Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie

E321: Family, Faith, and Electrical Expertise Keep the Lights On

• Benjamin John & Ehman Electrical Contractor • Episode 321

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What started as a pandemic pivot has transformed into one of the Treasure Coast's most trusted electrical service providers. Tim and Maria, the husband-and-wife team behind Ehman Electrical Contractor, share their remarkable journey from makeshift solution to thriving enterprise with 28 employees across Florida's eastern coast.

Tim brings over three decades of electrical expertise, having worked on impressive projects from high-rise buildings and stadiums to military facilities and the iconic Hard Rock Guitar hotel. When paired with Maria's administrative and legal background, they created the perfect formula for business success. Now covering from Palm Beach County to Indian River County, they deliver comprehensive electrical services for residential, commercial, industrial, generator, and solar needs.

Beyond their technical capabilities, what truly distinguishes Ehman Electrical is their passionate commitment to safety and education. They dispel dangerous DIY electrical myths and emphasize the critical importance of proper permitting – not just for legal compliance, but for home safety and potential property value increases. This focus on customer education paired with their family-oriented approach to business has earned them a perfect five-star Google rating with nearly 300 glowing reviews.

Perhaps most telling about their character is how they've created a company culture that genuinely values their team members. They sponsor eight employees to obtain their electrical licenses, covering educational expenses and nurturing career advancement. Through all the challenges of running a business while raising seven children between them, Tim and Maria credit their strong Christian faith and communication skills for keeping both their marriage and company thriving. Experience the difference yourself by reaching out through their website, social media, or simply giving them a call directly.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Benjamin John.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the Good Neighbor Podcast once again. Are you in need of a reliable and professional electrical company? Well, there might be somebody closer than you think, and I want to go ahead and introduce you guys to Tim and Maria, with Eamon Electrical Contractor. How are you guys doing?

Speaker 4:

Good how are you doing Doing well, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Good, yeah, I'm doing good too, thank you, yeah, so I'm excited to learn a little bit more about the company and kind of have you guys share a little bit more with the community here about what you guys do and what you guys specialize in. So let's just start with that question right there. Can you tell us a little bit more about the company?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely so. We're a company we started back in 2020. We've been around five years now, obviously, and booming here in the Treasure Coast. We cover areas from Palm Beach County all the way up to Indian River, and expanding as we speak. We base our work on absolutely everything. We're electricians, so there's nothing we don't do from residential, commercial service, industrial generators, solar, you name it we do it. We have a service team that accommodates just about anything and everything out there, so that covers pretty much the gist of it. We have a service team that accommodates just about anything and everything out there, so that covers pretty much the gist of it.

Speaker 2:

All right, very nice. Yeah, quite a wide spectrum there, I noticed. And how did you guys either one of you can answer this, or both of you how'd you guys get into this business?

Speaker 4:

Well, actually Tim here has been in the electrical industry for about 30 years, since he was out of high school, and always worked for a bunch of, you know, larger firms and smaller firms. He traveled all around the country doing electrical work, doing some projects like high rise buildings, stadiums. I think he's done some barracks and some military things as well. And then the hard rock guitar he worked on that as well. And then I come from a background of legal and administrative and during COVID we found ourselves in predicaments with the job situation and so he decided we decided to just start Eamon Electric as a way for him to pass the time until everything reopened and he could go back to work. But it turned into something much bigger than that. And here we are. We both quit our other jobs and this is our full-time job now and we have 28 employees under us at the moment. So we've expanded quite a bit in five years due to loyal customers out there in the Treasure Coast and beyond.

Speaker 2:

That's pretty cool. I like that story and I'm really happy to hear that not only were you guys one of the companies that made it through the pandemic, but you guys thrived and grew and scaled, so congratulations.

Speaker 4:

We really did Between his expertise in the electrical field and my expertise in the office and just our both of our personalities and the way that we value customer service, I think is what's contributed to our growth here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would say that's definitely key. Customer service, All right. Well, what are some myths or misconceptions that you typically see in your industry?

Speaker 3:

Myths or misconceptions that your average Joe can do electric work. Don't do it. You should call a professional. That's definitely something you should do. There's a lot more to it than just a screw and a plate. You know we have systems out there, so it's best that the professionals look at it. That's why we go to school, that's why we get licenses and that's why it takes so long to do that. There's a reason, I think.

Speaker 3:

Another thing that I see along the line all the time is um, you don't need permits and you don't need this and you should absolutely do the permitting side of any electrical work you do, because for one it's going to cover your home, for your home insurance god forbid anything happens and it's a documented thing. So a lot of times when you alter something in your house and you add it and it's permitted, it could increase the value of your home. So you get two positive things out of that. I hear that a lot out there in the industry and you know I really strive that homeowners and business owners get the permits. Don't avoid the permits. It really is for your protection.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree. I think that's valuable information for people who you know take that something so seriously and something so you know it's. If it's not done right, it could threaten your life, and so I'll make sure professionals take care of that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah electricity can cause some serious damage, so it's nothing to play with. Spend the extra 100 bucks. It's okay damage, so it's nothing to play with.

Speaker 2:

Spend the extra a hundred bucks. It's okay, it's a good way to put it. So who are your?

