It all started with a phone call back home. That’s what Dan Smith, the owner of Randy’s Electric, told me about his journey to buying his family’s business. He never had intentions of taking up the torch: “I always wanted to do things my own way, not under my dad’s grand shadow” says Dan. What started with a notion to call his parents every week eventually led to Dan buying Randy’s Electric in June of 2021. “What’s crazy to me, is when you look back and connect all the dots,” says Dan. But to tell this story properly, we have to start a little further back than those phone calls.
Randy’s Electric was founded by Dan’s father, Randy Smith, in February of 2002. Since the beginning, something that separated the company from others was their clear mission: “To be a blessing,” pulled straight from the strong faith at the core of the company. Randy would say, “although it’s unique for the industry, that’s what we believe.” That ethos trickles down not only to every job, but how the company views its own employees: “When we interact with our customers, with our team, and with our families, we always want to be a blessing. That’s our purpose,” says Dan.
Since 2002, Randy’s Electric has grown from just Randy to almost sixty employees. That growth has always been taken very seriously, especially when it comes to hiring new electricians. Randy’s Electric insists on having not only the best licensed journeyman electricians, but individuals who can give the best customer experience as well as electrical work. “We hire based on who you are, not what you can do. We can teach you what you can do… but it’s hard to teach someone integrity.”
That focus on excellent service as well as technical proficiency isn’t just about following the company’s mission, it also comes down to economics. “We want to provide consistency for our customer, that’s why we offer upfront pricing. A veteran journeyman, or a newly minted journeyman, you are paying the same amount – regardless of how long it takes them to complete the job,” says Dan. Randy’s Electric prices the jobs up-front to incentivize electricians to do their best work and give customers peace of mind, knowing there are no hidden costs. And it is all backed by the company’s Lifetime Guarantee on Workmanship.
Dan started out shadowing his father at work during the summers when he was 12. He enjoyed learning from and working with his father, but despite that, he always wanted to forge his own path. There was one very memorable moment in these early years. Dan recalls one such time when shadowing his father, “he told me to pull a certain wire, and I messed up. I came to on the ground with my father crying over me.” Dan had misunderstood which wires to pull, causing him to black out. However, it didn’t slow him down from carving his own path.
Growing up, Dan took his interests in other directions. From staring his own lawncare business at 12, to growing churches, to remodeling and renting houses, to staring his own media company, Dan has dipped his toes in several industries. In 2017, however, he returned to Randy’s Electric working to grow and rebrand the company, “And then I kept taking on other tasks: phone systems, IT, our parts and fleet, and the way we provide service. I just kept naturally taking on more, and I did that for four years, just learning the business inside and out,” says Dan. And it was during that time, that Dan started calling mom & dad every week.
The epiphany came to Dan in church, “I just felt like I needed to make sure I called my parents to see how they were doing.” Those weekly conversations brought Dan especially close with his father when they began to remodel the family cabin. On one of their weekend drives to and from the cabin, their conversation turned to aspirations, with Randy asking Dan, “What do you want?” To his own surprise, Dan responded, “I want to buy the business.” And without missing a beat Randy said, “When?” Despite the exchange being a surprise to both men, Dan remembers, “We both just kinda sat and thought: this is happening.”
Together, they decided Dan would buy Randy’s Electric in June of 2021. They signed and finished in July, and Randy, who had been struggling with diabetes, was in the hospital in August. He passed away later that year. And looking back at that timeline, from returning to Randy’s Electric, to the decision to call his parents, to the swift purchase of the company, “That’s where it feels like it was just meant to be,” says Dan.
Moving forward, through Randy’s Electric, Dan still works to ‘be a blessing’ with each and every job, every customer, and every hire.
For more information on Randy’s Electric, visit https://randyselectric.com/ or call (612) 470-0914.
