branding

Plumbing is one of the most lucrative trades. You can make a great income from it. However, those looking to make big money should consider starting plumbing businesses. These help you get out of the wage labor cycle and allow you to leverage the productivity of others. 

In this post, we take a look at how to build a fantastic plumbing business from scratch. Here’s what you need to do: 

Find Your Specialist Area

The first step is to find your specialist area – the thing in plumbing that you do better than everyone else. For instance, you could be your city’s leading provider of: 

• Drain unblocking services
• Toilet unblocking services
• Commercial piping
• Water tank and gas boiler installation
• Pipe cleaning and servicing
• Pressure monitoring
• Diagnostic plumbing
• Bathroom renovations

Once you know what you want to focus on specifically, you can start to create a name for yourself. Customers don’t just want general plumbers – they want people who can solve the specific issues that they face right now. 

Get Educated And Start Working

The next step to building a rockstar plumbing business, like Inner West Sydney emergency plumbing and get deep into the understanding of your trade. The more you can learn about it, the more successful you will be. 

If you want to focus on a specific area of plumbing, then it makes sense to work with someone who already operates a business in that field. They can show you the ropes, so to speak, so that you know how to build your own business in the future. 

It doesn’t have to be a long slog. You don’t have to work for an existing plumbing firm for very long. However, you do want to pay attention to how they operate and the structures they put in place to make money. Then, once you’re ready, all you need to do is leave and copy their methods. 

Sort Out All The Legal Stuff

When setting up a plumbing company, you’ll need to decide on a formal business structure, usually LLC or LLP, and then register with the tax authorities. Only complete your registration if you are about to trade. If you are not ready to trade, don’t register, as you will face various reporting and compliance requirements.

Write Your Business Plan

Most plumbing companies launch head-first into the industry without a real plan for how they’re going to make money and be successful. Generally, speaking, this is a bad idea. You need a document somewhere to remind you what you’re going for and what you would like to achieve. 

When creating a business plan, include both inspirational and practical elements. For instance, if you want to generate $1 million in revenue, state that as an objective and also write down what you need to do to get there. 

Hire The Right People

As a plumber, there’s a limit to how much you can earn working for yourself. No matter how skilled you become, or what hourly rate you charge, there’s a limit to the number of hours in the day. 

However, when you hire other people, it changes the dynamic. All of a sudden, you’re able to sell their services too, creaming the surplus off the top for yourself. 

It all depends on hiring the right people, though. If you employ the wrong colleagues, it’ll harm your brand and you won’t be able to grow as fast as you like. In some instances, your company might actually shrink. 

Streamline Management

Managing field employees is notoriously challenging. However, these days there is more technology than ever before to make it happen.

Explore employee scheduling best practices. Make sure that people know when they are supposed to work, and where. 

Also make sure that you remain in regular contact with those in the field. Offer them feedback from clients, and then ask them to rate how much they enjoyed working on a particular task. 

If hiring contractors, not employees, use software that allows them to pick and choose the jobs that they take on. Also, get solutions that allow you to pay them directly for the work that they do so you can avoid clunky payroll software. 

Reduce Your Expenses

While growing revenues is important in plumbing businesses, so too is reducing your expenses. Cutting them by just 10 percent can have the effect of making your business more than twice as profitable. 

For instance, suppose that you reduce costs from 90 percent to 80 percent of revenue. Your profits jump from 10 to 20 percent – a doubling. Cutting costs could involve setting up your office from home or using cheaper, more effective marketing services.

As the owner of a plumbing company, fixing faults is only one feature of what you do. Frankly, branding and marketing is an essential aspect if you wish to achieve sustained success. After all, without clients, your business cannot survive.

Keeping up appearances is a key component of a thriving system. However, you will also need to ensure that it doesn’t affect your flow of productivity. Focus on the four features below, and you won’t go far wrong. 

Building An Online Reputation

In today’s climate, virtually every business can benefit from a strong online presence. Even when your plumbing firm is focused on a small geographic reach, the fact is that a strong digital presence is needed. Because your clients are actively searching for brands on their various devices.

A well-designed website should look good and feel easier to navigate. Visit https://codal.com/solutions/ to find WordPress experts. As well as a powerful site, you should look to achieve a solid social media presence. While followers won’t necessarily translate to direct conversions, it can make the company look bigger.

Learn to stand out on Google with SEO and Google My Business listings for optimal results.

Mastering Offline Marketing

While online marketing is essential, you must not forget local offline marketing practices. Your business is primarily focused on clients in your region, which makes it a lot easier to tailor your strategies. When you reach the target audience in an effective way, conversions without huge expenses should follow.

The direct data and mailing marketing system can work wonders for raising local awareness in a cost-effective way. Visit https://www.action-mailing.com/data-services to learn more about implementing a strategy to reduce waste. If you offer both B2B and B2C plumbing services, be sure to separate the two data groups.

When offering a service like plumbing, offline marketing also builds trust from your leads.

Invest In The Team

A strong branding strategy is nothing without the accompaniment of a world-class plumbing service. If you are a sole trader, you’ll only have to worry about yourself and potentially one work partner. If, however, you run a small company, you need to know that all workers will support the brand image.