Speaker 3:

target customers right now and how do you attract them? Target customers is everybody, you know. Electricity runs the world, everybody needs it. It's in your cars, it's in your boats, your planes, it doesn't matter. So you know we, every person out there, is our customer. That's what we strive upon, and everybody that calls this company, when we answer the phone, you're like family at that moment. So we try to make you happy, of course, and we try to strive to bring you quality service and a product that you paid for. We also try to educate our customers on the process and the electrical installation and work A lot of people don't know. They just don't know. And once they do find out you know it's usually at that point that it's the awe moment, like okay, I should have done this years ago.

Speaker 4:

So Now, as far as attracting the customers, so far we've built our company on a lot of word of mouth and we actually just rebranded and we refreshed our brand. So we've got some. We rewrapped our vehicles, we've got some you know, facebook ads going and things like that, and we're working on more things on the advertising side. We do a lot of things out in the community. We support a lot of various charities and we set up a lot of booths at various events and things like that. So that's how we kind of get out there. But word of mouth is one of our biggest contributing factors to attaining customers.

Speaker 2:

Okay, absolutely Very nice Outside of work. What do you guys do for fun, sleep.

Speaker 4:

We have a lot of kids, kids. So we have seven kids between us. Thankfully, most of them are out of the house, um, but we camp, we fish, hang out yeah, right side by side work.

Speaker 3:

I mean, we're average people. We try to do what we can. You know, running a business is it's tough when you do that with a family, you know. But you make the time. You have to make the time and we do. I play golf too and play softball, so we do a bunch of extracurricular stuff as we can sprinkle it into our lives.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, there you go. I like that. That stuff's important, I think too. So I'm going to switch gears on you guys a little bit here too. So I'm going to switch gears on you guys a little bit here. Can you describe a hardship, either maybe one that you guys have both done together or individually, it's up to you guys. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that either of you have been through and it made you stronger?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, life, a whole lot of life, is period. Um, yeah, there's a ton of things. I mean, life on its terms is tough, you know, um, but I think one of the hardest things we've done is obviously being married, raising a family and working together is is not exactly a walk in the park, you know it's. It's a, it's a. It's a tough task to handle. It's got its ups and it's got its downs and, um, you know, the good thing is is we're, we're strong Christians, and the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us through a lot of trials and tribulations and we keep our faith strong and, um, that's where we are today with that, and you know we're both remarried with children from other marriages, so that in and of itself is a challenge and, like he mentioned, having to do all that and grow a business together and work together and live together is very challenging.

Speaker 4:

But we do it every single day and we grow and learn every single day from the experience and we help mentor other people too that might have questions for us about how do we do it, what do we do it, what do we do? And it's just keeping our faith and staying together and making sure that we're communicating. Uh, through it all she hasn't.

Speaker 3:

She hasn't killed me yet, so I'm stupid why happy life?

Speaker 2:

you're doing something right. Yeah, yeah, something yeah.

Speaker 3:

Something's good, something's good still. So we're good. That's funny so yeah, either Tim or Maria. Can you guys tell our listeners one thing they should remember about even electrical contractor? We're number one there's hands down.

Speaker 4:

I think it's that we really. We really want people to know that we treat our employees with respect and we treat them and value them as a family, and we do a lot of things for our employees, including paying for their schooling if they want to become apprentices. We actually sponsor eight electricians right now, eight people that work for our company we sponsor to get their licenses. So we value education, we, we value our employees and that's how we're able to do what we do, um, and we wouldn't be here without them. So we really want the community to know how much we value our employees and our customers too.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, yeah. Well, that's really cool. I like that you went that direction with that. I think that's huge for the community to see how you guys conduct yourself and how you guys view your team.

Speaker 4:

Yes, it's a culture. We're building our own culture. It's extension of who we are. So we're not quite corporate but we're not quite mom and pop. We're a little bit of a blend. We're kind of making our own path here. See where it takes us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right. Well, how can the community learn more about the company?

Speaker 3:

Several ways. One look us up on Google. We're all over Google. We have Instagram. We have Facebook. A lot of our jobs are posted out there. I'm pretty sure, at this rate, if you live in the treasure coast and you ask around, somebody knows about even electric or that e we have a lot of followers and we do have a lot of likes. Um, we are a five-star business.

Speaker 4:

Um, I think we're pushing 300 now we have almost 300 reviews and we're at a five-star ranking on google, so that's awesome um and our website too, even electriccom. Um, you can always go there too to find out more information on where we're at and things like that.

Speaker 3:

Yep, so that's really you know. That's how you're gonna learn about us, or, if you want, call the number pick up the phone, give us a call, leave it or not? Leave a message for me, I'll call you back and we can talk the best way. Right, that's the best way. Come right to the horse's mouth.

Speaker 2:

Well, Tim and Maria, it's been really good chatting with you guys. Thanks for letting us know a little bit more about the company and you guys and how people can get ahold of you if they want to utilize your services. And yeah, we wish you guys and the company the best moving forward.

Speaker 4:

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Amen.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much, guys.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPortStLucycom. That's GNPPortStLucycom, or call 772-303-1036.