Richard always says: “It ain’t about plumbing,” but what does that mean? A successful plumbing business is built on 3 key things: the right purpose, the right people and the right processes. In this episode we share how to make these a part of your plumbing business to increase your profitability and achieve lasting success.
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3 Golden Nuggets
- The Right Purpose: You have to have the right purpose for why you’re doing your plumbing business. Your “why” for moving forward has to be greater than the plumbing.
- The Right People: First, you have to have the right plumbers.. They might not be the best plumbers starting out, but they have great character and a drive. Second, you have to have the right customer. Not everyone is your customer.
- The Right Process: Don’t chase the work. Determine an honest hourly wage and get the right branding. A good process allows you to duplicate yourself. Work to develop a marketable brand and set your business up to sell.
Sponsors
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- ServiceTitan. If you’re serious about growing your plumbing business, you need ServiceTitan. ServiceTitan is the world’s leading all-in-one field management software for plumbing service businesses. Get a free demo and take advantage of special discounts for Potty Talk LIVE listeners.
- ApplicantPro. I tell my clients, “Always be recruiting.” ApplicantPro makes it easy to do just that. ApplicantPro will provide you with a constant stream of qualified applicants. Get a free demo and PTL discount.
Show Notes
(5:19) 95% of all plumbing businesses fail. And a lot of the rest just survive. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I often say, “It ain’t about the plumbing.” In this episode, we are going to explain that by introducing three pillars that your plumbing business must have to be successful.
The Purpose of Your Plumbing Business (Finding Your Why)
(8:30) First, you have to have the right purpose for why you’re doing your plumbing business. The purpose of your plumbing business is not the plumbing.
Why did you start it? Why do you have it? Why are you doing this? As Simon Sinek says, “You have to find your Why.”
Many of us kind of fall into having a plumbing business. That’s very normal. I hear it all the time, “Oh yeah, I’m going to start my own business.” “I’m going to be that guy making all the money,” etc.
We often start a plumbing business with the wrong purpose. But your purpose for continuing forward with your business has to be greater than the plumbing itself.
(10:32) In the original “Rocky” movie, Rocky says, “I can’t beat him, but if I can just be standing when that final bell rings, I’ll know, for the first time in my life, that I’m not just another bum from the neighborhood.” That’s his purpose, that’s what will get him up off the mat. Not the heavyweight champion belt, the money, the fame, or even being the best boxer.
You have to do the same thing with your plumbing business, or you’ll get knocked out. Sadly, there are a lot of guys that don’t even realize they’re being hit in the face. They’re just happy out there digging holes and replacing sewage ejectors, and chasing money. Then, when they’re 55, they don’t have anything to show for it except bad knees.
Have you realized that your plumbing business isn’t about plumbing? What are your Whys?
The Right People for Your Plumbing Business
(17:08) The second key is finding the right people. There are two groups of people that are very important – your plumbers and your customers. Your plumbers might not have great skills starting out, but if they have great character and a drive they might be your right people.
(17:49) Finding the right customers is just as important. Just because they’re calling about plumbing doesn’t mean they’re the right customers. You want customers that you can win with. There are some who are concerned only about plumbing: new construction, commercial, warranty, etc.
There are others who aren’t actually concerned with the plumbing: residential service. It ain’t about plumbing with them, it’s about getting their day back.
These are the right people to be working for.
- It’s not about a water heater. It’s about getting hot water.
- It’s not about the running toilet. It’s about making that sound stop.
- And it’s not about a sump pump. It’s about making sure things in the basement don’t get ruined.
This is a big mind shift. Here’s a great example:
(19:43) Apple, one of the best success stories of all time, almost failed. They took their eye off their right purpose and customer. Steve Jobs’ purpose was to build simple, beautiful pieces of electronic art. His purpose wasn’t to make computers. When they started building computers, all different sizes of computers for different operations, they started going downhill. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs came back in and literally trashed everything else except for a few things, and they realized who the customer was and who they were serving.
You have to do the same thing.
Don’t chase the work. (27:48) Stay focused. Stay on target. We start out with the promise of huge checks with contractors or remodels, but those customers aren’t ideal. With commercial you are probably not charging your hourly rate and you’re taking work away from residential service calls that come in.
Making $500 every day is better than a promise of $5000 ten days from now. With $500 every day, you’ll find that the cash grows.
A Process to Maximize Plumbing Business Profitability
(29:39) Now that you have the right purpose and the right people, you need the right process.
Pen and paper is not a process. You need business tools. When you have the mindset that “it ain’t about plumbing,” you will want to use services like Service Titan and Applicant Pro. You’ll want to improve your branding using programs like Kick Start. (*See the bottom of the page for PTL listener discounts)
Pricing
(37:45) Determining your pricing is a key process. At first, we don’t think our customers will pay our ideal rate, but what it really comes down to is that we don’t think we’re worth it.
That’s why it’s so important that we have the right purpose in place. If you’re focused on just doing plumbing, it won’t be worth it, but if you’re looking for a profitable plumbing business and long-term success you’ll find that customers will value your work at a profitable rate. Ultimately what you’re selling is your time.
Hiring
(36:36) Hiring is another important part of the process. Having this and other processes in place will allow you to duplicate yourself. This is how you get out of the truck and on vacation. You can have multiple trucks, and it’s not dependent on any one thing or any one person.
Guys, it’s not rocket science. If you just apply these keys to your plumbing business, you will be successful.
That is how I created the life that I wanted where I never had to touch plumbing again.
Richard’s Call to Action.
If you want to learn more about numbers that matter and how to best run your plumbing business, why not schedule a free 30-min strategy call with us? Let’s talk about your goals and where you want to be this time next year, and we’ll help you create a path to make that happen. Schedule your free strategy call here today!