The value of appreciating your employees cannot be emphasized enough. A happier atmosphere leads to improved productivity, fewer mistakes, and better client interactions. You can support the process further by investing in staff uniforms. Elsewhere, a dedicated virtual receptionist can help manage enquiries.

Customers call plumbers when situations need resolving. Supporting them properly is vital.

Use Advanced Tech

Dealings with customers are often easier for plumbers than other businesses. But that should not stop you from using sophisticated solutions. It’s the type of move that will make your business more memorable. In turn, you will gain their repeat business and enjoy the benefits of referrals.

Investing in the best tools to identify and investigate problems is vital. Likewise, you should use the right parts to correct any faults. However, you may find that it is equally rewarding to invest in SMS appointment reminders to provide transparency. Meanwhile, providing the right level of aftercare with video tutorials or guides can work wonders.

When the brand image is right, you can dedicate more time to your actual profession. Perfect.

When Dana Spears assumed full ownership of Cornerstone Pros in 2009, it was a very different company than it is today. She credits much of her Tampa Bay, FL business’ increased success to her relationship with KickCharge Creative, a New Jersey-based marketing agency that serves small businesses across the country.

The partnership began in 2013 when Cornerstone sought KickCharge’s expertise to rebrand the heating and cooling company. As the company expanded its services to include plumbing and electrical, its name changed from Cornerstone Air to Cornerstone Pros. The team at KickCharge created a dapper, friendly retro technician mascot to communicate Cornerstone’s differentiator—old-fashioned quality service in today’s fast-paced world. KickCharge Creative wove the retro brand into all of Cornerstone’s marketing efforts, including its service vehicles, initial brand announcement, brochures, blogs, print ads, billboards and stationery.

Cornerstone Pros had five service vehicles when its rebranded fleet first hit the streets in 2014. But Spears said the visibility and power of the new brand made customers feel like there were many more vehicles out there. Today, Cornerstone has roughly 56 vehicles in its fleet. Spears said the increased visibility has helped with employee recruitment efforts, too.

During the eight years since this partnership began, the new brand continues to pay dividends, including a 300% boost in revenue. Spears said annual revenue was $3 million before the rebrand and it jumped quickly to $5 million within the first year after introducing the retro brand and new services.

Since 2016, KickCharge has been managing Cornerstone’s highly successful digital marketing campaigns, which include search engine optimization, email marketing and pay-per-click advertising. KickCharge also launched a retro-themed, custom-designed website for this brand.

THE STATS:

• 300% growth in annual revenue since rebrand\
• Increase from 5 to 35 service vehicles

Spears’ goal is slow-based growth. As of 2020, the company had more than $12 million in annual revenue and roughly 78 employees. Cornerstone has nearly 2,000 reviews on Google with a 4.8/5 average rating. Its closing ratio is 87 percent even when the team has too much work to tackle same-day appointments.

For Cornerstone, newspaper ads were once a primary driver of leads and Spears relied heavily on print, billboards and home-based advertising as well as some radio spots. These days, digital marketing is the dominant force. Google is the leading source of call volume (80 percent of leads), followed by repeat and referral customers.

“I am now dominating online so I don’t need to spend as much in other marketing areas,” she said.

Digital marketing campaigns offer more control over lead volume because they can be targeted specifically and adjusted instantly based on demand and seasonality. Those are factors Spears likes. It’s also easier to track these campaigns and to evaluate results.

“Although I was reluctant to turn my marketing over to an agency,” Spears said. “I’m glad that I did.”

RLS^® LLC (“RLS”), manufacturer of the first press-to-connect fittings for the HVAC and refrigeration industries, announces the launch of their new RLS Certified Installer online training program at training.rapidlockingsystem.com. The new training portal walks HVAC/R contractors through the step-by-step process of making reliable, permanent copper tube connections using RLS press technology.

“We’re very excited to offer this comprehensive new training program for users of RLS press fittings,” said Paul Schubert, President of RLS. “The new portal explains our patented press technology, how and why it works so well, and the steps required for proper installation. Both audio descriptions and video demonstrations are used to reinforce the material and facilitate learning.”

Users must pass a series of quizzes as they work through each section of the training program, as well as a final test after completing the entire course. After passing the final test, a customized certificate of completion can be downloaded.

In conjunction with the new training program launch, RLS has also introduced a new company logo. The new design comes as the company celebrates the sixth anniversary of the introduction of its revolutionary technology to the HVAC/R market. Originally introduced in 2015 under the ZoomLock® brand through a partnership with Parker Hannifin Corporation, RLS fittings are now sold exclusively under the RLS brand.

“Now that RLS press fittings have taken on their own identity in the marketplace, we felt it was time to give our logo a new look that represents our leadership position in the industry,” said Schubert. “The logo emphasizes our patented fitting design, including the unique flared ends which make it instantly recognizable as an HVAC/R fitting, setting it apart from those used for plumbing.”

RLS designs, develops, and proudly manufactures its fittings in America, at its centrally located Missouri factory. The press fittings replace the time-consuming and demanding conventional practice of manually brazing HVAC/R copper joints. RLS fittings allow for faster, more consistent connections that reduce total installed cost while also enhancing safety, since they do not require an open flame.

RLS is a subsidiary of Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company. For more information, visit rapidlockingsystem.com or training.rapidlockingsystem.com for the new online training program.