Plumbing Success Unveiled: Jeff's Journey from Apprentice to Business Owner at Jim's Plumbing

In this enlightening episode, we delve into the fascinating world of plumbing with Jeff, the second-generation owner of Jim's Plumbing. Jeff shares his remarkable journey, from a curious young apprentice to taking the helm of the family business.

You'll discover the challenges and triumphs he faced, valuable insights into the plumbing industry, and advice for those considering a career in plumbing or dreaming of becoming a business owner. Tune in to uncover the secrets behind Jeff's plumbing success!

Introduction

[00:02:06] Jeff's Early Start in Plumbing:

• Jeff's journey began at the age of seven, tagging along with his dad as he started Jim's Plumbing in 1967.

[00:05:20] Diversification and Challenges:

• Jeff highlights the importance of diversifying the business to weather economic ups and downs.

[00:09:14] The Transition and Running the Business:

• Jeff highlights the importance of diversifying the business to weather economic ups and downs.
• He reflects on his journey from working in the field to taking over the business management role from his father.
• Jeff also recalls a tough decision early in his career regarding an employee.

[00:11:45] Major Victories and Challenges:

• Jeff's "wow" moment in the business.
• He reflects on the impact of the business on his personal life, mentioning the challenge of separating work and home life.

[00:14:50] The Future of Jim's Plumbing:

• Jeff envisions handing off the business to someone who can continue its success.

[00:16:38] Finding and Retaining Employees:

• Jeff discusses the challenges of finding new employees in recent times.
• He shares success stories of employees who have grown with the company.
• Word of mouth and a positive reputation have been instrumental in attracting new talent to Jim's Plumbing.

[00:18:30] Advice to Young Aspiring Plumbers and Business Owners:

• Jeff advises young individuals entering plumbing to listen more than they talk and learn from experienced professionals.
• He encourages aspiring business owners to take good care of their employees and be open to their needs.

[00:21:45] Conclusion

---------

Learn more about Jim's Plumbing

https://jimsplumbing.com/

https://www.facebook.com/appletonplumber/

Need a little guidance in your own business? We're here for you!
https://www.actionfinancials.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ActionFinancialS/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuE31mXf6_Nf4yhpuZRHI6Q

Transcript

Brad: [00:00:00] Today we got a awesome opportunity again to host From Garage to Growth, A Small Business Story. Thanks for joining our podcast. Today we've got my co host joining us, Mr. Brian Ruh. Say hello Brian. Hi everybody. And also Mr. Jeff Ujazdowski. Thanks guys. Yeah. So I'll let Brian take over and introduce Jeff and we'll kick this podcast off.

Brian: I got to meet Jeff, it seems quite a few years ago already. Time flies. Actually at one of our workshops for business owners and he agreed to meet with me and from there we formed a wonderful relationship. So Jeff is a second generation business owner of a company called Jim's Plumbing.

Very successful plumbing company that is a very diversified plumbing company. I'll have him tell you more about it. But we really want to just, get to know Jeff without us embellishing it. Jeff, I want to start by just asking you a question on the beginning. Can you take us back to the beginning?

When it all started and what inspired you to stay in this business or [00:01:00] get into this business?

Jeff: I'm the oldest of five kids and my dad started a business in August of 1967 so I was seven years old at the time and I tagged along. Everywhere dad went, Jeff went and as I got older it was more and more interesting and I enjoyed it. And He let me continue doing I guess what I'm doing today only probably not quite as good when I was 10, 12. That's how I got in.

Smaller hands. Smaller hands. A little bit less strength, too. I remember one time, one of the guys that was working with dad asked me to bring a 10 foot length of 4 inch cast iron soil pipe over from the truck over to the trench that they were working in. And I couldn't lift it. He says then drag the dang thing.

So I did. Cool. Cool. 

Brian: Tell us a little bit about the early days of your business when you were running it gimme some of the challenges and successes you encountered. 

Jeff: First off, dad always said, don't [00:02:00] put all your eggs in one basket. So we're pretty diversified. We do in pump work, we do private sewage work, we do exterior storm sewer work. We do new construction, commercial new construction, residential, residential remodeling repair, commercial remodeling and repair. So there's a quite a diverse- set of rules - if you will, which helps very much because in my tenure, we've gone through the 1980 era when interest rates were 21 percent and there was nobody building anything to just recently 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, when the economy was not doing so well. That allowed us to continue on with one sector or another of the business.

