7 minute read
THE “MILLION-DOLLAR SIDE HUSTLE”
14 Winter 2021 LOUISIANA WOMEN IN BUSINESS
Erin Pedrami
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You’re going to love our Woman of the Season! Erin Pedrami is a Baton Rouge attorney and owner of two local businesses - Pedrami Law Firm and Bayou South Mechanical Services, a residential HVAC company. I had the pleasure of taking Erin to lunch where she shared her story and how, with a little bit of good luck, fate, lots of late nights, and four children later, she runs two remarkably successful businesses.
A native of Washington, D.C., Erin has lived in Louisiana for the better part of 20 years since first moving to New Orleans in 1994 as a young single mother with no college degree.
The granddaughter of a Washington Redskins’ retail store owner (the store was named “House of Erin”), Erin is a die-hard New Orleans Saints fan and loves all-things Louisiana.
She began her new-found adult life in New Orleans working as a waitress at Pat O’Brien’s (…lots of late nights…) and went on to work as a legal assistant for several New Orleans law firms while attending college classes at night and on weekends. Back then she had few skills, but one that law firms really needed – she could type. Fast. During Erin’s high school days, her mother owned a typing service, and after Erin learned how to type, she worked for her mother’s company earning $1.00 per page. She quickly learned that the faster she typed, the more money she could earn. Watching her mother run a typing service from the dining room of her family’s home was how Erin learned how to run a business. That was the extent of her business training; she often wondered if an MBA would offer more.
Five years after moving to New Orleans, she earned her degree from Tulane University, and while she had her heart set on medical school, her law firm colleagues convinced her that law school was “easy” and encouraged her to apply to Loyola. She knew nothing about law school but rolled the dice and got accepted with her sights set on litigation upon graduation.
As the world turned and the legal market downturned post-9/11, Erin applied to Georgetown Law Center’s tax LL.M. program to begin immediately following graduation from Loyola. She rolled the dice again and committed to moving back home if she was accepted. In the summer of 2003 after sitting for the New York bar exam, she packed up her two sons and headed back to D.C. for another year of school. She describes the tax LL.M. program as something akin to learning a foreign language if you have only ever heard the English language. Without a background in finance, this was “the most challenging” and “thoroughly enriching” learning experience that, little did she know, would come with great future rewards.
After six years of working in Washington (and the births of her third and fourth children), Erin returned “home” to Louisiana to accept a position as Director of Career Services at LSU Law Center where she worked for just over eight years. She shared that the most rewarding part of her job was witnessing the transformation of law students leaving as lawyers in very short 3-year cycles. “Many of my former students became my friends, and quite a few are working opposed to me now in the courtroom.” During her tenure at the Law Center, she opened an HVAC business, which she refers to as her “accidental million-dollar side hustle.”
With no money, and a drum of refrigerant that she and her friend found on the side of the road (that had fallen off someone’s truck), the HVAC business came alive.
She very quickly learned how to design a website and marketing materials, and through trial and error (and tears) figured out that for a business to turn a profit, it would need customers. Without a marketing budget or a roster of customers to cold call, she signed the business up to receive service calls from home warranty companies. This was the only way she knew to make the phone ring.
Shortly after opening the business, Erin’s friend was unable to run it; he was her most valuable resource and he passed away. Erin was forced to make an “executive” decision whether to take it over and keep it running or to close it. She says the math was simple.
A devout risk-taker, she rolled the dice again. She struggled over the years with hiring workers she could trust, as the HVAC trade is riddled with men battling drug and alcohol addiction. And she learned many hard lessons working with various home warranty companies that ultimately never paid what they owed. In her first year she lost $10,000 in labor and materials to a home warranty company that was notorious for scamming HVAC contractors. Her ultimate saving grace has been her second oldest son, Noah. “Noah spent six years working side-by-side on the job with our more experienced technicians, and now he is our lead.” At the outset, Erin’s biggest challenge was figuring out how to balance running a service business with her full-time day job. She prides herself on being slightly tech-savvy, so she created and implemented systems with the end-goal of the virtual HVAC company essentially running itself. "I can run the HVAC business and my law practice 100% from my cell phone, and during its first three years, the HVAC business easily grossed over $1M."
If one a/c service call could net even a small profit, why would she close the business?
THE DREAM THAT CAME TO LIFE
As she sat in her chair at LSU Law Center for almost a decade watching young lawyers spread their wings and begin to fly, she started dreaming about opening her own law practice. After learning so much about the “business of business” with her HVAC company, she knew she couldn’t just design a website and a business card and press go. The Louisiana bar exam was the first hurdle, which took her six years to pass from the first time she attempted the exam. “I always say that it was or wasn’t meant to be, and that timing is everything.” She continued to watch her students weather the storm and pass the exam, and they actually became her inspiration to take it again. The Louisiana bar license was her golden ticket.
Less than a year after hear swearing in, she left LSU Law Center to run her law practice full time. She admits that she’s never looked back on her decision, and she is most grateful for all the support she has received from her family, her friends, and her colleagues at the Law Center.
It’s impressive to meet a woman who has grown a family, put herself through school, and is running two successful businesses at 47-years old. She prides herself on helping people and serving communities in south Louisiana with affordable legal representation.
Her law practice focuses on criminal defense, family law, civil litigation, successions, estate planning, and business law. She doesn’t believe in selling legal services based on “wins,” but on her ability to be a good advocate for her clients when they are faced with complex legal issues.
Erin is a force to be reckoned with, and that’s why she’s our Woman Of The Season!
She says that though her story is not for the faint of heart, she’s grateful because it’s given her the life experience needed to get to where she is today. The HVAC business taught her how to run a law firm, and she still can’t believe it! The owner of an “accidental million-dollar side-hustle” and CEO of Pedrami Law Firm, where the company’s mantra is “We Are Your Voice.”
Be on the lookout for more of Erin’s story and business strategies in her upcoming book, “The 41st Hour.” This woman is awesome and loves to share her secrets to business ownership! Until then, I’ll leave you with a piece of advice Erin shares with other female business owners:
