In today’s business world, plumbing is one of the businesses that thrive everywhere and at all times. Little wonder home improvement companies are on the rise.
Popularly in cities, there is an ever-increasing demand for plumbers who can fix leakages, mend faulty pipes and correct other related defects.
Year in year out, new houses are built and there is always the need to equip many of them with plumbing materials –such as taps, tanks, and pipes –required to supply water for domestic purposes.
Consequently, plumbing has become a profitable deal for some of the people looking to tap into a trade that will yield them continual business wealth.
While it’s possible to start a plumbing business and succeed in it, it should also be noted that plumbing is a saturated business aspect.
And if you want to make great success in it, you must be prepared to compete with other plumbers.
In this guide, we would be discussing the tips for starting a plumbing business and how to succeed as a plumber.
If you’re planning to set up a plumbing business for yourself, this could be the article you need to find out how to go about it.
Plumbing is one of the businesses that require ample duration of apprenticeship.
While serving as an apprentice under an experienced plumber, you’ll learn the basics of plumbing and if you can devote much time and attention, you’re likely to acquire the proficient plumbing skills that will set you out of the crowd.
Perhaps, plumbing is one of the trades that attract patronage from lots of people and if you must stand out as a successful plumber with a considerable number of clients, you need to understand the ins and outs of the trade.
Your duration of apprenticeship can be long or short depending on your wish and how quickly you’re able to master plumbing skills.
Some apprentices choose to spend a number of years probably in order to gain the standard level of expertise required to manage a plumbing business profitably.
Besides providing you essential plumbing skills, your apprenticeship can be an opportunity to establish a couple of clients for yourself and when you eventually set up your own plumbing business, you may not have to worry about getting clients.
It’s possible that there are several experienced plumbers in your area and to become an apprentice, you could contact one of these plumbers and make inquiries about what is required of you to serve as an apprentice under them.
Plumbing is perhaps one of the trades that require you to be physically fit especially if you would not be hiring people to undertake the strenuous aspects of the plumbing work.
Provided you’ll be doing most of the plumbing work, try to engage in exercises that will boost your strength, stamina and overall physical wellness.
Besides serving as an apprentice under a professional plumber, associating with a team of experienced plumbers is one great way you can acquire plumbing skills.
If you can’t find a plumbing team to join within your neighborhood, try to associate with an experienced partner who can put you through.
While it’s important that you approach somebody with a proven level of expertise, it’s also important that the person undertakes plumbing jobs frequently.
This way, you can be opportune to acquire plumbing skills quickly enough and discover some of the equipment used in the business.
Tools and equipment list used in a plumbing business.
Plumbing has a number of aspects such as sale and distribution of plumbing tools, repair/servicing of defective plumbing works and installation of new plumbing works.
While there are people who specialize in only one of these services, some plumbers combine all of them.
Depending on the demands of your neighborhood, you can decide to offer all of these services or simply focus on a single aspect.
In choosing a plumbing aspect for yourself, you can also check out the services offered by your local competitors.
Like many other businesses, a plumbing business needs written information that will better explain the business motives, how the business will be run and the essential resources for managing the business.
A business plan is an important thing to have and you’re expected to create it before starting up your plumbing business.
Additionally, your business plan will define your targeted revenue and explain how experienced you are in the business of plumbing.
If you can do well to write an effective business plan for yourself, you’re certain to know what direction your plumbing business will be heading after establishing it.
Possibly, there is a great deal of sample business plans designed to show you how you can start your own plumbing business.
If you think you don’t have the ability to write an excellent business plan for yourself, you can simply get one of the well-written business plans that focus on how to start a plumbing business.
You’ll find the samples of these business plans online. So, try to check out a couple of samples before deciding which is best to follow.
In a more professional way, your business plan should contain essential things including the cost of business start-up, projected labor expenses, transportation costs, prices of plumbing tools, analysis about clients and finally the goal of the plumbing business.
After creating a professional business plan for your proposed plumbing business, generating sufficient start-up funds could be the next thing on your mind.
One important thing is to determine the amount you need for your business start-up while another is to find the means for generating it.
You can look for investors who are ready to channel investments into small businesses and provided you have a high-profile business plan already, you could be lucky to capture the interest of such investors.
If there are no investors interested in your business plan, you can try contacting a business partner.
Besides being able to manage businesses, such a person should be highly connected with the local business market and should know how to generate funds for small businesses.
To obtain a license for your plumbing business, you’ll be required to provide genuine business information which can include the business name and several other details.
Before proceeding to business registration, try to find out the rules and regulations guiding plumbing services in your area as you’ll be required to verify that your plumbing business will not violate any of these rules and regulations.
You may not consider this compulsory but if you want your business to appear more professional, you’ll have to equip it with an office where potential and existing clients can always get in touch with you.
Importantly, consider a suitable location for your office space.
If you must be a successful plumber with many clients, you’ll have to socialize yourself precisely by contacting people frequently, visiting them at home and workplaces and inquiring to know whether there are plumbing defects they need to correct.
Besides speaking to clients over the phone, you may have to establish an online medium for communicating with them.
By socializing yourself, you’ll find it easy to capture dozens of new clients for your plumbing business.
Even if you readily boast a sophisticated level of plumbing experience, you still need to visit clients regularly to make them know you’re always available to them.
Also, try to weigh your managerial ability especially if you’ll be hiring others to carry out plumbing tasks on your behalf.
Managing such people effectively is very essential and it is one of the skills you should incorporate into your plumbing business.
Plumbing is subject to change in construction methods, plumbing fixtures, prices of supplies and other things that pertain to the business.
Don’t assume a particular plumbing method will forever remain in vogue.
Try as much as possible to obtain the latest plumbing information probably by taking on relevant education courses, participating in trade shows and reading business magazines.
If you’re not adopting an effective marketing strategy, you might not compete fairly with the other plumbers in your area.
In addition to word-of-mouth marketing, you should put in more marketing efforts probably by establishing a business brand and logo, creating social media presence for your business and using a quality website to attract new clients.
It’s very possible that there are other professional plumbers in your area and as part of your effort to stand out from the crowd, endeavor to find out what your competitors do.
In other words, be familiar with the pricing plans and plumbing methods adopted by your competitors.
Additionally, check out the kinds of offers, strategies or plans they use in retaining existing clients and attracting new clients.
Think about the enticing thing your competitors are doing but not properly. Gear your effort towards doing this thing in the most enticing way.
Perhaps, your competitors are offering discounts on the plumbing tools sold to their clients but they aren’t doing that handsomely.
Consider how you could do better than your competitors in this regard. However, you must be sure you aren’t pleasing your customers at your own expense.
Advisably, do not offer discounts that will make you run out of business profit.