Capital Connections
Capital Connections Podcast
Capital Connections
Ep #6 - Backup Power Solutions with Rock Brisebois of BHC Power
What inspires someone to transform a soggy basement disaster into a thriving business venture? Meet Rock Brisebois, the man behind BHC Power, who turned a power outage calamity into a specialized career in automatic standby generators. Rock walks us through his intriguing switch from the HVAC industry to solving our modern-day power reliability challenges. As remote work becomes the norm, Rock explains why backup power is more than just a convenience; it's a necessity. Discover the nuances of generator warranties and why understanding them can save you from future headaches, as well as the types of generators—natural gas, propane, and diesel—best suited for different needs.
Rock brings more than just technical expertise to the table; he shares the wisdom of delegating responsibilities and maintaining a personal touch in business. From his passion for music and technology to his consultative sales approach, Rock enriches the conversation with personal anecdotes and insights. Find out how his interests, including AI, influence not only his career but also his approach to family life and education. With over two decades of experience, Rock emphasizes the value of listening and tailoring solutions to customer needs. Don't miss out on his valuable advice and the opportunity to connect with BHC Power for a more personalized consultation.
BHC POWER INC
rock Brisebois
1(613)733-8135
www.BHCPOWER.com
Since 2003, BHC Power Inc. has been a trusted leader in the backup power industry, born from a commitment to keep homes and businesses running during times of power uncertainty. As proud suppliers of Briggs & Stratton, Kohler, and Generac Generators, we offer a comprehensive range of residential, commercial, and industrial backup power solutions tailored to meet your unique needs.
Our services go beyond just supplying industry-leading generators. We provide end-to-end solutions, including expert installation and reliable maintenance services, ensuring your power systems are always ready when you need them most.
At BHC Power Inc., we believe that dependable backup power is more than just a convenience—it’s a necessity. Our team of skilled professionals is committed to delivering superior customer service, offering personalized support, and fostering long-term relationships built on trust and reliability.
When you choose BHC Power Inc., you’re choosing power you can depend on, peace of mind, and a partner who puts your needs first. Whether protecting your home, business, or industrial operations, we’re here to keep your world powered—every time.
This is the Capital Connections Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Samuel Lowe.
Speaker 2:Yes, hello. Welcome to the Capital Connections Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Rock Brisebois of BHC Power. Rock, thank you for joining us today. My pleasure. Greetings, Samuel. How are you? Hey, I'm doing great. Thank you very much. Let's jump right into it. Can you share a bit of what you do at BHC Power?
Speaker 3:Sure, I started and own a company called BHC Power. What we do is we specialize in the installation, service and reparation of automatic standby generators. So we sell Generac, kohler, briggs, stratton, so we're specializing in backup power for residences and also for commercial use.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic, and you know that backup power. You know Generac, we know that's natural gas, but do you do any other sort of backup power? Is it specific to the gas products?
Speaker 3:It's natural gas, propane or diesel products that. Is it specific to the gas products? It's natural gas, propane or diesel products that we were specific to.
Speaker 2:Yes yeah, fantastic uh. Can you share with the listener, uh listeners your journey and how and why you got into business?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's kind of funny, actually accidentally fell into this. Uh, in 1995 I I came out of college and started doing hvacs. I was doing furnaces, air conditioning, things of that nature and uh, we suffered a power outage at our house that we had built and really we had a sump bump in a well and we weren't we were city folks so we weren't used to that. So the very first six months we're in a place and really we had a massive power outage.
Speaker 3:Uh, for about a day, uh, my basement flooded yeah, so obviously we're looking for a solution to to prevent that from happening again. And at the time uh, that was back in 03 and at the time generac was looking for dealers in ottawa and I just happened to have a small hvac company. So I just sort of my my goal was to buy actually one for myself, but it ended up growing out of my streets. Everybody on the street had power outages. So I think, long story short, the fourth generator I ordered I finally installed at my house, because I kept installing it at the neighbors as soon as I'd received them. So it came out of that. I mean, it came out of sort of like a bad experience for me with the basement flooding and one thing led to another and next thing, you know, I mean this is like 21, 22 years later, all we do is strictly generators.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing. You can see, imagine the last few years we've had. Seems like there's been some pretty major weather events, whether it be a tornado. It's like power nothing's. You know, flooding and water damage is so devastating. So the idea with the backup power is power goes out, all your systems, you know, are maintained, and particularly your sub pump.
