systems to control building access, and we do other specialty work for large commercial buildings. Everything is the latest technology, everything is IP-based. It all connects to your computer network. Specialty work has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We now install facial recognition for building access control and use thermal cameras to check people’s temperatures before granting access to buildings. It works like this: you walk up to the door and look into the camera. It’s set up to recognize if you have access to the building, then it takes your temperature. If you have a fever, it won’t open the door for you. We have that installed in several factories.

Having a business partner with personality traits that are different from your own is beneficial. Not only do Chris and I have a solid friendship, we also trust each other and balance each other in business decisions. For example, I am cautious and methodical and benefit from Chris’s eagerness and enthusiasm. A business partnership is similar to a marriage; it lasts and works best when built upon friendship, trust, and loyalty.

When we started the business, we got a lot of help from a Pennsylvania incubator program geared toward people who were laid off. The program provided business classes and hours with lawyers and other professionals at no charge. It basically cost us nothing to incorporate and get a set of books set up. We’re also certified as a Veteran Owned Small Business, which has its advantages. The federal government requires a percentage of veteran participation in some of its contracts. There’s not much federal work in our area, but Pennsylvania has a similar program, and we get a lot of work that way.

What are the most important skills and/or qualities for someone in your profession?

You have to be able to analyze data, solve problems, make decisions, and pay attention to details. You have to be a good listener to customers and to coworkers. You have to be trustworthy. We deal with a lot of sensitive information on people’s computers and in their offices.

What do you wish you had known going into this profession?

I wish I’d known the importance of cash flow. We never worried about it until it became an issue. We learned some hard lessons. I wish I’d known more about managing employees. In the Navy I learned to lead people. Managing employees is different. In the navy it’s about accomplishing a mission; with employees it’s more about nurturing them.

Are there many job opportunities in your profession? In what specific areas?

There’s definitely a shortage of qualified technicians. We have a hard time finding people who can program and troubleshoot advanced systems we install. There are technical schools that teach skills, and we do a lot of on-the-job training.

A lot of young people aren’t getting into the construction industry. When we look for people to hire, we seem to be getting older people who are getting retrained. I’m hoping that as things get more technical, it may start to draw younger people. Our technicians’ jobs involve working on a laptop in the field instead of swinging a hammer.

How do you see your profession changing in the next 5 years? How will technology impact that change, and what skills will be required?

The industry evolves quickly. We never know where it’s going in the next few years, but we always try to adapt and go where the market takes us. The advanced systems side of our company will start to grow more, the surveillance systems, and wireless systems will become a bigger part of our business because they’re starting to be required everywhere now. To work in this field, you’ll need to keep your skills current as technology changes.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What do you enjoy least about your job?

I enjoy problem solving and troubleshooting. I love meeting new people, that my hours are flexible. There’s always something new happening, and every day is different.

I don’t like that I am always on call. On Christmas Day, I’m on call—even on vacation, no matter what. That’s just part of the business.

There’s also a certain amount of stress when you have employees. We get to know our workers and their families. I feel responsible for them and need to make sure our company has work so they keep their incomes. Work doesn’t come to us. We have to look for it and bid it.

Can you suggest a valuable “try this” for students considering a career in your profession?

We’ve had, in the past, high school students work with us during the summers, as kind of a mini-internship where they are exposed to different aspects of the business. They get to see how we estimate, bid, and manage projects. We also have a big warehouse full of inventory that has to be maintained. Find a company like ours and ask to spend a couple of days, follow someone around to see what he or she does.

What was your individual career path in terms of education/training, entry-level job, or other significant opportunity?

My father started his own business when I was in high school, so I spent my summers working for his startup and got a taste of what being in a small business was like. I really loved the energy and the feel of the risk and what was on the line for his family. I picked up on that excitement. I went to Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, with the intent of studying business, figured out I wanted to focus on marketing, and graduated with a BS in Marketing.

