Imagine bidding a job to supply and install the plumbing, heating and air conditioning for a new home or building, without any drawings, plans and specifications to go by. The owner just says, “Oh, it will be a two-story dwelling with a bunch of rooms.”

Nobody in his or her right mind would take on such a job. But guess what? Most PHC contractors do something just as silly when it comes to running their businesses…

I have received numerous letters more or less along the same lines, but none as eloquent as what you are about to read. Please excuse it’s length, but it is the heart-felt story of a plumber’s career and he deserves to be heard. It requires no further commentary from me. It speaks for itself…

As many of you know, Bio-Clean® is one of the best add-on sales products available to service plumbing contractors. This environmentally friendly biological drain cleaner, which comes in powdered form, is a trade exclusive sold directly to plumbing contractors. This little gem is key to upping your average ticket and showing your clients that you do more than just install and repair.

But, how do you get your service techs to sell it?

Recruiting and keeping good employees, especially service techs, is the most difficult thing I know of in the PHC service business. I’m sure that Blau Sudden Services has a better track record than most firms in the industry, simply because we offer one of the best compensation and benefits packages to be found anywhere. Our service technicians have been here an average of seven years, with two at the 23-year mark in tenure. Office personnel average five years of service, with a couple in the 10-year range.

But our track record of employee retention is hardly ideal. Several months ago we lost a service tech that had been with us for close to 20 years. This was an eye-opener to me…

Frank Blau
Contributing Author
Blau Plumbing

I don’t know if one of my students made a New Year’s resolution or not but the proof of what he’s accomplished since 2007 is apparent in the profit and loss statements shown on the attached excel sheet. It compares the last five years from a former student. Here’s what he wrote me:

At one of my seminars, a young contractor asked me if it was possible to make a good living as a one-truck operator; “I don’t want the headaches of being an employer,” he said. “But I want to operate professionally and generate a respectable salary for myself and one other employee – just like a doctor or a lawyer.”

Sooner or later it happens to everyone in the business. A disgruntled customer notices the prices of parts and merchandise sold at the retail stores and complains about the big markups charged by the contractor. This is a bigger problem for time and material firms, whose prices are itemized for all to see at a glance. However, even we flat raters face it from time to time.

“How much will a new water heater sot me – mine is leaking?” Anyone in the PHC service business hears this question and others like it numerous times a day over the phone. Most attempt to answer it by quoting an hourly labor rate or giving a “ballpark” estimate of what the job will cost based on the caller’s description of the problem.

I conducted a seminar before my largest crowd ever at the International Liquid Waste Haulers convention. More than 800 people attended. As always, when I asked for a show of hands asking how many people knew what it costs them to do business per productive hour or per gallon of waste hauled, almost nobody raised their hands.

It’s an all too sad and all too familiar story. As a result, their industry, like ours, sells its services short. Many of their members charge between $60-75 to dispose of 1,000 gallons of yuck. In most cases they need to charge three to four times more to earn a decent living for their families and be able to operate in a professional manner. Instead, just like our industry, they slave away for 70-80 hours a week trying to make ends meet.

When you decide to go into business for yourself, you may have had a vague idea of what a day in the life of a successful entrepreneur might be like. For some people, it’s breeze through the door at 10:00 a.m., chat a bit with the office staff and then troll through the service department inspiring the adoring dispatchers and service techs. Then, after a heavily martinied lunch, comes a leisurely round of golf. Your evening would be spent at some exciting social event, rubbing elbows with the rich and famous.

A typical day for the owner of a contracting firm, right?