My, my first take on it, was out in the field. Obviously, I had to go through the apprenticeship program, but by that time, I would have had already had six years in as summer help and whatnot. So the apprenticeship program was interesting at that time. It was a four year program. Now it's a five year program.

But I made it through that with a little bit of [00:03:00] pain, but I didn't want to let my father down since nobody had failed before me. I figured I better get my poop together and and pass. So I did. And he let me work in the field for probably 8 or 9 years, and then that would have put him at about 50 years old, and he decided he wanted to do a little more golf. And so I came into the office about that time and for whatever reason he trusted me to run the show and he went on and did more extracurricular things and I tried to learn more in the office. We ranged anywhere from six guys to twenty four guys at one point and I'm a kind of a micromanager so I, I didn't do real well with the twenty four guys so we, Went back down. Currently we have nine field employees and myself and two ladies in the office.

But it's been a great gig. It's a wonderful career. It's become a lot easier than it was in the past. In the past it was all cast iron piping, galvanized piping, cast iron bathtubs, cast iron sinks. So a lot of heavier work. Now it's all plastic.[00:04:00] But I got a feel for all of it. I got a feel for everything from lead joints back in the day to glue and primer now.

Pretty simple stuff now but it's a wonderful career. I would try to talk anybody coming out of high school into doing it. You have to have some smarts. You have to be mechanically inclined, and you need to work. But you need to work at any job you're going to do.

But, quite frankly, I'm not a big college guy, and I don't push college on anybody. I think by the time we've currently got five apprentices and by the time they walk out of their apprenticeship and write their journeyman's exam they will owe nothing to anybody as opposed to somebody that does four, six, or eight years of college might have $50,000 to $200,000 in debt and not be guaranteed a job.

These guys are guaranteed a job provided the economy stays good. They're guaranteed a job and a guaranteed great career. From that point, they can go on to start their own business. They can become plumbing designers. They can become certified soil testers. They can do a lot of different [00:05:00] things.

Actually, I have three former employees that apprenticed through Jim's Plumbing that are now inspectors. One in Oshkosh, one in Grand Chute, and one in Appleton. I had one in Ashwaubenon, but he decided to go back into the field with another company. So it's very... Very diverse. If you don't like what you're doing today, try something tomorrow.

But it's all within the, in the construction realm and all within the plumbing related sector. Nice. 

Brad: What was the handoff from your dad to you? Did he stick around keep coming around the shop forever 

Jeff: He always had the front office. He always had the corner front office. And when I had to bend his ear, he would smile at me and go, That's why you're doing what you're doing now.

There were some tough times. I remember a gentleman. Dad was golfing. He took a lot of guys golfing down in Florida and whatnot. I got into it a little bit with a gentleman that had worked for us for a long time and he saw it his way and I saw it my way and I ended up having to let him go and probably [00:06:00] could have worked it out, but I was young and dumb and not thinking long term and I feel bad about that at this point, but he did fine.

We're still doing fine. Unique personalities, just like any business. Any individual has a unique personality and sometimes personalities clash. But looking back, there are many people who apprenticed through Jim's Plumbing and did quite well for themselves. I'm pretty happy about that.

Nice. 

Brian: Was there ever a point in your tenure at Jim's Plumbing where you just felt like giving it all up?

Jeff: 2010, I believe it was February of 2010 my girlfriend and I were in February. Now, mind you, 2007, 2008, and 2009 were not very good. And we had this trip planned to Hawaii for quite some time. And we were actually cut off by all of our major wholesalers. We were on COD except for one. And the...

Gentleman that was managing that [00:07:00] particular wholesale operation called me. He said, what the hell are you doing in Hawaii? You know the situation you're in. He says, you're like a brother to me. Act like it. I said, Bill, I said, we... Had this trip planned. What I'm doing right now is not, could not have affected or cannot affect what's going on.

We're coming out of this situation and fortunately we were coming out of that situation. But my neighbor next door at Buss Electric was, he's actually 80 years old now, so he's 20 years older than I am. And I went to him and I said, here's the situation and he helped me out and we got through it.

