If you’ve been considering starting your own plumbing business for a while, we want to be the people who tell you to do it before it is too late. Though we don’t really think it is never too late, but the sooner, the better. This is for a fact.
But before you jump straight to the process and decide to invest your money and time in ideas and steps that are uncertain, we have to ask: Is a plumbing business the one you want to start? If it is, we can lend you a hand.
No business can be classified as “easy,” but there are indeed some a bit more difficult than others due to the amount of work involved, both physically and mentally.
In the case of how to start a plumbing business and how much work it will take you, the process can be exhausting due to the legal aspects, time invested, and how much you need to learn before deciding to take the step.
Fortunately, we are here to show you an overview and provide a plan you can follow to be prepared for the future tasks you will have to start the business and determine beforehand if this business is actually something you can handle or afford.
Start by Gaining Skill & Experience
If you are a professional plumber, you can just skip this step and jump into the next one. We just decided to add it since many people want to start this type of business but usually don’t consider they might not have the knowledge and experience required for it unless they are just trying to manage it and find the man force in another place.
That being said, it has never hurt someone to learn what the business does and how they can help if an employee or contractor cannot make it.
This is why we would always recommend business owners (or future ones) that want to start this plumbing business to gain skills and experience in the field. They must know how to perform some of the services and identify when something is done correctly or not.
For this, these two options are the best you can rely on:
- Be an apprentice.
You will need to have experience in the daily plumbing work if you want to bring that knowledge to your company or want to know how to hire a professional who knows what they are doing.
Apprenticeships are a great resource for people who want to learn from experienced plumbers, and many of those professionals are willing to take a helping hand willing to learn.
Apprenticeships can be long-lasting, but they give you the experience and skills that are required to run a plumbing business.
As an apprentice, you can build a client base and establish yourself as a professional in the future (without stealing your master’s clients, though). This will make it easier to transition to owning a business.
Contact local plumbers to learn how to become a plumber apprentice or take plumbing education classes from them. This option will always depend on the local alternatives and opportunities available.
- Take courses or classes.
You may find educational programs that train plumbers at community colleges or trade schools.
These programs can take several years to complete, while others a couple of months, but each one of them will be worth it.
You should look for programs that provide education in technical aspects of plumbing, contracting, safety, and business essentials.
Do You Want a Franchise or Independent Business?
Franchising or starting a business from zero is completely different in terms of how much help and support you have in the process, which is why you need to decide whether you will franchise or go for the “hard” option. It all depends on your goals and objectives.
Each option has its pros and cons. It is therefore important to research each of them before you decide which one is right for you.
It will be worth your time to start your own business if you’re interested in figuring out how your business should operate and taking on the responsibility for all major business decisions.
Basically, if you want to have the entire control of your company, the best option is to avoid franchising and focus on something that can be called totally of your own.
After all, this option also opens the opportunity to easily adapt your business to current trends by starting from scratch.
However, you can skip some of the more difficult steps involved in starting a business when you decide to franchise.
The company you are buying your franchise will take all the decisions from your hands and focus on growing your business to the level you desire.
To determine if your business model is compatible with the available franchises and their costs and operating methods, you must research them.
The franchise will always (or usually) handle the costs based on an initial investment from you, and rates and commissions are applied according to how much you generate in a month or year.
The problem with franchising is that even when you have support, you always have to deal with payments and not see the entire income of the business.
Keep in mind that we will be focusing on starting from scratch or on your own so that we will leave franchising out of the following steps.
Start Creating Your Business Plan
This step is usually a challenge for most entrepreneurs since they have to come up with all the ideas, problems, solutions, and required elements to start their business, which means this takes lots of time to create. However, it is necessary.
Part of this process involves deciding whether you would like a focus for your business or not inside the same plumbing category or niche.
For example, a plumbing business can focus primarily on selling tools and supplies or installing new or repairing existing pipes. A plumbing company may offer both of these services and aim to be a general contractor and provided.
