“IT WAS the best of times; it was the worst of times. Nothing is more simultaneously joyful and stressful than the birth of your first child unless it’s starting your own business on the same day.
In 1972, Eddie Redd asked for the day off from his Nashville job as an HVAC foreman so he could be at the hospital with his wife, Pat, to deliver their first child. While at the hospital, he received a call from his employer requiring him to report immediately back to work. Unwilling to miss the birth of his child, Eddie gave notice and quit on the spot. It was news he didn’t share with his wife until the following day.
Fifty years ago this month, that first child, Kimberly Redd Dunn, was born and so was Redd’s Sheet Metal, now known as Redd’s Heating & Air Conditioning. Although Eddie intended for Pat to be a stay-at-home mom, it lasted less than six weeks. It was evident early on that Pat was needed in the office, so she brought Kimberly to work with her. In less than two years the family grew, with the birth of James Eddie Redd, II. Now the playpen at work held two small children.
Pat said, “We started out strictly as sheet metal, making ductwork and fabricating chimney caps and tanks and whatever anybody needed to be made of metal. My staying out of the business lasted six weeks, and then I had to go and start helping answer the phone, take deliveries, get materials, and everything a small business person has to do. My first bookkeeping system was a spiral notebook.”
While adjusting to motherhood and continuing to maintain their home on a farm, Pat was also learning a lot of other things – some of them the hard way. The need for a business license was learned after another business owner asked if they’d gotten one. “I said, ‘What’s a business license?’” Pat laughed. “And the next thing I know, the gentleman from the State of Tennessee is knocking on my door and wants to know my sales tax number, and I’m like, ‘What’s a sales tax number?’ So that’s how I got instructed about a sales tax number. It’s been a learning experience, to say the least.”
Good thing Pat has a sense of humor and a desire to learn because both would be greatly needed.
The team got to work with just two of them, one old truck, and $1,500 borrowed from Pat’s grandfather.
“Fortunately, the good people of Shelbyville, Bedford County, and the surrounding areas were good to us. We just worked hard, treated people fairly, and listened to advice from the state tax and business license people. And we read books and went to school,” Pat said. “My husband and I took turns. He would go to learn the mechanical end of it, and I would learn the business end of it. In those days, the manufacturers offered schools on repair, sales, and business management, and we took advantage of all of them.”
It wasn’t a complicated recipe for success. The ingredients are simple: be good to everyone, including employees; work hard; treat others fairly; and listen to advice from people smarter than you.
Redd’s Sheet Metal grew after a manufacturer asked the company to sell window air conditioners in addition to the ductwork they tooled for machines, factories, and commercial facilities. Once central heat and air gained momentum in the area, the manufacturer put them into sales and installation, and the name was changed to Redd’s Heating & Air Conditioning.
Kimberly said, “Little did we know, everything would take a sudden turn. My dad had some health problems, and we found out in 2016 that he had pancreatic cancer. He lived five months. I had barely been here a year, and to say it was devastating is an understatement. My mom had always been with him, so we quickly became second-generation business owners – quicker than we anticipated. We were already here working, but on a fiveyear plan, then my parents were going to retire.”
“My brother and I walked into a 20-something-year-old business with a good foundation, and we were able to carry it out and continue to serve our customers. They’re the ones that did the hard work and overcame so many challenges,” Kim said.
Pat recalled, “Eddie was the brains behind all the jobs, the installs, and figuring things out. He was really, really good at that. And Jamie is just like him. He’s a go-getter, a hard worker, and he knows how to handle something that’s not going right. He knows how to fix it.”
“We didn’t want them in the business, because it’s really hard and has really long hours. But they tried some different things and ended up back at Redd’s Heating & Air, and they’re doing well; they’re doing a great job even though they sometimes wish the hours weren’t quite so long and the stress level not quite so high. Customers like them. They’re just like their dad.”
Kimberly said, “My mom and dad were just a magnetic couple. They took his dream, and they really ran with it. Growing up in it, I have all the respect and admiration for them, because I saw how hard they had to work to build this business and how long it took. Dad not only cared for people and kept them comfortable in their homes, but he also touched the lives of the people who worked for us and became our family and long-tenured employees. There was one thing I knew that I didn’t want to be when I grew up, after watching them, and that was a business owner. Well, here I am, but I guess if I had to fall into anybody’s footsteps, I’m glad it was theirs.” GN
