How to Start a Plumbing Business
By Sean C Lubbe
So, you want to start a plumbing business. This could be a terrific decision, or, it
could be the worst idea ever. Starting a plumbing business, or any business really, involves
a certain amount of structured thinking to put everything in place, and making sure that you
have thought of everything. By following this strategy planning process, you will have covered
all the important aspects of getting your planning and strategy in the right place, and this
will make the starting of your own plumbing business some 450% more successful.
The Strategy Required to Start Any Business
Starting a plumbing business, a bakery, or a high-tech company all requires the same
basic thinking strategy. To remember it best, use the EASI acronym. In this case, E stands
for emotion, A for achieving a win, S for simple and straightforward and I for the implementation.
Everybody wanting to start a business should be aware that it is going to involve plenty
of challenges, hardships, stress, worry, and a multitude of other issues. The process of starting
a business has often been likened to jumping off a cliff, and building an aeroplane on the
way down. It will mean sleepless nights, long working hours and the unwavering support of family
and friends around you. This is real, and the reason so many start-up businesses fail.
The first step, therefore, is to examine the reasons that you want to start the business
in the first place. This involves an examination of the emotions, or feeling behind the rationale
of starting your own plumbing business. Everyone will have their own reasons for wanting to
start their business. It may be as a last resort as they are unable to find employment in the
field, it may be that they hate having a boss, it may be that they want to become extraordinarily wealthy.
Whatever the reason, it is essential that the owners of the business, if there are
more than one, are aware of the strength of their emotions regarding the venture. This will
determine the power of the motivation, the real forces behind the venture, and, with the aid
of a skilled consultant, allow the prospective business owners to determine if their vessel
will survive the storms on the ocean, or if there needs to be some additional emotional management included.
The second item speaks to the vision, or goal of the organisation. A prospective plumbing
business may have as its goal to be a loss leader and therefore a tax write-off. It may be
that achieving a win with the business would be familial survival, or putting children through
school. Either way, all the owners need to be able, collaboratively, to understand what the
goal is and to have a combined vision of the business that everyone can buy into. Without this
shared vision, any subsequent planning and strategizing will ultimately be negated and sporadic,
with everyone involved having different goals and aims, instead of pulling together in the
right direction.
Keep Things Simple and Straightforward
It does not take any real skill to make things more complex. The real genius in any situation
is to make things more simple. This line of thinking is propagated by all the top entrepreneurs
such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk. Albert Einstein often used to say that
if you couldn't explain a thing to a six-year-old, you didn't understand it yourself. In light
of this strategic thinking, the next piece of advice is to keep all your plans and strategies
simple and straightforward. Set a goal that everyone involved, all the stakeholders, can buy
into. See where you currently are, and plan a way to get to that goal that all concerned can
understand, appreciate, and take ownership of.
The final step in setting up a new plumbing business is to implement the strategy. Without
a rigorous implementation strategy and plan, all the goal-setting and personal examination
of business vision and motivation will just become a distant wish. Implementation plans fall
into five basic categories; overall business strategy, financial planning, human resources
and communications, sales and marketing, and project management. All businesses must be able
to conduct planning with respect to these five regions of business expertise in order to be successful.
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