Client Spotlight: Meet Jeff Kline of 4Front Energy

At Red Seat, we love helping our clients recruit and hire great employees. Our ultimate goal is to help them grow their businesses through hiring top talent. Today, we’re highlighting one client who has seen impressive growth over the years, and who we’ve helped hire dozens of top-notch employees. 

Meet Jeff Kline, founder and President of 4Front Energy. 4Front Energy has been providing high quality HVAC, plumbing, and electrical installation and services to the Twin Cities metro area for more than 30 years, and we count ourselves lucky to work with them! 

Jeff, can you give us a brief overview of your business — how you got started, where things sit today, and what your role is?

4Front Energy is a home services company focused on adding superior value to your home and comfort to your lives by providing high quality HVAC, plumbing, and electrical installation and services. We work with residential homeowners, remodelers, custom new home builders, and some commercial clients. We install products and service HVAC, plumbing, and electrical equipment, and we currently have about 105 employees.

The business was started in 1993 as a small HVAC company under the name Practical Systems. I purchased the business in 2002 when it was a small company of seven people. (Of the seven, two still work for our team today!) It was an opportunity to build a business and provide a future not only for myself, but also for our employees, vendors, and customers.

Over time we acquired other companies, started an electrical contracting business called Electric City (2012), and bought another heating company called Ductwork Heating and Cooling (2014). In 2018, we brought all those companies together under one umbrella: 4Front Energy. Finally, in 2021, we bought a plumbing company called Paladin Plumbing to round out our vision, which was to be the master of the utility room.

What does your day-to-day look like?

Over the years, I’ve learned what I am and am not good at. I’ve found it’s important to “stay in my lane,” as they say, and focus on what I can contribute positively and effectively to the company.

My areas of expertise are culture, leadership, marketing, sales, company growth (from both organic and acquisition perspectives), and recruiting. I also manage our financials — specifically, cash flow management (though we do have a COO, and he’s the one who really keeps the boats in line).

My skills are rounded out by our leadership team: Pat, our COO, who takes care of our financials, HR, contracts, and administration; JD, our internal operations manager, who works to improve the customer experience as well as all internal processes and software; and Dave, our field operations manager, who handles everything related to our folks out delivering services to customers, including callbacks, warranties, and training.

The other big part of my job involves company culture. We put a lot of emphasis on our culture at 4Front Energy. I view everything as a partnership — our employees, vendors, and customers are all partners. Maintaining those relationships is vital. We work as a team. 

We have our core values posted everywhere in our office. If you walk around, you’ll see signs that say “Work hard and be nice to people.” And it’s not just something we’ve added recently in response to the state of the world — we’ve had those signs and held those values for 22 years.

What do you love about what you do? 

I like growth and being in the midst of the chaos and craziness. I like people — I enjoy interacting with them and working together creatively to drive towards common goals. 

When you own a business for 22 years, you get smarter and more mature in how you react to day-to-day challenges and situations. You don’t have to sit and wonder why anymore. Instead, you ask questions from many perspectives and then act — do the right thing at the right time with the information and situation you're presented with.

What is the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome in your business, and what did you learn from it?

I would say the biggest obstacle earlier in my journey was cash flow. Decisions we made years ago created some financial problems. 

When you get a loan, you have to advocate for yourself. That comes with confidence and experience. If you go through a time of not having enough money — where you’re literally chasing your accounts receivable every week and counting dollars to make sure you can make payroll on Friday — you learn quickly how important that is. 

Every acquisition we did over the years was self-funded through a combination of our own operations and SBA loans. I’ve learned that when you need to borrow money, borrow a lot more than you think you need — double, at least! If you think you need 100k, get 200k. 

I’d do things differently now that I’ve been doing this for 22 years, have a proven track record, and have built up a network of mentors and trustees to help guide me. But it takes time, experience, patience, and curiosity to learn these things.

Being a business leader requires a lot of juggling. How do you stay focused?

I stay focused by coming to work every day. You have to stay in the mix to understand what’s going on and continually learn. You have to know where you’re going and why, and make sure people understand the common goals. I'm big on explaining the “why” behind what we do.

Our monthly company meetings are critical. We cover a little bit of business and other details, but it’s really meant to bring everyone together. We bring our whole company together, buy them a hot breakfast, talk about some business, and make sure they’re doing the basics to keep our phone ringing and calendar full. But it’s ultimately about bringing the team together.

A lot of business owners look at that as a huge waste of time and money, but I view it as building team and culture. I want to work in a company where I have fun, enjoy the people I work with, and thrive, and that’s what we’re trying to create.

Do you have a favorite business book, podcast, or app you’d recommend?

I read to learn, so most of the books I read are either self-improvement or business improvement books. One book that had a huge impact on me when we were struggling was The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It’s all about setting goals and moving forward — putting one foot in front of the other rather than trying to take giant leaps.

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson might be kind of cliché, but depending on where you’re at in your life and in your business, it’s very appropriate. If you get laid off, lose part of your business, COVID hits, etc…this book is a good reminder of how to deal with unexpected change.

There’s another book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill that’s about how to view money differently. The concept is that you don’t need to apologize for money — you need money to make things go. It’s applicable for both business and personal life. It helps mature your thinking and build your confidence about money.

Tell us about your experience working with Talley and the Red Seat team

I met Talley a few years ago through a business group called Executive Group, which I’ve been involved with for about 7 years. The leader of that group introduced me to her because I was looking for some recruiting help. I was in charge of recruiting, but it turns out I wasn’t a very good recruiter!

So I started working with Talley and her team, and it’s been awesome. She’s helped me grow my business. I’d say about 95% of our hiring comes in through her — she’s helped us hire more than 30 people since we started working together in 2022.

She’s provided a remarkable service, helping me free up my time, hire the right people for our culture, and grow the business.

I used to post Craigslist ads — I’d advertise, handle the follow up, and so on. Working with Talley and Red Seat has freed me up from all that work. 

Now Red Seat finds a candidate and does an initial screening with them, asking them a few questions surrounding certifications and licensures, work history, and so on. Then they send that information to us along with the candidate’s resume and references, we say yes or no, they schedule the interview, and the person shows up. 

Talley also helps us create customized messaging for our ads and handles the behind-the-scenes phone calling, emailing, Google advertising, Indeed posting, and so on. 

Working with Red Seat has brought us right-fit employees who have “sticky factor” — they tend to stick around, so we have less turnover. It’s just awesome. It gives us the employees we need and frees me up to do what I’m good at, which is promote our company to new prospective employees. 

What advice would you give someone struggling to find and retain top talent for their team?

Hire Talley and her team! And don’t try to control the process. Be a part of the process, but don’t try to take over — let them do their damn job! 

What have you learned about the hiring process since working with Red Seat?

Hiring over the years has changed. The technology has changed,and  the way to attract candidates has changed. You have to evolve. As a recruiter, Talley needs to know her IT stuff and keep up with the changes.

She’s an expert in her field, and I’ve learned that you have to trust the expert. Trust her to know her tools and the process and to do her job. She knows what she’s doing! And in turn, she has to trust that we won’t say no to every candidate or argue about the details — we’re not going to waste her time.

It’s a partnership. 

At Red Seat, we help our clients recruit and hire great new employees every day, and we’d love to do the same for you! Give us a call at (952) 893-0020 to talk about how we can best support your hiring needs.