By Morgan Bryce
Editor

In 2011, already equipped with an HVAC certification and nearing completion of his small business degree from Opelika’s Southern Union campus, 20-year-old West Point native Carter Pitts made a risky decision – starting his own business.
“It was still hard to find jobs because the job market was so weak from the (Great) Recession. Lots of businesses in my field were keeping their best employees and letting others go, so I knew I might have a hard time finding something,” Pitts said.
Living in the Gentilly Trailer Park in Auburn, he set up an office in his single-wide trailer and revamped an older vehicle he owned into his business’s main means of transportation.
In the early 2010s when Economy was started, Pitts noted that businesses were becoming less and less reliant on phone books and instead were turning to online reviews. He made the most of each call, employing a business approach that he still embodies today.
“Being new in town, I had to figure a way to get word-of-mouth (advertising) and that’s why I started letting my customers leave reviews before they were really a thing,” Pitts said. “I try to take time to talk to each customer or client I interact with and get to know them … we want to build long-term relationships with them. You can sum up all of our services in one word: comfort – that’s what we’re selling. That’s what we focus on and what we’re prescribing.”
As business continued to grow, Pitts began looking for a place to both expand his business and start a family. After carefully evaluating his options, he and his wife Courtney chose to relocate to Opelika in early 2017.
Economy is located in an office space behind their residence at 408 N. 11th St. While Pitts and his five-member team are out on jobs across the Auburn-Opelika area, Courtney oversees office operations.
Services offered by the company cover air conditioning, heating and indoor air quality and include maintenance, installation and repairs. Economy is a “proud” Bryant dealer.
Despite its humble beginnings, the Pitts’ and their staff have managed to keep Economy up-to-date on current trends and transform it into a perennial million-dollar business since relocating to Opelika.
“As his mother, I’m so proud of him and everything he’s accomplished,” said Pitt’s mother Jackie.
With apprenticeships on the rise and an abundance of empty positions available, Pitts encourages high schoolers or college students with undeclared majors to seriously consider pursuing a trade as an alternative to the traditional four-year degree from an institution like Southern Union and its state-of-the-art instructional facilities.
“Every parent wants their kid to go to a four-year school, but what every parent needs to realize is that without a trade, you’ve got nothing to fall on. What you went to school for may not be relevant in five, 10 or 20 years from now,” Pitts said. “There’s definitely a shortage of people skilled in trade-type jobs and there are opportunities out there for people who want to pursue them.”
Economy’s hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
For more information, call 334-524-5328 or like and follow the business on Facebook.