ARLINGTON, Texas — Through his more than 40 years as an Arlington resident, Scott Milner has had the opportunity to see the city change, ebbing and flowing with economic growth and challenges along the way.
“It’s where the business is,” Milner said regarding his extended stay here in Arlington. “I mean business is booming. It’s better now than it’s ever been.”
Milner said that while challenging, most anyone can build a business in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He said he believes that God made everyone different and has afforded every individual the tools to reach for their dreams of business ownership.
“If you look at it like that, America has an opportunity for whoever wants to go in whatever direction. And you just got to do it correctly,” Milner said.
Milner has taken his tools and his opportunities and has used them to create a thriving business that services a large portion of all McDonald’s restaurants in the DFW region, as well a substantial client base of residential and office space clients for machine repair and HVAC services. He said that he has found his comfort zone in the scale of his business by maintaining only seven to eight employees at a time. While this may seem like a small number, Milner said that maintaining a relatively low number of employees at a time can help to steady the direction of the company and allows him to keep a better gauge on the quality of work that is delivered to each and every customer.
“Every time you add one person you add challenges,” Milner said. “There’s angles of being content and happy and then still having an ability to control what’s going on.”
Consistency of vision, perspective and control have been the driving factors behind Milner’s success in not only the HVAC servicing industry, but also life in general. Keeping a keen eye on the opportunities that will become successful and those that would be more work than they are worth has allowed him to sidestep potential misfortune.
After purchasing his prized Clydesdale pony, which he refers to by the name of Big Girl, Milner soon began formulating a plan to start offering carriage ride services to people. He was dead set on this becoming a money-making opportunity to combine business and pleasure. But as Milner was doing his due diligence and researching everything that would be necessary to get such a venture off the ground, he said he realized that this was just a pipe dream that may not be monetarily viable in the end.
“I had this dream over here, and then I had my business,” Milner said. “I got into the training and saw what all would be involved, [and] I quickly figured out that it wasn’t going to be able to blend because I had to stay focused on the company.”
Even though Big Girl may never cart paying passengers along in a carriage, Milner still loves her dearly and spends much of his free time tending to her every need. He still enjoys taking her out for rides and caring for what he refers to as his 2,000-pound dog.
“She’s the perfect pet,” Milner said.
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