Speaker 3:Well, that's a big deal, because the thing that sort of turned me on to this is they're fully automatic. So whether you're home or not, I mean, the system doesn't care. If it senses a power outage, they'll kick on automatically. And because it's connected to most times to natural gas, there's always gas flowing through the house at this point. That's that. That makes it automatic. So that's what the first thing that really excited me about these things, and I think that's the same thing other people are looking for, and I think that's the same thing other people are looking for. A lot of people aren't mechanically inclined and all that. Also, our population is getting a little bit older and all that. So it's not always easy to you know, if there's a power outage, to wheel out a gasoline generator, make sure you have gasoline in the in the garage and all that. Filling it up, plugging it in, I mean.
Speaker 2:I hear you it's.
Speaker 3:It's easier, like basically, when the power goes out, you count to 10 and the lights come back on. So it's a lot easier that way.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I live rurally and that's what we depend on basically is that portable generator and it's. You never have the right fuel when you need it. No-transcript no, exactly in terms of uh flooding up, I also guess with people working from home, so much more?
Speaker 3:yeah, there's a lot more you're correct about. So a lot of people use this as a business expense at this point to make sure they're always up and running.
Speaker 2:Super advantage, but also if you're working from home and you lose power, that could be your out of days work basically.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Potentially, yeah. Okay, any myths or misconceptions that we could clear up regarding generators and what's involved with them?
Speaker 3:They're pretty much self-explanatory, and all that, as far as, like I tell, I always advise customers is to look at and people often overlook, that is, to look at the actually what the warranty on these machines are. Some warranties are better than others, so it's really important that sometimes, to read the small print. There's some company I'm not going to name company names, obviously but there's some companies out there that are extremely, very popular but there's a lot of small print in there and their warranties. So those are things that are are very important for for a customer to look over. So us at bhc power, when I I'm walking into a customer's house, uh, to explain basically how generators work, and all that because we sell three different brands, at that point I can always, you know, offer the the best solution for them. At the same time, we can talk about warranties, because some not all warranties are created equal and some companies have way better warranties than others.
Speaker 2:Hey, no question about that. Let's say there is a warranty issue with the machine. Do you guys service that as well?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes, we're a local dealer, but we are also the warranty shop for all three brands we sell.
Speaker 2:Hey, fantastic. Any annual maintenance or anything involved with uh, with having a uh a generator like your furnace, you, you need to, or you're supposed to, go in and have it cleaned on an annual basis is oh absolutely it's a, it's an engine, right, so it has a lot of moving parts.
Speaker 3:And when somebody spends that kind of money for, uh, it's like I'm telling you, you kind of have like a, a lawnmower sitting on the side of your house in the snow in the wintertime. So you want to make sure it's coming on and it's working properly, right.
Speaker 2:Sure, One thing. I don't have one myself, but I've seen them working. It's kind of neat because they go off weekly, I believe. Right, yeah, weekly for an exercise cycle.
Speaker 3:It won't affect the power in the house, it's strictly the machine itself outside running an exercise cycle. But yeah, once a year or every 100 and so odd hours, it's important to get these things looked at. So it's the same as a car you do a filter change, an oil change, spark plugs and all that and you test everything out because you want to make sure these things are working when you need them right, and it always seems to be 3 o'clock in the morning, in the middle of the uh, in the middle of the night and when it's you know minus 30 outside that you need them. The most.
Speaker 2:So well, and that's what happens with our portable one. It's, you know, the middle of the night and, uh, you got to get out and start using it.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know the feelings like I'll just wait, it'll probably come back on soon.
Speaker 2:Two hours later, you have to get an elbow in the ribs saying time to go yeah yeah, so we're fortunate we don't lose power a whole lot, but when it does happen it's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 3:It is Tell me where you live. I can work on that for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I figured you probably could. Speaking of that, I'm a little outside of the city. Our residence is what is your service area?
Speaker 3:We're pretty vast. We'll go all the way from Cornwall, all the way to Brockville. Okay, excellent, and then after that all of Eastern Ontario and we do go up into Quebec as well, so in the Ottawa area.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so Ottawa and Gatineau because it's different licensing and all that kind of stuff in Quebec I presume Yep. Excellent Chapel Francais. Oui, Monsieur, Okay, fantastic. Here's a question. We've all endured our hardship of one sort of another or a different challenge along our journey. Can you describe one of those that you rose above and you can now say you're in a better place because of it?