And today things are fantastic. I look at some of the folks that were older than me that I call my mentors the Delta Faucet rep, Ken Kirk, for years and years was my mentor. Dave Buss from Buss Electric was my mentor, still is today. My father, of course, was my mentor. But so yeah, to answer your question, I don't want to say I was just looking at it and going, I give up, but [00:08:00] it was a challenge.

It was a struggle. 

Brian: You must have done all right because you're 13 years later and you're cranking. 

Jeff: It's going very well. Construction is a beautiful thing right now, but as you and I have talked, it's never a sure thing. It's never a sure thing. 

Brian: Is there like one thing that really stood out in your business like you would call a major victory or a major, wow, this was phenomenal, this is a great thing?

Jeff: 1984, right out of the 1980 situation when interest rates were 20, 21, 22 percent and nothing was going on. 1984, dad would let me see the books and whatnot. And at that point, he had made $400,000 a year. And I just went, "wow". We've always been consistently a shop of probably anywhere from five guys in the field to 15 guys in the field.

And at that point, I think we had eight or nine. And I just, I was in awe. I'm going, okay, in 1980 I quit working for my father because there were [00:09:00] four guys starving, besides my dad. I went and bought a tavern business. And it's funny because all through that whole bad thing of 1980-81, everybody had enough money for a beer.

They all wanted to drown their sorrows. So it worked out very well for me. I got lessons learned. I was 20 years old. Came back to work for dad in '84 and I went, good for us. And so that was probably my biggest "wow" moment. 

Brian: What kind of impact has Jim's Plumbing been on your personal life?

Jeff: You always want to say leave home at home and leave work at work. When you own a business, that doesn't happen. I can go back to my married life Between my business and my extracurricular stuff after work because I seem to like to go out after work. I ended up getting divorced and I'm still upset because of that today. [00:10:00] But even today I've been with the same girl for 15+ years and she listens to it on a nightly basis sometimes, whether it's good or bad.

But it's easy to say leave work at work and leave home at home, but it's not so easy to do. And I'm glad that I'm with people that will listen to me. I need sounding boards just like everybody needs sounding boards. And that's what Amy is for me today. She's my sounding board.

Brian: Where do you think Jim's Plumbing is going to go to the future? What do you see? 

Jeff: I would like to hand it off to somebody that can run it as well as it's been going. I have to credit all of my employees for the reason it's going the way it's going. My guys in the field are second to none.

We've had the same crew of guys anywhere from three years to almost 19 years together, the nine guys. My two girls in the office, one's been there seven years, one's been there just about three, and they're doing [00:11:00] fantastic. We had a general manager, Julie, who was there for 26+ years; she just retired a couple years ago.

But I think if we can keep our crew of people and find some more people in the field that are willing to work hard and I would like to see me be able to hand it off to possibly one of my employees. I have two children. My son is in the cattle industry; travels across the country cataloging beef cattle sales.

My daughter is a partner in United Vet Services in Clintonville. So they both followed their mother's footsteps and I'm very happy for them. But I don't want to do this till I'm 90, so I'm hoping that maybe somebody in the within can take it over. Neat. 

Brad: How have you been finding your employees?

I know that's been a challenge for a lot of business owners we've been talking to and interviewing. How have you been successful in keeping and bringing on new talent? 

Jeff: Recently, we haven't been able to find any employees. I was very fortunate to find Jasmine. She's one of our office gals, [00:12:00] and she started with us, like I said, almost three years ago now.

She started with Cadre, temp agency. And she was also working at one of the local taverns, the Stoneyard in Greenville. And just for the heck of it, Amy and I went to the Stoneyard, and I wanted to see her work. And she was a go-getter, and I went, I like that girl. And since she's been hired, she's taken on more tasks than I can imagine, because she's technologically savvy, she's young, she's willing to learn, she's happy all the time. Tracy, who's been there seven years, the day she walked into the interview, Julie looked at me and she goes, you've never been that keen on anybody, ever. How did that happen? I said, did you watch her? She's bubbly. She's the face of Jim's Plumbing. Tracy's done such a great job. Our guys in the field obviously make the money.

They're the ones that, we're, our office staff costs money, our field staff makes money. And the guys in the field are gangbusters. Several of our employees have come through the high school accreditation [00:13:00] type thing. That works good. Actually some of our former employees have come through that same type of thing and gone into business on their own.