Knowing what your competition offers and the needs of your community will help you decide which model is best for your business.
Now, going back to the plan in specific, it is the foundation of every successful business.
The plan can be as simple as a list of notes that outline your ideas or a formal report detailing how you intend to run your business. Either of them will be tough, depending on your vision and thoughts.
If you are not submitting your business plan for funding to an organization, bank, or other entity, it will be okay to use something informal.
Take everything you know about starting a plumbing business and write it down.
Your business plan should outline what you offer, who you will serve, and how you intend to do that. Look at the local competition to see how you can improve, or you might have to include.
Choose a particular area you’d like to serve. Consider how far you are willing to travel and whether you would consider traveling further for a lower rate.
All these aspects are important, and anything else that comes to your mind is welcomed.
Select Your Business Entity
An entrepreneur who wants to open a plumbing business in America must choose between four legal entities. Otherwise, there is no way it will be possible to start ANY business.
These are the sole proprietor, partnership or corporation, and Limited Liability Company (LLC).
In a sole proprietorship, the owner is solely responsible for all the decisions and actions being taken in the company. Therefore, the owner receives all profits, but also any losses.
A sole proprietorship is the most common form of legal entity for entrepreneurs who are just starting businesses, especially if they are small-scale because they have nothing to lose with third parties that could be involved.
This legal entity has the disadvantage that the owner can be held personally responsible for any company debts should they fail.
Next, a partnership type of legal entity is where more than one person agrees to manage a company. But owners are separate from the business when the structure is a corporation.
If the business runs into financial difficulties, it will be filed as an independent entity. The owners’ assets will also be protected.
It is often difficult to establish a corporation because it requires a lot of paperwork and legality. It is best to hire an attorney or accountant to assist you in setting up this legal structure.
An LLC can be viewed as a separate entity from the business, just like a corporation. However, an LLC is much easier to set up than a corporation. LLC owners enjoy the same tax benefits as partnerships, and this legal entity makes it easy to obtain funds from outside sources or third parties.
Now, if you are wondering why it is important to create a legal entity, it is simple: This should be done from the beginning to avoid conflicts with your professional and personal accounts.
For a plumbing business, a limited liability company (LLC) should suffice. However, you have the option to start a corporation.
After you have established the entity, you will register for an employer identification (EIN). This number is your tax identification number, and you will use it for any financial transactions.
Focus on Identifying Your Target Market
If you have already decided what type of plumbing business you want to start, then it is time to know the kind of audience and market you should aim for in order to market the services and products you will offer.
This process can be harder than it seems for one reason: It is hard to cover all the options and markets is available in order to come up with a good choice.
However, we are here to lend you a hand, and that includes setting a couple of questions so you can identify the ideal client for your business:
- Are you looking for a homeowner or a business client?
- Is your ideal client located in a particular neighborhood or area?
- What is your perfect client doing for a living, and what do they do overall?
- How much do they earn?
- How old do you think your ideal client is?
- Are they going to need you during your regular work hours? Or will they be able to (and need to) call you in an emergency situation after-hours?
Your business will be more successful if you identify your target market and create your ideal client profile right from the beginning.
This will allow you to better tailor the service you offer to customers’ needs and ensure your marketing efforts don’t waste later.
Establishing a Solid Accounting System
A plumbing business can be expensive to start, especially when it is your first business venture and you don’t have a clear idea of what to do and how to do it.
Thus, we want to clarify that it is important to consider costs such as materials, equipment, liability, insurance, business cards, and transportation.
These costs will vary depending on which type of plumbing business is being started and how you are approaching the company’s investment.
Also, most people omit or forget that it is needed to budget for branding when you get started. You will need to spend a few thousand dollars on a logo and website and on coming up with a plan for advertising and marketing in the future.
Add these numbers together and calculate the tax percentage. Although you’ll most likely be paying quarterly, this will depend on your small business structure. The rule of thumb is to keep 35% aside for taxes.
Keep receipts of all investments made in your business so you can claim it all for tax breaks.