Speaker 3:Goodness, that's a good question. I think it's mostly handling. I mean, for me it's not so much building the business. That's been fun for me. I love the business side of things and all that. It's been mostly handling staff over the years. I guess that was a learning curve for me because I'm the type of guy that likes things done a certain way and I find that and it's funny because I think a couple of years ago one of my staff members told me says Rock, I don't like working with you because I end up standing around all the time and you're doing everything.
Speaker 3:So I had to learn to delegate a little bit better, and through delegating a little bit better than at this point, I was able to oversee a little bit, the operations a little bit more, and obviously we're able to boost up the training for the employees, as opposed to me trying to be the guy that does everything. Uh, it makes a lot more sense to to so oversee and delegate a little bit more. I still insist on doing the sales. Uh, I want to meet the customers firsthand and all that. So if, if somebody calls bhc power for an estimate, for example, they're going to see me, so I'm the one that's going to be going over to their house and talking to them and measuring everything. So I'd like to keep control over that way. But then I have my very trustworthy staff that you've trained properly and you know, over the years they've learned how I like to do things, so they adhere to that. So it was a learning process, but we're a lot better for it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's excellent. You know, as an owner, you're making contact with your customers and you develop that relationship. That's important to me yeah, I think it's important to your clients as well, as people want to see and meet the person behind the company, so that's excellent that you provide that. Let's see outside of work.
Speaker 3:How do you enjoy spending your time? I'm a bit of a musician I dabble into that so I like playing guitar. Bit of a musician, I dabble into that, so I like playing. I like playing guitar, things of that nature. I'm also, right now, I'm always a bit of a techie, so I like, I'm very fascinated by what AI is doing right now, whether it's good or bad, but I'm trying to learn a little bit on on that point and it's just such a vast like. There's just a vast array of possibilities you'll be able to do in the future.
Speaker 3:So that's something that interests me a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool, and the verdict is still out. I guess it could go either way good and bad, or both.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess that's what we'll just have to wait and see.
Speaker 2:The possibilities. It's a pretty exciting time to be alive it is, yeah, time to be alive. It really is. I've got a couple of young kids and I think about the tutoring capabilities of AI, Specializing to each child's kind of unique ability. You know aptitudes it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3:It is phenomenal. I have two daughters as well, and they're ones in university, and you know, always people are always looking at the negative side. They go well, they either just going to cheat and they'll have AI write their thing. But I find it's kind of done the opposite, because I see her wanting, you know, the. For example, the professor didn't teach something that she understood too well, or she didn't like the way the professor taught it. Then she'll research it on on chat, gpt, for example, and you know, and, and at that point she'll learn it that way.
Speaker 3:So I find it just to keep her interest more than anything.
Speaker 2:Hey, in our day it was Cole's notes, today it's you know jump on a chat. Gpt us. You know what's going on. It's right yeah, pretty amazing. Yeah, yeah, exciting time to be alive. Absolutely what's. What's one thing you wish listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:oh, my goodness, um wish to know about our business. Everybody needs a backup generator. That's what I wish they knew. But yeah, though these things are, I like to. I guess I liked it. My selling is very like people will contact me. We don't push anything upon anybody and we're not. I'm not a pushy salesperson and rather educate, so that's kind of what I like doing. So I'll walk into somebody's house and, as opposed to you know sitting at the table and giving them a pen and sign here and you know we'll finance this or that, I'd rather listen to their wants and needs and see if we can tailor something to what what they want. Um, so I know it's not really answering your question.
Speaker 3:I don't have a really no, no, I I think it does, because it speaks to a consultative approach to it is and basically I'll, I'll walk in, I'll walk out of there and leaving people with you know something to think about and leaving them with different options. So I find that something that's that's working well for us. And I'm not I'm not a pressure guy. I don't like being pressured in sales, so that's why I'm I'm sort of like the the same laid-back approach for me.
Speaker 2:I'd rather educate that bush yeah yeah, excellent, and it served you very well, you know, in business for, uh, for quite some time, is it you founded in what year? Was it 2003? Or 2003, that's correct, yeah well, yeah, so you're over 20 years in business I think that speaks volumes to uh, to the services that you guys provide. That's excellent. How can listeners learn more about you and contact you?
Speaker 3:They can check out our website, which is wwwbhcpowercom. They can call us at the office at 613-733-8135. So all of our information is on the website and we also have detailed information about the generators we sell and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yay, amazing Rock, it was a pleasure getting to know you today. Thanks for connecting with us and hope to see you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:I appreciate this. Thank you very much, sam, take care. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Capital Connections Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to CapitalConnectionsPodcastcom. That's CapitalConnectionsPodcastcom, or call 343-803-6268.