Our Plumbing Business Success Story - Episode 300

Richard and Laura share the good, bad, and the ugly (and even the embarrassing) of their incredible business success. They started their plumbing business as a one-truck blunder and grew it to a multi-truck, multi-million dollar plumbing brand.

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Resources

3 Golden Nuggets

If you want to build a successful business you have to actually step into the ring. A lot of guys just talk the talk. But it takes real courage to go against the grain, step away from what feels secure, and step into that ring.
Business is a risk, and there’s some injustice that happens. It can be hard. But you’ll survive it. Don’t just curl up in the fetal position and quit. Push through.
Don’t give up. You didn’t come this far to die. This isn’t where you die unless you choose to. Keep moving forward, all the positive little steps will add up, and you will thrive.

Show Notes

Starting A Plumbing Business – Our Story

(6:27) We started march, 2001. We had a 3-month old, a 5 year old, and ten year old.) We had a house. I had a secure job. I got an idea in the shower one day, getting ready to go work for the other company.

I said, “I’m tired of making that guy more money. I want my own freedom. I want to be free. I want to create my own way, have my own vision.” Can you relate to that?

(8:55) So we made the decision to start our own plumbing business. We didn’t have any money. We were thousands of dollars in debt. We were living off credit cards. We didn’t even have a truck.

One day I was heading to do some volunteer work and felt compelled to drive a different way. As I was turning onto the highway I saw a white van in a used car lot and had to check it out. It had just been turned in 10 minutes before I arrived.

It was a 1989 Dodge van. I was in love. The lovely Laura said, “okay, pull the trigger.” We had $1,500 set aside for our mortgage, and instead we bought the van.

We used some clip art for the logo. I had the name “Attaboy Plumbing” in my head.

(14:34) I was just thinking I wanted our name to be about service and being done quickly. I wanted it to be something that resonated with people. I didn’t realize then it was about branding. Our name just happened as a blessing.

Every company that starts out has some kind of blessing, and so that was one of our blessings there.

Now we had the truck, I quit my job, and that’s how we got started. We thought we were going to take over the plumbing world!

(17:25) It’s fun to look back. And a little bit embarrassing. But we stepped in the ring. A lot of guys just talk the talk. But it took real courage to go against the grain and to step away from what feels secure.

Getting Customers

(18:11) Our big marketing campaign was getting a ream of orange paper and buying a printer. We printed a flier with a coupon, and Laura would drive around neighborhoods putting fliers in newspaper boxes while Mallory was napping in her car seat.

Later we ran an ad in the newspaper. We thought we were going to be swamped with work. We thought we’d be so busy that we would have to add a 2nd phone line. We were clueless.

Each year the yellow pages sales rep would push us into bigger ads. One year we did a two-page ad. It was $15,000 a month. You know how many toilet rebuilds you’ve got to sell to pay for that?

(23:57) So we made the mistake most everyone makes when it comes to getting customers. We went for new construction and commercial construction for security.

It’s steady work. And the builders are promising you the big paydays. We thought we won!

The Business Problems Begin

Non-payment

After a while we realized, we’re the sucker. Over time they started paying slower and slower and slower and adding more and more change orders.

(26:22) Finally it caught up, and we were $70,000 behind with the supply house because the contractor wasn’t paying. And we finally had to sue the contractor. I spent about $18,000 in legal fees. After no success, we ended up trying mediation. We were in the right, we had contracts, and we did all the right things.

But in mediation they notified us they were countersuing us — for a million dollars.

I still remember how it felt. We went back and forth and back and forth. At the end of the day it ended with them owing us only $1,300 — and we were stuck with all our attorney fees and the debt for our supply contracts.

(31:41) It was hard, and it was really scary. But we survived it. And we learned from it. We didn’t just curl up in the fetal position and quit. We pushed on through and things got better.

Insurance Scams

(34:18) We had another incident that happened a couple years after that. I was still in the truck and hadn’t yet learned the business of plumbing.

It was an insurance suit – another legalized scam. We got a call in the springtime where a hose spigot burst in their home in the winter. I did this job myself. I saw the damage to their carpet and everything. It was a simple repair and replace job. $230 for this job (which I underpriced, by the way).

2 months later we get this suit for $12,000 from the insurance company blaming us for flooding their house.

We figured they must be confused. We called them, and they didn’t care. It’s just how they do it. It was a shakedown of whoever they can get money from.

So I didn’t make any money from that job. And I had to pay $4,000 to their insurance company.

But I learned how insurance and attorneys and everything worked. They’re not actually in the business to protect you – no matter how nice you think they are. We never let that happen again.

You can Become A Business Success Story

These are some of our toughest moments. There were other things that happened as well. I even had to get back in the truck at one point and do jobs myself. You do what you gotta do to take care of your business and your family.

(39:47) But we learned over time. And those challenges built confidence. We realized we can survive these things. We began to understand the game. And over time we got really good at it.

But the happy story is we really did live the life we wanted to live. We had our plumbing business for 18 years, and had a lot of success. We eventually grew our solo, kitchen-table operation into a multi-truck, multi-seven figure plumbing brand. And we wound up selling it for a lot of money.

And now we coach other plumbing business owners based on what we learned.

So don’t give up. You didn’t come this far to die. This isn’t where you die unless you choose to. Keep moving forward, all the positive little steps will add up, and you will thrive.

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!