How Cosby Heating & Cooling gained the buying power to grow

Before Affiniti

Overcoming financial challenges

When Paul Eddy and his wife Barb bought Cosby Heating & Cooling in 2008, they took over a 26-year-old business in the first months of the financial crisis. The timing tested everything.

“Managing the finances was probably one of the more difficult things for us for a period of time,” Paul explained. “If you don’t make the right business decisions, the money dries up pretty darn quick.”

Among their biggest hurdles was cash flow, often strained by customers taking extended payment terms. “We couldn’t bill everybody and wait 30 days for our money. You can’t be a bank. There’s no way to grow if you don’t have capital or access to capital,” Paul said.

For a contractor buying furnaces and geothermal equipment up front and getting paid weeks later, that gap decided which jobs Cosby could take. Without a line that matched the size of the work, growth meant saying no.

The switch

The email from ACCA that changed the math

Paul gets pitched financing constantly. The one he answered came from ACCA, the association he has belonged to since the day he opened. “I’ve been a member since I’ve been in business. ACCA’s name carries weight,” he said. “They wouldn’t put their members in a bad position.”

So he applied. The line came back sized to the business, not to a formula, and it did the thing he had been missing since 2008. “It gives us access to some capital,” Paul shared. For a contractor who had been fronting equipment and waiting on checks, that was the whole problem, solved in days.

What he hadn’t expected was everything that came with it. He could issue a virtual card for a vendor or a job in seconds, and every purchase showed up on his phone as it happened. “The platform itself is nice because it’s simple and intuitive,” he said. “You can get what you need quickly and be done.” The line has grown with the business since, to $225,000 today.

Running the business on Affiniti

Capital that lets Cosby say yes

With a line sized to the business, Paul has been able to make strategic decisions to grow Cosby Heating & Cooling. “We’ve been able to grow back to the size we were to begin with and even past that,” Paul shared. “If somebody came to me with an opportunity today, I could pretty much take care of it now. Before, if you didn’t have access to capital, you’d be left behind.”

More than $3 million in equipment and materials has run through Affiniti since Cosby joined, and more than $130,000 a quarter runs through it now. A geothermal install or a commercial job that once meant waiting on a customer’s check before ordering the next one can be bought the day it’s sold.

Virtual cards and spend controls for every job

Paul’s favorite feature is the one he named first: virtual cards. Instead of handing a physical card to a tech or reading a number over the phone to a supplier, he can issue a virtual card for a specific vendor or a specific job, use it for that purpose, and shut it off when the work is done. “The virtual card feature makes it so simple to protect your finances,” he said.

Six employee cards cover the rest of the team, and each one carries its own spend policy. A service tech gets a daily cap sized to a normal parts run. An installer gets a monthly cap tied to the jobs on his schedule. Cards can be limited to weekdays or working hours, locked to specific vendors so a supply-house card only works at the supply house, and set to close automatically on the day a project wraps. A new hire gets guardrails on day one, and every purchase on every card shows up on Paul’s phone the moment it happens.

For a company that spent its first years after 2008 watching every dollar, that is the difference between hoping spend stays in bounds and knowing it does.

The results

Driving business growth

Paul came to Affiniti for access to capital. He got that, and a way to control how the capital gets spent.

What that looks like in practice:

• Back to full size and past it. In Paul’s words, Cosby has grown back to where it was before 2008 and beyond, with the capital to take opportunities instead of passing on them.
• More than $3 million in equipment and materials bought on Affiniti since joining, and more than $130,000 a quarter running through it now.
• A credit line that grew with the business, to $225,000 today, underwritten by a team that understands HVAC.
• Virtual cards for vendors and jobs, issued in seconds and shut off when the work is done, instead of a shared card number making the rounds.
• Six employee cards with their own rules. Daily and monthly caps, vendor locks, and real-time alerts replaced after-the-fact statement reviews.

Today, when Cosby sells a geothermal system, the equipment goes on the line the same day. When a tech needs parts, the card decides what’s allowed and Paul sees the purchase before the tech leaves the counter. After 18 years of owning the business, the capital question that defined the first few of them is answered.

Paul’s advice to other HVACR businesses

Paul’s advice comes from the owner who lived through 2008 with a new business and no line to lean on: get access to capital before you need it, and put controls around it from the start.

“It’s easy to use, and the virtual card feature makes it so simple to protect your finances,” Paul said. “To me, it’s just a smart decision.”

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