When I graduated, my dad set me up with twenty interviews, some informational, with his colleagues. That was one of the best things I did because it forced me to get out of a student role and interact with people in the workplace. I landed at Reebok International LLC as a marketing intern for their women’s fitness group. I was there 18 months, had five different managers and was laid off twice. It was a public company, and I learned pretty quickly, “Wow, this isn’t what I learned in college.” I ended up at Bose Corporation, where I stayed for close to 15 years in a variety of roles. It was a fantastic experience.

The company’s founder, Dr. Amar Bose, had a vision for the workplace: for people to reach their highest personal potential whatever their role. I traveled the country and ran a business unit for 7 years. However, I always wanted to start my own business. Six years ago, I started talking with Bose about outsourcing their US and Canadian home installation for audio business because they were looking to outsource, and I thought it would be a great way to roll into my new business. I left the company in order to negotiate that contract. I ended up not moving forward with it because, from a financial perspective, I was taking all the risk. We left it that I would be a Bose dealer, and they referred customers to me.

In the end, this allowed my business to broaden its reach to automation and smart and connected homes. I can be agnostic about brands we install and reach people that need help understanding home automation.

We want to be the go-to company for smart home automation in the United States and are working on franchising. We started by contracting with mom-and-pop installers, but 2 years in I knew I wanted more control and a more branded experience including workers showing up in Level Up shirts and vans. It took about 2 years to find the right legal company to specialize in franchises, and we just started selling those in January. Our vision is 10 units by the end of this year and a goal of 150 units in 5 years.

We have one showroom in Massachusetts. The vision is for us to have micro-showrooms in different parts of the country.

COVID-19 has accelerated our business on the residential side. People have been investing in home improvement projects and that, along with the growth rate of connected products, is projected to double in 5 years. I do believe the numbers because past projections have come through. People are remodeling homes, bathrooms, looking to age in place. We’ve sold more audio and TV outdoor systems. The business side is growing more slowly during COVID because the workplace is currently different.

What are the most important skills and/or qualities for someone in your profession?

There’s a lot of glamour around being an entrepreneur, but at the end of the day you have to have a lot of grit and resilience and the ability to pick yourself up and keep going where you need to go. Day to day is very stressful because not only are you creating your own income, you’re responsible for other people’s incomes.

You also have to be in a place where you’re always evolving your business. If you stand flat-footed on success, it’s not going to last very long.

What do you wish you had known going into this profession?

Even though I ran a business of similar size and scale at Bose, I wish I’d known that it would be entirely different running my own. I was very surprised when Bose rock stars came into this startup experience and were not a good fit at all.

Are there many job opportunities in your profession? In what specific areas?

Definitely. The term “smart home” was coined in the eighties but it’s still early in this industry, and there’s a tremendous need for people in the space. Part of our mission with our franchising program is to create the workforce of tradespeople to install and maintain smart systems. Think about plumbers and electricians. None of these people specialize in network-connected products. Smart thermostats have changed that to some degree in the HVAC industry, and there’s certainly been more market penetration there and in plumbing. When our industry gets together to talk, we talk about how we are going to address what will be a huge labor shortage.

How do you see your profession changing in the next 5 years? How will technology impact that change, and what skills will be required?

The technology is moving at a lightning-fast pace right now. The things that are of real interest involve how to help people age in place. The technologies coming out, for example, include sensors that don’t need to be worn and can be put throughout the house and can detect patterns, and whether someone has fallen. For example, say a person gets coffee at 8 a.m. but it’s 10 o’clock, and they haven’t moved. Someone can be notified. Those sensors also can check things like biometrics, and this also is very important for people aging in place. In addition, there are systems that control things like automated window shades, music, or security so people can push a button and the home’s doors lock and the security system goes on. This is going to become more mass market in the next 5 years. The workforce needs to be there.

What do you enjoy most about your job? What do you enjoy least about your job?

I love seeing where we’re going to go next and trying to push the envelope of what’s out there for us. Anything that’s new, I love. It’s super-energizing.

I don’t like the day-to-day operations as much, such as an employee issue. Fortunately, after 5 years, I’ve found a great team member who can take a lot of that off my plate.

Can you suggest a valuable “try this” for students considering a career in your profession?

Get a connected product and work with it. Get hands-on and talk with people about it, what you learned, and share your experience and the benefits of that product.