HOW LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS CAN BE WHAT SEPARATES A TROUBLED PAST FROM A BRIGHT FUTURE

The Value of Entrepreneurship for Young Men Without Credentials

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2026

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Last Friday, Lamar Werts stood outside 1700 4th Street South with members of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and cut the ribbon on The Service Pros’ new warehouse. For a company that has earned more than 265 five-star Google reviews and grown into a multi-truck HVAC operation serving homeowners across Pinellas County, it was a moment worth celebrating. But for Werts, who grew up just blocks from where that warehouse now stands, the moment meant something more personal. Several years ago, he was in prison.
Werts has always been a hustler, ever since he was young. But growing up on the South Side of St. Petersburg, opportunities were scarce, and that hustle was directed towards the streets. He came home to the South Side of St. Pete without a high school diploma. He spent nearly two years earning his GED at St. Petersburg College, working jobs during the day and studying at night, failing sections and coming back to try again. He nearly quit more than once. But through mentors who refused to give up on him and a new circle of young entrepreneurs at USF St. Petersburg, he began to see that the drive and hustle he had always carried could be pointed in a different direction, away from the streets.
“When it comes down to the hustle and grit, I had everything they had,” Werts said. “I just didn’t know how to unlock it.”
Today, The Service Pros holds more than 265 five-star Google reviews, operates a multi-truck fleet, employs a growing crew, and is approaching $1 million in annual revenue. Werts did not get here through a traditional path, and that is exactly the point. For young men with unorthodox backgrounds and no credentials, entrepreneurship is not just a career option. It can be the system that separates a troubled past from a bright future.
The numbers back this up. AI is replacing white-collar knowledge work at an accelerating pace, and 58% of students who graduated in the past year are still looking for a job, per FORTUNE. Meanwhile, the U.S. faces a shortfall of 1.9 million manufacturing and trade workers by 2033. Demand for HVAC engineers alone has jumped 67% since 2022. Office jobs and knowledge work are no longer the sure bet they used to be. The trades are thriving, and they are open to anyone willing to learn.
“I’m making more money now fixing ACs than I did dealing drugs,” Werts said. “I tell the young men I mentor at SailFuture: it’s a lot easier making money through a legitimate business than always worrying about violence or the police or paying lawyers to keep you out of trouble. Starting a company is not easy, but it’s worth it.”
Werts built The Service Pros by doing the work nobody else wanted to do: showing up on time, answering every phone call, treating every customer’s home like it belonged to family. He earned his first customers through relationships at the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce and by knocking on doors in his own neighborhood. He is personally involved in every project his company takes on.
What makes his story more than just a business success is what it represents for the community around him. Werts is creating jobs for people who need them, building a team that includes crew members from Cuba and across the Tampa area, and operating out of the same neighborhood he grew up in. He is a beacon of light on the South Side, living proof that the same hustle that drives young men into the streets can drive them into building something real if they are connected with the right opportunity.
“We need young men on the South Side to be connected with opportunity,” Werts said. “A little education and investment shows them a better way to getting what they want: money.”
Business can also be the bridge between divided parts of a city. Through the Chamber of Commerce and other community-based organizations, Werts has connected with people of influence across St. Petersburg, people he never would have met otherwise. Entrepreneurship did not just change his income. It changed his world.
“I just feel like I came too far for it not to work out.”
The Service Pros provides residential and commercial HVAC services across the greater St. Petersburg area. The company is headquartered at 1700 4th Street South in St. Petersburg, FL. To learn more, visit theservicepros.com or call 727-222-0237.

[PHOTO: Lamar Werts and team at the Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony, 1700 4th Street South, St. Petersburg, FL]