That works well. We used to be get that guy, he's a farmer's kid. There aren't a whole lot of farmers anymore, so it's difficult to find that, but we've been lucky, we've been lucky. The word of mouth, I think, can be the best or worst advertising you can have, and I think knock on wood for us, it's been the best advertising we can have. Word of mouth is usually what brings them in the door. 

Brian: You talked a little bit earlier about the potential in the plumbing industry for a younger person to come in, pursue the trades, if you will, versus college and this and that. We, Brad and I had hoped with this series of interviewing a lot of our successful business owners is to encourage younger people to listen and watch and gain some tidbits about how they could also be successful.

Any other advice that you could give to someone that's looking to pursue a career in plumbing? 

Jeff: If you [00:14:00] want to be a plumber, we're lucky in our industry in northeast Wisconsin. There aren't any bad plumbing contractors. In my humble estimation, some are better than others. But we're a clique of people that get along.

Our competitors are friendly competitors for the most part. So anywhere you want to go, whether union or non union, you're going to get a well rounded education. You're going to do fine. If you want to pursue that and maybe extend it into a business ownership, God bless you. Literally, we have over ten competitors that apprenticed at Jim's Plumbing.

And I'm fine with that. Again, construction is great right now, but we're all friendly. We all get along. It's a great industry. It really is. And it's not difficult. Yeah, you've got to go to night school, yeah, you've got your day school, but everything's paid for. And when you're done with your five years and you pass your exam, you've got a card that you can take anywhere you want in the state of Wisconsin and do whatever you want.

And then three years later, you can write your master's exam [00:15:00] and then you can go into business on your own if you want to. But by the same token, we've had plumbers that stayed with us until the retirement that just wanted to plumb. They didn't want to do the business thing because some people don't have the business knowledge or don't want the business knowledge and are just content. Because it's good wage. I mean they make good money.

Brad: So speaking of the the business side, two things wanted, what advice would you give to young Jeff starting out and taking over your father's business? And then #2 would be what advice would you give to just a young business owner looking to either take over a business or launch their business. Things that you've learned in your 20 plus years of being a business owner?

Jeff: A young Jeff, when you're 20 or 25 years old or 30 years old, even you think you know it all -- listen more than you talk. There's a lot of opportunity to learn a lot of things.

I've got two key employees, three key employees. [00:16:00] One didn't start for us, but two key employees. And they listen a lot, and they've been there for almost 20 years. Listen more than you talk, probably. But from a business owner's perspective, take good care of your employees. I think we do well at Jim's Plumbing.

I have meetings with my people whenever they want them. We have quarterly meetings. I try to treat them fairly. We've got a great profit sharing program. But my door is always open. I always tell anybody, come on in. If you want to talk in front of everybody, call a meeting together. If you don't want to call a meeting together, if you just want to talk to me, or you want to talk to me and one of the office girls, or whatever, that's fine.

But be open. Just make sure you're taking care of your employees. As a business owner, the hardest thing to find is employees. And if you lose your employees, you've got nothing. 

Brian: That's great advice. Jeff, I want to thank you for this podcast opportunity to interview you, and to hear some more of things that while you're sitting here, I didn't even know about you.

Brad: Thanks guys for listening. Please visit us at [00:17:00] www.actionfinancials.Com for more resources and we'll see you next time.

--------- 

This material is for general informational purposes only and was produced by Action Financial Strategies, LLC.  Life insurance is subject to underwriting. No coverage exists unless a policy is issued and the required premium is paid. Neither Action Financial Strategies nor NYLIFE Securities LLC or its affiliates provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. For advice on such matters, consult your own professional counsel.

Brian Ruh is a Member Agent of the Nautilus Group®, a Service of New York Life Insurance Company.  Brian Ruh CA insurance license #OB66341.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are collectively Registered Representatives of and offer securities products and services through NYLIFE Securities LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC, a Licensed Insurance Agency 999 Fourier Drive, Suite 300, Madison, WI 53717. (608)831-4416.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are also collectively registered as Investment Adviser Representatives with Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser.  Action Financial Strategies, Fox Cities Embroidery, and NVR Branding are not owned or operated by NYLIFE Securities or its affiliates.