For me, celebrating a birthday always leads to introspection—time to sit back and consider what I’ve done, where I’ve been, and what I’ve accomplished in the last year, or maybe five or ten. As I continue to grow closer and closer to one of those “big birthdays,” the BIG 50, I have a chance to celebrate and reflect on another big birthday. My family’s business, my grandfather’s business, my father’s business, and now my business turned 70 years old this year.
What does it mean to make it in business for 70 years? I’ve had people tell me, “well it means you’re doing something right.” Of course, if we weren’t doing “something right,” we wouldn’t still be around. But what does business success really mean? What does it really look like?
I’ve heard a lot of stories about how my grandfather started this business (we began as Appel Oil Company in 1948), just a year or so shy of turning the BIG 50, himself. He was born in 1899, and he was a self-made man. He earned every rung of the ladder through hard work. He married a wonderful woman, cut from the same cloth he was made of, and together they had three children, the youngest being my father. I remember the day my grandfather died. He was in a car accident on his way home after leaving our office. He was going to pick up my grandmother, so they could go vote together. He was 86. I was 15.
My father and I talk about baseball, basketball, golf, bridge (he’s a life master), and of course we talk about business, too. He spent more years working around here than I’ve spent on this earth. He likes to know what kind of projects we’ve been doing and what customers I’ve been seeing. I just sold a furnace to a classmate of his from high school. She told me to say “hi” to my dad, which is exactly what I did. I actually get that a lot. “How’s your dad doing?” or “what’s your dad up to?” or “tell your dad we said hello.”
Just about every Thursday, Deb and Connie and Judy all go out to lunch together. These three women combined have over 50 years of experience at Appel. I knew when I started here at the end of 1997 that, during my tenure, I’d see a lot of great people retire from Appel, and I knew it was going to be hard to fill those shoes. When I started, the office consisted of my dad; John (still our service manager); Judy, our retired service coordinator (you all know Judy from the phone); and Connie, our retired bookkeeper and office manager (you only know her from the phone if you didn’t pay your bills). So, it makes me smile to see the three ladies go out together for lunch once a week.
Why is Appel Heating & Air Conditioning still around and still successful after 70 years? I think our business success boils down to three key elements: hard work, great customers, and fantastic employees. I thank my grandfather and my father for all their years of hard work and dedication to this business and for passing not only the business, but their work ethic down to me. I thank the thousands of great customers we’ve had over the first 70 years of our existence. You are the reason we’re in business. We are here to provide you service and to take care of your needs. Thanks to all of the fantastic employees that have provided all of our great customers with the customer service they deserve. You are the reason why our customers keep coming back.
You are all a part of our success story. Thank you, and cheers to the next 70 years!
– Scott Appel