Automated accounting software is a great way to keep track of your small business finances, send invoices for plumbing work, and do many other useful functions.
Pricing Your Services
Once you have an idea of the cost of starting and running your small business, it is time to price your services.
Many business owners charge a flat fee for projects, and it is typically how people start in every business.
This rate is based on the hourly income they desire, but when setting rates, make sure to consider your operating costs.
You can also charge special rates for emergencies, evenings, and weekends in addition to your regular fees. You may charge more for work done outside your normal operating hours, so keep in mind the pricing won’t be the same as much as people beg for it.
Clients should pay a call-out charge to you in order for you to come out and assess the situation. The fee ranges from $50 to $100. To determine the most appropriate rate, we recommend looking at what other businesses in your area charge for a call-out fee.
If they aren’t charging for it, that’s normally a marketing strategy you can also bet for during the first couple of months to attract more leads and clients.
Now, consider charging additional travel fees to customers who are not in your usual coverage area.
We want you to keep in mind that this step goes hand to hand with calculating costs since you need to determine how much ROI you need and the income you can expect.
There are no upfront costs involved in starting a plumbing business. You may already have a good collection of tools if you have completed an apprenticeship and additional materials of equipment.
Most plumbers that you hire for the business will also come with their equipment.
That being said, an average plumber who is self-employed makes between $40-50.000.
The problem is that many of them work for more than 8 or 9 hours six days a week to earn more than this, so you might want to stick to the average to save time and effort.
This is why you need to think about what type of jobs are being taken on. Bathroom fittings that take weeks to complete may be a good investment, but cash flow will be affected if you don’t get paid until the job is completed.
Invoicing and receiving payment immediately on the spot can provide a steady source of income in the beginning.
It is easier financially to concentrate on emergency work. It has higher margins, and you get paid immediately. Despite having lower margins, larger jobs offer greater security and long-term stability. There are many benefits to both types so you should consider what suits you the most.
Finally, while it is important to do some research on competitors’ pricing, it is not a good idea for pricing models that undercut others.
Raise or Find Your Capital
Let’s be honest, without money; entrepreneurs won’t be able to do anything. This is why they must focus on the task of sourcing financing and capital to get started.
If you have built your business plan, which we reviewed previously, it can help you source funds more easily as you will be able to convince potential investors that your commitment is to the business, and you have great ideas to make it work.
For those who don’t know where to start looking for financing, these are the options you can rely on the most:
- Personal savings or the sale of certain properties can be used to raise a portion of the capital you need. If you’ve got the money, just plan well how you will develop the business.
- Friends and family members can help you get a soft loan.
- Ask investors for a loan.
- Request a loan from the bank.
- Get a business partner to raise money.
Choose the Location for Your Plumbing Business
Choosing the right place where to start your business, even if you are in a small city or town, is crucial since the specific location can bring better or worse results.
Why? Because some factors, when choosing it, matter, like the nearness to your target market, your overhead and operating costs, and the comfort to reach the place for both your clients and future employees.
Some people consider not hiring employees in order to save some time considering them, but if your business goes well, you will inevitably end up hiring one, two, or more in the future.
Next, you need to set the specific location, so you can establish your online presence to attract the attention of your target audience in the area, or if you plan to operate your business remotely, you still need to make sure to be specific about the city you are in and the areas you cover.
Considering the latter because of the real estate expenses, we suggest you think twice about it since a plumbing business with a commercial location can generate more clients and deals.
You should consider renting or leasing commercial space to manage your plumbing business if you want to be competitive with your clients and enjoy certain perks. Leasing it will also save you money until you are able to finance one or decide whether or not the business is working.
When you lease or rent a space to operate your business, it should also be visible and not too far from other people.
A real estate agent can help you find the best location for your plumbing company.
You should also set aside a budget to ensure that you don’t spend more than you have to and that your budget doesn’t become strained.
Make Your Brand Come to Life
During the business plan and all the process of financing and the steps we have reviewed so far, you should have done something: Give your company a name.
