Pete Peterman launched Peterman Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning in 1986 in Indianapolis. Twenty-five years later, when son Chad joined the company, the firm employed 21 people and was firmly established as a dependable HVAC services provider. Two years following Chad’s arrival, Tyler came aboard after graduating from college and teamed up with his brother as vice president of operations. At that point, the company was poised to take a great leap forward.
Today, Peterman Brothers — the name was changed in 2021 — employs 520 people, operates from 10 locations in three states and cleared $103 million in annual revenue last year, with the expectation of increasing that to $115-120 million in 2024. Shops are located in Columbus, Bloomington, Lafayette, Muncie, South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis in Indiana, Lancaster and Mount Vernon in Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky.
Chad Peterman, now president and CEO, credits his father with creating a successful business paradigm.
“Our formula for success has been simple: Peterman Brothers is committed to providing the highest level of customer service,” Peterman says. “That was Dad’s focus when he founded the company, and it will remain our focus in the years ahead.”
Another success factor is that Peterman Brothers is big on enabling employees to do their best work. Peterman has even written a book about it — The Empowerment Project: Grow Your People, Grow Your Business. It was released in April 2024.
Peterman says the concept became very clear to him when he and his brother took over their father’s business.
“My brother and I came from outside the industry at an early age,” he says. “We had to trust others who knew how to do the trade work. Empowerment of our people became a core belief for us.”
The attitude mushroomed thereafter.
“As we saw it work, we leaned into it more and more, empowering others to come up with new ideas and to implement them,” Peterman says.
Some of the guidelines for empowerment that Peterman espouses in the book include giving employees authority, training them thoroughly and consistently, and emphasizing that mistakes made are opportunities for growth.
Thus empowered — that is, given incentive to take ownership of their performance — employees become more partners than order-takers and begin to prioritize looking after customers. The upshot is that the company grows on the strength of customer satisfaction.
Peterman also authored an earlier book, You Can’t Stop the Growth — How to Build a Culture that Takes Care of Your Customers. Both books reflect his personal experiences in his company.
“In each book, I incorporate stories from the business, tell of some of the accomplishments of our people and accolades earned by them,” Peterman says. “As we get bigger, there will be fewer opportunities for interaction with them. The books are a way for them to understand what we as a company are about and what we believe.”
Read more about Peterman Brothers in the April 2025 issue of Plumber magazine.
