Stuck in Stage 2? Here's Why You're Not Making Money

If you own a plumbing business and feel like you're working hard but still not making money, this episode explains why most plumbing companies get stuck before reaching real profit.

In this Trade Traction episode, plumbing contractors will learn the 4 stages of plumbing business growth and why many plumbing business owners look successful while still struggling financially.

Many plumbing business owners stay busy, run trucks every day, and still feel pressure around payroll, cash flow, and profit. The truth is that every plumbing company moves through predictable business stages, and only one stage creates consistent profit, stronger teams, and peace of mind.

In this episode, we cover:

• Stage 1: surviving as a small plumbing company
• Stage 2: looking successful but still struggling financially
• Stage 3: relying too heavily on plumbing sales
• Stage 4: building a plumbing business around training, options, and trust

If you are a plumbing contractor trying to grow your plumbing business, improve plumbing sales, increase profit margins, or build a stronger home service business, this episode will help you identify what needs to change next.

Trade Traction helps plumbing contractors stop working for free, improve profitability, and build the business they once dreamed of.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Why most plumbing businesses struggle
01:05 Stage 1 plumbing business survival
04:10 Stage 2 plumbing company growth problems
07:05 Stage 3 plumbing sales focus
10:45 Why sales pressure creates problems
13:20 Offering options in plumbing sales
17:10 Why training creates profit
21:05 The profitable plumbing business stage
24:10 What stage is your plumbing business in?

#PlumbingBusiness #PlumbingContractor #PlumbingCompany #HomeServiceBusiness #ContractorProfit #TradeTraction

