PlumbingBossPro Blog — Running a Plumbing Business

Starting a Plumbing Business After Years of Working for Someone Else

You know how to plumb. You have cleared main lines at midnight, swapped more water heaters than you can count and talked a panicked homeowner through shutting off the main. What you have not done, most likely, is everything else the shop did while you were in the van. That is the part this article is about.

The Jobs You Never Saw From the Van

This series starts with Running a Plumbing Business: The Complete Guide for Owners With a Few Service Vans, which covers the whole business at a glance. This article is about the first step: walking out of someone else's shop and into your own.

When you worked for a shop, somebody answered the phone, booked the call, told you where to go, kept the customer list, sent the invoices, chased the late payments and ordered the van's registration renewal. You showed up and did the work. Now all of that is yours, and it does not stop just because you are under a sink.

New owners usually feel this in the first month. The phone rings while their hands are wet. A customer asks when the invoice is coming. Someone from three weeks ago calls back about a drip and you cannot remember which house it was.

The legal and licensing side of setting up a company is between you, your accountant and your local authorities. This article covers the day-to-day running of the business once the doors are open.

Decide What Kind of Plumbing Company You Are

The shop you left probably did a certain mix of work. You do not have to copy it. Before the first call, decide what you want to be known for:

• Residential service and repair. Many calls, quick turnaround, a lot of phone time.
• Drain cleaning. Needs the right machines and a jetter, and often brings repeat customers.
• Water heaters. Bigger tickets, planned installs and yearly flushes afterward.
• Commercial accounts. Property managers and restaurants with many locations and monthly billing.

Most new owners take whatever calls come in at first, and that is fine. But knowing where you want to end up shapes what you buy, how you advertise and what you put on your service list. The balance between these is covered in Service, Drains, Water Heaters and Maintenance: Balancing the Plumbing Business Mix.

Set Up Records From the First Call

The biggest regret owners talk about is not starting with real records. When you have ten customers, a notebook feels like plenty. When you have three hundred, that notebook is a problem, and moving it into a system means typing every page.

From the first job, record three things on every customer:

• Who they are. Name, phone, email and how they want to be contacted.
• Where they are. The address, gate or access notes, and where the main shut-off is.
• What is in the house. Water heater brand, model, serial, size, fuel and year installed. Softener, sump pump, sewer cleanout.

That third one pays for itself fast. When the same customer calls in two years with no hot water, you already know it is a 50-gallon gas tank installed in 2014, and you can quote a replacement over the phone. In PlumbingBossPro, that equipment is saved on the house and fills into the next job automatically.

Bill the Way the Shop Should Have

Many plumbers have watched a shop wait weeks to send invoices. Do not inherit that habit. The best time to bill is the minute the job is done, while the customer is standing there with hot water running.

That means a few simple habits:

• Put your services and prices in a list so every invoice uses the same numbers.
• Ask for a card on file at booking for repeat customers and maintenance plans.
• Create the invoice from the job, not from memory at the end of the week.
• Follow up on anything unpaid on a set day every week.

When a tech taps Complete in PlumbingBossPro, the invoice is created from the job and the card on file can be charged before the van leaves the driveway.

Answer the Phone Like a Company

In the first year, you are the plumber and the receptionist. Customers will forgive a voicemail, but they will not forgive silence. Return calls the same day, even if it is from the van between jobs. Use text where you can, because a quick reply is easier than a call when your hands are full.

Automatic reminders help more than new owners expect. A night-before text and an on-the-way text from the tech app tell the customer you are a real company, and they cut down the “are you still coming?” calls that eat your afternoon.

Build Habits You Can Hand Off

Everything you do in the first year, someone else will eventually do. The way you write job notes, the way you record equipment, the way you price a drain call. If those habits live in a system, the first hire can pick them up. If they live in your head, every hire starts from zero.

Keep it simple. Same service names every time. Equipment recorded on every visit. Notes written for the next plumber, not for yourself. A weekly hour set aside for billing and follow-up, even when you are busy.

Start Small, Start Organized

You do not need a big office, a dispatcher or a fleet. You need one van, a phone and a system that holds the customers, the houses and the money. Start there, and the business will be ready for the second van when it comes. For more on running and growing a plumbing company, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing business software page.