When do you move a side business front and center? For John Chustz, the decision had to do more with spirituality than with practicalities. As Business Report details in its new Entrepreneur feature on Chustz, he already had a 10-year career in electrical and instrumentation work by age 29, first at Gulf States and Entergy, then at DSM Copolymer. His wife, a nurse, was expecting their second child.
“I had a good job,” he says. “People thought I was crazy for leaving the plant.”
But he had seen older co-workers laid off after corporate shakeups and didn’t want that fate for himself. Instead, he chose independence through self-employment. For several years Chustz had been doing small electrical projects on his days off. Early in 2003 he dedicated himself full-time to establishing Chustz Electrical Services.
“Oh, it was taking a chance,” he says, adding, “I just went out on faith … determined to make it work.”
Within months, Chustz hired his first employee: 21-year-old Jake Richard, now CES operations manager.
“It was just Jake and I with a truck, pulling a big trailer around seven days a week,” Chustz recalls.
Jobs came steadily through referrals—and still do. He trained Richard in residential work first; after a couple years, Richard supervised that division, while Chustz began bidding on commercial jobs, where the company’s real growth potential lies. Today about 80% of CES projects are commercial, 20% high-end residential. Read the full feature. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