The Podcast that helps plumbing and heating service contractors stop working for free and actually turn a profit. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You can have 10 trucks, clean uniforms, a great logo, and still be one bad month away from bankruptcy. Most clean businesses live one of four stages, and only one of them actually gives you profit, peace of mind, and a company you're proud of. In this episode, I'm going to show you exactly how to identify which stage you're in right now, why some companies look successful while quietly drowning, and what separates a business that feels heavy from one where your team does great work, your customers trust you, and you can finally sleep at night. And real quick, if this kind of conversation helps you think differently about your business, hit like and subscribe before you forget. Because once we get into this, you'll be focused on where your company really stands. Let's get into stage one. Stage one, it's the mom and pop shop. It's what when I when I joined my father-in-law's company, it's kind of where it was. Good intentions, hard working, right? Good, good reputation. We were hourly. This is 25 years ago, so that was pretty common. We were about what everybody else charged. We called around to find out what everybody else was charged and then charged the same thing. To be honest, really, in the morning, one of my first jobs was to use starter fluid to get two trucks started before the guys came into work so that they could get in the truck and take off. It wasn't good. No new trucks. Uh, some of the parts were, you know, the tools were old. Things were disorganized. We we did good work. We tried really hard. But what was even harder was making payroll. It was such a struggle. Like we would have to go wrap up jobs and go try to sell jobs to make payroll. Have you ever been there? It sucks. You know, some people are actually selling jobs to get down payments to make payroll, and it's a bad, bad cycle, right? So that's stage one. Stage two is you kind of figure some stuff out. You get some processes in place. Uh, you got a logo, you got uniforms, you got some decent looking trucks. And um, things are looking kind of good. You got some calls and you got some texts, three, four, five texts. Things are busy. You're getting reviews. Um, what's what's hard about this stage is that everyone's starting to notice you and they're starting to see you, and your buddies are seeing you, and family is seeing you, and friends are seeing you around town, and they're it looks like you're doing good. They say, I see your trucks everywhere. You guys must be doing great. But the truth is you're scrapping for payroll. The truth is you have one good month and then a bad one or two months. And some months you skip paying yourself. And you're just barely getting by. You're wondering if it's even worth it. And what's so heavy about this is it everything looks good. And so you smile, and everyone, again, everyone, everyone's like, wow, you guys are great. You guys are doing well, and everybody thinks you're rich. And the truth is, a couple more months like that, and we're out of business, right? That's the stage. There's another stage where you finally get some things figured out. You finally realize that, look, we got to charge what we got to charge. And so you kind of turn into a sales company because, you know, frankly, like it's all sales, right? And so you're selling aggressively and you find a couple good guys that just know how to sell, man. And people, you start selling like crazy, you start teaching sales and you want sales, you send your best sales text to the best calls, and you're really focused on sales. And you know what? That kind of works. It actually works because you actually make money and you have the money to spend on marketing to get more calls because people might not be calling you back. So it does work. But this is what I noticed. Here's a hint. I've been at every one of these stages. I've lived every one of these. The thing about this stage here is things are looking good and things actually are good. Techs are making good money. You're making a profit. But you start to notice that when you find out that your neighbor called or someone from church called and is on the schedule, you don't want to send your best text. Or if your best tech is on the way and you find out, you call them and say, hey, go easy. I know these people. Have you ever been there? That started to really eat it. It's like this, that's not fair. That's that's not integrity. Why would I not, why would I feel comfortable? Why would I not feel comfortable sending my best people to my friend's house, but I would to a stranger's house? That's that doesn't feel good. And it's not good, actually, right? In my opinion. Maybe you're comfortable with that. I'm not. I didn't like it. Finally, what really worked is when we figured out that when we figured out the customers like options. You plumbers, I got a I got a challenge for you. You plumbers, what brand are you using? I bet it's an expensive one. You know, there are other brands of tools that are less expensive that will get the job done. But we all buy, we all we all buy the expensive brand. But somehow we think that our customer isn't gonna buy the best that they can afford. Isn't that weird? So when we figured out that our customers will spend as much as they can afford on their house, the most the the most important asset that they own, the thing that keeps them safe, keeps them cold, keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter, keeps them dry in the rainy season and in the snow, keeps them safe, builds equity. Like, is there anything else they own that does so much for them? And that's that's what we have the privilege of working on and fixing. And so most people will spend as much as they can afford on that asset, right? It's not, it's not like eating out, or it's not even it's not even at a nice restaurant. This is the house that serves them. So when we figured out that all we got to do is stock the shelf with options from the top to the least and let them buy from us, we were shocked to discover that people bought much more than we had imagined, without, especially when there wasn't it, it wasn't any pressure, when we just offered it and let them buy. And whatever they chose, we said that's a good option, and what do you like about it? Right? And then also when we realized that why, wait, to have options, we got to know what we're doing. Like uh, I don't know how to say this. Immature isn't the right word, but an inexperienced or a lesser experienced plumber might not know how to repair the shower valve. All they can do is replace it. Or they might not know that there's actually a stainless steel, there's a stainless steel water heater that has a lifetime warranty. Sure it's expensive, but it will never leak. Like, and maybe you wouldn't buy it, but some people want to buy that lifetime warranty. I've replaced three of them in the last 10 years. Like, give me that one that won't break, that won't leak again, right? So, but not everybody knows that. And so what it did is what it did is the the requirement to offer options and stock the shelf for our customer. What that did is it required us to become a training company and get good at our craft. And isn't that what we all want? Don't we all want to master our craft and be really good, be the best? And so we we got to be get, we became a training organization, not a sales organization. We became a training organization and got really good at the features and benefits of all the items that we had to sell and the bells and whistles that we could attach to them, right? So that we could make uh a wide variety of offers. And what we discovered is the more that we offered, the more people bought. Isn't that crazy? And then what happens is when you see, for me, when I first learned this, a lady I knew from church before when we were the expensive high-pressure sales company. Like, remember, we literally would say, You have an option, you don't have to buy my expensive thing. We can just leave and you pay me my$49. Like, we kind of had them over the barrel, right? So, but then when we gave options, and I saw this lady I knew from church, she came up and gave me a big hug, and she said the experience was wonderful. And she bought my top option. She'd bought my top option from one of my one of my guys. It wasn't even me. It was one of my guys, but they followed our system. They bought, and she bought the top option and gave me a hug at church. And that's when I realized, whoa, we're on to something. This is cool. And so it fixed it aligned with all our values. We want to be good at what we do. We want to be a trade, a training organization. We want to be the best plumbers in town. And we want to let our customers buy according to how they value the situation. And it works. So that's that's it. So what stage are you? I've been all again, I've been all four. There is a fifth stage. It's called bankrupt. Or you sell to someone else to save face. You can sell your company. I I call it there's a successful sale and there's a sale. Like you can transfer ownership, right? Um, there's that stage. Let's not do that. I was once, I was once told I was basically bankrupt, but I was too stubborn to admit it. And frankly, I think it takes that kind of stubbornness to run these companies, right? We have to, I think anybody you talk to that's been successful has been through some super tough times. So, what stage are you in? And do you like it? Or do you want to change stages and get into the company that that is light and fun, where you're known for your skill set and your craftsmanship and the fact that you give options and you're not a high-pressure sales organization, and you get to sleep at night because it's fun, it feels good. And when you see people that you know that use your company, they're almost always happy. All right. If that sounds good, like and subscribe. This is what I talk about. Trade Traction is a podcast where I help contractors that are tired of working for free finally turn a profit and build the company they once believed in at the start, right? Didn't we all used to didn't we all think about dream about how it how it would be when we started a company? Yeah. You can still do it. You might be a you might need a coach. You probably need a coach. I needed a coach. And I think everybody that's been successful has got a coach to help them think things through and do the right thing in the right order. Anyway, I'd love to help. Let's do this.