CIU Today Summer 2015

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eter Yeh considers his skills
at fixing your heating and air
conditioning system a “blessing from
God” plus he “loves serving people.”
With that as a starting point, Yeh is
developing a business model for Peter
Yeh, LLC, an HVAC, plumbing and
construction company he founded in
2011. Further clarification of the model
is being developed as he also works
on a bachelor’s degree in Business &
Organizational Leadership (BOL) at CIU.
Yeh is not the typical undergraduate
student. He is 37 years old, married with
three small children, and in addition to
building his own business and working
on a degree, he is a full-time employee
of CIU’s Physical Plant. He emphasizes
that family comes first, and that’s why
right now he only works his business a
couple of nights each week and only
takes a couple of classes each semester.
Yeh’s training in HVAC began with
an associate degree from Midlands
Technical College in Columbia, and 15
years of experience with two local HVAC
companies before being hired at CIU.
“Being here at CIU is a ministry,” Yeh
said in an interview over lunch in the CIU
Dining Room, which given his schedule,
was the only time he had to chat. “You
have to come here with a heart for
people (and) serve and minister as much
as you can. That’s why I love it here.
Coming out of the secular world, it has
been a blessing being here.”
Meanwhile, Yeh saw a great educational
opportunity that could help him with his
company when CIU introduced the BOL
major in 2012.
“Running a business on the fly, I realized
how little I really understood about
business,” Yeh said.
Yeh set aside his lunch plate of rice
topped with a generous serving of
jalapenos to better focus on his words as
he made some important points about
the BOL’s program director Dr. Benjamin
Dean.
“Dr. Dean is my mentor,” Yeh said. “I see
him as a very humble man who doesn’t
talk about himself. He is more interested
in learning who you are.”
Yeh admits to being a person who
doesn’t naturally look to the future and
make plans. But because of the BOL
program and Dr. Dean, that is changing.
“The program on the whole has taught
me that you’ve got to keep moving,
you’ve got to have purpose,” Yeh said.
“I feel that being in the program, being
under Dr. Dean has taught me that.”
So would Yeh like to build up his business
to the point of being on his own?
P
Building a Business Model
Foundation: People
HVAC Man Enters CIU Business Program to Build Existing Business
By Bob Holmes
“God has given me this business, (and) I
need to be a good steward running my
business,” Yeh said. “God brought me
to the campus when they opened up the
(BOL) program – to me it’s much more
than a coincidence. I have a deep desire
to want to learn more about business, so
I can be successful in what God has given
me.”
And for Yeh, that means developing his
business model’s foundation — people.
“How can I serve my customers? How can
I show God’s love through the work that
I do? My business model has to revolve
around that.”
“How can I show God’s
love through the work
that I do? My business
model has to revolve
around that.”
–Peter Yeh
Unusual Internship: The Student
Learns from the Student
Internships are an important aspect of
degree programs at CIU. But it’s untypical
for a student to do an internship under the
guidance of another student. However,
that’s what happened last summer when
senior Brett Ballentine did his internship at
Peter Yeh, LLC.
Ballentine served as Yeh’s project
manager, researching and developing
business strategies, assisting Yeh in record
keeping and billing, including figuring out
what Yeh’s rates should be.
“I was clueless and he has such a brain for
that … a natural knack for understanding
that,” Yeh said. “He (also) helped me
finalize my decisions on my business
model.”
So, did Ballentine feel a little odd doing
his internship under a fellow student?
“Not at all,” Ballentine said. “By
discussing the classes that we had shared,
we learned how each other think and
found strengths and weaknesses that we
could use to maximize our teamwork.”
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ENTREPRENEURS AMONG US
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