Plumbing marketing myths – Part 2
Last month, I reviewed 10 marketing myths that plumbers often fall victim to. Since you know what these myths are now, hopefully you will stay clear of them. My column this month reviews 10 more false beliefs that can cost your business. ...
Going digital to grow your business
It’s time to take a step back and consider whether going digital is right for you in order to protect and grow your business. Digital recording, which is the recording of images and/or video to a computer file, affords contractors both control and tremendous flexibility in presenting their findings to a customer for consideration on a job. ...
Suppliers, wholesalers: allies or adversaries?
If you look at your suppliers as adversaries, or have the opinion that they are all trying to take advantage of you, you are missing the big picture. Everyone is trying to stay in business and make a profit....
Lean works for TI work too
As one way to cope with the challenging economy, many owners/facility managers are doing tenant improvements (TI) and facility upgrades. Contractors, who normally do not perform TI, are now competing in the TI market. Lean construction has proven itself valuable in large projects and also works in small projects, but in different ways. ...
Next time showcase professional plumbers
So, it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I cringed when Hansen ran a show to expose plumbers and pretty much painted us all with a very broad brush. ...
Contracts & subcontracts: That's why they call it contracting
The fact of the matter is that just about every business in the world today operates on some level of contractual obligation....
Shackled by fuel bills – Part 2
Returning from the overly-warmed cavernous mechanical room, I was once again invited to join my new old friends at the kitchen table. One option always suggested is solar thermal (reminder: it’s not my money), which was rejected due to the up-front costs. ...
Dispute resolution: litigation, arbitration or mediation?
Disputes and lawsuits are some of the last things a contractor wants to experience. So despite your best intentions, you may find yourself entangled in a dispute and you should know something about the three most common formal mechanisms for resolving disputes....
The necessity of sincerely caring
I have always tried to give my employer my 100% best efforts since that’s part of The Golden Rule I follow and it's also who I am at my core....
Properly commissioning high-efficiency equipment — Part 3
In last months article, we ended by telling you we would look at the tales of the tape from combustion analyzer readings to analyze the analysis, and make a determination as to corrective actions. I realize that the title of the article is relating to the newer gas fired high-efficiency equipment, but the reality of the matter is that there are more atmospheric appliances out there than there are high-efficiency appliances, and a person needs to understand the basics of combustion before they can move into the high-efficiency arena. ...
The murky world of energy efficiency politics
On June 24, a coalition of 22 trade associations sent a letter to the Department of Energy, wondering why it seems like they are getting frozen out of residential energy auditing and retrofit work. The issue at hand is the voluminous Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades. The guidelines are filled with all sorts of stuff about HVAC and plumbing. The problem, according to the 22 organizations signatory to the June 24 letter, is that nobody asked the plumbing and HVACR industries about this stuff....
Two to go for the iPhone, the iPad
Total Office Manager field service management (Aptora, www.aptora.com) is an enterprise solution designed specifically for service contracting business. With modules related to numerous specialty functionalities, the software handles complete accounting, CRM, dispatching scheduling, payroll, inventory control, service agreements, flat rate pricing, marketing, sales lead management and field service management, including a mobile field service app that supports business management from mobile devices in the field. ...
How will I meet this week’s payroll?
It’s Wednesday and the bookkeeper tells us that we have insufficient funds to meet this week’s payroll. Sound familiar? It’s a common situation faced by many HVAC/plumbing contractors and business owners that we have interviewed, and it really exposes a more generic problem — cash flow management....
Everything you need to know about relays
A relay is just a switch. The purpose of any switch is to turn something on and off. A relay turns HVAC equipment on or off. It’s that easy. ...
Do you believe in plumbing marketing myths?
Below are some of the marketing myths that seem to infect our industry. Are you guilty of believing in any of the following?...
Increasing your service maintenance agreement sales
Service maintenance agreement sales … you gotta love them! Lots and lots of agreement sales. If you think about it, when customers purchase maintenance agreements, they’re essentially paying you money every month to come back and sell them something else. ...
Take a plunge into the history of plumbing
"Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization" is a witty book by W. Hodding Carter that chronicles the long and notable history of plumbing through his travels of metropolitan sewers around the world and his attempt to build his own Roman lead pipes. ...
A succession planning horror story
This article has a singular purpose: To make sure that not even one business owner/reader of this column, who wants to sell his business to one or more of his kids, falls into the same economic nightmare and tax trap as Sam and Mary...
Don't green wash at the expense of other materials
I and many of my colleagues are long term readers and supporters of Contractor and have long found your publication to be an excellent, well-informed representation of the mechanical contracting and PVF business. ...
Encouraging young people to join the trades
With more than 76 million baby boomers entering retirement, the reality of an aging workforce is already upon us. That’s why it is more important than ever for employers to be prepared in advance for this shift — not only with an efficient way to transfer the required skills from employees who have mastered this information for decades, but with the talented workers who are trained and ready to do the job. ...
Expand into the green market for fun, profit
For plumbers and HVAC contractors, diving into the green pool is a good way to add an income stream to your shop, as well as moving the cutting edge of our trade into the 21st century. The challenge now is to change our normally skeptical mind set and embrace the new technology, insofar as it is profitable to do so....
More than five ways to improve meetings
The pathway to more effective meetings is to follow some basic and very useful techniques. Here are 5.5 tips that will help you improve your meetings....
Shackled by fuel bills
Help! My oil bills are draining my wallet! At first glance, you wouldn’t think there were many options....
Proven solution to make your 401(k) plan healthy
Your author is on the warpath: to change a system that has long-been broken, not delivered its promises and skimmed billions of dollars in unearned fees from 401(k)s....
How not to do it all yourself
An owner-dependent business can’t compete in a tough economic climate. If you’re doing it all yourself, you’re not looking forward, scanning the market and beating competitors to the punch. But if you have employees, you can offload tasks if you know how....
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