When Wymond Wong was growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, he spent a lot of his time helping out at his parents’ Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis. Little did he know that one of the experiences he had there would end up playing a pivotal role in how his career journey would unfold.
“Our walk-in cooler would break down sometimes and when the repairman would come out to fix it, my dad watched him and eventually figured out how to do the work himself. He was like ‘this is easy and they want to charge us $200 to do it?’” said Wong, the owner of Blaine-based Twin City Heating, Air and Electric. “That’s how I first got interested in heating and air conditioning.”
That said, despite his father suggesting he go to vocational school after graduating high school in 1983, Wong wasn’t certain that he wanted to work in the trades. Instead, he decided to go to college despite “not really knowing what I was doing.” It didn’t work out so well.
“I failed miserably,” Wong said. “It wasn’t as easy as it was in high school and I was completely lost after the first year.”
Again, his father brought up vocational school and this time, Wong agreed, going on to study residential and commercial HVAC at Hennepin Technical College. Then, after working for his father’s restaurant for several years, he became a service technician for a utility company where he honed his skills handling residential and commercial accounts. In 2001, he decided to take a leap of faith and start his own company.
Like his one year of college, that didn’t turn out so well either.
“I wasn’t a very good business person,” Wong said frankly. “I could fix things but I just didn’t understand business very well and I ended up with a lot of debt.”
Down but far from out, Wong closed his company in 2006 and took a job working for someone else. That’s where he met a man he would end up partnering with to launch his current company. He figured that by pairing his technical skills with his partner’s business knowledge, he would be able to knock it out of the park. That did happen eventually, but the path was anything but smooth and after six years of stagnation due to some financial discrepancies, misunderstandings and oversights, Wong and his partner parted ways in 2015.
“It was really hard,” Wong reflected. “I almost decided I was done with being a business person forever.”
But Wong wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel and instead of giving up, he hired a business coach. It proved to be a great decision, especially because he had a clear understanding of what coaching was – and what it wasn’t.
“A lot of people go to a business coach when things aren’t going well because they think it’s a miracle pill for their company,” he said. “But it’s not like that. A coach can help point you in the right direction. You’re the one who has to put in the work.”
And that’s exactly what Wong did. Through conversations with his coach, he was able to figure out his strengths, learn how to prioritize his tasks and clarify his thought process and overall vision.
“I did some soul searching about the reasons why I really wanted to own a business,” Wong said. “I realized that part of it was because I wanted to build a legacy so that people have a great place to work with a positive company culture. That’s been my driving force. I’m never going to be on my deathbed and wish I had made $40,000 more for the company. That’s not what it’s about.”
In March of 2016, Twin City Heating and Air (the electric part came later) opened under a different corporation. It was a fresh start of sorts and thanks to the advice from his coach and his own personal research, Wong made a few changes. He began delegating some of his administrative and financial tasks to other people which allowed him to focus more of his attention on running and growing the business.
It wasn’t easy at first.
“I think a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs like to have control because we think we can do everything better than anyone else,” he said. “There’s a certain amount of ego to it, but I came to the conclusion that I would have to let some things go.”
Fast forward to today and Wong’s company is doing a steady business year after year and has a staff of more than 20 employees. Additionally, he’s been able to let go of the anger and frustration from the experience with his former business partner and even find a bit of gratitude.
“If it wasn’t for my business partner, I might not be where I am now,” he said.
Wong also attributes much of his success to the six core values he developed a few years back.
“Of course there are still challenges, but when I’m trying to make a decision, I always turn to those values and I can usually find my answers there,” he said. “If something doesn’t fit with our core values, it kind of answers the question of whether we should do it or not. They’ve been a major factor in why we’re here today.”
If you’re looking to create core values of your own, Wong recommends brainstorming ideas and concepts that resonate with you and your team members. Write them down because if you don’t put them in writing, they’re probably not going to be very effective. (Wong, for example, has them posted in five places around his shop). Review these values with your team on a regular basis to make sure they’re still relevant. Make them non-negotiable and encourage your employees to hold each other accountable for upholding them. Try to hire people who align with your values. And if all else fails, Wong is perfectly OK with a little R&D (rob and distribute).
“If you get an idea from another company, use it,” he said. “I have no problem if you want to use mine!”
And so without further ado, here are Wong’s six core values. Use one or try all six – they could work wonders for your business:
- Growth: We learn rapidly, adjust quickly and expand our intelligence through collaboration and lifelong learning to achieve maximum growth innovation.
- Teamwork: Our team members are our greatest asset. We are dedicated to hard work, collaboration and building an open and honest relationship to promote positive team and family spirit.
- Passion: We’re passionate and we’re obsessed with our customer experience in order to create exceptional long-term relationships. We care intensely about our team, vendors and customers to create a lasting positive impact on our community.
- Win-win: We create win-win partnerships with customers, suppliers and team members in order to create champions within all of us.
- Commitment to excellence: We never accept the status quo and continually challenge ourselves to achieve excellence. We do this to build trust and confidence in our team and for our customers and our community.
- Fun: We laugh at ourselves because we are funny. Humor helps remind us of who we are and where we came from.
Whatever your core values are, we hope they’ll help guide your path so you can achieve the success and growth you’re looking for. Good luck!
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