Ask Erik what he does that other electricians don’t, and the answer is small and unglamorous. “I follow up with phone calls,” he says.
The phone shows up in his customers’ reviews, too. One customer wrote in a Google review that Erik helped her troubleshoot a problem over the phone, working out what was wrong from a poor photo she had taken. That spared her an emergency visit on a Saturday, and she wrote that she was amazed he could see the issue at all.
Erik is the owner of iKnow Electric, which is based in Rocklin, California. The company’s website says it has served the greater Sacramento area since 2010, in towns from Loomis and Lincoln to Folsom and El Dorado Hills, and that it offers emergency service around the clock. The crew is small. Erik calls it a mom-and-pop shop. “It’s just me and one or two employees, so I’m always on job sites,” he says.
About 80 percent of the work is residential, he says, with some commercial jobs, including tenant improvements. The work the company loves most is installing EV chargers. Another customer wrote in a Google review that Erik is certified by Tesla to install its wall charger and that he stayed after the job until the customer could register on the Tesla app. Erik also does a lot of hot tub wiring for clients. Beyond that, he says, the company does “kind of everything,” including lighting, from new construction to remodels. It also handles panel upgrades, lighting design and service calls. Erik says much of his work comes from repeat customers and word of mouth, since he does very little advertising.
He has been doing this for 25 years, he says.
Honesty is the word he comes back to most. “I like to be honest, and sometimes it hurts me because I’m too honest,” he says. “But I’m okay with that.” He describes his dealings with customers the same way. “I’m straightforward with people. I’ll be completely honest. Give people what I honestly think, not just to sell them.” If a customer isn’t happy, he says, he isn’t happy either, and he will do whatever he can to set it right.
His employees, he says, are good friends. One has worked with him for seven years and another for a couple of years. “I don’t want to hire anyone that isn’t going to get along with me,” he says.
The reason is practical. “You’re working with each other every day, all day, so you got to get along with the person,” he says. A former employee who left to open his own company is still a good friend.
The instinct to run his own shop came from his father, who owned one of the largest printing companies in California and sold it at 40 to retire. Erik says he grew up watching that drive and discipline and always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I’m not able to retire at 40,” he says, “but at least I’m doing my own thing.”
Someday he would like to sell the company and retire, he says. Not yet, though. “I kind of like being out in the field, and I just don’t like sitting at home.”