What does “Family Owned and Operated” Really Mean?

You’ll see it on our ads, Facebook posts, and elsewhere — Olsen Mechanical Inc: Family Owned and Operated Since 1998. It’s a phrase you see a lot, from businesses big and small, but what does it really mean for us?

Olsen Mechanical Inc. was founded in 1998 by Bob and Jane Olsen. The office was their house in Rowland, and parts and equipment were stored in their garage. Bob hand-painted the truck and ran service calls for heating, cooling, refrigeration, and appliance repair, while Jane kept things running behind the scenes and was able to be there for their two kids, Rita and Scott. As soon as he could use tools and climb into tight spaces, Scott started learning the technical side alongside his dad. He joined the company full-time after graduating high school in 2007.

Now, almost 30 years later, some things have changed—and some things have stayed very much the same. The office has moved out of Bob and Jane’s house in Rowland and into Scott’s home in Greeley. We have more trucks on the road and more storage space for equipment. There's a new generation of little ones running around—you might even hear them in the background from time to time. These days, it's more likely to be Scott’s wife, Karen, who calls you to schedule your appointment or help you with financing.

So again—what does “family owned and operated” really mean here?

It means that when you call Olsen Mechanical, you’ll probably talk to at least one Olsen during the process. If you need a service call, it’ll likely be Scott who shows up. If you're looking to install new equipment, it might be Bob. We’ve grown since the ’90s and now have a great install team—Joel and Austin—who handle most of our installation work. Still, either Bob or Scott (often both) are on-site for most installs to get things rolling and check in to make sure everything’s running smoothly.

“Family owned and operated” also means that if you call on a Friday afternoon, you might hear a bit of background noise—Karen might be at the farmers’ market with the kids, forwarding calls to her cell phone. It means we’re closed between Christmas and New Year’s, except for heating emergencies, because that’s time our family spends together. It means that when you choose Olsen Mechanical, your money isn’t going into a corporate portfolio or really leaving Pike and Wayne counties at all. It’s paying our family’s bills, covering daycare costs, sending our children and grandchildren to school, supporting the wages of our employees, and sponsoring local events and groups like Growing Lackawaxen’s Duck Derby or the Wallenpaupack football team. We bank locally, shop locally, and live locally.

It means that our family strives to provide the kind of service to your family that we would want for our own.

That’s what “family owned and operated” means to us.
What does it mean to you?