If done, now it is time for you to make that brand come to life since it will be your business personal.
Before you start designing the logo and other visual elements, it is important to identify your brand’s mission statement and core values.
If you are a service-based company, core values such as honesty and integrity can be a great place to start. You should identify three to five core values that will guide you in all that you do.
Then, consider what visuals you want to represent your brand. This can be done by a brand specialist or a graphic designer, but it is good to have some direction before you begin working with them.
Are you looking for professionalism to be the main focus of your brand’s image? Perhaps you want your brand to reflect hard work and strength.
These aspects will all be incorporated into your logo. This logo will appear on your website, truck, and other branded materials you use, so keep it simple.
Also, no matter your style preference, keep your core values at the forefront of your small business.
Begin Your Marketing Strategy
There are many ways you can market your services to reach your target audience, and many of them will have to be included in your strategies to optimize the best results. However, some can work better for your company than others.
Since marketing is crucial for the success and growth of a business, you can’t just skip it.
To craft marketing strategies that will be effective, market research must be conducted first.
An entrepreneur will be able to learn everything about the market, its competitors, and the target market by conducting a study. Then they can use the information to create the best marketing strategies that will allow them to penetrate the market and stand out.
Entrepreneurs who are just starting a business need to find experienced marketing professionals or consultants to help them create the best marketing strategies to propel their business forward.
Referral marketing is a great way for service providers to start. Why? Because trust is vital.
This basically means that you partner with businesses that share your clientele. You could partner with plumbers who have different specializations or even electricians and general contractors.
You will give your partners a bonus for each new customer they refer. It could be a fixed fee per customer or a percentage of the total job cost.
This referral marketing also focuses on providing the same fee or a benefit to clients that refer you to friends, family, or other people.
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing are great strategies for plumbers.
These methods make your business more visible to your target audience when they search for your services using search engines like Google and Yelp, and believe us, people search for them a lot.
Both of these methods aim to get your website and contact information found when people search for “plumber near you” or “plumber close to me” or maybe “plumbing services in [CITY NAME].”
With SEO, your pages are optimized for specific keywords, but your posts will appear on the top with SEM.
To achieve the goals and milestones set by the company, the marketing strategies must be aligned with its core values and objectives.
Here are some marketing strategies that can be used to market a plumbing company:
- Advertisements should be placed in magazines, newspapers, and radio stations.
- Send a letter with a brochure detailing your services and contact information to introduce your plumbing business to the industry.
- Make sure your plumbing company is listed online as well as in the yellow pages.
- Place billboards strategically located in strategic locations to promote your plumbing business.
- Distribute handbills or flyers in strategic locations.
- Your marketing team can market your plumbing company online and in person.
Hire Your Team of Plumbers
It is true you can start your business without any kind of help, but if you want the best results and get the best out of your efforts, you might need to have at least an employee that can help you expand the services and reach a wider audience.
Now, the way you hire plumbers for your business will depend on whether you are freelancing or building a team.
Also, it is a smart idea to hire an assistant for scheduling, billing, and other administrative tasks.
You will want to hire licensed plumbers if you decide to create a team. To ensure that your references are trustworthy and reliable, you should check their professional and personal references.
To run a successful plumbing business, you must have the right tools and supplies.
While some equipment can be purchased at a reasonable price and others rented, you will need to purchase the best quality equipment to last a long time.
You will need to have the following supplies in order for your plumbing business to succeed: Pipes, fittings, and a truck.
All this hiring process and considering the factors we’ve mentioned so far is known as building a business structure.
It is important to hire competent people who have the best experience, qualifications and understand your goals and objectives.
You will need to hire the following people to run your plumbing company: Chief Executive Officer (CEO), human resources and admin manager, office manager, chief executive officer, and plumbers.
Of course, as we mentioned, you can choose to manage it on your own first. But when it grows or expands, these roles are critical.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Plumbing Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Plumbing Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Plumbing Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.