Today we’d like to introduce you to Billy Robbins.
Hi Billy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Robbins Electric was founded in 2020 by my twin brother, Andy Robbins, a master electrician and lifelong entrepreneur. Andy had been building businesses since graduating high school, starting with a lawn care company before eventually finding his passion in the electrical trade.
My path was almost the opposite. I went to college and then took the corporate route with Garmin International. I started in the call center and worked my way up through the company, eventually becoming a Regional Sales Manager.
Even though we were building careers in completely different worlds, Andy and I still talked every day. That is probably one of the easiest ways to explain how Robbins Electric became what it is today. We have always been close, and as twins, we naturally bounced ideas off each other constantly. We would talk about work, customers, business, growth, and what each of us was learning in our own careers.
Eventually, those conversations started pointing us in the same direction.
A couple of years after Andy founded Robbins Electric, I began training under him and learning the electrical trade. In 2023, we officially became business partners and started making a concentrated effort to grow the company together.
Looking back, it feels pretty natural. We spent years talking every day while working separate careers, so eventually we decided to build something together.
Being twins also means we bring two very different skill sets to the same table while sharing many of the same instincts and values. Andy brings years of entrepreneurship, field experience, and master level electrical knowledge. I bring the sales, customer experience, systems, and organizational perspective I gained working within a large international company. Those two backgrounds give us a strong foundation for building an enduring company.
For a while, it was literally just the two of us. We were working in the field, answering phones, estimating jobs, managing customers, and handling whatever else needed to be done. Three years into our growth effort, Robbins Electric has grown to a team of 12, and we are continuing to hire and expand.
People seem to remember that we are twins everywhere we go, and honestly, we enjoy that. It is a fun part of our story, but it also says a lot about the company. Robbins Electric is very personal to us. We are not two people who happened to become business partners. We grew up together, took very different career paths, stayed involved in each other’s lives every day, and eventually combined those experiences into the same business.
Our families are tied together too. Andy and I married two ladies who were already best friends, and between our two families we now have four kids, all three years old or younger. Andy has a son and a daughter, and I have two daughters.
That probably makes Robbins Electric feel even more like a family story. We grew up together, built separate careers, married best friends, started families at almost the same time, and now we are building a company together.
We are proud of the growth, but becoming a bigger electrical contractor is not the end goal. Robbins Electric is being built to last. The standard is excellent craftsmanship, taking care of customers, creating meaningful careers for our employees, developing the next generation of electricians, and building a company our families and our team can be proud of for a very long time.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not always been a smooth road. Growth takes long hours, consistency, and a willingness to keep showing up even when progress feels slower than you want it to.
Like most small businesses, we have had to work through the challenges that come with hiring, training, building systems, managing cash flow, and learning how to grow without losing the quality of work or customer experience that got us here in the first place. Every stage of growth creates a new set of problems to solve.
One idea from *Extreme Ownership* that has always resonated with us is, “Discipline equals freedom.” That mindset applies directly to building a company. The more disciplined we are about our standards, our systems, our communication, and our follow through, the more freedom we create to grow.
What has made the biggest difference for us is that we have always had a clear vision for what Robbins Electric is supposed to become. Staying true to that vision makes the hard decisions easier. We may adjust the route, but we do not change the destination.
There are certainly easier paths, but once you are committed to building something enduring, consistency becomes the answer to most challenges. You keep improving, keep learning, keep surrounding yourself with the right people, and keep doing the work.
We have never viewed success as something we hope happens. We see it as the result of continuing to execute on the vision every day. As long as we stay disciplined, take care of our people and customers, and continue raising our standard, there really is no other acceptable outcome besides success.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Today, our work covers high end custom homes, residential and commercial remodels, tenant improvements, new construction, restoration, and service work. We also perform low voltage and smart home installations, including landscape lighting, ethernet, smart switches, connected home systems, and other technology driven electrical solutions.
Generators are another important part of what we offer. We support two of the largest generator brands so we can provide customers with strong equipment options and a great overall experience from selection and installation through ongoing service and support.
One area we have become especially skilled in is completing electrical installations with very little, or sometimes no, demolition. Our electricians use creative fishing techniques and experience to get wiring where it needs to go without unnecessarily tearing apart someone’s finished home.
That matters to us because there should be a high standard for anyone entering a customer’s home or business. Customers should feel comfortable with the people they are allowing through their front door. Their opinions should be heard and respected, while they can also rely on us for professional guidance when there may be a better or safer way to accomplish what they are trying to do.
That philosophy is reflected in our mission, which is to provide a turnkey electrical experience built around high end craftsmanship, efficient execution, courteous service, safety, clarity, and reliability. Our vision is to set the standard for electrical excellence in the Kansas City metro and become the area’s most trusted, responsive, premium full service electrical partner.
Our three core values are Safety First, Excellence in Every Detail, and Respectful Partnerships. Those values guide how we treat our customers, employees, contractors, and vendors.
As we have grown, developing the next generation of electricians has also become increasingly important to us. We have some incredibly talented people on our team, and we are now able to bring apprentices into the trade and give them the opportunity to learn from experienced electricians. The electrical industry does not continue without apprentices. Without apprentices, eventually there are no journeymen, and without journeymen, there are no master electricians.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
One of the biggest pieces of advice I would give anyone starting out is simple: do the right thing, even when it is harder, more expensive, or nobody else would know the difference.
A quote I have kept with me for years is, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing it right.” That applies to your work, how you treat people, how you handle mistakes, and ultimately how you build your reputation. There will always be opportunities to take shortcuts, but those small decisions eventually become the culture of your company and the reputation attached to your name.
I would also tell people to have confidence in themselves and their abilities. You are rarely going to feel completely ready for the next step. Another quote I like is, “Ready isn’t a feeling, it’s a decision.” There have been plenty of things Andy and I had never done before we did them. Hiring our first employee, taking on larger projects, building systems, managing a growing team, and making bigger investments all required stepping into something new.
Confidence does not mean assuming you know everything. In fact, I think real confidence makes it easier to admit when you do not know something. Do not be scared of something you do not understand. Be interested. Ask questions, learn from people who know more than you, and then trust yourself enough to make a decision and move forward.
I also wish I understood earlier how much the little things matter. How you do one thing really does become how you do everything. Answer the phone. Show up when you say you will. Admit when you are wrong. Fix your mistakes. Treat people with respect. Do good work when nobody is watching.
None of those things are complicated, but doing them consistently is what separates people and companies over time.
If you can combine integrity with the confidence to keep moving forward, you can figure out most of the rest along the way.
Pricing:
- Electrical work is a little different from many other services because most projects are one off. Even two homes with what sounds like the same issue can have completely different conditions behind the walls, different access, different existing equipment, or different code requirements. Because of that, we usually need to see the project before we can give an accurate estimate. Sometimes that means an in person visit, but we also try to make the process as convenient as possible. For many smaller projects, we can guide a customer through taking a few specific photos and then walk through the project with them over the phone. That allows us to understand the scope, talk through options, and provide pricing with much more confidence than simply guessing based on a short description. Our goal is to make estimating easy for the customer while still being thorough enough to price the work correctly. In electrical, the details matter, and we would rather spend a little time understanding the project up front than give someone a number that does not reflect what the work actually requires.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.robbinselectricinc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbinselectric?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&stkn=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robbinselectricllc
